The Pope put his foot in his mouth again yesterday.

Pope Benedict XVI said Tuesday during his African visit, that the distribution of condoms is not the answer in the fight against AIDS. (This might lead to pre-marital sex...... which is only allowed for certain priests!)

Benedict has never before spoken explicitly on condom use although he has stressed that the Roman Catholic Church is in the forefront of the battle against AIDS.

“You can’t resolve it with the distribution of condoms,” the pope told reporters aboard the Alitalia plane headed to Yaounde, Cameroon yesterday.

“On the contrary, it increases the problem because it allows people to be more sexually active, while we encourage sexual abstinence to fight the spread of the disease..!”

————————————————————–

Here is a bit of good news in an otherwise terrible story!

A Muslim cleric whose marriage to a 12-year-old girl triggered controversy in Indonesia has been detained along with the girl’s father on suspicion of violating the child protection law, police said Wednesday.

Cleric Pujiono Cahyo Widianto, 43, wed the girl before thousands of people in Central Java province last August, arguing that he had committed no crime because he intended to wait until she reached puberty before consummating their relationship.

The cleric’s wedding and proclamations that he intended to also marry two other girls aged 7 and 9 angered many in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation with more than 210 million believers.

Complaints came from Religious Affairs Minister Maftuh Basuni, child rights groups and the Indonesia Ulemma Council — the country’s top Islamic body.

World wide agreement was voiced when local Muslim’s stood up against the Fundamentalists and said; “This is pedophilia ... pure and simple,”

Arist Merdeka Sirait, secretary general of the National Commission for Children’s Rights, praised the police action; “We aren’t living in the Stone Age here, we have to protect our children against these kinds of things.”

——————————————————–

AND! Preliminary news that the Pope is going to some Jewish religious thing in a few months and the Rabbi in charge of this function has asked him NOT to wear a crucifix in deference to the Jewish faith!

Has this guy got his Yarmulke (skull-cap) on too tight?

—————————————————-

There it is folks, just a few examples that show us no religion has exclusive rights to stupidity!

The only way to defeat ignorance is to voice your outrage at misguided religious dogma.

Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don’t want you to know......!) and is available as an E-Book H E R E ! and as a paperback H E R E !

Visit the blog “Perspective” at http://allans-perspective.blogspot.com