Last week, the winner of the 2015 Citizens United/CPAC Andrew Breitbart Defender of the First Amendment Award was Duck Commander Phil Robertson, paterfamilias of the Duck Dynasty Robertson family. In doing so, they were giving Phil the CPAC stage for a speech, knowing that he would speak his unvarnished thoughts. One doubts they expected his topic. After bringing out his heavily-duct-taped Bible and telling politicians to keep theirs with them, Phil went on the offensive against sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). He quoted the federal Centers for Disease Control, which estimates that more than 100 million Americans now have a sexually transmitted infection.
I dont want you to become ill. I dont want you to come down with a debilitating disease. I dont want you to die early, Robertson said.
Phils solution? One older than Christianity, as old as common sense itself. If youre disease-free, if shes disease-free, you marry. You keep your sex right there. You wont get sick from a sexually-transmitted disease!
Logic and mathematics would seem to agree. According to Robertson, his goal was to show love to the listeners. But several left-wing websites didnt see it that way.
He certainly used his speech to hate very well. I guess that's the criteria. Who can say the sickest, most vile things about center- left Americans wins! according to John Amato of Crooks & Liars.
The Huffington Post took offense at his attributing the rise in STDs to the beatniks and hippies.
To their credit, MSNBC acknowledged Phils numbers, saying, For the record, Robertsons [sic] has his numbers correct. A CDC report from February of 2013 estimated more than 110 [million] cases of sexually transmitted infections in America with about 20 billion [sic, MSNBCs number] new infections each year at a cost of nearly $16 billion in direct medical costs.
The network site then blasted him for comparing ISIS to the Nazis, Communists, and Imperial Japanese.
Robertson clearly didnt care what MSNBC thought, though. You want a Godly, Biblical, medically safe option? One man, one woman, married, for life, he said.
What do you call the 110 million people who have sexually transmitted illnesses? he continued. Its the revenge of the hippies! Sex, drugs, and rock n roll have come back to haunt us in a bad way!
But the big question is is Phil right or wrong? According to the CDCs website, Almost every sexually active person will acquire HPV [Human Papillomavirus] at some point in their lives.
Sexually active would seem to indicate activity with new or multiple partners, rather than this Duck Doctor Phils Prescription.
But still Almost every
person. Thats quite a few the website also says, about 79 million Americans are currently infected with HPV. About 14 million people become newly infected each year. While it is the most prevalent venereal disease, HPV is only one of many.
Generally, HPVs symptoms are more a painful nuisance than life- threatening genital warts, often only appearing years after the initial infection. But there are also life-threatening illnesses such as cervical cancer, which HPV causes.
Much more frightening, however, is the specter of HIV/AIDS. According to the CDC, there are about 1.2 million people currently living with HIV, and as many as 50,000 new cases a year, with 63 to 66 percent of those being MSM, or Men who have Sex with Men. Sadly, the lions share of new HIV infections is found in the 13-24 age group; despite being 16 percent of the nations population, they account for 26 percent of all new infections, with 72 percent of those being young MSM. While HIV is treatable, there is still no cure.
Although HIV, as well as the current increase in syphilis and hepatitis, are primarily targeting homosexual males, heterosexuals with multiple partners are by no means off the hook. As well as HPV, herpes, drug-resistant gonorrhea and chlamydia are on the rise, as well. The year 2013 saw 1.4 million cases of chlamydia and 820,000 new cases of gonorrhea, and the CDC estimates that one person in every six in the U.S. between the ages of 14 and 49 has herpes.
Criticize Phil all you like, folks he doesnt mind. Hes only saying this because he cares.
Listen to him again: I dont want you to become ill. I dont want you to come down with a debilitating disease. I dont want you to die early.
And if you hate me because I told you that, he said, I told you, my love for you is not contingent on how you feel about me. I love you anyway. I dont want you to see you die early or get sick. Im trying to help you, for cryin out loud! America, if I didnt care about you, why would I bring this up?
From this CPAC attendees perspective, Phils speech was not only important from a physical health perspective, it also, along with that duct-taped Bible of his, reminds us of the words of Charles Spurgeon: A Bible thats falling apart usually belongs to someone who isnt.
Poster Comment:
Interesting article from Lifesite News.