Basic HTML Version
PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JULY 30, 1982
PAGE 8
.•.A direct question ("You
regarded as tacky. Standard
tell me if you had anything
admired for its implication
together coziness••..
don't have herpes, do you?") is
openings have evolved. "You would
I could catch, wouldn't you?" is
of trust and its we' re-in-this-
When or whether to tell a date that you have herpes is a thorny
matter••.•Psychotherapist [Michael ] Herships [came up with a]
solution: if you are not having an attack of herpes at the time,
then don't tell, because the risk of transmission is low. [ This
amounts to a kind of "herpes rhythm method,
11
doesn't it?]
Sur
prisingly, many doctors counsel silence£.!} the first encounter,
mostly because their patients' psyches are shaky••••Says another
doctor:
11
Every time you kiss someone good night, do you tell
them you sometimes get cold sores on your mouth?"
Herpetics (those who have the disease) can do little but try to control the
negative emotions and stress that usually trigger the recurring attacks.
Of course, medical science is attempting to come up with either a vaccine or
a wonder drug to circumvent the built-in penalty for violating the Seventh
Commandment. Right now there is an international search underway for a
herpes v�ccine. There are said to be
1
1
promising
11
vaccines being tested. As
far as drugs to control the virus once it is contracted, prospects are
bleaker. Once the virus has tunneled into the ganglia "hide out,
11
it may be
too late. Says one specialist: "You would need a pretty remarkable drug to
attack the virus genes without damaging the host cells."
Of course,
medical science is cut off from the knowledge and power of God who is the
only one who can cure (heal) herpes--once a person truly repents of trans
gressing God's Laws in this aspect of life.
The TIME article nowhere counsels a return to a moral
11
lifestyle." A bibli
cal-based morality is subtly scorned, as evidenced by a reference to herpes
as
11
Jerry Falwell's revenge" (Falwell is a TV preacher who heads the so
called Moral Majority movement in America) and the less subtle quote from
Al Goldstein ("a god in heaven carving out his pound of flesh for all our
joys
11
) •
The TIME article does admit that the herpes epidemic may be
ushering in a time of
11
reluctant, grudging chastity." Oh yes, carnal man
kind wants to have "fun" without paying the penalty and bemoans the fact
that it can't "have it both ways." But even TIME is forced to admit that
our promiscuous age is being snapped back into a sense of reality. It con
cludes by stating:
For now, herpes cannot be defeated, only cozened into an uneasy,
lifelong truce•••.But perhaps not so unhappily, it may be a prime
mover in helping to bring to a close an era of mindless
promiscuity. The monogamous� have�� reason to remain
so. For all the distress it has brought, the troublesome little
bug may inadvertently be ushering in a period in which sex is
linked more firmly to commitment and trust.
Meanwhile, the Churches Veer Farther From the Truth
TIME magazine and other popular publications can't be expected to counsel
the public to go the right way. But then, who does act as wise counsel
except God's Church?
Certainly not this world's churches!
Here is an
article from the TIMES of London, June 10, 1982, discussing one church's
"enlightened" new outlook regardint? homosexuality.