The Catholic bishops of Kenya are throwing a temper tantrum over a project by the Gates foundation to provide the resources for effective family planning in Africa, claiming that it will destroy civilization and the human race. Seriously.
The Catholic Bishops of Kenya have collectively slammed a pro-contraception article that appeared in the country’s Africa Review earlier this month as “dangerous” saying that it could “lead to destruction of the human society and by extension the human race.”
“We cannot allow our country to be part of an international agenda, driven by foreign funds and by so doing, losing our independence and our African values of the family and society,” wrote John Cardinal Njue, chairman of the Kenya Episcopal Conference of Bishops in a letter titled Let us Uphold Human Dignity.
Okay, wait. A Catholic bishop is complaining about foreign funds, African independence and African values? Really? The Catholic Church IS a foreign entity that invaded Africa and converted millions of people away from their indigenous values and religious beliefs, for crying out loud.
But the country’s Catholic Bishops made it clear that they would have nothing to do with the “artificial family planning programme” by “foreign forces”.
“[T]he use of contraceptives […] is both dehumanizing and goes against the teaching of the church, especially in a country like Kenya where a majority of the people are Christians and God fearing. It already threatens the moral fabric of the society and is an insult to the dignity and integrity of the human person.”
The Catholic Bishops urged all Kenyans and the country’s government leaders that “any development which does not protect the human person is meaningless and in vain.”
The Bishops slammed the program for targeting millions of girls and women in Africa with contraception while “many women are dying daily due to lack of proper medical care, food and housing.”
Oh, of course. They just care about the women! More accurately, they care about keeping women as the baby-making machines they want them to be. They know that the widespread availability of contraception is absolutely crucial in helping women achieve independence, equality and freedom from the patriarchy that the church imposes on them. That’s why they want so badly to stop it.
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Doug Little
August 8, 2012 at 1:18 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I think you need to have several irony meters in parallel to handle this comment. I’m detecting at least several levels of irony here.
Furthermore, good luck taking on the Gates foundation they are worth 100% of Kenya’s GDP.
hunter
August 8, 2012 at 1:23 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Seems that “foreign influences” is the African equivalent of “politically correct.” Meanwhile, as you note, African leaders (and it’s not only bishops and the like) are demanding adherence to “traditional African values” — the ones imposed by European churches.
Mr Ed
August 8, 2012 at 1:25 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
In the early 80′s I went to a Catholic high school. Religious instruction was mostly about morality and not dogma. In a class about making moral decisions we discussed birth control. As a class we noted that limiting or controlling reproduction would prevent children being born into poverty and let women become more economically independent. We challenged the priest teaching the class to provide a moral argument for banning birth control. He couldn’t.
When I read about birth control being dehumanizing or an insult to human dignity I really have to wonder what that means.
steve84
August 8, 2012 at 1:29 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
There is only one word for the Catholic policies in Africa: genocide
Their deliberate spread of HIV is only one aspect of it. There are also several countries with an unsustainable population growth. Nigeria for example has ballooned from 94 to 150 million in just eighteen years. Kenya too grew from 29 million in 1999 to 41 million last year. That’s 30% more and the UN projection is over 96 million by 2050. They can do with some less procreating.
Doug Little
August 8, 2012 at 1:33 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Mr Ed @3
That’s awesome, I would have loved to see that.
redpanda
August 8, 2012 at 1:35 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
re: keeping women in subjugation/etc.
Do these Bishops actually believe their own arguments? Do they actually understand how completely bankrupt their position is or do they genuinely believe that contraception is murder that, when socially accepted, will destroy the fabric of society?
It’s just hard for me to accept that they really believe many of the same things we do, and are simply too proud/stubborn/greedy/corrupt to admit it. Don’t many Catholics go into the priesthood because they are fundamentally good people who want to do right in the world as they understand it? At least, that’s been my personal experience with them.
I’ve never met a Kenyan Bishop, though.
sivivolk
August 8, 2012 at 1:47 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I tend to see this as related to the Catholic Church’s resolute stand against eugenics, which they claimed destroys the sanctity of marriage and the family, and is counter to God’s plans for individuals. Similarly, they often opposed it because eugenic efforts, including birth control (it’s important to remember that a lot of birth control came about as either positive or negative efforts for eugenics), because it was often targeted at poor “undesireables”.
In that light, it’s easy to see how the Church, and especially native-born African bishops, could see opposing contraceptive efforts as humanitarian, if you assume that the Church doesn’t recognize the social shifts in contraceptive use and is still looking at them as a form of eugenic social control rather than as one which empowers women.
And you can also see why, given this, they would see the provision of contraception absent other aid, such as food, housing, and medical care, as an attempt to cut down on the number of Kenyans rather than an attempt to help them get on their feet.
I think the Church is wrong on this, I think contraception empowers women, and will help cut down STIs, and given their use in Western countries that it’s not a eugenic measure, but I do think the above explains partly where they’re coming from on this.
d cwilson
August 8, 2012 at 1:53 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I doubt it. I’m convinced that part of seminary school is learning how to say stuff like this while keeping a straight face.
And here is Exhibit A. Adequate access to contraception combined with economic opportunities beyond being a baby factory would go a long way toward alleviating the problems they cite.
sivivolk
August 8, 2012 at 1:53 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
See Controlling Human Heredity by Dr. Diane Paul, which touches a few times on the relationship between contraception and eugenics, and the position of the Catholic Church, especially in the early 20th century.
Actually, it’s a good read for any atheist, since it goes into a fair bit of detail as to how people like Galton, Darwin, and Huxley bought into eugenic arguments, and how even after the genetic and social problems with eugenics were fairly well understood, scientists and technocrats, and people on the left and right, religious and anti-religious, still supported eugenic policies, and how these things interacted differently in different countries.
redpanda
August 8, 2012 at 2:01 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
^Thanks, I’ll check it out. That was insightful.
eric
August 8, 2012 at 2:15 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The nonsequitur would be funny if it weren’t so awful. How dare the Gates foundation work to prevent STD transmission when they could spend that money on treating the damage instead!
tynk
August 8, 2012 at 2:16 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I tend to see The catholics resolute stand against contraception the same way I would picture a gambling addict looking for one more win. Instead of looking at improving the lives of those people currently on the planet, they think… but there is a chance the next baby could be the special one! Or for the delusional… contraception may keep jesus from coming back!
machintelligence
August 8, 2012 at 2:30 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
It looks like the Catholics and the Episcopalians are in cahoots.
Moggie
August 8, 2012 at 2:35 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
If you think sex is dignified, you’re doing it wrong. Or, in their case, not at all. Sadly, they still have more power in Kenya than in most western countries, where Catholics will nod politely at such rants and carry on using contraception.
busterggi
August 8, 2012 at 3:01 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“losing our independence and our African values of the family and society”
Sorry bishop but its too late, you did that when you converted to Catholicism.
D. C. Sessions
August 8, 2012 at 3:33 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Translate “contraception” to “condoms” and “lack of proper medical care” to “HIV” (both very appropriate in sub-Saharan Africa) and this becomes a whole lot clearer:
Never mind, BTW, that food and housing are a whole lot less of a problem when you aren’t popping out a baby every couple of years from the age of 15 on.
d cwilson
August 8, 2012 at 3:37 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Eugenics was a fashionable idea among self-styled intellectuals from the late 19th century through the time of the Nazis. After that, it lost nearly all of its credibility. Today, it’s a dead letter issue. To equate modern family planning programs with the eugenics movement is patently ridiculous.
YankeeCynic
August 8, 2012 at 3:45 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Of course! How could providing prophylactics in anyway “protect the human person”? It’s not like there are issues with HIV/AIDS in these bishops country, right?
More evidence the Catholic Church doesn’t ACTUALLY care about human life, but rather their dominance over it.
netamigo
August 8, 2012 at 4:03 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/14/us/sex-abuse-statutes-of-limitation-stir-battle.html?pagewanted=all
jnorris
August 8, 2012 at 4:18 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I’m just askin’, how do the bishops stand on the Kill the Gays laws being debated in east Africa; given it is supported by American Christian money?
YankeeCynic
August 8, 2012 at 4:52 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Also, you might want to avoid looking at the comments section of that link if you don’t want to spend the next 10 minutes or so banging your head against your desk.
katie
August 8, 2012 at 4:59 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Wharrgarble. You know what really sucks when you don’t have proper medical care, housing, or nutrition? Getting pregnant.
sivivolk
August 8, 2012 at 5:05 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@c dwilson
I agree they’re wrong, but two things:
It wasn’t just “self-styled intellectuals”, it was pretty well every politician and scientist (including all but one or two geneticists), moralist and public issues type, and in the US almost every non-Catholic religious group. Notably, they were incredibly popular on both left and right, for different reasons and in different ways.
And it only lost steam after the Nazis. Through the late 40s and 50s eugenics groups and ideas maintained some force, though they fell off more quickly on the left than the right. It’s easy to dismiss eugenics as a fringe/Nazi thing, but the book I mention above does a good job documenting how mainstream they were pretty well up until the 60s.
And it’s not like the Catholic Church has a rep for keeping up with the times.
I’m not denying it’s also about sexual moralizing, I’m not saying their stance is correct, and there’s definitely a ton of willful blindness there about STIs and the role of contraception in social progress, but for black African Catholics, part of their response to Western pushes for easily available contraception will be based off all this.
lorn
August 8, 2012 at 5:18 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I agree its all about maintaining the power and control of the Catholic church.
It is also true that the Catholic church isn’t really much concerned over what is good for people. They are not very much concerned with physical bodies, pain, or suffering. Their focus is on “immortal souls”.
During the crusades captured Muslims were threatened with death by fire if they didn’t convert. Of course, in several cases, once the captured Muslim had ‘converted’ and kissed the proffered cross they were killed. The idea being that if their conversion was false the deserved to die. If it wasn’t then, as God loving Christians, they would want to get to heaven as soon as possible, as long and before, they lost their free pass to eternal paradise by committing a mortal sin.
A bit of terror and pain was presumed to be a small price to pay for an eternity at the right hand of God.
It all makes sense. Or at least it does if you buy into Catholic dogma.
F
August 8, 2012 at 6:18 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Fantastic! Guess what? No one is asking them to have anything to do with it. Theoretically, they shouldn’t need any of this. So if they aren’t going to have anything to do with it, this also means fucking hands off and shut your yaps. They don’t need to be involved at all.
Pen
August 8, 2012 at 9:40 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
… for example they’re dying by attempting to give birth in such conditions, doing so too young or too often, or by trying to obtain an unsafe abortion, knowing they can’t raise a child, or from an STD. And the children are dying too, both the maternal and infant death rates are staggering.
ah58
August 8, 2012 at 11:36 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
sivivolk @7
If something is truly god’s plan why worry about the efforts of puny humans to “thwart” it? Isn’t their god supposed to be omnipotent?
left0ver1under
August 9, 2012 at 1:02 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Let’s not forget that the catholics also oppose the HPV vaccine because it “might encourage pre-marital sex”. So in their minds, it’s better that some people die of a preventable disease as a message to others, rather than prevent the disease and encourage condoms. Right.
And then there’s catholic bishop Augustin Misago who turned over dozens of Tutsi children to be murdered, along with many other catholic priests who did the same thing. Are they really deluded enough to try and claim moral authority?
democommie
August 9, 2012 at 7:10 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“It wasn’t just “self-styled intellectuals”, it was pretty well every politician and scientist (including all but one or two geneticists), moralist and public issues type, and in the US almost every non-Catholic religious group. Notably, they were incredibly popular on both left and right, for different reasons and in different ways.”
That will need a fuckton of citations.
I see a time when Nigerians can simply walk into their local Walmart and ask to be directed to the “family planning” section. The clerk will, while averting their gaze, mumble:
“It’s down there with the other witchcraft stuff.”.
Fuck religion.
John Hinkle
August 9, 2012 at 9:21 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Ah yes, when you’re on your righteous high horse and don’t have anything concrete to say, mix “moral fabric” into the dressing for your word salad.
alanb
August 9, 2012 at 9:50 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
…especially in a country like Kenya where a majority of the people are Christians and God fearing.
Kenyan demographics from Wikipedia: Protestant 47.7%, Roman Catholic 23.5%, other Christian 11.9%, Muslim 11.2%, no religion 2.4%, indigenous beliefs 1.7%, Bahá’í Faith about 1%, Buddhism 0.3%, other 2%.
How many Protestants are opposed to birth control? Evidently, the bishops think that even though they “represent” less than a quarter of the population, they should be able to dictate the behavior of the rest.
Ichthyic
August 9, 2012 at 9:51 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I tend to see this as related to the Catholic Church’s resolute stand against eugenics, which they claimed destroys the sanctity of marriage and the family, and is counter to God’s plans for individuals. Similarly, they often opposed it because eugenic efforts, including birth control (it’s important to remember that a lot of birth control came about as either positive or negative efforts for eugenics), because it was often targeted at poor “undesireables”.
no, you’re overthinking.
this is all about political control.
nothing more.
the catholics have had Africa under their thumb for generations. You damn well bet your life they will use any hotbutton, authoritarian inspiring method in order to maintain control there.
Ichthyic
August 9, 2012 at 9:58 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Through the late 40s and 50s eugenics groups and ideas maintained some force, though they fell off more quickly on the left than the right.
but… those weren’t debates about manipulating the genetics of OTHER populations, those were debates about what should be done WITHIN their own populations.
it had fuckall to do with Africa.
this is the LIE that the Catholics have been pushing; that modern eugenics were equitable with genocide and targeted at entire races.
it’s bullshit.
aaronbaker
August 9, 2012 at 12:09 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
You have to understand: when a bishop thinks of sex, he sees a prepubescent boy. If HE can do without contraceptives, why can’t you?
aaronbaker
August 9, 2012 at 12:15 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The Catholic Church was (and is) right to oppose eugenics. Birth control can be, and usually is, completely uncoupled from eugenics–an thus is a completely different issue–regarding which the Church is plainly in the wrong. This elementary distinction isn’t a hard one to make, and I’m sure there are plenty of subtle intellects in the Catholic clergy capable of making it.
KG
August 9, 2012 at 12:55 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
sivivolk,
Your general point about the wide popularity of eugenics pre-1945 is sound, but are you saying these bishops are too stupid or ignorant to notice that almost no-one has been pushing it for half a century?
Abdul Alhazred
August 9, 2012 at 2:10 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
A billionaire who wants there to be fewer Africans.
How could anybody find fault with that, eh? ;)
Jadehawk
August 9, 2012 at 4:55 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
well, it is true that female empowerment destroys the fabric of patriarchal society, so there’s no reason to think that they don’t genuinely believe that contraception is a step towards destroying their favorite flavor of “society”