I think the way we answer that question says alot about what we think of marriage. Is it indeed a covenant of love, or is it just an arrangement for sex?
Sex is one of the ways in which a husband and wife express their covenant of love. One of the most important ways, in fact. Nothing in your hypothetical changes that.
Interesting that you jumped right to divorce and infidelity. Didn't even occur to me. Even if a couple cannot express themselves in conventional ways due to illness or injury doesn't mean they can't get creative.
Asking a perfectly healthy married couple not to have sex, however, is cruel at best. Why place an otherwise strong relationship under that level of stress needlessly?
I'm not sure we can make that argument Biblically. Because God asked perfectly healthy married couples to abstain for days in Leviticus 15 and 18. Of course, we are in a new dispensation now, but the fact remains that it isn't *cruel* to ask for abstinence. If anything, St. Paul grants marriage almost as a concession.
Sex is one of the ways in which a husband and wife express their covenant of love. One of the most important ways, in fact.
Right!!! So let me ask this. How does birth control further that end? How does birth control express that love?