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Posted on 08/24/2007 8:09:00 AM PDT by NYer
A group of lay Catholics are promoting natural family planning methods among the Philippine Muslim community to control the rising population without going against the beliefs held by the two religions. The group began its campaign in Maguindanao, southern Mindanao province, where the percentage of Muslims reaches 90 percent. From there, the group hopes to carry its work to the rest of the country to tackle the problem of birth control without relying on artificial methods, AsiaNews reported Thursday.
The well known and much appreciated method, known as the "Billings ovulation method," is based on analysis of the female ovulation cycle to determine fertile periods.
The project is lead by Catholic sister Mary Catherine Sumapal, who told AsiaNews, "It is quite normal in this part of the world to see girls as young as 13 who are married. This results in them having a child almost every year, which is hard to bear. Now thanks to natural family planning, we can hope to avoid the more common problems linked to pregnancy."
Catholics teach birth control to Muslims
Catholic Teacher: “OK, so here’s what you do. Right before you have sex, reach into your Official Mooselimb Terrorist Kit, and take out a car bomb. Set the timer for 7 seconds. You take the bomb, and put it between your legs and count to 10...”
Sorry, but this story is based on a bogus premise.
I know of no teaching in Islam AGAINST artifical birth control. What Muslims are opposed to is a marriage which is completely closed to conception.
http://muslim-canada.org/family.htm#control
this isn’t going to do much of anything. First of all, for NFP to work successfully there has to been mutual understanding and respect between the spoused. Second of all, the Catholic understanding of marriage and the Muslim understanding are so polar opposite, that unless they start father back...I don’t see this being successful.
However, if the intent is to expose them to the Catholic/Christian understanding of marriage and thus plant seeds, very discreetly for conversion, well then, maybe they’re on to something.
This is really a Catholic thing though, isn’t it? I know of strong Protestants who refuse to use ‘the pill’, but I don’t know any non-Catholics who object to the use of condoms.
I do know non Catholic Christians who avoid all forms of artificial contraception, although they are small in number. All Christian churches forbade any form of ABC until 1930.
I grew up around some protestant families who believed any kind of birth control - including “natural family planning” - was wrong. See: Full Quiver Movement.
‘Course, I’m a Calvinist and think God laughs equally at any kind of birth control... what, you’re actually going to stop Him if He wants to give you a child? Not even abstinence has a 100% success rate for all of history!
So, it is correct to refer to “natural family planning” as “birth control” then?
I had a lengthy discussion with a theologically sound Calvinist friend of mine and his take was that it’s ok as long as it doesn’t pose a risk post-conception; IE the pill preventing a fertilized egg from implanting.
Yeah, that seems reasonable to me - you’re not trying to prevent life, just conception then. And if you have the attitude that God will do what He will do then you’re probably on safe ground, I’d think.
But it’ll vary person to person. I know many Protestant churches don’t really teach on birth control but I’d guess that the percentages of devout Protestants and devout Catholics using or not using various types of birth control are pretty much identical.
I think part of the problem is, there are no "official" Muslim teachings on anything: they have no catechism, no magisterial teacher or group of teachers. It's all a matter of individual imams, plus an immense cultural conservatism.
I once had a small paperback book called something like "Contraception and Islam" which collected teachings of imams and scholars against contraception. So there's a faction there that's very much against it, and considers it a sin in the full and formal sense. Probably something like Protestants against birth control: there's some out there (like the "Full Quiver" advocates) but it's not an official dogma.
Of course. In fact, properly speaking, NFP is the only true form of birth control, because it allows for birth and requires control. It is not, however, artificial contraception, in that, it does not actively work against conception in an artificial manner. That's the moral difference between then two for Catholics.
Yes, NFP is birth control, inasmuch as it is a way to either postpone or achieve pregnancy through knowledgeable COOPERATION WITH natural fertility patterns. But it is not contraception, which means acting AGAINST natural fertility patterns.
There are some non-Catholics out there, including the crunchy-granola subset of feminists, who like NFP because it does not pathologize the normal functioning of female physiology, nor treat a fertile female as if she were diseased.
So if a form of birth control allows for birth and requires control then it is acceptable to the Roman Catholic Church?
So it is acceptable to use birth control to postpone pregnancy so long as it is in COOPERATION WITH natural fertility patterns?
Yes. Except the way you said it, it sounds like there are various methods of birth control one could choose, when in fact there is only one ---periodic abstinence. That's the only one which is in cooperation with natural fertility patterns.
Does that answer your question?
Except the way you said it, it sounds like there are various methods of birth control one could choose, when in fact there is only one ---periodic abstinence. That's the only one which is in cooperation with natural fertility patterns.
But if it could be shown, for the sake of argument, that another method also met the previously stated requirements, would that method be acceptable to the Roman Catholic Church?
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