Health Care Reform Begins at Home

Each of us makes decisions about our own physical and psychological health and wellness. Much of our personal illness and injury is created by lifestyle choices related to destructive habits in eating, exercise, cleanliness, drinking, smoking, drug use, and reckless driving.

President Obama, in his discussion on health care reform policies, emphasized preventive health care, urging all of us to take more responsibility for our own health.

Chruches are also adding health and wellness dimensions to their ministry, a practice that is consistent with the concerns of Jesus for healing and wholeness.

Restoring the health of our family relationships and sexual behaviors should be a priority concern in our move toward health care reform. Both religious and secular education needs to include rigorous preparation for healthy sexual, marriage and family relationships, beginning with children and increasing for teens and older.

"The devastating impact of marital and family breakdown on individuals and on our society as a whole has been well documented, yet too often we stand by helplessly while families fall apart. We often fail to provide the relationship education and support needed to build strong families whose members enjoy each other and cope effectively with life's challenges...
We can learn the skills to build healthy relationships;
we can unravel the emotional tangles that sabotage our families;
we can build on family strengths to establish the deep friendship and mutual commitment that undergirds lasting marriages and healthy families." 1.

Many organizations and resources provide help in the development of family relationship growth. (marriagelovepower.net)

Classes on marriage enrichment and parenting skills should be offered on a continuing basis, with classes focusing on premarital counseling, different stages of marriage, and childhood development.

HEALTHY SEXUALITY

Modern social influences are bombarding us with enticement into dangerous and destructive sexual behaviors that too often result in debilitating disease, broken trust, broken relationships, and broken lives.

Healthy sexuality focuses on ultimate concern for the individual lives involved and ultimate concern for the lives of children who develop from sexual togetherness.

PORNOGRAPHY DISTORTS HEALTHY SEXUALITY

Speaking out against the dangers of pornography and educating people, especially young people, about lustful addictions and sexual distortions that grow from pornographic images is an essential and valuable concern for health and wellness.

PREMARITAL ABSTINENCE AND FAITHFUL MONOGAMY WITHIN MARRIAGE

Our contemporary society is presenting sex as a toy for personal pleasure, even to the young. Tragic consequences related to sexually transmitted diseases, loss of self esteem, broken trust, children born out-of-wedlock, and abortion become the reality for too many people. Young people need to be given the understanding and commitment to resist the temptations of careless sexuality.

An understanding of the importance of sexual abstinence before marriage and faithful monogamy after marriage is a foundation for healthy sexual behaviors.

THE DANGERS OF 'SAFE SEX'

The careless double talk of 'safe sex' and the handing out of condoms, even to middle school students, puts sexual health in jeopardy. Condoms are not safe. They have a 14% actual use failure rate, a failure rate of 1 out of 6 or 7 time. This amounts to Russian roulette sex. The common use of the phrase 'safe sex' in regard to condom use is cruel, dangerous and careless.

THE SANCTITY OF LIFE IS THREATENED

Healthy living is a call to respect the value of each life, and a call to order our lives in ways that we support and cherish our own life and the lives of others.

Since 1973, abortion has taken the lives of over 50 million infants. About 80%
of abortions are performed on unmarried women, as young women are told that a fetus is 'merely a mass of tissue' rather than a developing child.

The development of the ultrasound machine is allowing women to respect and watch the growth of their child. Pregnancy centers are protecting and educating women in the development of their child.

Women who feel that they are unable to raise a child can be supported in their pregnancy and encouraged to offer their children to loving couples seeking a child to adopt.

PROTECTING TRADITIONAL FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS

Heterosexual marriage is primarily a social issue. It becomes a religious concern and a political concern because it is a foundation for social integration, freedom, reproduction and health.

The normalization of homosexuality in society would create profound changes in social organization that warrant caution and serious consideration rather than the heated arguments that are being generated.

Social Integration -
The traditional family is the building block for the integration of society as members grow in understanding of various perspectives within the family. In spite of immense variation within the sexes, there remain fundamental differences in biological and psychological make up. Heterosexual marriage seeks to integrate these elements into a caring unit.
As men relate intimately to men and women to women, social disintegration will occur.

Social Freedom -
The family preserves and passes down its unique cultural values to the next generation, providing checks and balances in society which guard against destructive extremism. Homosexuality will jeopardize the intergenerational transfer of cultural patterns within society.

Social Reproduction -
Homosexuality will jeopardize social reproduction and the intergenerational transfer of genetic patterns. Reproduction will necessitate contrivance and manipulation, buying and selling.

Social Health -
Personal health risks associated with homosexual behavior are deeply troubling. According to the American Medical Association, homosexual youth are 23 times more apt to contact a sexually transmitted disease than their heterosexual counterparts. In the U.S., men who have sex with men account for 60-70% of estimated HIV infections, although they represent only 5-7% of the population.

CAUTION IS WISDOM -

Countless research studies confirm that the greatest sources of nurture, support and meaning for the majority of Americans are found within the family unit. Legal constraints maintain a sense of appropriateness. Extending the range of permissible behavior will put in jeopardy social integration, freedom, social reproduction, and social health.

HEALTH AND WELLNESS BEGINS WITH US AND OUR PERSONAL CHOICES.



1.United Methodist Marriage Ministries (Overview). www.marriagelovepower.net.

The Con in Condom: Safe Sex!

SAFE. 1. Free from harm or risk, unhurt
2. Secure from threat of danger, harm or loss
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. Eleventh edition (2007) Pg. 1095

In the last 30 years condoms have claimed to be the savior of sexuality by providing safe sex or safer sex. Condoms are being sold and distributed around the world as the solution to casual sexual behaviors in preventing pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.

Really!

What are the odds?

In best case scenarios of condom use, approximately 3% of couples who used condoms consistently and correctly experience an unintended pregnancy during the first year of use. 1.
However, consistent and correct use does not represent typical use of condoms.

Consistency is defined as using a condom at every act of sexual intercourse. Correct use means "using undamaged, unexpired condoms, using only water-based lubricants, careful opening of the package, correct placement and use throughout intercourse, and correct removal of the condom after ejaculation." 2.

Typical condom use is more accurately represented by a failure rate of 14%, accounting for inconsistent and incorrect use as well as breakage and slippage. Use factors such as experience, condom size and use of lubricant can affect slippage and breakage. 3.

A study involving 26,291 homosexual men, heterosexual men and heterosexual women who visited the University of Colorado's clinic in Denver over a two year period reported that 57% of the women, 48% of the heterosexual men and 33% of the homosexual men reported condom error. 4

Efficacy rates for condom use is generally reported for pregnancy. However, rates for sexually transmitted diseases vary by disease.

Condoms do not prevent transmission of the human papillomavirus, which is the leading cause of cervical cancer. 5.

Condoms may reduce risk of HIV infection by approximately 69%. 6.

Between The Lines, Michigan's statewide gay newspaper, reports that the risk of anal cancer increases by nearly 4,000% for men who have sex with men. They state that a condom only offers limited protection against developing anal cancer." 7.


HIGH ODDS OF 'ACCIDENT'

What do these efficacy rates mean in terms of human numbers?

Would you get into an automobile or a plane with these odds??????

Suppose, for example, that 20 million people used condoms for 'protection'.
By the best case of 3% failure rate, 600,000 people will experience failure.

How can we envision the immensity of this number? A typical arena for an NBA game holds about 20,000 people. It would take 30 arenas filled to capacity to hold the people in this sample of 20 million who failed to be 'safe' using a condom.

By the typical use rate of 14% failure, 2,800,000 people will be 'unpleasantly surprised'.

That's TWO MILLION EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND! Now we're talking about 140 arenas of 20,000 people.


SEDUCTION OF THE YOUNG

Many of us remember when sex was treated with respect and awe because it was the behavior that created new life.
Sex was treated with concern because of the serious diseases that were spread through this behavior.
Sex was not a toy to be experimented with and played with by children.
Sexuality was a sacred behavior to be saved and 'kept safe' for marriage and family.

However, in the last 30 years sexual behavior has been 'sold' to the young as a choice or an option of behavior. Condom companies have introduced their products within the school system with instructions as to its use.

In November of 1991, the New York City high schools inaugurated the first large-scale condom distribution program in the nation. Under a cloak of secrecy, condoms were made available to students, even if their parents objected. 8.

Donated by Carter-Wallace, maker of the Trojan brand of condom, and Schmid Laboratories, the maker of Ramses, 500 or 1,000 boxes of condoms were delivered to each school. A pamphlet explaining how to use the condom was included and teachers also provided instruction. Teachers were taught how to avoid discouraging students who wanted a condom, while reminding them that 'abstinence is a viable option'. 9.

By 1997, 418 public schools made condoms available to students. 10.

Now condoms come in different colors and different flavors!
Young people have been drawn into early and promiscuous sexual relationships.

In March of 2008, researchers at the federal Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced that 1 in 4 teen girls has at least one sexually transmitted disease. 11.
The virus that causes cervical cancer, the human papilloma virus, was the most common. Chlamydia, the second most common, is usually without symptoms and can cause infertility.

"America has the highest teen pregnancy rate for developed countries in the world, and has one of the highest teen STD rates as well...in recent years, 65% of STD infections were in people under the age of 24, and one out of four HIV infections were in people under the age of 22." 12.


STRAIGHT TALK

Let's talk straight to the children and youth. Let's tell it like it is.

It is the place of the public schools to teach the truth about behaviors to it's students.
It's the place of the schools to teach young people self-respect, self-control, and self-discipline rather than careless indulgence of sexual behaviors.

Abstinence is the only sure defense against unplanned pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

Sexuality should be returned to the safety of marriage relationships, not handed to children as lollipops.


References:

1. Workshop Summary: Scientific Evidence on Condom Effectiveness for Sexually Transmitteds Disease (STD) Prevention. June 12-13,
2000. Hyatt Dulles Airport. Herndon, Virginia. Page 10.
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. National Institute of Health, Dept. of Health and Human Services.July, 20, 2001.
2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Facts about condoms and their use in prevcnting HIV infections and other STDs . CDC
HIV/AIDS Prevention: July 1993:1-3.
3. Workshop Summary: (see above) Page 10.
4. Condom Use and the Spread of Sexually Transmitted Dieseases. April 19th, 2008.
http://www.condomman.com/articles/index.php?tag=rising-std-rates.
5. Condoms' Effectiveness in Preventing Pregnancy, Std's at Center of Debate on Revising Package Labels. The Media Project. June
30,2005. http://www.themediaproject.com/news/itn/063005.htm.
6. Weller, SC. "A meta-analysis of condom effectiveness in reducing sexually transmitted HIV." Soc Sci Med. 1993 Jun:36(12):1635-44.
Comment in Soc Sci Med. 1994 Apr:38(8): 1169-70.
7. Glenn, Gary. "Compassionate Society Should Discourage Deadly Homosexual Behavior." American Family Association.
March 19, 2001. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1039280/posts.
8. Berger, Joseph. "Start of Condom Distribution Fails to Faze Many Students". November 24, 1991. The New York Times.
nytimes.com.
9. Ibid.
10. Advocates for Youth. Unpublished data from the School Condom Availability Clearinghouse. Washington DC: Advocates, 1997.
http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/publications/factsheet/fsschcon.htm.
11. The Associated Press. Tuesday, March 11, 2008. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23574940/print/1/displaymode/1098.
12. Safe Sex Education in the USA. March 25th, 2008. http://www.condomman.com/articles/index.php?tag=rising-std-rates.