Why is wanting to allow Nature to take her course "crazy"?
Contraception was uniformly condemned by ALL Christian denominations until 1930, when the Anglicans (why are they always at the bottom of stuff like this) decided it was o.k. 'in certain circumstances' and that opened the floodgates.
There are a lot of couples in their 50s who look around and wish they hadn't contracepted all their kids out of existence while they were in their fertile years . . . there's a T-shirt: "OMG! I forgot to have kids!"
Why is wanting to allow Nature to take her course "crazy"?
Contraception was uniformly condemned by ALL Christian denominations until 1930, when the Anglicans (why are they always at the bottom of stuff like this) decided it was o.k. 'in certain circumstances' and that opened the floodgates.
There are a lot of couples in their 50s who look around and wish they hadn't contracepted all their kids out of existence while they were in their fertile years . . . there's a T-shirt: "OMG! I forgot to have kids!"
NFP is a remarkably reliable way to achieve/avoid pregnancy without the use of chemicals or barriers during intercourse. Furthermore, NFP puts you so in tune with your body that you can identify problems very quickly. Name me a birth control pill that can do that.
I have 4 kids. I used NFP to both achieve (successfully within months) and avoid. In time my daughters will be carefully taught this method.
If I agree that your chosen method of pregnancy avoidance is reliable, can you not agree that mine is as well?
If all Christians unanimously taught that contraception was sinful till about 80 years ago (easily proven), and since then all Christians caved on this issue except the Catholic Church which held strong to the teachings of the Apostles and the Early Church (again easily proven), I wouldn’t say Catholics are crazy so much as everyone else is either deceived or apostate. At least from a Christian moral perspective.
The Church teaches the ideal moral behavior. It is very difficult to meet the ideal standard in all aspects of life and very few do here on earth. That said, the teaching about contraception does not have the “prima facie” obviousness of teachings about killing, stealing, adultery etc. The moral logic requires a deep understanding as has been pointed out in this thread. Most Catholics don’t really understand it, or more likely, have not put any effort into trying to understand it.
We all like to think we are moral people. But nearly all of us are failing to meet the ideal in one way or another. But just because the ideal moral standard is difficult does not mean it should be changed to make it easier.