So: I could respond to Rothkopf's claim, and others like it, by
suggesting that the Pope's "chastity, not condoms" message to Africans
struggling with the HIV epidemic has at least somewhat more evidence his
evidence that the Vatican's refusal to promote condom use has
contributed to disease and death on a grand scale. Do religious
Africans have higher infection rates than the irreligious? Do
heavily-Catholic populations contract HIV in higher numbers than
Muslim, Protestant, or animist populations? Are frequent mass-attenders
more likely to contract the disease than infrequent churchgoers? Do
graduates of Catholic schools have higher infections than their peers?
Are Africans who seek treatment at Catholic hospitals more likely to
pass the disease along than people who get their medicine from secular
institutions?
Ignorant prejudice remains ignorant prejudice even when it is anti-religious. Read the whole piece here.
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