BBC: Unstoppable bacteria?

Yesterday: The traffic was not unstoppable.

Edited today

BBC July 7 2017

Author: James Gallagher

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'Oral sex is producing dangerous gonorrhoea and a decline in condom use is helping it to spread, the World Health Organization has said.

It warns that if someone contracts gonorrhoea, it is now much harder to treat, and in some cases impossible.

The sexually transmitted infection is rapidly developing resistance to antibiotics. Experts said the situation was "fairly grim" with few new drugs on the horizon. About 78 million people pick up the STI each year and it can cause infertility.'

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 '..."Gonorrhoea is a very smart bug, every time you introduce a new class of antibiotics to treat gonorrhoea, the bug becomes resistant."'

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'"These cases may just be the tip of the iceberg,"...'

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'"When you use antibiotics to treat infections like a normal sore throat, this mixes with the Neisseria species in your throat and this results in resistance." Thrusting gonorrhoea bacteria into this environment through oral sex can lead to super-gonorrhoea.'

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'The disease is caused by the bacterium called Neisseria gonorrhoea. The infection is spread by unprotected vaginal, oral and anal sex.'

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'But ultimately, the WHO said vaccines would be needed to stop gonorrhoea.'

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Articles on the subject of sexually transmitted diseases have philosophical, theological and worldview considerations. Not to claim moral perfection, whatsoever, within a Christian worldview. But, following a marriage or celibacy morality and ethic, although it does not guarantee mental purity (Matthew 5), it does keep one from many of the results of fornication, including sexually transmitted diseases.

From 1 Corinthians 6:18, Gordon Fee comments that the Apostle Paul argues for the Christian believer to 'flee from pornia' (260). The footnote further explains that feugete (pornia) is in the present imperative implying that one is to 'keep running from'. (260). The Greek root word from Bible Hub is πορνεία, meaning fornication. Another commentator, Marsh, writes that this is too powerful to be opposed safely and needs to be approached with the attitude of flight. Sexual sin effects the body in a particularly negative way. (1360).

It seems to me that the more fornication occurs, at least in many cases, the more difficult it is to resist as one's already fallen and corrupted nature (Genesis, Romans) further embraces the pleasure associated with this sin. Another possible result, in a minority of persons, is eventually viewing fornication as futile and at least somewhat, setting sexuality aside.

Fornication is sin (1 Corinthians 6) and celibacy does not suit most people (1 Corinthians 7), but modern western society and many within the modern Christian church negate biblical marriage via social norms, at least for a time. Although, based on 1 Corinthians, I am neither the unrepentant, defiant fornicator, nor the joyful, obedient, content, celibate, many of the attitudes within the church on dating and marriage, definitely and definitively tarnish my own views of dating and marriage. I am in dialogue with somewhat interested women daily, but these worldview stances noted, very much limit a reasonable pool of candidates for dating and potential marriage.

Embracing fornication and the risk of sexually transmitted diseases is not a good, philosophical, theological worldview, approach and neither is celibacy without contentment. This is yet another aspect of problems of evil.

Biblehum.com

FEE, GORDON D. (1987) The First Epistle To The Corinthians, Grand Rapids, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

MARSH, PAUL, W. (1986) ‘1 Corinthians’, in F.F. Bruce, (ed.), The International Bible Commentary, Grand Rapids, Marshall Pickering/Zondervan.