My Rant

People can be amazingly narrow in their views. Mainly, Christians who are oblivious to the world around them.

In my searching of media outlets today I saw a letter from a woman from Indiana Voice for the Family or something like that who is completely against making the HPV vaccine required for girls in Indiana, with the built in option for parents to opt-out of vaccinating their children without repercussion of their kids not being allowed to attend school.

They argue that it condones sexual activity and if their girls abstain from sex then they'll be safe.

One argument she did make was that there hadn't been enough research to make sure it was safe in the long-term. OK - I'll give her that point, but, there's been enough testing done that I myself will get the last round of dosage here in April.

Christians who believe that everyone is always truthful about their sexual past are absoltutely out of their minds. Even if their girls do abstain from sexual intercourse (which is getting less and less even for Christians) who is to say they won't have oral sex. A recent study said kids as young as 10 and 12 are performing oral sexual activities and having multiple partners in those activities still opens you up for exposure to HPV.

Parents who think their kids will 100 percent abstain from any and all sexual activity before having a life-time monogamous relationship are living in a dreamworld or sending their kids to universities that separate all interaction between the sexs (and I'm not talking single-sex education I'm talking the univ's who have seperate sidewalks for guys and girls and go to insane strides to keep them from never having physical contact with eachother).

Even then, when released to the outside world, how can they guarantee that their spouse will have abstained as well or will be honest about their sexual history?

But, the biggest reason to still vaccinate your girls againt this disease is that if you continue to live under the umbrella of 100 percent abstinence what if their spouse dies at a young age (I have several friends who have lost spouses before they were 50 due to accidents and cancer) and they remarry - what then?

All bets are off, especially if they marry a widower. How many people had his former wife been with and what if she hadn't been honest with him?????

That's the main reason I'm getting the vaccine myself. What if my husband suddenly dies and I find myself years down the road re-marrying? In addition, I can tell my children that I decided to do it for my health and I expect them to get the vaccine as well. The only conversation will be at what exact age and which sleeve they want to roll up.

Parents, please, don't find yourself in a few decades trying to explain why you felt it wasn't important to vaccinate your daughter against a cancer when she tells you she has cervical cancer and the doctor said it could have been 80+ percent prevented had her parents given her the three dose vaccine when she was 11. How will you explain that to her?

If you love your child you won't ignore the fact that sexual activity is seen younger and younger and you'll educate your children from a young age so they know how to respond when they see it. An educated child will make better choices than an oblivious one and that relationship and knowledge along with their fear of Jesus will keep them pure till they find the person they will spend the rest of their life with.

But even with that, the chances of having to re-marry or marrying someone who isn't 100 percent honest are too high not to protect them against that which you cannot control. And that thought should be enough for Christians to support the vaccine, not work against it.

Wake up, o men, to the world around you and do what you can to make the future for your children safer. And ladies, if you're under 26 please call your doctor to see if you can get yourself vaccinated to proctect you from the future unknowns.

La. Sra.