Ban importing chritianity to developing countries

The importation of Christianity into developing countries should be banned. They do untold damage to the countries as i see first hand.

I am currenty in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The local village has a aids epidemic. The reason. There is a very strong catholic ministry which has effectivly banned condoms from the towm. The result is HIV rate now at about 25% and climbing. But will the same church contribute to the specialist clinic for HIV that has been set up? Of course not.

Then there are the various "christian charities". I see signs for them where ever i go. But never actually see them or anything they have achieved. Only time i run into them is in the provincial capital where they are propping up the bar of the only hotel.

Then there is the economics. The church persuaded the national goverment to ban working on sundays. The result is that companies now have huge headaches in employing local people in roles that require sunday working. Instead, expats are having to be brought in to do the jobs and denying the country much needed income.

Churches are in effect deliberatly damaging some of the poorest people on the planet.

 

I'd like to add to that that Charities in general are great. You might have to do some research to get rid of fake charities and those where too much money goes to middle management (but you have to do that with Church charities as well) but you can still donate to charity. Stopping to donate to Church charities does not mean that you stop giving, just that you stop doing it through those channels which are problematic.

 

Let me get this straight. You want us to believe that the people of this local village (notice we don't get a name for this place to look it up!!) are faithfully following the teaching of the Church to not use artificial means of contraception, BUT have no problem breaking with no sex before marriage part?

Do you realize how stupid that sounds??

 

this issue is pretty well known:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/17/pope-africa-condoms-aids

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/11/bad-science-pope-anti-condom

http://www.condoms4life.org/facts/lesserEvil.htm

I recall a volunteer in another african country telling me that she had been told by young pmen int he community (who frequently visited prostitutes) that they would not get HIVAIDS because they went to Church and God would protect them.

ignorance and religion, along with traditional values, can be a very dangerous combination.but we know that with what right wing american evangelists have been up to in Uganda and a few other places:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uganda_Anti-Homosexuality_Bill

 

Quoting the British media and a pro condom website isn't exactly what one would call unbiased.

You even go on to prove my point, by pointing out that men are visiting prostitutes. Why bother following the Church's teaching on artificial birth control if you're going to break it's teaching on pre or extra martial sex? Hence to blame the Church for this is illogical.

 

Pope claims condoms could make African Aids crisis worse

Pontiff's remarks on first visit to continent outrage health agencies trying to halt spread of HIV and Aids

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/17/pope-africa-condoms-aids

Is this vicious or just stupid?

 

“When priests preach against using contraception, they are committing a serious mistake which is costing human lives.” With this distinctly undiplomatic language, Peter Piot, head of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), voiced the international community’s continuing distress over the Catholic church’s policy on condoms.

“We do not ask the church to promote contraception, but merely to stop banning its use,” Piot told the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper following the United Nations’ conference on AIDS this past summer.1 The three-day special UN session stressed the need for nations to begin to talk plainly about AIDS in response to a catastrophic pandemic that has taken 22 million lives in less than 20 years.

The final conference document specifically noted the need for countries to expand access to condoms within five years.

Apparently the Catholic church was not listening to the unprecedented statement that many took as a sign that the world was finally ready to deal with the AIDS epidemic in a serious way.

http://www.condoms4life.org/facts/lesserEvil.htm

Archbishop Javier Lozano, who headed the Vatican delegation to the meeting, called for a prevention strategy revolving around “matrimonial fidelity” and “chastity and abstinence,” while excluding “campaigns associated with models of behavior which destroy life and promote the spread of the evil in question”—a clear reference to the safe sex and condom education campaigns that the meeting delegates had affirmed as essential to halting AIDS.2

 

oh really?

well in that case, go and do some homework.

Its been well documented - and not just in Africa (PNG has also been the victim of the pope's anti condom policies) I have heard catholic nuns interviewed who criticise the policy.

this is so well known that the only people who don't know must have been living under a rock for the last ten years.

 

Talk about a Pavlovian response! WOW!!

From the link Margot gave, "The Roman Catholic church encourages sexual abstinence and fidelity to prevent the disease from spreading"

So ANYONE not following this is NOT following what the Church teaches. So to blame the Church for AIDS in Africa, is almost laughable!

 

Take the Haiti disaster. Churches sent over crates full of much needed emergency aid such as Bibles. That meant that every crate of Bibles that got sent through on the aid transports meant that a crate of medicine, food, etc had to be left behind. Stay classy Christians.

 

Excuse me.. When in history have human beings ever been chaste ?????????

 

the church's position that pretends "just say no" will work, is ignorance.

 

Did you want me to start with the current Priests, Brothers and Sisters of the Catholic Church, side step over to the Shakers and then jump back to the Vestal Virgin's of the Roman Empire and work my way back, or is that enough??

 

Start with those devout, priestly pedophiles...........

 

LOL!!! We're not talking an anti-drug slogan here, we're talking a core belief that predates Nancy Reagan by almost 2,000 years.

 

It didn't work 2000 years ago either.

 

Is no such thing.

There are pedophiles that become Priests, Nuns, Cops, coaches, assistant coaches, teachers, ministers, Rabbis, Imams, etc so they can prey on their victims.

 

Your proof??

 

and has never been anywhere near as effective as people like to pretend ... plus you need to take into account cultural traditions ... in African culture chastity has NOT traditionally been a "virtue" that men aspire to, and anyone who has had contact with people in traditional african societies (as the OP obviously does) is well aware that the version of christianity that people adhere to is mixed with traditional notions.

the issue of the catholic church and the fight against HIV in Afeica has been debated at least for the last decade.

where have you been?

 

Did you just blame human genetics on African culture? Males are genetically inclined to impregnate numerous females. Doesn't matter if they are in Africa or not.

Females are equally inclined to sleep with numerous males in an attempt to making any alpha present think her off spring is his, along with his reviles.

So what??

We are also inclined to murder each other over food, housing, warmth, sex, etc. Are you stating these things to be allowed too?? heck you allow people to do that, the AIDs numbers would drop along with the population!

See you "logic" holds water like a sieve.

P.S. Don't worry where I've been, you can tell by my answers I aint no N00B to all this.

 

Why aren't there Atheist groups starting clinics, and passing out condoms? Doing things their way. Why can't they make an impact.

It seems that people sit on their butts and want to supervise and controll the good work of others without putting in the time, the money and lacking in the basic motivation to put forth a sacrifice to help out fellow man.

Exactly an example of why Atheism is a parasitic type belief....only capable of latching on to what people of faith start.

 

There are many charities.. Maybe atheists shouldn't contribute to Catholic charities that have issues with HIV prevention.

 

Of course Atheists shouldn't if they don't agree! Nobody should contribute to a charity they disagree with.

But when the Catholics build a clinic.....atheists should build their own instead of telling Catholics how to run theirs.

 

There are plenty of Christians who are for health, birth control, prevention of HIV ..

Many dig water wells and build clinics just like the GCC countries and Europeans.

 

Well good. Expand and spend your money trying to import those----and leave the Catholics alone. I mean really...the Catholics aren't trying to take over YOUR wells or take over YOUR clinics....they dig their own wells and build their own clinics.