There has been some recent controversy in New Zealand where a takeaway Pizza chain (aptly titled ‘Hell’) sent out 170,000 condoms in the mail as part of an advertising campaign for their new ‘Lust’ pizza.
In response the Catholic Church issued a bulletin notice requesting all members to boycott the pizza chain in protest over the advertisement (which breached NZ standards on decency and social responsibility in advertising).
Thus a quote from the Hell Pizza chain in response:
“When we did research we found… it’s people like the Catholic church who are giving people advice that condoms don’t work in protecting you from sexual diseases and the best course is abstinence. That is a load of rubbish.”
It reminds me of an illustration that David Cook used in a sermon essentially covering the topic of what it means to be a Christian. He told the story of two young men who went to dinner together. Before the start of their meal they prayed to give thanks – which was noticed by the waitress. After their prayer the waitress came up and with a bit of cheek said, “You boys are Christian aren’t you? That means you can’t have sex before you get married!” To which the reply came, “No. It means we can have sex in a loving and fulfilling relationship.”
All this talk about the Catholic Church’s stance on condoms (which I don’t necessarily agree with) doesn’t make sense when you also slam the alternative they present – abstinence before marriage. Part of the Hell’s reasoning for the distribution of condoms was to raise awareness of the practice of ‘safe-sex’. Isn’t the safest sex within the confines of a loving and committed relationship? Failing to see this is to be a part of the problem isn’t it?
This promotion continues to perpetuate the problems surrounding the whole “since we can’t stop kids from having sex we should give them condoms” issue. If you want to lower teen pregnancy, you don’t promote sex. You promote wisdom in choices – and you promote the idea that sex is a gift from God to be enjoyed within the framework of marriage. Anything else is an abuse of such a gift and the results of which are plain to see – unwanted teenage pregnancy, STD’s, the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS…
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