Condoms

For many - especially secular Americans - these thin rubber barriers worn on a man's penis during sexual intercourse are a crucial safeguard against the spread of infection and the prevention of unwanted pregnancy. For this reason, they need to be widely available, including to youth, and young people need to be taught how to use them.  For others - especially religious Americans - condoms have a negative association as a way to make promiscuous and casual sexual practices appear to be “safe,” “responsible” and “protected” - when there are significant risks still involved.  From this perspective, with or without condoms, sex outside of a committed relationship is  soul and life-destroying in the long run.  And making condoms freely available promotes or at least condones, this harmful activity.

QUESTIONS TO PLAY WITH:

• Do you see condoms as generally a positive or negative thing for society? Say more about why you reach that conclusion?
• Have you ever purchased condoms for a child of yours (e.g. when they went to college, when they started dating, etc)?   What was your reasoning? Did you talk about it?