How to Really Dismantle an Atomic Bomb

In 2001, upon receiving their Grammy for Song of the Year, U2 front man Bono said that the band was, to paraphrase, “re-applying once again for the job of the best band in the world.”

Right Mission, Wrong Means

Serious music enthusiasts who have listened to their most recent album, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (I’m actually listening to it as I write this article), would agree that U2 has certainly made a dramatic attempt to keep their re-acquired job. Personally, it was well worth the four-year wait, for I felt that it had some of the best riffs and lyrical combinations that have been developed in a long time.

The entire album has the overtone of their desire for world peace. In fact, “Love and Peace or Else” (track 4) is a call to lay down our arms and embrace true peace. Otherwise, there will be the havoc of nuclear war. The possibility of North Korea and Iran building bombs speaks to the starkness of this reality.

In light of this very positive message, I was greatly disturbed to learn that Bono was endorsing Brazil’s Anti-AIDS campaign. It’s not the fact that he’s speaking out against AIDS — we certainly must strive to eradicate this scourge from the planet — but it’s the way he is doing it.

I have long known that Bono is a supporter of using condoms to eliminate AIDS. This view of Bono is problematic, due to fact that the Catholic Church teaches that the use of contraceptives (this includes condoms) is a grave evil and never morally acceptable. Still, Bono claims to be a practicing Catholic (in fact, he wears around his neck the Rosary given to him by none other than John Paul the Great). His attempt to bring down AIDS is self-defeating.

A Non-Negotiable Issue

The Catholic Church is not attempting to impose on our fun by not allowing contraceptives. Her wisdom of 2,000 years recognizes that genuine love as expressed within the sexual act must always include both the full uniting of persons and openness to life.

The Catechism (n. 2370) makes this clear by stating:

The innate language that expresses the total reciprocal self-giving of husband and wife is overlaid, through contraception, by an objectively contradictory language, namely, that of not giving oneself totally to the other. This leads not only to a positive refusal to be open to life, but also to a falsification of the inner truth of conjugal love, which is called upon to give itself in personal totality.

In plain English, contraception can never be an act of true love, for sex speaks the language of total self-giving, where a person makes a promise with to body to give himself or herself totally to the other person and to receive that person totally.

This is a non-negotiable issue for Catholics, and this includes Bono. This teaching, as handed on by the Church, is what is at the root of the truth about who we are as human beings. God, the giver of all gifts, in making us in His image, created us to give ourselves back to Him. Anything else is a contradiction of the love of God.

Bono’s entire campaign to wipe out AIDS and hunger in Africa and other parts of the world, through such programs as the ONE Campaign, is operating at cross-purposes to itself. Sure, he’s raising lots of money, but by ignoring the facts about condoms, he is actually promoting a lifestyle that will spread AIDS.

A Failed Strategy

Condoms have been known to have a great failure rate, for they can burst, tear, and slip off during sex. In addition, the HIV virus can penetrate through the material. (More information can be found at HLI.com in the article “Condom Expose.”)

The notion that condoms stop the spread of AIDS is a blatant lie. A clear example of this is Uganda. Since 1991, it has experienced a plummeting HIV infection rate, whereas other countries, such as Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Botswana have skyrocketing rates (Source: Studies in Family Planning, March 2004). With the AIDS virus comes a drastic increase in poverty, hunger, and homeless children.

Even if condoms could prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, there is no condom for the heart. Upon entering into the sexual act, a person “says” with his body that he wants to give everything and receive everything from the other person. Yet a man who uses a condom does not want to give his whole self, because he is withholding his fertility. Our fertility cannot be separated from our sexuality no matter how hard we try. When we act contrary to the true meaning of our sexuality, we will know it and reap the anguish.

Bono was present in Brazil right before Carnival, a traditional period of reveling in partying and sexual escapades. This year it started on Saturday, February 25th and ends today. To respond, Brazil’s Health Ministry has been distributing 25 million condoms to the participants. After the smoke clears from the debauchery, there will be millions of broken hearts, not to mention an increase in HIV and abortions.

We must pray for the government of Brazil and its people to wake up to the grave danger that they are in. In addition, pray that Bono will experience a change of heart on this issue. His attempts to heal the world are commendable, but misplaced. If he truly wants to stop war, he must first work to dismantle the atomic bomb that the sexual revolution set off. We are all affected by its radiation poisoning.

We need true love and peace — or else.

© Copyright 2006 Catholic Exchange

Steve Pokorny, a graduate of the M.A. Theology program of Franciscan University, is the president of TOB Ministries, devoted to spreading John Paul the Great’s Theology of the Body. For more information, visit stevepokorny.com.

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