Catching up on more stuff I've missed in the last couple weeks, like this bit from Andrew Sullivan, an excerpt of a New Yorker column by Michael Specter:
"Religious conservatives are unapologetic; not only do they believe that mass use of an HPV vaccine or the availability of emergency contraception will encourage adolescents to engage in unacceptable sexual behavior; some have even stated that they would feel similarly about an H.I.V. vaccine, if one became available. 'We would have to look at that closely,' Reginald Finger, an evangelical Christian and a former medical adviser to the conservative political organization Focus on the Family, said. 'With any vaccine for H.I.V., disinhibition' - a medical term for the absence of fear - 'would certainly be a factor, and it is something we will have to pay attention to with a great deal of care.' Finger sits on the Centers for Disease Control's Immunization Committee, which makes those recommendations."
I'm a member of an evangelical Christian church. I've never heard anyone say they wouldn't want a vaccine for HIV. I'm not embarrassed to be a Christian, but I would be embarrassed to be any way associated with Mr. Finger.
It's difficult to convert dead people.
Posted by Walter at March 22, 2006 06:54 PM"It's difficult to convert dead people."
But they're no longer sinners. And some seem to believe that the sin is bad, but hating the sinner is more important. Or something. Anyway, the dead are pretty much a NIMBY problem.
Posted by: Gary Farber at March 25, 2006 05:54 PMare you kidding me... does Mr. Finger really think that abstinence until marriage is the only way to wipe out the HPV virus... married men cheat, and they expose their wives to HPV ever day. Getting the vaccine is the only way a woman can have %100 guaranteed protection. Let's all face the truth, women are the ones getting screwed if this vaccine does not get approval NOW.
Posted by: cindi at April 17, 2006 01:39 PM