[Maximilian]

Do you think a state has the legitimate authority to prevent married couples from using contraceptives? How about the legitimate authority to require use of contraceptives?

Yes. No. This was addressed in my previous post to which you are replying. The state has an obligation to insure that its laws respecting marriage correspond to the natural law. To the extent that they don't, there will be reprecussion upon society. Marriage is for the purpose of reproduction. Laws can prohibit behaviors which interfere with that purpose, but they become invalid when the laws themselves violate the purpose.

[Mark Bahner]

"Yes. No. This was addressed in my previous post to which you are replying. The state has an obligation to insure that its laws respecting marriage correspond to the natural law."

Heh, heh, heh! The natural law, as *you* (and your friends) define it. Are you Catholic? If not, where does your church say that contraception is a violation of natural law?

"Marriage is for the purpose of reproduction."

I haven't seen a lot of grandparents and great-grandparents divorcing. If marriage is for the purpose of reproduction, their staying together has no purpose.

Further, your opinion that states have the legitimate authority to outlaw contraception means that you think there is no civil right of parents to limit their family size...such that their children get the amount of attention those parents think they deserve. Is that your church's official position, or only your own?

I'd also be interested in your answers to my other questions:

1) Do blacks have a civil right to sit anywhere they want to on a bus?

2) Does anyone have a civil right to marry someone of a different race?