Churches in Bulawayo have rejected the idea of availing condoms to their congregants saying it is an afront to their views on pre-marital sex.
This came out during an Emthonjeni Women’s Forum meeting to engage religious leaders on issues of Gender Based Violence (GBV) held in the city on Thursday.
Speaking during the meeting, Pastor Shellah Bhunu, of Presbyterian Church said availing condoms to their members will likely be viewed as an to in church will mean that they are now promoting young people to freely engage in sexual deeds.
“The moment we avail condoms in churches we will be now promoting young people to indulge in sexual activities,” said Pastor Bhunu.
She said introducing condoms in churches will mean churches are sanctioning sexual activities in churches.
“The moment we put them in churches it will simple mean we are now endorsing sexual activities in churches. Most of the time when scriptures are being read in church , young people will be on WhatsApp waiting for the service to end,” she said.
A community activist, Netsai Zulu concurred adding that the church environment was not conducive for such programmes.
“Distribution of condoms depends with the environment,” said Zulu.
“As long as we distribute condoms in Church, we will be urging young people to indulge in sexual activities.”
Velani Ncube a member of the Brethren In Christ Church said just like parents who rejected the idea by the government to put condoms in ablution facilities in schools,churches should also be allowed to reject the idea.
“Even parents rejected the idea by government to put condoms in schools. We rejected the idea saying no distribution of condoms in Primary schools,” said Ncube.
“Allow us as churches to also say no distribution of condoms in churches,” he said.
Ncube however said churches are considering other alternatives to address the issue.
“We are considering other alternatives as pastors and this is now a challenge to task pastors to discuss about this issue further, its another alternative because this issue seems to be a problem,” he said.
