Quite a Catch, quite amoral

CARE (Christian Action, Research and Education) is a Christian organisation that has been involved with sex education since the early 1990s. Quite a Catch is a sex education leaflet (four-page, A5 selling at £14 per 100 copies), produced by CARE Centres Network, a department of CARE, that tells a young person what he or she needs ‘to know about sexually transmitted infections’.

The purpose of this paper is to show how CARE’s advice on sexual matters is based on the unspiritual wisdom of the World Health Organisation (WHO) rather than the divine wisdom of the Bible.

CARE’s advice for young people

‘Anybody who is having sex can get an STI. Nearly all STI’s are on the increase. Not all are curable, but all are preventable.

‘What’s the best option? The World Health Organisation (WHO) has stated that the best way to avoid becoming infected with an STI is to stay faithful to an uninfected partner for life.

‘What else? Delaying becoming sexually active is a positive health choice. Having fewer sexual partners reduces the risk of infection. Using a condom correctly every time means that you are less likely to get an STI but it is not 100% safe. Whether you’ve had sex or not, you have a choice about your sexual health. It affects your whole person, not just your body. Take care of yourself.’

The leaflet provides ‘what you need to know’ about chlamydia, gonorrhoea, genital herpes, HIV/AIDS, HPV (the human papilloma virus) and hepatitis, including symptoms, effects on health and treatment.

‘Many STI’s have no symptoms. If you have had unprotected sex or condom failure even once or had skin to genital skin contact with someone who may be infected or had previous partners who might have been infected or if you don’t know the sexual history of previous partners then it is possible for you to have an STI. Some people carry not just one but a number of STIs. If you think you may have an STI, even if you have no symptoms, you should have a check up.

‘You have several options. Visit your doctor. Visit the local GUM clinic (genito-urinary medicine clinic). No information is given to your GP or parents/relatives without consent. Visit your local Contraceptive and Sexual health clinic (family planning clinic).

Call the NHS Direct for more information. Call the Sexual Health and National AIDS Helpline.’ (phone numbers are provided).

Anybody who is having sex can get an STI

The opening statement that anybody who is having sex can get an STI is false, for the vast majority of married couples are at no danger of acquiring an STI. So where does this statement come from? It is a favourite slogan of the ‘safer sex’ lobby! The pamphlet Lovelife explains, ‘the most important thing to realise about sexually transmitted infections is that anybody who is having sex can get them – young or old, male or female, straight, gay or lesbian’.^[i] The inference is that ‘unprotected’ sex is the cause of STIs. So ‘anybody who is having sex’ needs to ‘protect’ themselves from diseases such as gonorrhoea, chlamydia, herpes, genital warts and HIV. It is only in the distorted view of the ‘safer sex’ lobby that ‘anybody who is having sex’ is at risk. In the real world, those who are faithful to their marriage partner are at no risk—they don’t need to practise ‘safer sex’ to avoid STIs. So CARE’s assertion that ‘anybody who is having sex’ can get an STI is misleading.

The implication of this slogan is that acquiring an STI is simply a matter of chance, something that can happen to anybody, for all sexually active people are at equal risk. It denies biblical truth that ‘he who sins sexually sins against his own body’ (1 Corinthians 6:18). It denies the biblical principle that sin has consequences. The truth, ignored by Quite a Catch, is that anybody who is sexually immoral is at risk of an STI.

Stay faithful to an uninfected partner for life

Quite a Catch advises: The World Health Organisation has stated that the best way to avoid becoming infected with an STI is to stay faithful to an uninfected partner for life. Apparently CARE, along with the WHO, sees nothing wrong in sex between an ‘uninfected’ couple, provided they promise to remain faithful for life. So for those who want to have sex without the risk of an STI, the message is that they need to find an ‘uninfected’ partner and have sex only with that partner. But what does this mean in practice? How does a young man know if his girlfriend is ‘uninfected’? Does he ask for her sexual history? If she says she has not had sex, does he believe her, or should he ask for a medical certificate of her ‘uninfected’ status? How does a young woman establish the sexual history of her prospective sexual partner when it is well known that some men are prepared to lie in order to gain the sexual favours of a woman?

Biblical wisdom warns of the fickleness of the human heart. ‘Many a man claims to have unfailing love, but a faithful man who can find?’ (Proverbs 20:6). So the phrase, ‘stay faithful for life’ outside the context of marriage, is meaningless, for in most sexual cohabitations the commitment to ‘stay faithful for life’ is made in private by two people who have no real intention of doing so—the average cohabitation lasts for about two years. Even among those who are sincere, many find that a sexual relationship soon turns to recrimination and misery as the truth dawns on the woman that her ‘uninfected’ sexual partner, who has promised ‘to stay faithful for life’, has no intention of ever proposing marriage. A vague promise to ‘stay faithful for life’ is not marriage, for marriage involves a public commitment before witnesses for a man and his wife to live together, forsaking all others, until death. The Bible teaches that sexual activity outside marriage is immoral, irrespective of whether the sexual partners are infected or not or have promised to stay faithful or not.

Quite a Catch subtly insinuates into the mind of the young reader that ‘to stay faithful to an uninfected partner for life ’ makes sex before marriage OK. The doctrine of the ‘uninfected partner’ comes from a mindset that has demoralised sexual behaviour. That is, a mindset that has rejected God’s moral law and does not recognise the concept of sexual immorality.

Delay becoming sexual activity

Quite a Catch advises that delaying becoming sexually active is a positive health choice. What does it mean to delay becoming sexually active? For how long should young people delay? A few months? A year? Until they meet a really attractive boyfriend or girlfriend? Moreover, CARE encourages the idea that young people should delay becoming sexually active for pragmatic health reasons. There is nothing in this advice to indicate that sexual activity outside marriage is wrong. This message is based in pragmatism, and has nothing to do with the Christian faith. The Bible teaches the virtue of chastity, which is sexual purity before marriage, and fidelity within marriage.

Fewer sexual partners reduces the risk of infection

Quite a Catch explains that having fewer sexual partners reduces the risk of infection. Once again CARE’s advice is entirely pragmatic. So the message for the man with five sexual partners is that three is a safer option. The message for the woman with three sexual partners is that two is less risk. For the young man who wants to reduce the risk even further, one partner is preferable to two, and best of all is one ‘uninfected’ sexual partner. The biblical view of sexual conduct is expressed in the marriage ordinance; a man is united to his wife and they become one flesh (Genesis 2:24). Sexual activity outside marriage is condemned as fornication or adultery.

Use a condom correctly every time

Quite a Catch advises that using a condom correctly every time means that you are less likely to get an STI but it not 100% safe. Here CARE is simply following the advice of the WHO about the ‘correct and consistent use of condoms’. The WHO’s position statement on condoms asserts that:

‘condoms are an integral and essential part of comprehensive prevention and care programmes, and their promotion must be accelerated… Condoms are a key component of combination prevention strategies individuals can choose at different times in their lives to reduce their risks of sexual exposure to HIV. These include delay of sexual initiation, abstinence, being safer by being faithful to one’s partner when both partners are uninfected and consistently faithful, reducing the number of sexual partners, and correct and consistent use of condoms.’_[ii]

CARE’s new sex education programme, Evaluate… informing choice, also provides advice on condom use in accordance with the WHO policy. The document Education Policy, Aims & Code of Conduct explains CARE’s position on condoms:

‘As the Evaluate programme provides education about choices available to people in the light of HIV & AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections, this will include education about condom use. The Evaluate programme does not promote the exclusive use of condoms as the only choice for young people with regard to sexual behaviour. Rather, Evaluate educators provide such education in accordance with the World Health Organisation position, which is “abstinence and fidelity between uninfected partners and safer sex can prevent the transmission of HIV. Safer sex includes non-penetrative sex and sex using condoms.” Evaluate educators do not give out condoms in schools nor are condom demonstrators part of these presentations.’

CARE’s position on condoms, in line with the WHO, is entirely pragmatic. CARE appears unconcerned that its promotion of condoms among young people might actually encourage sexual promiscuity. CARE appears to be unconcerned that its promotion of condoms may be contributing to the current epidemic of sexual transmitted diseases among young people.

The Bible warns young people to flee sexual immorality; that those who sin sexually are sinning against their own body (1 Corinthians 6:18).

CARE’s source of authority – the WHO

CARE’s sex education messages are based on the advice of the WHO, an organisation committed to the ideology of secular humanism. Here it is important to notice the remarkable similarity between CARE’s advice for avoiding STI’s and the WHO strategy for reducing the risks of sexual exposure to HIV.

Bible: chastity, which means a pure heart and sexual activity only within marriage. Sex outside marriage is condemned as fornication.

Bible: one sexual partner, who is your husband or wife. Sex with multiple partners is immoral

Notice how CARE has become a mouthpiece for the WHO. It has chosen to promote the policies of the WHO, rather than the biblical view of sexual conduct as taught in God’s word.

Focus on depravity

The underlying assumption of Quite a Catch is that young people are ignorant about sex and therefore need to be ‘educated’ about sexually transmitted diseases. But this is a false assumption cultivated by the sexual revolutionaries who seek to undermine biblical morality. It is the sex educators, such as CARE, the FPA and Brook, who use this assumption as a pretext for teaching a large number of sexual ‘facts’, which have the affect of undermining modesty.

The ‘facts’ that Quite a Catch presents about STIs are not truth—the truth is that these unpleasant diseases are the consequence of sexual immorality. Chaste young people gain no benefit from being presented with the ‘facts’ about chlamydia, gonorrhoea, syphilis and genital warts. While Quite a Catch presents what it calls the ‘facts’ about STIs, it does not teach the truth about the consequences of sexual immorality.

The danger of Quite a Catch is that its sexual ‘facts’ invite lustful thoughts. The focus on STIs and condoms introduces unnatural sexual ‘facts’ into the minds of young people. And here it is important to make the distinction between facts and truth, for facts are not truth. Facts can be used, and are used, to corrupt and deprave, whereas truth always has a moral dimension and never corrupts. Truth is based in God’s word and always promotes sexual morality and what is decent, pure and right; sexual facts, on the other hand, contain no moral dimension and may be used to promote sexual immorality. So facts about sex, without the moral implications that flow from those facts, do not constitute truth, but a pathway to sexual temptation. Quite a Catch encourages young people to think about a catalogue of sexually transmitted diseases, condoms, unprotected sex, genital skin contact, discharge from penis, contraceptive clinics and uninfected sexual partners. The Bible encourages us to think about whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy (Philippians 4:8).

CARE’s amoral sex education

The main objection to Quite a Catch is that it promotes an amoral view of sexual conduct in the name of the Christian Church. The basic assumption of the leaflet is that sexual activity among young people is inevitable, therefore they need a number of pragmatic tips for avoiding an STI. The whole ethos of the leaflet trivialises the issue of sexually transmitted diseases. The phrase Quite a Catch even suggests that there is something laudable about catching an STI. There is no attempt to teach young people that certain types of sexual behaviour are wrong or immoral. Marriage is not even mentioned. The concept of sexual purity, which lies at the heart of Christian teaching, is ignored. The biblical virtues of modesty, chivalry and chastity are disregarded.

Quite a Catch is important for it provides a clear illustration of the amoral ideology that drives CARE. It is important for those Christians who support CARE financially to wake up to the reality of what is being done with their money and in their name. ‘They have spoken in my name lying words that I did not command them. I am the one who knows, and I am witness, declares the Lord’ (Jeremiah 20:23).

[i] Lovelife - sexual health for young people, Health Education Authority, p19

[ii] WHO position statement on condoms, Condoms and HIV Prevention (July 2004)