Posted on 04/18/2013 3:15:23 PM PDT by NYer
In the following post I seek to lay out a few of the biblical texts related to the Church teaching against contraception. This is not a post intended to give a full defense of the teaching against contraception. I have done that elsewhere, e.g. HERE & HERE & HERE
This post is intended only to set for the kind of biblical logic and background for the teaching which comes to us from antiquity. In fact, no Christian denomination prior to 1930 ever taught the contraception was anything but sinful. The first denomination to depart from this received teaching was the Anglicans, who at the 1930 Lambeth conference set aside more than 5000 years of Jewish and Christian wisdom and embraced the modern contraceptive notion that there is no necessary connection between procreation and sex. One by one the other Protestant denominations fell, such that today, only Catholic and Orthodox Christians, as well as some Orthodox Jews, are left holding the light of ancient antiquity.
These biblical texts display that ancient and beautiful light which reverences and rejoices in new human life, and with God seeks to diffuses this blessed gift far and wide. It is a light which sees human life as a blessing, not a burden, as full of hope, rather than simply being a hardship.
Some proponents of contraception declare that the Bible has little or nothing to say about contraception. And to some extent, they are right. Contraception just wasn’t part of the biblical worldview. People then, loved children, and wanted many. Barrenness was a curse. Fertility, pregnancy, and childbearing were some of life’s greatest blessings. Why would the Bible speak extensively about something that wasn’t even going on? In a certain sense, the Bible’s relative silence on this matter, should shame And startle us, showing how far we have departed from the Biblical norms, and worldview. To a large degree the texts that follow show us how steep has been our fall, and how deep the darkness has become.
Let us then looked at these lightsome texts that show for the biblical case against the contraceptive mentality. The texts are in bold black and italic, in my own comments are in plain red text.
Genesis 1:27-28 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it.
And thus, having established marriage, God gives them their primary directive, “be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it!” It is clear, the God loves human life, and is eager to see this first couple not merely replace themselves, but to multiply, yes, to fill the whole earth.
God is love, and seeks to share his love and diffuse it far and wide. God loves life, especially human life. Here then is a great testimony of the sacredness in the beauty of human life, in the God’s joy at the existence of every human person, and his eagerness to see human life growing and prospering.
It is true, that in biblical history, God will sometimes have to prune, and discipline the magnificent vine he has planted. But His most fundamental demeanor is for life and if he does punish or prune, it is only to foster better growth.
How different is God’s expressed mentality from our own modern mentality, which often sees human life as a problem, which frets over apparent overpopulation (a common modern myth we have discussed. More of that, here Are We Really Overpopulated?). How peevish, how small, and selfish we moderns have become, thinking that every new human life somehow gobbles up resources that I would rather have for myself. There’s little sense of God’s expansive providence or bounty. Having largely dismissed God for our culture, there is no one to trust. And thus we worry of our own resources.
Yes, we are very far from God’s hopeful and joyful proclamation to be fruitful and multiply. Everywhere birthrates are plummeting, our social networks are failing, economies are stagnating, and our selfishness turns back to bite us. To the modern contraceptive mentality God has one thing to say, “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Fruitful, faithful and full families are the answer.
Exodus 23:25-26 Worship the Lord your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you, and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span.
Note that, listed among the top blessings of God, is the fruitful womb. Notice here that God ties it to the blessing of food and water and a fruitful land. We moderns tend to oppose these concepts. Thomas Malthus this and other Malthusian doomsayers have long predicted that we would not be able to produce enough food to feed an increasing population. Time and time again they have been proved wrong.
But note too, they do not have God in mind when they think this way. They think only of diminishing human capacities, but not of God. For a believer, the same God who produces the fruit of the womb, can also bring greater abundance to the land. What seculars separate God joins. God never fails, He sends life, he sends resources.
That there are famines in the land at all this due more to human greed and selfishness. There’s more than enough food in this world, food in abundance. Sadly, in this country we pay farmers not to plant since food is so abundant, it is cheap and has a low profit margin. In other parts of the world, where famines do sometimes occur, We have food to send them but, corruption and war make it difficult to get the food to them.
Deuteronomy 7:12-14 If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the Lord your God will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to your ancestors. He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers. He will bless the fruit of your womb….You will be blessed more than any other people; none of your men or women will be childless, nor will any of your livestock be without young.
See that children in abundance are considered a great blessing from the Lord. Israel will be blessed more than any other nation with many, many children. How different this mentality is from the modern contraceptive age, anxious of of overpopulation even as we close schools see our populations age.
Psalm 127:3-5 Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their opponents in court.
Psalm 128:1-4 Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in obedience to him. You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table. Yes, this will be the blessing for the man who fears the Lord.
Again, something of a striking contrast to modern times is expressed in these Psalms. In the biblical world, children are very great blessing, they are to be desired in great numbers. Oh the blessing of a fruitful life! Oh, to have many children like arrows in a quiver, like fruitful olive plants around the table. The joy of new life in abundance. Such a blessing to be sought!
Compare this to the modern disdain, even scoffing and harsh criticism for any family that dares to have more than two children. Yes there is even a kind of dismay over how someone can possibly enjoy life with “so many children!“
1 Chronicles 25:5 Bukkiah, Mattaniah, Uzziel, Shubael and Jerimoth; Hananiah, Hanani, Eliathah, Giddalti and Romamti-Ezer; Joshbekashah, Mallothi, Hothir and Mahazioth. All these were sons of Heman the king’s seer. They were given him through the promises of God to exalt him. God gave Heman fourteen sons and three daughters.
1 Chronicles 26:4-5 Obed-Edom also had sons: Shemaiah the firstborn, Jehozabad the second, Joah the third, Sakar the fourth, Nethanel the fifth, Ammiel the sixth, Issachar the seventh and Peullethai the eighth. For God had blessed Obed-Edom.
See in both these passages what a blessing it is considered for these two families to have so many children. One has 17 children, another 8. Apparently these ancient Jews never got the memo that these children are going to “be a burden and inhibit the enjoyment of life’s pleasures.” Many moderns would consider such a family size to be downright irresponsible. Thus what the Bible calls light, the modern world calls darkness, and what God calls blessed the world calls burdensome.
Hosea 9:10-17 When I found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the desert; when I saw your ancestors, it was like seeing the early fruit on the fig tree. But when they came to Baal Peor, they consecrated themselves to that shameful idol and became as vile as the thing they loved. Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird— no birth, no pregnancy, no conception. Even if they rear children, I will bereave them of every one. Woe to them when I turn away from them! I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place. But Ephraim will bring out their children to the slayer.” What will you give them LORD? Give them wombs that miscarry and breasts that are dry. “Because of all their wickedness in Gilgal, I loathed them there. Because of their sinful deeds…. Even if they bear children, I will slay their cherished offspring.” My God will reject them because they have not obeyed him; they will be wanderers among the nations.
Here is, our first dark passage. In effect, due to her infidelity of sleeping with other gods, Israel will lose for a time her fruitfulness. Embracing the darkness of idolatry and turning away from the light of God, Israel has sinned mightily, even going so far as to offer her children in sacrifice to the Canaanite gods.
If Israel will desecrate life and treat it as fodder for false gods, her punishment is that she will not be blessed with life at all. The punishment ancient Israel my have considered among the worst punishments of all, God decrees, namely, that at least for a time their wombs will be barren and their breasts dry.
And what of us, in the decadent West who have also turned to the dark side, offering our children, through abortion, in sacrifice to the false goddess of sex and the false god of greed. What of us who no longer love life?
In effect, God says fine, you will not have it. And thus, in many places the birth rates of some of the most decadent populations has gotten that they risk nonexistence. God’s message is clear, that we should love life, seek to foster its growth, and treat all human life as sacred.
Genesis 38:6-10 Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death. Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to raise up offspring for your brother.” But Onan knew that the child would not be his; so whenever he slept with his brother’s wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from providing offspring for his brother. What he did was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death also.
The word “contraception,” is a modern word. The biblical word, and the word used by Christian antiquity to describe what we moderns call “contraception” is Onanism. The word comes from this passage wherein Onan “spills his seed on the ground” and God kills him for it.
Some argue it was the breaking of the Levirite Law that was wicked and thus God slew Onan. But if this is so, why were his brothers, who did the same not killed by God? Onan is uniquely killed by God for the unique thing he did, namely spilling his seed on the ground.
Further, death is not the prescribed penalty for breaking this Law (a custom really): For we read in Deuteronomy 25:5-10 of the true penalty for breaking this law: If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her. The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel. However, if a man does not want to marry his brother’s wife, she shall go to the elders at the town gate and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to carry on his brother’s name in Israel. He will not fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to me.” Then the elders of his town shall summon him and talk to him. If he persists in saying, “I do not want to marry her,” his brother’s widow shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, take off one of his sandals, spit in his face and say, “This is what is done to the man who will not build up his brother’s family line.” That man’s line shall be known in Israel as The Family of the Unsandaled.
Hence the sin of Onan for which he is killed is not the non-observance of the Levirite duty, but of spilling his semen on the ground. Ancient moral manuals until 20th Century see the sin here for what it si and thus termed what we call today “contraception” as Onanism.
Luke 23:28-31 A large number of people followed him (on the way to Golgotha), including women who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ Then “ ‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!” ’ For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
Here is a stunning passage where the Lord Jesus points to a time that would be so dark and miserable, that people would actually say “Blessed are the wombs that never bore, and the breast that never nursed.
While some argue that he was speaking of the events of 70 A.D., Scriptural texts which may have historical references, also point beyond themselves and the first Century. And the Lord’s words also prophetically describe our times, when so many say “Blessed are the wombs that are barren, that are sterilized, blessed are the breast that never nursed.”
The Lord is saying that times can get so dark that people actually think like this. So, welcome to the dark times of the 20th and 21st centuries where people are terrified of children, fear fertility, and call God’s greatest blessings a burden.
The Lord tells us to weep regarding times like these, times which get so dark that God’s blessings are perceived as burdens. Yes weep for times like these when contraception is held out as a virtue, when being against what God is for, is called good and responsible. Weep for yourselves says the Lord and weep for the few children you do have. For in sowing the wind, you are reaping the whirlwind.
The following texts all center on the use of the Greek word “Pharmakeia” which many (rightly argue) is associated with, among other things contraceptive and abortafacient drugs used among prostitutes and libertines in Greek culture. Hence in the passages that follow I indicate the Greek term in the body of the scriptural text and then comment on it below the three passages.
Galatians 5:19-20 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and sorcery ( φαρμακεία (pharmakeia); hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Revelation 9:20-21 The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts (φαρμάκων (pharmakon)), their sexual immorality or their thefts.
Rev 21:8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts (φαρμάκοις (pharmakois)), the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
In each of these texts the word φαρμακεία (pharmakeia) is used. It is from pharmakeuo (where we get the word pharmacy) meaning the use of medicines or potions, drugs or spells. Such drugs where often used by sorcerers to induce ecstatic states. But pharmakeia were also used by prostitutes and libertines to suppress fertility and to induce abortion.
Some will argue that pharmakoi can refer to a wide variety of things, and while many modern translators prefer to couch their use in witchcraft and magic arts, note that each time the reference to pharmakoi is made in the verses above, it is in a verse that also directly references sexual immorality. Hence the more ancient manner or seeing them as references to contraceptives and abortafacients seems more plausible.
Here then is a setting forth of the Biblical logic against contraception. We can see, in reading texts like these how 180 degrees out of phase the modern world is with the biblical wisdom, a wisdom that loves life and seeks this gift in abundance. We moderns, despite, or on account of our affluence, fear life, and see children as a threat to our enjoyment of “better things.” Perhaps it is best to end with the advice of the Lord, “Weep for yourselves and your (few) children.”
We are a sad and shrinking lot from any biblical perspective.
This is where contraception differs from ethical healthcare. The purpose of ethical healthcare is to restore health: "duh", you're thinking, but let me specify: to cure disease, to heal injury, to repair a defect or deformity, to strengthen weak or failing organs and systems, with a view to bring the body back towards full functionality.
That's what justifies drugs, devices, and surgery: the real definition of medicine as the "healing arts."
The purpose of contraception is obviously to temporarily or permanently destroy function. It is just as immoral as a non-medically-indicated removal or an eye or a nose, a castration, amputation, or female genital mutilation.
It shows a seriously perverse rejection of the human personal design --- it's "anti-humanistic" --- and, if you believe in God, also anti-divine.
So if I choose not to have sex on the six days or so that pregnancy can occur, am I practicing contraception?
Well, you’d be engaging in sex while preventing conception by avoiding the six day window, no?
I understand that you are defending a Catholic belief, but the majority of fertilized eggs don’t end up being babies in the first place. For my part it is more logical to believe that at implantation or the formation of the nervous system a baby becomes a living soul.
Having sex for reasons other than childbearing isn’t contrary to God’s plan. If it were we’d have a strict breeding season like animals, only we’re made in an outline of God.
Having sex for reasons other than childbearing isn’t contrary to God’s plan.
One's motives for engaging in sex are a separate issue from having sex while interfering with the potential for conception. However, it's interesting that just about all the differences between men and women are aspects of our capacity for motherhood and fatherhood. Not just "sex organs" at the most base level, but the entire reproductive systems, both in physical design and in chemistry. The entire endocrine system and all its functions, not only in conception and childbearing, but in long-term childrearing and family formation. Even our differences in size and strength are oriented toward our complementary roles as parents.
Our capacity for procreation is not simply a peripheral aspect of our human nature as male and female, it is central. This is only logical when we consider that God, in whose image we are created, is a community of three Persons, interacting profoundly in life-affirming love. One might even say that our capacity to "have sex" is the peripheral element, just one little thing in the big picture of participating in God's plan to fill the earth with living and loving beings in His image.
No. Contraception = contracepted sex (a more accurate term.) Contraception is the choice of an act of sex which has been altered, spayed, disabled, changed or impaired in some way so that conception won't occur. You are not choosing any act of sex at all if you are abstaining for 6 days, therefore, you are not practicing contracepted sex.
Plus, you can;t reasonably say that abstinence is a form of contraception, because then all chaste abstinent persons (virgins, chaste widows, celibate nuns, monks, priests, the young and the elderly that are not sexually active, etc.) are are therefore contraceptors; which obviously they are not.
Here's an example which should make it clearer: in the 1960's there was a political/military crisis in what was then called the Belgian Congo, with a race war breaking out against whites. The militants employed rape against white women as well as other forms of violence.
There were some Catholic Medical Missionary nuns there who felt it would be wrong to abandon their sick patients at remote medical/clinical stations, but didn't want to get pregnant from rape. Therefore they were advised to wear diaphragms if their mission stations were overrun. Diaphragms are a kind of internal female contraceptive.
However, this was not the sin of contraception, since they weren't choosing any sex at all. Since they did not choose sex, therefore they did not choose contraceptive sex. And the (justifiable) purpose of the diaphragms was to defend against aggression --- the deposit of sperm in their reproductive system being an element of the aggression/invasion of their attackers.
In short: if you didn't chosen sex, you didn't chosen contraception.
I like your new tagline!
"Well, you’d be engaging in sex while preventing conception by avoiding the six day window, no?"No.
If you're avoiding sex, say, the first 6 days of May because you have reason to believe you're fertile, you're not engaging in a contracepted, impaired sex act.
If you ARE having sex on May 7-30 in the wife's natural infertile period, you're still not engaging in contraception, because you're practicing normal, natural sex.
That could be the motto here: "Normal female sexuality is not a bug: it's a feature."
It's a GOOD thing. It's splendid, delightful, terribly clever. It's not a BAD thing. It's not a disease. It's not something that needs to be doctored, altered, or fixed.
I understand that you are defending a Catholic belief..."
OK, this is part of the Catholic ethic, but not in an exclusive or distinctive way. It's part of the "human" ethic. Not one Christian Church on earth approved of contraception before the Anglican Lambeth Conference of 1930, which broke what was then the solid consensus of worldwide Christianity.
Moreover, the objections to contraception come from both Biblical worldview and Natural Law. Anybody --- Christian or non-Christian, religious or non-religious --- should be able to see that the natural and logical consequence of contraception is the destruction of respect between men and women, the destruction of marriage as an institution, and the destruction of human societies. (The-thing-that-used-to-be-Europe will be gone in another generation.) It is so much more obvious now, than it was in Margaret Sanger's day 100 years ago.
Abortion acceptance results from from contraceptive acceptance. LGBT unnatural sex (for the 2%) is deemed acceptable because contracepted sex (for the 98%) is deemed acceptable.
(There's no reasonable way to be for contracepted sex but against sodomitic sex --- unless you really are just reacting on the basis of homophobic prejudice.)
Sin (brokenness) enters in when we split this wholeness up into garbled fragments: gender here, generation there, affection over here, excitement over there. The most maiming split, is the split of fertility away from sexual union. Pretty near every other part of the deconstruction of sex--- I could say "decomposition" --- starts from that.
"... but the majority of fertilized eggs don’t end up being babies in the first place."
We all know that. We passed our Sixth Grade Health class. :o)
"For my part it is more logical to believe that at implantation or the formation of the nervous system a baby becomes a living soul."
Actually, for this discussion, it doesn't matter. The moral offensiveness of contraception is not because it is the rejection of the ensouled/embodied unborn person. (That's what abortion is.)
What contraception is, is the rejection of the ensouled/embodied female person. It's seeing women-as-we-are, as a problem. It's seeing real sexuality as being inherently defective, because pregnancy can occur. It's seeing a woman's unaltered body as a problem. One which can be "solved" by drugs, devices and surgery, which is to say, by disabling the very functions that make her, distinctively, a woman.
It says in a kind of Body English: "It's so aggravating that you're a whole, healthy and functional female. Grr. (Gnashing teeth.) I wish you were more like a boy. A boy with a vagina and tits."
"Having sex for reasons other than childbearing isn’t contrary to God’s plan."
Of course not. We're not planned for "just childbearing" in some animal-reductionist sense. We're planned so that love-giving and life-giving are intricately related. The Song of Solomon in particular focuses on the desire-longing-you're-wonderful-comfort-body-fulfillment-pleasure part. Childbearing while not mentioned, is never surgically excised or rejected either. Nobody in all Scripture ever puts his semen in a baggie, throws it away, and is called blessed!
"If it were we’d have a strict breeding season like animals, only we’re made in an outline of God."
Yes. Think of that. We're made in an outline of God. That means the way we're made is both Revelatory (shows us something about God) and Providential (it provides for our real needs, it shows us something about ourselves.)
If that's really true, then the human persons are not just meat bags. We are living Signs. Signs of God's Design.
Real human sex is about connecting and coupling. Contraception is about disconnecting and de-coupling. It's taking sex apart, removing some Godlike things about it, and then putting it back together with disabled functions, a chosen sabotage of the Design, and calling that good.
Contraception is not, by the way, immoral when practiced on animals as a legitimate part of Veterinary Medicine. There's nothing wrong with spaying and neutering pets and livestock, nor, conversely, of artificially inseminating and breeding pets and livestock.
The reason it's OK for Veterinary Medicine and Livestock Breeding is because it was never said that they are created in the Image and Likeness of God. Sex for them is "animal" but is not truly "personal".
But we are persons, divine images, and thus sacred. One of the implications of "sacred" is, "Do not sabotage. Do not disassemble. Something transcendent here.".
That is why we are not to mess with our own design. It's messing with the Image and Likeness of God. It's messing with the Designer.
Interesting. I had not heard of this situation in the Congo, although I remember reading about the horrible war there in Fr. Werenfried Van Straaten's book, among other sources.
When my violent and sarcastic daughter was researching the armed services, it was mentioned that young women often used hormonal medications to prevent periods while in situations where having periods would be really horrible. We discussed the difference between that and contraception, although ultimately she decided against this prescription because of the greater health risks, especially after she began smoking.
It almost seems as if you’ve incorporated some phrases and concepts from my self-absorbed rants of the past year ... or am I just flattering myself and you thought of it all when I was still in elementary school?
And: one reason I write so --- much -- is that sometimes I don't know what I think until I read what I wrote.
They'll take care of the more troubling aspects by removing human ovaries from trannies (who are glad to be rid of them!) and transplanting them into pigs, so they can get eggs with unparalleled efficiency and convenience; and if the pig dies you get pork chops on the side.
But, ruh-roh, what would PeTA say?
You are talking about Natural Family Planning which is endorsed by the Catholic Church. It’s not the OLD rhythm method, however.
The Differences the Pill has Made
Pastors Preach Against Contraception From Pulpit
Catholics and Contraception: Boston, 1965
Abortion, Contraception and the Church Fathers (Catholic teaching unchanged for 2000 yrs)
Contraception and Catholicism (What the Roman Catholic Church really teaches)
6 Reasons Why Contraception is Sinful and Contrary to God's Will
Time To Admit It: The Church Has Always Been Right On Birth Control
Paul VI: “danger of this power passing into the hands of those public authorities ...”
The Truth about The Church's Teaching about Contraception.
Letter from Archbishop John G. Vlazny on the matter of freedom of conscience and decisions by HHS
Bishop Olmsted's Letter to Catholics [Catholic Caucus]
Liberty for the Amish & Quakers but not Catholics. . .
Contraception mandate prompts Peoria bishop to instate St. Michael Prayer (Catholic Caucus)
Phoenix bishop (Olmstead): defy feds on birth control
A letter from Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr concerning HHS edict
Speak honestly: abortion is ‘the killing of tiny human beings in the womb’ – Denver bishop
Bishop [Daniel Jenky] Blasts Secularist Intolerance, Calls For ‘Assertive Action’ to Defend Church
(Pittsburgh Bishop Zubik comments:) HHS delays rule on contraceptive coverage
Dolan: Natural law, not religious preference, dictates all life sacred
Religious leaders blast HHS over contraception mandate
Mandated Contraception, Sterilization: Caesar Demands Church Violate Conscience
OBAMA’S CONTEMPT FOR RELIGIOUS LIBERTY (mandates coverage of sterilization & contraception)
Obama Admin Decides to Require Religious Institutions to Cover Free Contraception
Jews and Evangelicals stand with Church against contraception mandate
Obama Supporters Worried He May Grant Contraception Exemptions to Catholic Hospitals
Catholic college sues HHS over contraception mandate
Children of the Reformation: A Short & Surprising History of Protestantism & Contraception
Implications of Obama Admin move to force Cath hospitals to provide contraception and sterilizations
Catholic doctors’ group launches petition against contraception mandate
Contraception mandate tramples religious freedom, US bishops say
Planned Parenthood Cuts Contraception, Not Abortion After De-Funding
Contraception underlying cause of breakdown of family, sexual morality, says expert
Contraception: The Reason Catholics Have Abandoned Confession
U.S. Bishops’ Publication Urges Priests to Preach on Contraception, Sterilization, IVF
Contraception: The Bitter Pill
Catholic Bishops Warn of ‘Civil Disobedience’ Over Contraceptives [Philippines]
Relationships Market After 50 Years of The Pill
Contraception: The Bacteria Devouring America’s Soul
Christians examine morality of birth control [Ecumenical/Orthodox Presbyterian]
The Cost of Contraception: Women's Health - Response to CNN
The Connection between Contraception and Abortion
Baby Bust: The Demographics of Global Depression
The Surest Sign of a Decadent Culture
Protestants and Birth Control
The Protest of a Protestant Minister Against Birth Control
Contraception: Why Not?
The Bible & Birth Control
Our Gravest Moral Responsibility: Convert the Contraception Mentality
Contraception and Conversion
Evangelical Leaders are Ok with Contraception
The pill and 50 years of misery [the pill kills!]
The dawn of demonic deception [the birth control pill]
Researcher finds strong link between contraception and HIV
The Birth-Control Riddle
Social Science Proves Humanae Vitae
"Contraception Is Wrong. Now Here's How You Use It . . ."
Suit claims birth control warning not enough
Natural and Unnatural (father of 5 shocks mother of 1)
Planned Parenthood Uses Teens to Distribute Injectable Birth Control in Rural Ecuador
Study: Low-Dose Birth Control Pills Decrease Bone Density in Young Women
Spanish drug agency confirms grave effects of morning-after pill
Another Woman Dies of Hormonal Contraceptive in Switzerland
Study Finds Half of Women on "Birth Control Shot" Suffer Bone Problems
The Re-Birth of Population Control: Human Life Seen as a Carbon roblem
Radio Replies First Volume - Birth Control
Abortion, birth control pill linked to breast cancer, surgeon says
God before contraception (Australia)
Fighting the 'contraceptive mentality'
Birth control pill creator regrets population decline
Polluted Water, Polluted Culture (one more consequence from contraception)
Abortifacients -- The Other Forbidden Grief
NFP and Contraception: What’s the Difference?
Wisconsin requiring Catholic institutions to provide contraceptives coverage
Contraception: The history you may have missed and would rather not know
Why does Pope Benedict talk about Humanae vitae in the new encyclical? [Catholic Caucus]
New Evangelical Documentary Exposes Abortifacient Qualities of the Birth Control Pill, Promotes NFP
In Quiverfull Movement, Birth Control Is Shunned
Press in a Dither Again over Pope’s Reaffirmation of Catholic Teaching
How Birth Control Changed America for the Worst
If You Are Contracepting, You Are Part of A Very Big Problem
Vatican and Italian government criticize sale of RU 486 in Italy
New Condom Ads Target Catholics, Latinos
St. Padre Pio, Humanae Vitae, and Mandatory Abortion
Responsible Parenthood in a Birth Control Culture, Part Two [Open]
Responsible Parenthood in a Birth Control Culture, Part One [Open]
Humanae Vitae and True Sexual Freedom — Part 6 of 6 [Open]
Contraception v. Natural Family Planning — Part 5 of 6 [Open]
Sex Speaks: True and False Prophets — Part 4 of 6 [Open]
Contraception and the Language of the Body — Part 3 of 6 [Open]
Does Contraception Foster Love? — Part 2 of 6 [Open]
Contraception and Cultural Chaos — Part 1 of 6 [Open]
Priests still suffering from effects of Humanae Vitae dissenters, Vatican cardinal says (Must read!)
"Provoking reflection" (Contrasting views on Humanae Vitae)
Humanae Vitae The Year of the Peirasmòs - 1968
Catholics to Pope: Lift the Birth Control Ban
[OPEN] The Vindication of Humanae Vitae
Catholic Clergy Challenge Colleagues to Reacquaint Themselves and Their People with Humanae Vitae
White House proposes wide "conscience clause" on abortion, contraception
THE EX CATHEDRA STATUS OF THE ENCYCLICAL "HUMANAE VITAE" [Catholic Caucus]
“A degrading poison that withers life”
Australia Study: 70 Percent of Women Seeking Abortions Used Contraception
[Fr. Thomas Euteneuer] In Persona Christi: The Priest and Contraception
A Challenging Truth, Part Two: The Day the Birth Control Died
A Challenging Truth, Part One: How Birth Control Works
Ten Challenges for the Pro-Life Movement in 2008
The concept of the "intrinsically evil"
Pope Tells Pharmacists Not to Dispense Drugs With 'Immoral urposes'
Massive Study Finds the Pill Significantly Increases Cancer Risk if Used more than Eight Years
Birth Control Pill Creates Blood Clot Causing Death of Irish Woman
Seminarians Bring Church’s Teaching on Contraception, Sexuality to YouTube
Abortion and Contraception: Old Lies
History of Catholic teaching on Contraception
Pope: Legislation "Supporting Contraception and Abortion is Threatening the Future of Peoples"
Contraception: Why It's Wrong
On Fox News Fearless HLI Priest Takes on Sean Hannity (may be indebted for saving his soul)
VIDEO - SEAN HANNITY vs REV. THOMAS EUTENEUER (must see!)
The Early Church Fathers on Contraception - Catholic/Orthodox Caucus
Pope on divine love vs. erotic love
Conjugal Love and Procreation: God's Design
Being fruitful [Evangelicals and contraception]
Steven Brust has written a series of novels in which the (alien) characters are divided into clans based on which animal’s DNA was mixed into their “base” stock. (The human characters are Hungarian.) In a few generations we could end up with people’s introducing themselves by mentioning which barnyard animal sourced their ova, perhaps ...
If my husband wants a child, but I carefully ensure sex outside of the six day window am I not practicing contraception? I think the catechism definition doesn't match the dictionary defintion of contraception.
Celibacy is a form of contraception. The Catholic position is a throw back to a time of greater ignorance about human sexuality. You may agree with it, but it doesn't make sense.
Your arguments on the philosophical effects are more interesting, but don't hold water. I think they do make sense as applied to abortion, but that's murder.
celibacy is contraception?
That is just whacked
"Contraception" dictionary links
As you can see, "contraception" is defined by the dictionary as a method of using drugs, devices, surgery or some sex practice (such as withdrawal) which deprives sexual union of its inherent fertilty, that is, to avoid pregnancy.
For that reason, contraception is an ACT.
It is to be distinguished from natural infertility, which results from several natural factors: age (before menarche or after menopause); time of cycle (a woman's ovulatory cycle has fertile and infertile periods); pregnancy and lactational amenorrhea, and so forth.
The moral difference between, say, using an endocrine disruptor like "the Pill" and and using NFP, is that the endocrine disruption impairs or disables the natural design of the body, whereas NFP reverences and cooperates with the natural design of the body.
There is other moral factors to consider: is the avoidance of pregnancy from a serious reason (maternal health, serious poverty, inability to care for a child) --- or is it from self-serving lifestyle considerations, i.e. we don't ant to get pregnant because we don't want the hassles involved with pregnancy and childbirth, we're going on a cruise in 6 months and I want to look good in my bikini, etc.)
IN the first category (serious need) pregnancy avoidance can be not only allowable, but might be even morally required. In the second category (childless or nearly-childless lifestyle preference) the decision to avoid pregnancy is ungenerous to the God-proclaimed GOOD of new life --- treating a very great good as an evil --- and exemplifies the moral fault of selfishness, even if they did it via NFP.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to make these important distinctions.
They are not particular to me nor particular to the Catholic Church. A stance against artificial contraception was common to all Christian denominations, Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant/Evangelical, for the first 1900 years of Christianity. As I pointed out, it flows from Divine and Natural Law, as is becoming more and more clear with every passing day.
You misunderstand the definition and I expected that. It’s why I included the example I did. Let me include it again:
If my husband wants a child, but I carefully ensure sex outside of the six day window I am practicing contraception.
Your definition ignores this important and oft used method of contraception: not having sex at all or avoiding those times that a woman would be fertile.
There are moral implications to all those decisions, including whether to use pills, condoms, IUDs, etc. I understand that you are dutifully working to present your beliefs - NFP, anti-contraception and celibate priesthood - but the facts don’t hold.
You may believe as you like, though.
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