stern@steinmetz.UUCP (Harold A. Stern) (08/21/85)
Heard on the news today that the Pope was in Kenya. Also heard that
he spoke out against the government's attempts to lower that nation's
birth rate, which at 4% annually is among the highest, if not THE highest,
in the world. Said that encouraging contraception was wrong.
My question is, WHY? Here we have a nation of people who are not doing all
that much better than the Ethiopians we keep hearing about in the media.
There are too many people, and there's not enough food to go around.
Defusing the population bomb might be the only chance these people have
of surviving. They weren't even talking about abortion - just contraception.
I would very much appreciate it it all responses, justifications, etc.
were sent to the following addresses, rather than posted to the net (or
at least do both, since I'm moving to a system without access to the
net)
Thanx in advance,
harold a. stern
stern@athena.MIT.EDU {ihnp4!decvax}!mit-eddie!mit-athena!stern
-or-
gans@ge-crd decvax!mcnc!ncsu!uvacs!edison!steinmetz!stern
-or-
410 memorial drive, room 331-d
cambridge, ma 02139
(617) 225-8304ptl@fluke.UUCP (Mike Andrews) (08/29/85)
Hi,
Could it be that the Pope is saying we, you and I, have the ability to
provide the food and nourishment for these people until they can be taught
to do it for themselves. Rather than wasting time teaching poorly educated
people how to use the pill, the time would be better spent teaching them
how better to grow food for themselves. Besides that, you'll find in the
poorer nations that people will have large families, knowing that disease
will take some of them, but leave others to act as a form of Social Security
for them when they are in their old age and need to be taken care of.
Look at Mother Teresa of Calcutta (spelling?). She and the order of nuns
that she started, work constantly with the dieing. Yet she comes out strongly
against abortion. Why do you think she does? Certainly not to just provide
her and the other nuns with more people to work with. Maybe she too knows
there is a `sanctity of life' that supercedes anyones `right' to end it
artificially. Maybe she too believes that we have the ability already to
help the needy. There are arguments that the pill not only prevents
pregnancy, but also kills newly fertilized eggs --- abortion.
I don't believe sending the pill to people who need food instead, and proper
health care, housing, and our love is the answer. We are the answer. Are we
really helping them by simply reducing their numbers so there are fewer people
to watch starving, while refusing to give them what they really desperately
need and deserve?
Who are we really doing this for? Them or us?
Mike Andrews
--
*** Ezekiel 37:1-14 *** *** Ephesians 5:8-21 ***
*** Job 3:25 and Mark 5:36 ***
{decvax,ihnp4}!uw-beaver! \
{sun,allegra}! >fluke!ptl
{ucbvax,hplabs}!lbl-csam! /