-
How Can I Avoid Getting AIDS?Awake!—1993 | September 8
-
-
“Safe Sex”?
Many health workers and educators are therefore promoting the use of condoms.e TV ads, billboards, and school lectures have spread the message that the use of this contraceptive device makes sex “safe”—or at least “safer.” Some schools have even distributed condoms to students. Spurred on by such propaganda, youths in record numbers are using them.
Even so, just how safe is “safe sex”? A brochure by the American Red Cross says: “Condoms can improve your chances of avoiding infection.” But would you feel safe if you merely ‘improved your chances’ of avoiding a disease that always proves fatal? The U.S. Centers for Disease Control admits: “Latex condoms have been shown to help prevent HIV infection and other sexually transmitted diseases . . . But they are not foolproof.” Indeed, they can break, tear, or come off during intercourse. According to Time, condoms “can have a failure rate of between 10% and 15%”! Would you stake your life on such odds? And to make matters worse, less than half of the sexually active youths in the United States are using condoms.
The advice of Proverbs 22:3 is thus apropos: “Shrewd is the one that has seen the calamity and proceeds to conceal himself, but the inexperienced have passed along and must suffer the penalty.” One of the best ways to avoid getting AIDS is to abstain from drug abuse and immoral sex entirely. Easier said than done? Many feel that way, especially in view of the enormous pressures youths face.
-
-
How Can I Avoid Getting AIDS?Awake!—1993 | September 8
-
-
Saying No
Promoters of “safe sex” argue that abstinence is unrealistic. But in the long run, does it really help to condone immorality? One teenager admits that this only confuses youths, saying: “They tell us to just say no to sex and it’s okay to be wholesome and pure. At the same time, they hand out [condoms] and tell us how to get away with sex without having to pay the consequences.”
-