Religious Image On Condom Key Chains Angers Church
Catholic Priest Calls Key Chains Offensive
UPDATED: 10:25 am PST January 13, 2006
NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Planned Parenthood of Connecticut is butting heads with the Catholic Church over new condom key chains.
Planned Parenthood's series of key chains, which are sold for $3 each, includes one of an American flag that reads, "Wear with pride," and another of the Statue of Liberty holding a condom instead of a torch.
Another features an altered image of Michelangelo's Creation of Adam, where you can you can see God's hand reaching out to Adam. This time, he's holding a condom, reported WVIT-TV in Hartford, Conn.
Judy Tabar, of Planned Parenthood, thinks everyone should have a condom.
"We work in faith communities all the time who feel very strongly about the message that we promote: prevention and promoting health and safety," Tabar said.
On the group's Web site, Tabar said in a statement that the packaging is designed to appeal to a wide range of people.
"We've had an avalanche of orders for these key chains and have needed to expand our capacity to keep up with the demand," the statement read.
But the Catholic Church is upset that those images are being used to sell condoms.
The Rev. William Holt, of the Church of Saint Mary's in New Haven, finds it terribly offensive.
"It contradicts everything the Catholic Church stands for and what God stands for," Holt said.
Among regular folks, the reviews are mixed.
Landon Hairgrove, of New Haven, said, "This is just awful."
But Nicole Kemper, of New Haven, said she would be surprised if teens even knew the image came from the Sistine Chapel.
"Either way, I think it's a great marketing strategy to promote safety and responsibility," she said.
Planned Parenthood said so many people were logging onto their Web site to look at the key chains that it crashed for several hours.
