Our Lighted Path, this blog, is dedicated to Christian understanding. Although this blog was intended to be only scriptural, it may be time now for a departure from scripture commentary -- just to talk about one of many problems parts of the church have struggled to end.

The Bible says people perish for lack of knowledge, and that may include, today, some medical or health knowledge.

It was more than a decade ago now, when some of our young people began thinking things in error about the HPV vaccine. Too many thought that when parents took them to be vaccinated, or when they were vaccinated more independently, as college students, that was absolute protection against consequences for vices like oral promiscuity.

Many are adults now, with children of their own.

So it stands to reason that we speak reason to what has become a kind of traditional problem, the kind of tradition Jesus says is "iniquity."

But more than Heavenly scolding, we need to air some facts.

Anyone who has lost a never-ever-smoked, kind and sweet friend to throat, neck and head cancer, has to have hoped his leaving was not in vain. When the HPV vaccine was introduced widely to adolescents in 2011, conversation about celibacy and other faith choices seemed like the appropriate thing at a pivotal time, like with all things working together for God's good, any friend who had lost the battle would see a turn for good from the vantage point of Heaven.

But so many people did not listen. So many thought a vaccine gave a free pass for the cause of iniquity. Some may also may have been encouraged by news that many strains of HPV go away on their own, never mind the fact that many strains are cancer-causing without doubt.

The plain facts of the matter do not always make for free passes. Vaccines reduce, not eliminate, risks.

An average 20,000 new cases of possibly HPV-related throat cancer were being diagnosed each year by 2023, according to Centers for Disease Control data. Cervical, vulvar, and vaginal cancers have long trailed that average, but were at a 2023 average of nearly 17,000 possibly HPV-related new cases per year.

Through the Bible, Heaven urges us to repent, confess (privately, having prayer closets and close Christian friends), and be healed.

That means stop doing iniquitous things and just live our faith, with provision and praise in heart, mind, and mouth.


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