Safe Sin

Copyright Rabbi Eli Hecht
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Magic Johnson's message of, "Here I am saying it can happen to anybody, even me," has reopened Pandora's box. Our schools all across the country are fiercely debating the virtue of "condom distribution." Proponents claim that the only way to stem the HIV infection epidemic is to teach the children through condom availability and distribution. No matter how much straight talk we give to the students, HIV will affect them and we must protect them as early as possible.

Other educators try to compromise the issue and say that condom availability and distribution are two separate issues. Yet, there are those unexplicitly quiet on the matter.

In a recent article of the Los Angeles Times Pamela McGee, a former basketball player at USC, claimed that Magic Johnson revealed his HIV infection to warn the thousands of women he slept with. This leads me to believe that when Magic Johnson stated on national television, "If I die tomorrow, I've had the greatest life anybody could imagine," he was thinking about quite a few things.

When my own children and students speak about the great sports figure with such honor that he's called "Magic" I take offense. I ask, "What is so magical about this sportsman?" If he's such a great athlete shouldn't he be a good role model for my children? Does his life style and unique status inspire the good life that we want for our children to follow?

Magic says that Pespico, Converse, Spalding and other manufacturers have assured him continued loyalty and business opportunities. However, I wonder what his wife and unborn child have to say about this. No money in the world can compensate for health. Magic Johnson feels that contracting the HIV virus was G‑d's way of directing him to become a teacher carrying the message about the danger of HIV to everyone. This is after he educates himself about the disease. But, Magic's message of "all I had to do was wear a condom" is a confusing message, at best. I really don't think that G‑d wants him to transmit that message.

As a parent and clergyman, I firmly believe that the issue should be very clear and straight forward. It's not the safe sex that we should be worried about; it's the safe sin that's being espoused. We must be unequivocal in defining the problem.

We must deal with the issues clearly. If we demand that the young people live a pure and proper life, then we must not lecture them about condoms and safe sex.  Rather, we must encourage monogamy and staying married. We must teach them about loyalty, responsibility and basic trust.

The bible considers sex as natural as eating. Just as we must have responsible eating habits, we must we have the proper sexual decorum. A married person who takes his vows and lives a married way is blessed by G‑d. This, in itself, is a great protection to guarantee against the HIV problem.  Imagine, 58.6 percent of the disease is attributed to the homosexual/bisexual male. The other 22.4 percent are heterosexual/intravenous drug users and 6.5 percent are homosexual/bisexual intravenous drug users. I'm not saying that HIV is G‑d's punishment but you"ll notice it is mostly that group.

I was told of a story of a very busy lifeguard who was dashing every few moments into the water pulling out drowning victims. Finally, the lifeguard was stopped and told that it's more important to go on the dock to stop the maniac from pushing people into the ocean, and so it is in our situation.

Instead of dealing with the problem of condoms in the school, let's go back to our good old tradition of teaching morals and unanimously claim that sin is wrong and unsafe at all costs and at all times.

Sure, I want my kids to have sports heroes and be inspired to follow their footsteps but not with the pair of Converse running shoes I see today.