I would say that such immunizations today are just as important as immunizations against Polio were in the 1950s. They took out out of class and lined us up in the cafeteria for Polio shots. I saw people lined up in the halls of the hospital living in Iron Lungs. Even though the HPV is not necessary if everyone had sex only with the partner they married, would you trust your life to a spouse who lied about their sexual history? If I were a woman, getting three shots for a lifetime of protection is worth it given the lying men who would say anything for that “test drive” before that trip to the altar.
It is many times that religious beliefs have interfered with medial/scientific applications. In the case of abortion, Christian beliefs that end such a practice is a good thing. But not all medical practices are bad. You would not have prevented others from living in a Iron Lung because of religious beliefs against the Polio vaccine even if it was found out that Polio was transmitted by sex.
I wrote that Tarrytown United Methodist Church “is largely in the non-denominational, evangelical style of mega-church with power point sermons, rock band song ministry, and large screen TVs.” This is not the typical United Methodist Church. I imagine it is the type of church that you found after you became a “a recovering former Methodist.” It was in the 1990s that Perry too became “a recovering former Methodist” when he joined this church. I believe it transformed the lives of President George W. Bush as it transformed the Rick Perry family. Where President Bush gave up his life of alcohol addiction, Rick Perry became a conservative. God is good.
The last time I was in a United Methodist Church, the young female (which is un-Biblical to start with) minister preached that we should vote for politicians who gave govt. aid to "the poor." That's a complete perversion of the Christian doctrine of charity. The Wesleys would be appalled at what has become of Methodism, just as the Founding Fathers would be at what has become of their Republic.
W. Bush was correctly identified by Jeffrey Hart as a "Christian socialist," not a conservative. The Gardasil fiasco (along with other facts) suggests that Perry is not a conservative either. Gardasil was a totalitarian nanny-state measure.