Posted on 01/03/2014 8:59:21 PM PST by matthewrobertolson
Protestants opposed contraception until the 1930 Lambeth Conference. After this, positions changed. So, did the Bible change, or did they?
I think they had a revelation, maybe from Joseph Smith.
You are correct. But it was after this particular conference that other Protestants approved. It caused a domino effect.
LOL! Good one! :)
“If I’m not mistaken, the Lambeth Conference is a gathering of Anglican/Episcopalian bishops.”
Correct.
“The rest of the Protestant world - esp Baptists and evangelicals - has nothing to do with the conference or the decisions made there.”
Yes, but you’re missing the point. The entire body of Protestant sects - every last one of them of any note - rejected artificial birth control until Lambeth. The decision of Lambeth was quickly adopted by all major Protestant groups. Then, naturally, all of those same Protestant groups embraced abortion to one extent or another as well. Hence, only the Catholic Church remains pro-life to this day in the traditional sense of no baby killing under any circumstances. All other Christian denominations support baby killing or the culture of baby killing through use of birth control or outright abortion.
About 30 years ago I heard a preacher in a "respectable" Presbyterian church, up there in the pulpit in his robes, lament the practice of abortion, and then qualify his statement with "but so MANY of them!" -- that is to say, abortion was OK to him under some (how many?) circumstances.
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In 1908 the Bishops of the Anglican Communion meeting at the Lambeth Conference declared,
“The Conference records with alarm the growing practice of the artificial restriction of the family
and earnestly calls upon all Christian people to discountenance the use of all artificial means of
restriction as demoralising to character and hostile to national welfare.”
The Lambeth Conference of 1930 produced a new resolution, “Where there is a clearly felt
moral obligation to limit or avoid parenthood, complete abstinence is the primary and obvious
method.,”
but if there was morally sound reasoning for avoiding abstinence, “the Conference agrees that
other methods may be used, provided that this is done in the light of Christian principles.”
By the 1958 Lambeth Conference, contraception was an accepted part of life among most
Anglicans, and a resolution was passed to the effect that the responsibility for deciding upon
the number and frequency of children was laid by God upon the consciences of parents “in such
ways as are acceptable to husband and wife.”
The Anglicans present an excellent microcosm of what happened among Protestant churches
in the 1900s.
A constant Christian teaching was completely undone among Protestants in a mere thirty
years. This brings up an unsettling choice...either the Holy Spirit was not guiding Christians
before 1930 or Protestant Churches have been ignoring His guidance after 1960.
http://www.thinkchastity.com/aProtestantisx.html
protestants in the historical sense died 60, 70, 80 years after the reformation circa 1517 or so. no such a thing exists today. now they are called churches. each one has it’s own principles. They are still labeled as protestants because they are not a part of the Holy Roman Catholic Church. i don’t think there is a consensus of any thing between them. Baptist baptize. Methodists methodologize. Episcopalians episcopate. Reformed whatever reform. There is nothing uniform in whatever someone would construct today about protestant thot even in 1930.
Baptists are of no note then? Well that is the fate of faithful servants of Christ. It’s rare to see glamorous Baptist cathedrals. Their worship centers often look like school buildings.
The reason they fare as well as they do is that they have managed to glorify Christ more in their beliefs and practice than most other Christian congregations. The famous Baptist “once saved always saved” which robustly proclaims an amazing power of Christ is a very sweet savor to God. At least, God must say, someone is not selling Me short down there and playing pussyfoot with My power.
It’s only happenstance (as we see it) that Baptists became this way. They’re from a pietistic offshoot of the post-Catholic Anglican church. There’s nothing particularly remarkable about the lineage of that community. The name they go under is not pretentious; it is about a practice that they consider ceremonial. But they have also managed to affirm the Hebrew thread of Christendom, which is another big plus of blessing for them.
For them to be of no note... well that’s a lot like Jesus in His day too.
Rather than focusing on why Protestants changed their position on birth control, maybe the larger question is why do Catholics IGNORE their church’s doctrine on birth control and even abortion?
Correct. But before that no protestant group had ever approved of contraception. The Gospel’s statements come with some kind of expiration, after which they are no longer valid.
I know a few people who need to see this. Thanks man. Put them contradicting, lawless, logic-less, crazies in their place.
Est enim ecclesia!
do rubbers kill babies?
Not all Catholics ignore Church doctrine on the issues of contraception or abortion, although, as in any Church, some will ignore what they have been taught and stray.
I suppose, if you look anywhere you will find that none is without sin, of some sort or another.
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