Click here to listen to the radio version.
Click here to search the AOG archives.
Apples of Gold
Radio Script for April 1, 2010
“The New National Epidemic”
Hello, I’m Doug Apple…with Apples of Gold.
“The epidemic of genital herpes.”
I had no idea, but it’s right there in the New England Journal of Medicine.*
There is an epidemic of genital herpes, it says, and then it talks about what the authors call “an especially devastating consequence of the epidemic,” neonatal infection.
They said up to “65% of pregnant women in the United States have genital infection with herpes simplex virus type 1 or type 2.”
So here’s what happens. Sexually active young women get herpes, which they might not even be aware of. And remember, there is an epidemic of genital herpes, so millions of women have it.
Then they get pregnant and that’s where the neonatal infection comes in. The baby can get herpes from his or her mother. Then the disease may kill the child, but even if it’s caught quickly and treated, it can still cause considerable disability among the survivors.
That’s just one terrible consequence of this disaster called genital herpes.
It also makes people more prone to get AIDS, and now you may not hear so much about AIDS or HIV anymore, except maybe in Africa, but here’s another statistic from the New England Journal of Medicine. More than 1 in 30 adults in Washington, D.C. are HIV-infected, which is more than people in Ethiopia or Nigeria or Rwanda.**
Then there is HPV, the human papillomavirus, which the CDC calls the most commonly sexually transmitted infection. And again, so many of those infected don’t even know they have it, but it can do such wretched things as cause cervical cancer.
Speaking of cancer, one gay publication in Boston reports that according the American Cancer Society, people who engage in homosexual behavior have a higher risk of cancer. The odds of a gay man getting cancer are 17 times higher than a straight man.
If you want to see the headlines for yourself, just do a Google news search. A headline for news-record.com says, “Clinic seeks funds to combat local rise in sexual diseases.” Beloit Daily News.com says STD case numbers high locally.
TV Channel 6 in Southern California says, “STDs on the Rise in San Diego.” It goes on to say that April is Sexually Transmitted Disease Awareness Month, and that MTV and Planned Parenthood have launched a nationwide campaign.
And just what would MTV and Planned Parenthood like to tell us about sexually transmitted diseases?
They want everyone to know this. There is no shame in being treated for an STD.
Today in the Cornell Daily Sun there is an article entitled “Spring Break Mistakes Leave Their Mark.” Talking about college kids on spring break the author writes, “They descend on these cities with little more than bikinis and a few dollars, and they return to school sunburned and sporting a whopping new case of gonorrhea.”
That may sound funny, but if you follow the news at all then you know that in the last few days they’ve been reporting that there is a new anti-biotic resistant strain of gonorrhea.***
According to Time magazine’s website, it could become a “super bug.” And then here’s the line that always gets me. Here is the conclusion of that Time article. “And, of course, it underscores the importance of sexual protection—using condoms diminishes STI exposure in the first place.”
The Carolinian is the student newspaper of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. A couple weeks ago they had an article about what they called the “sexually transmitted disease epidemic in our country.”
There are those chilling words again, “disease epidemic.”
Now listen closely to this paragraph. “Sexually transmitted infections are an epidemic in our country. Millions of people each year are diagnosed and treated for STDs. However, the prevention of these diseases and infections is very simple…”****
Okay, this is where we talk about abstinence, right? This is where we talk about morality and purity and saving yourself for marriage then remaining faithful thereafter, right?
I mean, that is the perfect answer for STDs! God’s way is the right way, the best way. Abstinence before marriage and monogamy thereafter.
But here is what the article said. “The prevention of these diseases and infections is very simple: wear a condom and get tested at least once a year.”
Well for one thing, getting tested once a year isn’t going to prevent you from getting anything.
But anyway, that was it. That was all the advice they had for avoiding these wretched diseases, this disease epidemic.
It reminds me of Romans chapter one. Verse 18 includes this phrase, “…men who suppress the truth by their wickedness.”
Why won’t we ever see MTV and Planned Parenthood roll out an abstinence campaign?
Romans 1:24 says, “Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.”
Then verse 27 uses this phrase, “…received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.”
Am I saying that God gives people STDs? No, God is the one telling us how to avoid them! But we just won’t listen. We want to do what we want to do, and when our actions cross the moral boundary, there are very real consequences.
This is what we need to teach people. God has a plan! His ways are best. Morality and purity and righteousness. Living within God’s moral boundaries.
This is far and away the best prevention against this new national epidemic.
Comments?
E-mail me: dougapple@wave94.com.
May God bless you today! With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.
* http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/361/14/1376
** http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/362/11/967
*** http://wellness.blogs.time.com/2010/03/30/emergence-of-antibiotic-resistant-gonorrhea/
**** http://www.carolinianonline.com/opinions/simple-safe-sex-practices-can-curb-sexually-transmitted-disease-epidemic-in-our-country-1.1261155
© 2010 The Arrow’s Tip
To subscribe to your own daily “Apples of Gold” e-mail, write dougapple@wave94.com.
If you want to be removed from this e-mail list, simply click reply and type UNSUBSCRIBE on the subject line.
If you want to catch “Apples of Gold” in its original audio format, go to www.wave94.com
To search through the large archive of past articles, go here: http://www.wave94.com/modules.php?name=Stories_Archive
If you have trouble reaching me at my main e-mail address, try this one: douglas_apple@msn.com
(Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”)
Why “The Arrow’s Tip”? Each morning, after diligently seeking the Lord, I write Apples of Gold. Then before I release it to the public I pray one final prayer, “Lord, send forth your arrows.” I envision Apples of Gold as arrows, tips dipped in the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1), sailing toward the hearts and minds of men and women around the world.
Doug Apple
General Manager - Wave 94
Christian Radio for Tallahassee
PO Box 4105
Tallahassee, FL 32315
(850) 926-8000
-vi-
No comments:
Post a Comment