In my last letter we looked at Don Barry’s teaching on ‘test driving’ a relationship before getting married and the statistics from cohabitation.

In this letter, as part of his teaching on valuing virginity, I have included his teaching on the use of condoms as part of so-called ‘safe sex’.  Understanding these stats will help you avoid the need to consider abortion as an option for an unwanted pregnancy.

“For twenty years or more we have been told that you need to use condoms in order to provide protection for yourself so your sexual exploits can be safe.

What few people know, and even fewer are told, is that for the most part condoms provide very limited protection against most STD’s. 

They will provide effective protection for you against HIV. 

Some stats about condoms:

v      If for example, your sexual partner has herpes, then the use of a condom may reduce your chance of contracting the disease by 40% - which means you still have a 60% chance of ending up infected.  Not bad betting odds!

v      With regard Human Papillomer Virus (which is the number one cause of Cervical cancer, 90%) research shows that there is absolutely no evidence that a condom will reduce the risk of infection.

v      In the case of Chlamydia, condoms will reduce your odds by 26% - but you still have a 74% chance of an infection.

v      With Syphilis, even consistent use of condoms will only give you a 29% protection against the disease – you still have a 71% risk of being infected.

v      Another thing people are generally unaware of, and are certainly not told on the ‘safer sex’ websites, is that some STD’s like Herpes, crabs and genital warts can be spread through skin to skin contact, in which case condoms are quite useless.

v      Another popularly believed myth is that if you are unfortunate enough to contract some STD that it is no major problem, they are easy to treat and they leave behind no lasting effects.  Some STD’s are very serious and can be life threatening.  They can produce infertility in both males and females.  You aren’t always aware that you have picked up an STD, so in some cases it won’t be until much later that you find out there was a price to pay for your so called ‘sexual freedom’.

All this does make a mockery of the idea of ‘safe sex’, more recently being called ‘safer sex’.

Quite frankly, you would have much better odds of surviving a few rounds of Russian Roulette than you do of getting through casual sex without some encounter with STD’s.

Let me suggest to you that saving yourself for the one you love may in fact be saving yourself as well – from possible serious disease and heartbreak. 

There is wisdom in God’s directives.  He isn’t just being arbitrary and difficult.”

After reading this letter you might like to spend time with God examining the lies you may have embraced about ‘safe sex’, and seeking His truth and His way ahead for you.

If you have had several sexual partners you might like to consider being tested for the possibility of having picked up a sexual disease.

Blessings,

Sue Rowe