It doesn't take much to get me going on the idiocy of the religious right, but once in awhile one of them does or says something that's so destructively imbecilic that my outrage almost makes me spin out and burst into flames. Here we go: in an interview with the BBC, a Catholic archbishop in AIDS-ravaged Mozambique said that European condoms are deliberately infected with the AIDS virus as a conspiracy to wipe out the African population:"The head of the Catholic Church in Mozambique has told the BBC he believes some European-made condoms are infected with HIV deliberately.Maputo Archbishop Francisco Chimoio claimed some anti-retroviral drugs were also infected "in order to finish quickly the African people".
The Catholic Church formally opposes any use of condoms, advising fidelity within marriage or sexual abstinence." [...]
Archbishop Chimoio told our reporter that abstention, not condoms, was the best way to fight HIV/Aids.
"Condoms are not sure because I know that there are two countries in Europe, they are making condoms with the virus on purpose," he alleged, refusing to name the countries."
The combined stupidity and reckless ignorant evil personified by such a statement is breathtaking. Think about it. Sure, we know it's ridiculous, but someone, somewhere (particularly in Mozambique) doesn't know, looks up to this crackpot as a high-level religious figure, and assumes he knows what he's talking about. So they might give "sexual abstinence" a whirl, but in the imminent event that it doesn't work, they're left thinking whatever you do, don't use a condom! They're infected!
16.2% of Mozambicans are HIV-positive. 17.5% are Catholic. Coincidence?
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