Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Which organization is more likely the culprit?

The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) has issued a report entitled Stand and deliver - sex, health and young people in the 21st century. In that report "young people" are defined as those between 10 and 25 years of age. As might be expected, IPPF targets the Catholic Church (along with Islamic madrasas) as imposing "..barriers that prevent young people, particularly, from obtaining information and services related to sex and reproduction."
IPPF likes to point to growing rates of teen pregnancy and HIV/AIDS infection as evidence of the failure of religious groups reliance upon teachings of abstinence and chastity. They fail to note that the growth of these problems more directly coincides with a secular society treating sex as mere recreation.
Does not the growth of the problems of promiscuity, teen pregnancy and STD infection rates more closely mirror the growth in influence organizations such as IPPF have had on society?
It appears to me the problem stems not from the degree of sanctity with which religious institutions regard human sexuality, but rather the low esteem in which it appears to be held in secular society as encouraged by the ilk of IPPF. They treat sex as something which could be substituted for Coca-Cola in the old ad campaign "Have a Coke and a smile."

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