"Birth Control Is Selfish" ... The Message Society Doesn't Want To Hear

No Room for Contraception ^

[peyton randolph]

Mr. Kessler had the audacity to call the use of birth control "an act of selfishness."

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Go to Mexico. Take a look at the poor women with 6+ kids they can't feed because The Church condemns contraception. Watch the kids beg/sell gum on the streets to survive. Kessler is a fool.

[MinuteGal]

The devout and brave Mr. Kessler will not get far in his thesis in this day and age, but this thread undoubtedly will.

Leni

[Gordongekko909]

Was this a commencement speech? Because if so, it shouldn't have gotten political, period. Commencement speeches are supposed to consist of "blah blah blah, moving on, hard work, opportunities, make the world a better place (without giving specifics), blah blah blah, always remember your alma mater, good times we had together, wish you all the best." Anything else is just asking for trouble.

[goodnesswins]

He would have probably received a better response if he had couched it as "on-demand sex" and not used contraceptives as the problem....."on-demand sex" (anywhere in the world) is the problem.

[narses]

Another chance to defend our Faith.

[Torie]

The speaker stumbled by suggesting that contraception is an act of selfishness, rather than that the act of choosing to have larger families, planned families, for those who can afford it, is an act which is the public interest. The speaker would have annoyed me too. Individual choice in this area should be paramount, and the pregnancy roulette wheel should not be the the trump card.

[narses]

:)

[Antoninus]

Hey, the truth hurts sometimes. Actually, the Church teaches that you can control birth by not having sex. It's the artificial contraception that's a no-no.

Besides, this guy isn't saying anything that Teddy Roosevelt didn't say 100 years ago--and he's on Mount Rushmore.

On motherhood as the true source of progress, Teddy Roosevelt said:

"A more supreme instance of unselfishness than is afforded by motherhood cannot be imagined."

Before an audience of liberal Christian theologians in 1911, he said:

"If you do not believe in your own stock enough to see the stock kept up, then you are not good Americans, you are not patriots, and ... I for one shall not mourn your extinction; and in such event I shall welcome the advent of a new race that will take your place, because you wil have shown that you are not fit to cumber the ground."

On the centrality of the child-rich family to the very existence of the American nation:

"It is in the life of the family, upon which in the last analysis the whole welfare of the nation rests....The nation is nothing but the aggregate of the families within its borders."

On parenthood:

"No other success in life, not being President, or being wealthy, or going to college, or anything else, comes up to the success of the man and woman who can feel that they have done their duty and that their children and grandchildren rise up to call them blessed."

On out-of-wedlock birth versus practiced sterility:

"After all, such a vice may be compatible with a nation's continuing to live, and while there is life, even a life marred by wrong practices, there is a chance of reform.

In another place, on the same subject:

"...[W]hile there is life, there is hope, whereas nothing can be done with the dead."

On the behavior of 90% of those who practice birth control:

"[It is derived] from viciousness, coldness, shallow-heartedness, self-indulgence, or mere failure to appreciate aright the difference between the all-important and the unimportant."

[Scotswife]

This topic wasn't appropriate for a commencement speech.

[Wormwood]

1964 called. It wants it's argument back.

[goodnesswins]

Hmmmm...wonder if this kid thought to use any of those citations you pulled out?

[Antoninus]

Go to Mexico. Take a look at the poor women with 6+ kids they can't feed because The Church condemns contraception. Watch the kids beg/sell gum on the streets to survive. Kessler is a fool.

I visited some of the poorest areas of Mexico in the late 1980s and saw lots of kids--mainly happy and smiling, none starving.

Besides, the birthrate in Mexico is now below 3 kids per family and falling. And Mexico is a secular state where the Church is often persecuted.

[goodnesswins]

WHY not? It was a Catholic College.....and the next step for these graduates are ..... jobs....and FAMILIES.....IF they choose the best path.

[HisKingdomWillAbolishSinDeath]

One of the main arguments for immigration (legal and illegal) is that Americans do not have enough kids to support the economic infrastructure. I would say there is some validity to that argument. And I am sure contraception plays a substantial role in that. Unintended consequences is the theme of the 21st century.

[MarkL]

contraception leads to increases in abortion, teenage sex, affairs (and subsequent divorce), health problems, and statutory rape.

He lost me on that one...

Mark

[sinkspur]

This topic wasn't appropriate for a commencement speech.

Exactly. I read elsewhere that this guy wants to enter a seminary. He figured he'd start wagging his finger at people to get a little practice for the kind of priest he'd be.

[ModerateGOOPer]

Mr. Kessler is stuck on stupid.