Ok dear readers, I know you are pretty much on the same side of the fence with me on these issues - or at least I haven't heard from you if you aren't - so this is preaching to the choir. But preach I must because sometimes the choir needs a reason to shout Alleluiah! Amen!
Brothers and sisters I called you here today to talk about cause and effect. That's right, I said cause and effect. Every child learns early in life that if you do something wrong, you get in trouble for it. This is not a foreign concept. Ask any three year old; they know that if they don't stop doing what they are doing by the time Mom or Dad counts to three something is going to happen. They still may not listen but they get the idea. (Now, men don't officially learn this until they are around 21 or so. This is a scientific fact. It has to do with brain chemistry. But for the sake of argument we are going to assume everyone is on the same page.) So, cause and effect: you do one thing, something happens as a result. Not a hard concept to grasp...
Unless of course you are a conservative Christian and you're talking about education, sex, birth control, and abortion.
If you understand the concept of cause and effect you're probably already nodding your head saying, "I know exactly where you are going Sassy Pants. Amen sister!" But in case you don't, I'm going to spell out a few things here in if/then statements that I'm 100% sure are directly related to each other. "Directly related" meaning pretty much the same thing as cause and effect - if you do one thing, another predictable thing happens.
Ok choir, sing with me!
IF there is no sex education (and I do not consider "abstinence only" education as sex education)
THEN there will be a subsequent rise in unwanted pregnancies, especially among the young, and also a rise in STDs, some of which are potentially fatal.
IF there is limited or no access to birth control or emergency contraception because of crazy pharmacists and their personal agendas, or if there is no information on birth control because of abstinence only education,
THEN there will be a rise in unwanted pregnancies.
IF there are more unwanted pregnancies
THEN there will be more abortions. It's a simple case of supply and demand.
IF you teach children (who will have sex whether they sign a document saying they will remain "pure" or not) all the facts about sex - the logistics, the consequences, the emotional issues -
THEN they will be informed enough to make the right decision. Hell, I got so much sex ed I didn't have sex for the first time until I was 20. And I brought pamphlets. Well, not to the actual event but I did discuss birth control with him before hand.
If you are anti-abortion you should be so pro-sex education it's not even funny. Except it isn't funny because that is not the case. Do I need to bring a flip chart somewhere? Send a PowerPoint to Congress? Can you think of something witty I can put on a T-shirt? Can I get an Amen? Now go out and preach the gospel of cause and effect.
P.S. Here's an attempt at cause and effect that doesn't quite make it. IF you endorse same sex marriage, THEN you are endorsing masturbation.
A positive outcome: I don't know any red-blooded American man (or woman for that matter) who would be against something that is pro-masturbation, do you? Wankers unite! (Thanks Josh)
Brothers and sisters I called you here today to talk about cause and effect. That's right, I said cause and effect. Every child learns early in life that if you do something wrong, you get in trouble for it. This is not a foreign concept. Ask any three year old; they know that if they don't stop doing what they are doing by the time Mom or Dad counts to three something is going to happen. They still may not listen but they get the idea. (Now, men don't officially learn this until they are around 21 or so. This is a scientific fact. It has to do with brain chemistry. But for the sake of argument we are going to assume everyone is on the same page.) So, cause and effect: you do one thing, something happens as a result. Not a hard concept to grasp...
Unless of course you are a conservative Christian and you're talking about education, sex, birth control, and abortion.
If you understand the concept of cause and effect you're probably already nodding your head saying, "I know exactly where you are going Sassy Pants. Amen sister!" But in case you don't, I'm going to spell out a few things here in if/then statements that I'm 100% sure are directly related to each other. "Directly related" meaning pretty much the same thing as cause and effect - if you do one thing, another predictable thing happens.
Ok choir, sing with me!
IF there is no sex education (and I do not consider "abstinence only" education as sex education)
THEN there will be a subsequent rise in unwanted pregnancies, especially among the young, and also a rise in STDs, some of which are potentially fatal.
Ignorance = Babies and disease
IF there is limited or no access to birth control or emergency contraception because of crazy pharmacists and their personal agendas, or if there is no information on birth control because of abstinence only education,
THEN there will be a rise in unwanted pregnancies.
No prevention = Babies
IF there are more unwanted pregnancies
THEN there will be more abortions. It's a simple case of supply and demand.
More unwanted/unexpected babies = more abortion.
IF you teach children (who will have sex whether they sign a document saying they will remain "pure" or not) all the facts about sex - the logistics, the consequences, the emotional issues -
THEN they will be informed enough to make the right decision. Hell, I got so much sex ed I didn't have sex for the first time until I was 20. And I brought pamphlets. Well, not to the actual event but I did discuss birth control with him before hand.
More education = better decisions = less babies, less disease, less abortions.
If you are anti-abortion you should be so pro-sex education it's not even funny. Except it isn't funny because that is not the case. Do I need to bring a flip chart somewhere? Send a PowerPoint to Congress? Can you think of something witty I can put on a T-shirt? Can I get an Amen? Now go out and preach the gospel of cause and effect.
P.S. Here's an attempt at cause and effect that doesn't quite make it. IF you endorse same sex marriage, THEN you are endorsing masturbation.
A positive outcome: I don't know any red-blooded American man (or woman for that matter) who would be against something that is pro-masturbation, do you? Wankers unite! (Thanks Josh)
Comments
mens throat by prescription. Who are they having sex with?
No organization with an agenda will ever give full information, and no product is ever entirely safe.
In order for people to make educated decisions, they need to know what's out there in terms of disease (and other complications), what's out there in terms of remedies -- and, more importantly, prevention -- what the side effects are, what the possible failures are, how to obtain the preventions and remedies, and how to seek help at all phases.
The more information you give people, the better armed they'll be to make the decision that's right for them. You don't withhold information from people because you think they're too dumb to use it responsibly, you don't give people false information, and you don't play politics with other people's bodies.
There was a particularly weaselly evangelical Catholic (I know, I didn't know they were out there either) on a vc I belong to; using all sorts of convoluted arguments to decry same-sex marriage. Finally I gave up on logic and facts, since it just seemed to be leading us farther down the rabbit hole, and asked him:
"Look, you're married, right? How would you like it if someone told you you couldn't have married the person you love?"
His response, roughly:
"Of course I wouldn't have liked it. But if I knew that they were in the right, I would submit. And I assume anyone else would do the same."
After I picked my jaw off the floor, I wrote:
"Okay; and what if you didn't think that they were right?"
He sez:
"Then clearly either I would be wrong or they would be wrong."
so, in some cases, it's not just a blind spot in empathy; it's that they just seem to be coming from (to me anyway) a completely alien framework.