Physician Says Sexual
Disease In Youth Is Grim

By Amy Contrada
December 2000

A grim picture of the sexual health of our young people was given to a crowd of almost 1000 people last month by a nationally renowned physician from South Hadley, John R. Diggs Jr.

"Right now, a girl goes to college," the doctor said, "and within three years almost 60% of the sexually active ones have HPV." According to Diggs, a huge number of Americans now have an incurable sexually transmitted disease.

He spoke at a fundraising banquet for "A Woman's Concern" at the Westin Hotel in Waltham.

The grim statistics would not be true if human sexuality were "approached with moral underpinnings," the doctor told the audience. It is the separation of our sexual practices from Judeo-Christian teachings that has led our society into its current crisis, rife with out-of-wedlock births, abortions, new incurable STDs and rampant abuse of women and children. We will regain a healthy society only by returning to God's word as the proper guide for our behavior.

In the past decade, there has been progress toward morality, Dr. Diggs said, because pro-life activists have developed a more profound understanding of the task facing them and have created centers like A Woman's Concern. He noted that saving babies is not enough. Their mothers are also in crisis and have to be helped too.

The doctor, who is black, also said that he is very disturbed that blacks are voting for pro-abortion Democrats because they don't know about the racist agenda that was advocated by the founder of Planned Parenthood.

Golden Age of Sex
Dr. Diggs believes there was a "golden age of sex" from about 1955 to 1980. During that time, contraceptives came on the market, especially birth control pills. There were antibiotics to take care of gonorrhea and syphilis. There was also "generalized rebellion." The elder generation in the '70s knew what they believed but they didn't know why. So when young people said, "Why shouldn't we do this?" the old people answered, "I don't know." So the kids did it. What they did was invent so-called free love. They didn't invent it - it's been around before. But the point was they thought they had all the protection they needed.

"What happened in 1981?" asks Dr. Diggs. "AIDS showed up. Herpes showed up. Chlamydia showed up. Human herpes virus 8 is now a reality. All you know about is herpes 1 and 2, but we're up to 8. And what's wrong with all these diseases? They're not curable. Chlamydia is curable, but the others are not curable. Not only are they not curable, but they're not preventable with condoms. Sure, condoms have an effect on HIV, they're 90% effective. How many people want to be 90% protected from an incurable disease?

"Have you heard of human papilloma virus? It causes genital warts. Genital warts, no big deal. Only 2% of the people with HPV get genital warts. With the other 98% you don't see warts. What does it do? In women, it causes cervical cancer. In men it causes penile cancer and anal cancer.

"But you've been told that you can use condoms and you'll be prevented from getting sexually transmitted diseases. Condoms do not work with HPV. Am I telling you something that only I know? No. Does the Center for Disease Control know this? Yes. Does the CDC tell you? No. Why can't we have a warning label on condoms so that people know this? Who opposed this? The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Planned Parenthood. SIECUS (Sexual Information and Education Council of the United States). Everybody that wants to support sex at anytime with anybody opposes informing people.

"In the meantime, they accuse people who promote abstinence of teaching ignorance. The ignorance is on the part of those who don't want you to know the truth, because in the middle of this whole thing there is a lie. You cannot have sex with whomever you want to from a physiological point of view, from a sociological point of view, from a psychological point of view, or from a spiritual point of view. It does not work.

"Human papilloma virus is the most common sexually transmitted disease in the country. It kills more women than AIDS. And you don't know about it. Not only do you not know about it, but people who've been through sex education classes don't know about it. It kills 5,000 women a year and 15,000 women a year get cervical cancer. Who knows how many scores of thousands of women have been seen with some cervical abnormalities related to HPV?

"What we have to do is regain the original sense of what human sexuality is all about. And that truth is in the Bible. There will never be a 100% safe method of having sex with anybody anytime you want to. The Bible tells you how to control your sexuality: 'For this reason a man shall leave his mother and father and cleave to his wife and the two shall become one' It says, 'one flesh,' it doesn't say one couple, it doesn't say one household, it doesn't say one family. It says, 'one flesh.' And that is because one flesh cannot be separated. When you have sex with somebody you are permanently bonded on some level.

"If you put condoms by the door for your kids you're doing them a disservice. If you allow somebody else to do it, you're doing them a disservice. And if you don't oppose it in your schools, you're doing them a disservice. If you tell them homosexuality is okay, you're doing them a disservice. If you don't stand up against the contraceptive approach, you're not doing what you should be doing.

"What you have with A Woman's Concern and other crisis pregnancy centers is an opportunity to have your name written in the Book of Life when somebody comes to Christ because of you." Supported entirely by contributions, clients don't pay for the help they receive. Volunteers are trained to help pregnant women. You would be helping not only them, you're helping your entire society, Dr. Diggs said.

"How come you don't know that? Because they want you to think that the 'safe sex' thing is okay. How come they want you to do that? Because they want you to waste your energy on it. You're going to waste your energy on television, Internet pornography, and all kinds of entertainment which is basically designed to dissipate your energy. This is not without purpose. There is a purpose behind it, and it's always satanic. If somebody's telling you to go against God's word, it's always satanic, even if the people who are perpetuating it don't know it.

"So you've got to stand up, you've got to act, you've got to volunteer. You've got to learn how to handle a pregnant girl. If you can't, learn where to send them. You can train your own doctor." Diggs urged all present to get involved. "While "A Woman's Concern" alone is not the answer, it is one place where we can make a difference."

A Confession
Diggs began with a shocking (tongue-in-cheek) confession: He was actually a man trapped inside a woman's body, for nine months. And then, he was born. 

He next confessed that he was "pro-choice," but in the sense that God is pro-choice. God says in Deuteronomy 30, "I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him."

Diggs continued, "The problem is when people use the term now, they're talking about having laws that not only allow but encourage people to think that there's no life inside of  them. So when they talk about pro-choice, they're pro-abortion. Gore repeatedly says, 'I'm in favor of a woman's right to choose,' but he never finishes with the object of the choice."

Now that the new pregnancy centers have sprung up to help both babies and mothers, the seriousness of the moral and behavioral problems of the birth parents is more obvious. Diggs said that the pregnancy centers are a kind of "clean-up operation," because so many of these girls and women have swallowed the contraceptive lie. They need to change their lives, or they will face yet more "death and curses."

People have bought the idea that "you can have sex with anyone at anytime" while remaining free from pregnancy and STDs through birth control methods, condoms, and antibiotics. This "contraceptive culture" implies that human sexuality can be separated from its natural product, children. But many workers on the front lines of this moral battle see that this has indeed proven a slippery slope leading to problems unimagined just a few decades ago. And many now have a new or renewed appreciation of the wisdom of the teachings of the Catholic Church regarding contraception.

Diggs pointed out that the chastity or abstinence movement has actually come out of the work of the crisis pregnancy centers. "The whole idea is to redirect these people on what human sexuality is all about, making clear to them that their choice comes before engaging in sexual activity. You can choose life and blessings, or you can choose death and curses. And when you misuse your human faculties, you get death and curses."

Diggs told the story about a late-term abortion. A man had two sons with his girlfriend. Though not married, the woman was happy to have a man providing financially for her and her children. But "this man found another woman who was the girl of his dreams. He married her, didn't tell Girl A about Girl B, and didn't tell Wife B about Girl A. He had a problem, he had an inconvenience, he had two children for whom he had to spend time, money, energy, talent and attention.

"This is the reason people have abortions, because they don't want to spend time, money, energy and talent. This man went home, stabbed the mother, stabbed the two children, took his two children, stuffed them in a crate and took them back to the army base where he was on the Cape. This happened in Massachusetts. That was a 'late-term abortion.'

"This is exactly what happens when a woman stuffs her child in a trash can after it is born. This is exactly what happens when a woman has a partial-birth abortion. This is what happens in an abortion at six months, three months, or even 10 days. You are taking a human life and stuffing it in the trash can for your convenience."

This is not something new, according to Dr. Diggs. This was part of the reason that God told the nation of Israel to wipe out the Canaanites. He didn't say go in, compromise, and live with them. He told them to wipe them out. God did not want the children of Israel burned alive as sacrifices to Molech. This is what the Canaanites did as their method of abortion, along with exposing the babies to wild animals. We are doing nothing differently, he says.

"But what people have to do is go back to the root, that is, expressing your sexuality in the way that God said you can express your sexuality: one man, one woman, for life. Do you think that an 18-year-old who decides to have sex because everybody says it's okay is going to suddenly stop changing partners every six months or every year when he gets married?

"You know about Clinton in the oval office. Do you also know about the pornography on the computers in the White House? So much pornography that it took them weeks to clean it off? Why do people look at pornography? They look at pornography because they're accustomed to changing partners, they're accustomed to different men, different women. Which means that whoever they're with, they're fantasizing about somebody else. Real people you have to negotiate with. Pornography images always say yes.

"And I know this is a problem in the church. I know it's a problem for a lot of people in this room. And the other thing I know is, it's not all men. If you take pornography, pump it into your mind, train your mind to respond to images, you're not going to want to respond to real people. This is not a sociological phenomenon, it's a medical phenomenon.

"God in his infinite wisdom produced a chemical, oxytocin, which produces bonding. If you have a sexual relationship with someone you're not married to, because of oxytocin, you'll stay bonded to that person even if you break up."

Diggs described an exercise he sometimes does with older kids. "Duct tape is good for everything. What I use it for is I find the guy with the hairiest arm, get about six inches of duct tape, slap it on his arm and tell him this is the sexual act, this is how you bond when you have sex with somebody. When that relationship breaks up, what happens? What do you get? A scream. You get a piece of tape full of hair and skin. Your next sexual relation comes along. Take this piece of tape, put it back on. Does it stick? Yes, but not as well. But the same thing happens: it pulls off more hair and more skin.

"If you continue breaking the natural bond that occurs because of oxytocin, you create a situation where eventually that piece of tape won't stick to anything. Yes, you can get married. Yes, you can have a boyfriend or girlfriend. But your mind is someplace else, your body is someplace else, and this is why people can walk out on their families at any time. It's not because they've been unfaithful during marriage; it's because of what they did before marriage.

"This is an important issue. And this is something that came right out of crisis pregnancy centers because they're doing cleanup work. It's got to start before that with the way we bring up our children.

"I don't care what you individually have done, you can become a new creature. You know that and I don't have to go into the theology of it. But beyond that, it's not hypocritical for you to say, 'This is what you should do and this is why' - even if you didn't do it. It's okay. I hear so many people say, 'I can't say anything to anyone else. I got 3 kids, 3 last names.' But I don't care what you did. You have to tell your kids the truth. That's what crisis pregnancy centers are doing. They're basically the impetus behind the whole 'abstinence until marriage' movement."

The real problem, Diggs said, is that doctors and others will tell you that if you use birth control pills and condoms, then sex will be safe. But every time something like that comes up that doesn't make sense, that goes against what you know is theologically correct, there's a lie.

Blacks Have Been Tricked
Dr. Diggs is very disturbed by the effect abortion has had on the African-American community. In this election, the overwhelming majority of African-Americans voted for Gore largely because he's pro-abortion. He finds this especially disturbing if one looks back at the history of abortion.

He traced the origin of abortion and contraceptives in this country to Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood. "She was a eugenicist and very influential in getting birth control accepted as an acceptable idea. She did this through something called the 'Negro Project.' The Negro Project specifically sought out black ministers to convince them to convince their churchgoers that contraception was not immoral.

"Now to some of you -most of you, including myself - the idea that contraception would be immoral was a foreign idea. This was especially true with my medical training. The idea that writing birth control pill prescriptions was an immoral thing never crossed my mind. Since Margaret Sanger made a special effort to address this with the black community back then, it pointed out the fact that there was a mindset which was universal that birth control was immoral.

"If birth control was immoral, then what is abortion? She went out of her way to get black ministers to convince black folks back then that birth control was okay. And apparently the message was very effective. Why did she go there? Because she was a eugenicist, which means she only wanted certain people to reproduce. Those people had to be high IQ, have lots of money and be white. Anything other than that, you're not supposed to reproduce. Birth control was her method of doing this.

"The camel got its nose under the tent by saying her message about birth control was only for married people. The Protestant community, on the whole, accepted this whole argument. The Catholic community resisted it. And, being part of the Reformation, I say that with a great deal of shame And I say it with even more shame now, because black ministers across this country are telling black women they can kill their babies and think nothing of it. Twelve percent of women in this country are African-American and 35% of aborted babies are African-American. You do the math.

"Who were Margaret Sanger's friends? Most of them were in Nazi Germany. What came out of that? Planned Parenthood. They do not do only abortions. They provide high amounts of contraceptives. They supply a high amount of a 'contraceptive idea,' that you can have sex with anybody, anytime, as long as you do two things. Use a condom to stop sexually transmitted disease, use a birth control pill and make sure you don't get pregnant. What this does is to encourage people to express their sexuality in ways that choose 'death and curses.' If you don't get a sexually transmitted disease, if you don't get pregnant by your activity, you've still chosen 'death and curses.'"

Many black ministers fail to understand what is at stake morally, spiritually and sociologically, said Diggs. They have tragically failed their congregations and their communities in one of their most fundamental spiritual responsibilities. "This is a failure of the African-American church to address in a biblical way the deepest needs of hurting people."

Diggs compared the abortion of unwanted American babies to the ancient people of Canaan who burned to death unwanted babies as sacrifices to the pagan gods Molech and Baal. "In the Old Testament, God commanded the Israelites to utterly eradicate the Canaanites from the earth to end their brutal child sacrifice and other atrocities - a point worth remembering for modern America. Abortion is the modern version of child sacrifice, this time to the gods of convenience or finance. That's how far we've come in three thousand years."

In Biblical terms, said Diggs, it is inescapably clear that "choosing death" for the vulnerable and innocent invokes a divine curse - a curse that has fallen disproportionately upon the African-American community which has accepted abortion as merely a quiet solution to the "unwanted consequences of irresponsible sex."

Asked how so many African-American leaders can endorse politicians whose votes make such a barbaric practice possible, Diggs answered: "The question presupposes that they are all Christians."

Scorning the false compassion of public figures who, far removed from the medical and social consequences of abortion, are sympathetic about a woman's "right to choose," he argued that the issue is simply inseparable from the general success and well-being of the African-American community.

Dr. Diggs has appeared on national television programs and is co-chair of the Massachusetts Physicians Resource Council and an Executive Committee member of the nationwide  Physicians Consortium. As a physician, Diggs has 15 years of clinical experience in caring for ethnically and socio-economically diverse patients in communities from New England to California.

Woman's Concern Started As Experiment
The founder of A Woman's Concern, the Rev. John Ensor, told how his organization began eight years ago as an experiment. Its growth has been rapid. There are now three centers in Dorchester, Revere and Hyannis and a fourth is about to open in the Brookline/Brighton area (specifically to attract the many college-age women in the area).

Rev. Ensor showed a brief video with ultrasound pictures of developing babies, explaining the huge impact these machines have in convincing mothers to give birth. More ultrasound machines are needed for the new centers (at $25,000 each), and the Yellow Pages ad, listed under "abortion," is extremely expensive (about $22,000 a year) but also very effective in drawing clients.

Another new program at A Woman's Concern is its joint effort with the Massachusetts Family Institute: a "fatherhood initiative" called "Dad's the Man!" Besides the clear problems faced by fatherless families, it turns out that women are four times more likely to have an abortion if the father is present but not supportive, and six times more likely to abort if the father is not present at all. So there is a clear need to involve the biological fathers. The hope is to promote committed fatherhood by mobilizing "mature Christian men from local churches who want to help new dads become great fathers." The Massachusetts Family Institute will construct a database to assess the impact of the program on the problem of fatherlessness.

A Woman's Concern can be reached at their Dorchester office.