Over on the Evangel blog, Jeremy Pierce explains the moral reasoning behind Pope Benedict’s recent comment on the use of condoms:
Theres a category of moral obligations that occur in funny circumstances. Given that you are doing a certain immoral thing, there are nevertheless obligations that you have. The pope has recently conceded (finally) that there are such obligations involving condom use. Its wrong to be a male prostitute, but its a first step in the direction of a moralization, a first assumption of responsibility if the prostitute uses a condom. In other words, if youre going to be immoral, you do have the moral obligation of wearing a condom. You shouldnt be doing the initial immoral thing to begin with, but if youre going to do it you still have another obligation to be responsible and wear a condom, or else you fail at a further obligation.
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