[Mrs. Don-o]

NFP does not involve a rejection of God's presence as Lord and Giver of Life by rejecting/sabotaging His design of the act of sexual intercourse. He made the infertile periods as well as the fertile periods --- as Scripture says, it is He who opens and closes the womb --- it's up to our intelligence to cooperate with Him responsibly.

From that aspect, --- conscious cooperation with the Designer and the design --- NFP is not CONTRA-ception: CONTRA the set-up and plan of the body. It is "non"-conception because God gives us this option as part of the evident arrangement of our bodies.

It makes all the difference in the world whether you're accepting and cooperating with God's design, or rebelling against it and thwarting it.

If you focus on the attitude toward the Creator, NFP is "not like" contraception, not even "analogous" to contraception. It is the opposite of contraception: harmony with God's purposes and design, rather than obstructing or impairing our God-given capacities.

At those times when married couples must, for good reason, delay or limit their childbearing, it is acceptable to do this in a way that works WITH God's design, and not AGAINST it.

There's certainly evidence suggesting that this helps strengthen the bond between husband and wife. In the United States, contraceptors have a lifelong divorce rate of approx. 40-50% --- NFP'ers have a lifelong divorce rate of 0.2% - 2.0%.

That is not, of course, mathematical proof, but rather a reasonable inference that contraception (which is opting against natural sex) is associated with weakening the marriage bond.

[metmom]

NFP does not involve a rejection of God's presence as Lord and Giver of Life by rejecting/sabotaging His design of the act of sexual intercourse. He made the infertile periods as well as the fertile periods --- as Scripture says, it is He who opens and closes the womb --- it's up to our intelligence to cooperate with Him responsibly.

That's rationalization.