If it's all about sex . . .

The headline reads: AIDS groups, gay activists dismayed over new pope. The blogs are dissing back and forth about a response to Andrew Sullivan's dismay that said: "It's always about sex with Andrew, isn't it?"

And I'm just thinking that sex is the issue. Not necessarily for Mr. Sullivan. Not even, as Atrios points out:

The question isn't why for Sullivan or me or anybody else it's "always about the sex." The question is why in contemporary society much of religion is all about the sex, and especially gay sex. Last I checked there were all kinds of sins and all kinds of sinning going on. The Church may never stop considering homosexuality to be a "moral evil." But, they consider lots of things to be "moral evils." Why the obsession with hot gay sex?

Rather, in the matter of using condoms to prevent HIV:

"The use of prophylactics is unacceptable even as a solution to the problem of AIDS, because the objective is the fight against fornication," said Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, the Vatican's health secretary.

"The sixth commandment says it clearly: do not fornicate. It's not a negative position. We are doing it to defend life," he said, while recognizing the right of a spouse whose husband has HIV/AIDS to demand that he use a condom.

Not being a Biblical scholar, I can't really speak to what the sixth commandment might have said or meant in its original Hebrew. However, I should note that there is some question about whether the sixth commandment is actually "Thou shalt not kill" or "Thou shalt not commit adultery." The Cardinal's statement seems to support both interpretations since he speaks of the "fight against fornication" and "defend[ing] life" as reasons to oppose the use of condoms. And, of course, there is some question whether "fornication" includes "adultery" and vice versa.

Whatever. Shrug.

Condoms prevent the spread of HIV. They don't cause or even encourage people to have sex (fornicatory or adulterous or even marital). If having sex is the issue, then talk about that. Talk about it until you're blue in the face if that's what it's all about. But don't demonize condoms. They are just a means of preventing the spread of disease--if used consistently and correctly--not an aphrodisiac.