roulette.

And Government Ministers have been urged instead to campaign for no sex before marriage.

The plea comes in a controversial full-page advertisement in The Royal Gazette today.

It has been taken out by church leaders, business organisations, and concerned local people.

They fear money is being squandered on condom promotions which fail to reduce the risk of disease.

But last night Health and Social Services Minister the Hon. Quinton Edness refused to comment.

"AIDS is a very serious issue, and I want to see the ad before saying anything,'' he said.

Headed "In Defence of a Little Virginity'', it was written by American psychologist Dr. Jim Dobson.

Already it has appeared in publications in the United States. It was spotted by a laywoman from the local Church of Nazarene.

She showed it to the church pastor the Rev. Manuel Chavier Jr., who believed the same message applied to Bermuda.

Among those who paid for the ad are Business Services of Bermuda, The Children's Bookshop, The Church of Nazarene, Sports R Us, and West Pembroke Pentecostal.

Mr. Glenn Caines, coordinator of Prison Fellowship Bermuda, his wife, Government Information officer Mrs. Tina Caines, and several other married couples also chipped in.

The ad dubs the `safe sex' solution as a disaster in the making, with condoms failing at least 15.7 percent of the time annually in preventing pregnancy.

It adds: "There is only one way to protect ourselves from the deadly diseases that lie in wait.

"It is abstinence before marriage, then marriage and mutual fidelity for life to an uninfected partner. Anything less is potentially suicidal.'' A study of married couples in which one partner was HIV infected found 17 percent of the partners using condoms still caught the virus within a year and a half, it said.

"Telling our teenagers to reduce their risk to one in six (17 percent) is not much better than advocating Russian roulette. The difference is that with a gun, death is quicker.''