The Issue: BC group gives out condoms on Fridays
What we think: Opportunity for dialogue is undermined
Students this semester have encountered an addition to their morning routine every Friday. If you're one of the many who walk past the College Road or Main Gate entrance, you may have been handed a condom and told to "have a safer weekend" by one of the members of BC Students for Sexual Health. These students are on public property and have every right to be handing out condoms to the pedestrians on those walkways; however, we are concerned about the ideas perpetuated by this weekly tradition.
Boston College does not provide condoms on campus because it is a Jesuit university. If students are going to undermine a school policy, it is important that they fully understand what they are flouting. The Catholic Church has always maintained that sexual intercourse is a sacred act, so important that it should only be reserved for two loving partners committed to one another in the sacrament of marriage. The Church does not have an issue with sexual health; in fact, it is the Catholic Church that serves as a fervent advocate. However, one must understand that from the Church's perspective, sexual health is not relegated to the physical act of intimacy. Within the vast spectrum of sexual health, Catholicism places its emphasis on our attitudes, understandings, and visions of the sanctity of the body.
Now, BC does not mandate that all students agree with its conception of the human person; it just asks that if one is going to disagree, he does it on his own time with his own money.
We would like to ask BC Students for Sexual Health why they distribute condoms specifically on Friday mornings. Is it because they believe that more students will be drinking on the weekend, and therefore more inclined to wantonly have sex with one another? From our point of view, this, coupled with the group's arguments that Campus Convenience is not open 24 hours a day and that condoms are relatively expensive, is indicative of a skewed view of sexual health.
BC Students for Sexual Health is not doing anyone a favor by distributing free prophylactics adjacent to campus. Just like someone who helps another student cheat on a homework assignment, this organization is preparing people for a non-reality. Students who choose to be sexually active will never be handed a condom free of charge once they graduate, and this organization seems to be reinforcing complacency for situations in which there is little room for laziness.
While we appreciate this group's passion and organization, and we generally agree that their advocacy for STI testing and education is a good thing, we believe that their efforts in condom distribution are being misapplied. There exists a real opportunity on this campus for serious discussions and treatments of the sanctity of life, and distributing contraceptives on Fridays only serves to undercut this possibility by reducing the entire concept of sexual health to a thin piece of latex.
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