As a Catholic, I believe that artificial contraception is morally unacceptable. There are several reasons why I hold this belief, but I can get to those as time goes by.
My question is: how do most Protestants and evangelicals feel about the issue? In other words, why do you find it acceptable (assuming some of you do - I recognize that not all Protestants practice birth control)?
I believe in artificial contraception.... I don't understand what you're getting at. Why wouldn't you want to protect yourself from disease and having a gazillion children that you wouldn't want or couldn't take care of....?
Not at all. I think God created sex for two purposes: namely, to bring a couple together as an expression of love, and for the creation of new life. In Catholicism, these are called the "unitive" and "procreative" dimensions of sex.
The having fun part, that is, the physically and emotionally pleasurable part, belongs to the unitive aspect.
Both dimensions have to be present though in order for God's designs to be realized, and for the natural law to be observed.
I think the issue of sexually transmitted diseases is slightly different. If two people are living chaste lifestyles prior to marriage, as God wants them to live, then the issue of STD wouldn't arise. That's the ideal situation.
However, there are rarer circumstances where one or both persons has a STD, and chooses to enter into marriage. Is it moral to use protection in this situation? No. Why? Because we can't do something that we know is objectively wrong in order to prevent a further wrong.
I'm not sure the idea of having lots of kids is altogether disagreeable. But I realize not everyone wants ten or twelve kids. In those cases, there are natural means to avoid pregnancy, provided there are serious reasons for doing so. Grave financial hardship would be one example, but even then, only natural means of avoiding pregnancy would be permissible. We can't violate the natural law in any way we choose, or to accomplish any end we want.
To me, there's an inherent contradiction in the contraceptive mindset: to wit, having children is normally the natural outgrowth of marriage. If you're getting married, then you're supposed to be open to the possibility of creating new life.
One reason I think children are the natural outgrowth of marriage is because if you look at the conjugal act itself - having sex - it's entirely ordered toward two ends. First, it brings two people together in a spiritual, emotional, and physical bond. Second, and no less importantly, it's procreative. The very act, from start to finish, is ordered toward producing org asm, and thus creating the possibility for new life. There's no way around that biological fact. I think this is in accordance with the plan and intention of God.
thanks for the response. i had a catholic friend that said her faith dictates that sex is strictly for procreation, and that she will only have sex when she wants to get pregnant:laugh::rolleyes: my response to her; right...
Your friend doesn't know her faith very well. The Catechism states:
"The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament."
Note that it's ordered toward two things: the "good of the spouses," and the "procreation and education of offspring."
Your friend is ignoring the first end toward which marriage is ordered: i.e., the good of the man and woman who are married.
This good finds its ultimate expression in the conjugal act. Sex is supposed to be the supreme act of mutual and total self-donation between spouses. It is nothing less than the very gift of self. It's a tremendous good.
Hi John, I have known Catholics who practice contraception and non-Catholics who don't. As for me, my view point is contraception is a God-given way to structure your married life so that a couple can provide for the children they bring into the world. I believe that God made us thinking, practical beings and by using those aids provided for us we are thinking and being practical. As I was growing up I saw Catholic classmates whose mothers had countless miscarriages and families of ten or more children and they struggled to make ends meet. I have a hard time understanding how God wants that life for His people.
It seems to me that by your way of thinking (using natural means of birth control) the couple involved would have to have an extremely strong and disciplined nature. The thing is with so many people (Christians included) engaging in premarital s-x and extramarital affairs it is obvious that when it comes to that area of our lives we humans have a long way to go to achieve that discipline.
I once had a conversation with a man and I stated that I would never have children out of wedlock. It prompted him to ask me how I could be so absolutely sure of that and I explained that I believed in abstenance. He just looked at me like I was from another planet; all the while professing what a "Christian" man he was.
Incidently if any one knows, where does the Jewish faith stand on the issue of contraception? Love to hear back from you, Peach
Hi Ben. I'm wondering just where in the scriptures we are told- clearly -to NEVER use contraception.
Remember- even Paul admonished those in marriage who were abstaining to get closer to God not to do so for too long a time lest it become a burden and a temptation to sin.
I would rather NEVER have a child than to bring a child into this world I could not care for properly.
I also know a lot of Catholics who use artificial contraception, and a lot of Protestants who don�t. Depending on where you get your data, some statistics say that only about 25% of Catholics accept the church�s teaching on the matter. It�s a sad statistic in my opinion, but it�s also somewhat irrelevant. The morality of a given act isn�t determined by popular opinion, or majority voice.
Prudence and foresight are definitely goods that God has bestowed on us. The church teaches that in cases of serious financial hardship, natural methods of avoiding pregnancy are allowable. I don�t think they mean to be callous to the plight of the working family. As you point out, it can be extremely difficult to make ends meet in this world (I should know, I�m a teacher). But I also think God wants us to learn to rely upon him. If we�re following his revealed will to the best of our abilities, then he�s not going to let us down. I understand though that this can be a frightening thing.
I think you�re right: the kind of relationship between a husband and wife that I�m talking about requires a great degree of self-mastery. It also requires a lot of communication between spouses. In fact, those two things � self-mastery and communication � probably contribute to the success of these marriages. Couples who use natural methods to space births have a 2-5% divorce rate! That�s significantly lower than the rest of the population (even among Christians, divorce rates are right around 50%). That should tell us something!
As for the Jewish population, it depends on specific religious sect. Orthodox Judaism is only going to allow contraception in isolated cases. Modern Reform movements are going to say it�s allowable. By the way, historically-speaking, every Christian denomination on the planet, prior to the 1930s, condemned contraception as an immoral practice. After the Anglican church changed its position, almost all other Protestant denominations followed suit.
To answer your question: scripture does not clearly tell us never to use contraception. But then again, scripture does not clearly condemn abortion. Our morality as Christians is based on one of two things: clear scriptural precepts, or precepts inferred, or deduced from clear precepts. In cases where scripture doesn�t clearly speak about the morality of a given act, we have to infer the act�s morality on the basis of clear precepts.
In Genesis, God tells us to �Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it.� It is his revealed will that we procreate. As I mentioned above, if you simply observe what happens during the conjugal act, then you can clearly see that it is entirely ordered toward the possibility of creating new life. Org-asm in both men, as well as women, has a procreative end. God designed it that way.
There are also great benefits to using natural methods. Aside from the dangers that artificial means pose to women�s health, there is clear statistical evidence that couples who use natural methods have greatly decreased incidents of divorce. I�m not sure if you know this or not, but contraceptives function by either preventing ovulation, or by preventing a fertilized egg from implanting in a woman�s uterus. This means that in many instances, artificial contraceptives have the potential to work as abortificients. It saddens me to think that many well-meaning, Christian parents are actually causing their children to die by using birth control.
St. Paul was correct. Married couples should only abstain for brief periods of time. Periodic continence would require abstinence for about a week or so out of every month. But imagine the joy that would come with being able to return to normal, sexual activity after the periodic fast! It would be little another honeymoon every month!
