From Fox News:
A leading condom manufacturer in Switzerland has created extra-small condoms for boys as young as 12 years old, the U.K.’s Daily Telegraph reported. The condom, called the Hotshot, was produced after family planning groups and the Swiss AIDS Federation campaigned to have the condoms made following several studies that showed adolescent boys were not using proper protection when engaging in intercourse.
Earlier today I posted a reflection on God’s intention and purposes for marriage and human sexuality. It is wholesome and winsome vision because it comes from God. Then I read this story. Sheesh. 🙁
I am not that old nor prudish to not understand that boys have raging hormones and sexual urges. But this is not the way to address the issue. As I reflect on my own youth and attendant profligate living, I cannot help but be saddened by this. Being sexually active did not make me a man nor was it all that healthy. I certainly didn’t brag about it to my parents or ministers. In fact, I wish I had had someone who loved me enough to ask me to stop and consider what I was doing. I knew the Christian ideal of sex and marriage but dismissed it because I did not take God all that seriously and tried to shape Christian teaching on this subject to fit my needs and wishes. For you see, it was all about me.
No parent who loves his or her children can be happy with this story, or with the increase of sexual promiscuity, mainly because many of us have been there and done that and found it wanting. Making condoms for 12 year olds doesn’t address the root issue here. The root issue, of course, is really about what constitutes a proper and healthy sexual morality. What does that look like? What is its proper context and why should we desire it?
We’re constantly being told that Christian teaching on marriage and sexuality is outdated, old-fashioned, and anachronistic. Apparently the frightening increase of STD’s and AIDS, the degradation of the human body and sexuality, and the breakdown of the nuclear family are all desired outcomes for those who advocate their brave new world with its attendant up-to-date sexual ethics and morality.
Come to think of it, I guess Christian sexual ethics are outdated, old-fashioned, and anachronistic if we think God is an anachronism and out of touch with his creatures. But if God is not an anachronism, and his teaching is timeless and true, then believers had best not let our critics shut us up or shame us into an unhealthy silence over this issue (and others). Instead, we had better become well versed in the Christian vision of marriage and sexuality and be able to articulate it plainly and compellingly. The future of our children is too important to sit idly by and wring our hands in despair. If God is real, and we Christians know he is, he will help us fight this fight. And let’s not kid ourselves. If we join this fight it will be costly, and we will need all the help we can get. But love always is a costly thing, isn’t it?
What is your take on this? Chime in, please.