The LAMB is Our Hope for HIV/AIDS
I recently thought of a beautiful new Acronym for the Movement to Prevent HIV/AIDS. In Uganda in 1991 the HIV prevalance rate for the general population was 15%. The ABC method was aggressively employed and was so effective that by 2004 Uganda's HIV rate was chopped to 4% as reported by LifesiteNews: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/feb/05020408.html
ABC stands for Abstain, Be Faithful and Character Development. Some think condoms are more important than character development and will use that as the C word. All I'm going to say about recommending condoms to reduce the spread of HIV is that they're not effective enough and may even contribute to the problem. We shouldn't be exciting naive minds by telling them it's ok to engage in risky, uncommitted and/or unclean sexual activity as long they use a condom when we know 15-20% of the time they'll end up on their death bed with AIDS. Somewhere down the way we've crossed the morality line.
I thought it would be a good idea if there were an acronym out there to avoid using C just because it can cause confusion and the wrong idea when people use it for condoms. I propose we use an improved acronym to summarize the necessities in preventing HIV through sexual transmission:
LAMB
L is for Love.
The real definition of love is and wanting and doing what's best for each other, in the spirit of sacrifice.
A is for Abstinence.
Self control never hurt anyone and is the only 100% effective prevention.
M is for Marriage.
We need to recognize marriage as the best institution for sexual activity, where procreation, commitment and unity are embraced.
B is for Be Faithful.
We cannot contract or spread the disease to our spouse if we are faithful.
This acronym can work for anyone. The lamb's coat is pure and white, no blemmish, no disease. We want everyone to be free of disease. The lamb is innocent. Everyone sees some sort of need to be pure and innocent in their sexual activity, reserving it for the person with whom it's most safe with, and most appreciative of it's remarkable procreative nature, one's spouse.
It is also fitting in that Christ, the Lamb of God heals many of disease and other affliction. A little known fact is that the Catholic Church is the single largest organization providing relief to AIDS patients.
Pax vobiscum,
Allan
1 Comments:
I always enjoy reading your blog. You make a good point here. Condoms are not effective, all they do is induce more risky behavior. If they weren't in place people wouldn't "risk" having sex earlier because it wouldn't be so easy. By putting a condom on they play a sort of russian roulette, always increasing their odds with each encounter they have. A part of them just wants to keep going to see how far they can get without being "shot." Removing Condoms from the "you'll avoid aids if you do this" list is the best way to help people learn to prevent it!
By Anonymous, at 7:09 PM
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