Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!att!linac!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!mit-eddie!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: mib@geech.ai.mit.edu (Michael I. Bushnell) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: draft of Identity Task Force statement Message-ID: Date: 9 Nov 90 05:16:24 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: /home/fsf/mib/.organization Lines: 97 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu It's a shame that this paragraph I'm quoting sneaked into an otherwise very thoughtful and well written article... In article ok@goanna.cs.rmit.oz.au (Richard A. O'Keefe) writes: I would like to express some anger, though. In my own country, asthma kills a lot more people than AIDS ever has or is ever likely to. Yet far more government money goes on treating one of the world's most avoidable diseases (AIDS) than on something which you _can't_ catch and is a worse killer (asthma). AIDS is an infectious disease. The epidemiology of infectious diseases is very different from that of systemic diseases such as asthma or cancer. AIDS is avoidable if and only if those who should avoid it are given accurate information about its avoidance. Such information is, of necessity, detailed. It needs to include, specifically, what acts are likely to transmit the disease and in what fashion. Nothing else will do. Infectious diseases, once treated, are almost always cured. Counting money spent to treat and cure various diseases is not a useful task. One glance at the titles of articles printed in Scientific American over the past 5 years will show how much basic research has been done on immune function, etc., all as a direct cause of AIDS. Almost all of this research is applicable to many other areas of medicine. Arthritis, which serious debilitates even more people than asthma is usually caused by an autoimmune response, and there are already areas of research into new approaches to arthritis that have come directly from AIDS researchers. The history of infectious disease control shows that early intensive research is necessary, along with research into transmission methods for the sake of education. The US government, apparently because most AIDS patients were gay, refused to deal with the problem for the first several years of the epidemic. Certain writers and leaders in the gay community, because of a lack of hard research, refused to advocate safer sex practices for several years. With research, this would have never happened. I cannot regard this as just. Where are the asthma ministries? Where are the ministries for teaching parents that it's a good idea to have your baby sleep in your bed, as that not only _greatly_ reduces deaths from SID but has many desirable social consequences? The benefits of infants sleeping with parents are manifold. The number of babies dying from SIDS each year are very few, which has made research very difficult, and the nature of the problem is such that the only possibility is investigation after the fact. Attempts to find babies "liable" to SIDS, for example those with persistent sleep apnea problems, have had only moderate success. (Let's agree to leave to one side the fact that current research on AIDS vaccines is racist. The AIDS strain that's killing African heterosexuals hasn't got the protein fragment that Western researchers are basing their vaccines on.) Amazing how you managed to leave it aside while mentioning it. This "fact" I've never seen from any other source than this posting. Do you have any references? There is a newer virus, HIV-II, but that is significantly different from HIV, and is "only" responsible for about 5% of the people with AIDS in Africa. What is an "oasis for lesbians and/or n'nagms?" What, pray tell, is a n'nagm? Is that a typo? People who act out a preference for the same sex enjoy special status in today's society, _dare_ to mention that the Bible forbids the activity and you are jumped on and accused of all sorts of things. Oh dear. I suspect I'm placing myself in the category of jumping on you in just that fashion. There is amazingly little consensus on the issue. I'm not willing to continue the discussion here, because it's been had many times. If you help people who want to have sex with people of the same sex find other people with the same wish, why aren't you providing help for people who want to steal? I am often tempted to steal. Why is there no-one providing "oases" for people like me? Specifically because it seems that the Task Force for the Diocese doesn't see anything wrong with same-sex romantic relationships. I'm fortunate to be in such a Presbyterian congregation. I'm willing to admit that we disagree, but to pretend that the Task Force is being hypocritical is off base. They aren't. They are disagreeing with you and you are pretending that they secretly agree. -- Michael I. Bushnell \ This above all; to thine own self be true LIBERTE, EGALITE, FRATERNITE \ And it must follow, as the night the day, mike@unmvax.cs.unm.edu /\ Thou canst not be false to any man. CARPE DIEM / \ Farewell: my blessing season this in thee!