Why Evangelicals Should Rethink Contraception, Part Three

The Stream ^ | Aug '18 | Julie Roys

[CondoleezzaProtege]

Like most of my colleagues, I intended to have two, maybe three kids. And like them, I thought the Catholic view of sex and contraception was ridiculous.

That was about 25 years ago.

Since then, I’ve discovered Theology of the Body (TOB) — Pope John Paul II’s biblical analysis of what it means to be human. This radically transformed my view of the body, human sexuality — and in turn, birth control. And now, I don’t think the Catholic view is ridiculous. I think it’s biblical. And though I’m not dogmatic about it, I, like a growing number of evangelicals, no longer feel comfortable with contraception.

John Paul argued that contraception profoundly distorts the marriage analogy. Christopher West explains:

Christ did not sterilize His love. When we sterilize our love, we are changing what is happening in the sexual act itself to the point that we are no longer imaging Christ’s love for the church. We are no longer imaging the Trinity. In fact, it becomes a counter-image … of Christ and the church.

Rejecting contraception does not mean couples must have as many children as possible. There are valid reasons to avoid pregnancy. And there is a way to do that without violating the spiritual significance of marital intimacy. It’s called natural family planning (NFP).

NFP works with our God-given body, rather than against it.

[CondoleezzaProtege]

The above is an excerpt. Click for few article.

Links to Part One and Two below.

[CondoleezzaProtege]

Part One:
https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/3796262/posts

Part Two:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/3798660/posts?page=10

[stanne]

People think the catholic view of contraception is ridiculous because they don’t know what it is

Writer doesn’t cite Humanae Vitae. Proving my point. Nor does he cite the catechism. Both of which are the catholic view. Not some lady you know that’s nice and she’s an in-law

Certainly John Paul II references both heavily in Theology of the Body

Christopher West, as well, whose audience is young adult

[budj]

Natural family planning also is inherently healthy; a woman is always aware of her chemistry, and often can see if something is going wrong.

A great resource is the Couple to Couple League:

https://ccli.org/

[Tell It Right]

If Catholic Latin America hadn’t been making so many babies over the past few years, the Pope wouldn’t be demanding the U.S. with our 300 million population open our borders to let in all 600 million of the Latin Americans Catholics.

[stonehouse01]

Genesis 38, 9-10

[Captain Walker]

What I don’t understand for the life of me is how Protestants feel they can practice birth control because they believe the only teaching against it is from the Catholic Church.

But we know from Genesis 38: 8-10 that Onan’s offense of “spilling his seed” was grave enough to cost him his life.

When I pointed out the biblical condemnation of birth control, they all disappeared; only the crickets could be heard. (Although in fairness, it seems to be socially acceptable to disappear when one can’t respond to a point.)

[Mrs. Don-o]

1) Julie Roys is a she, not a he.

2) She is evidently writing for and about Protestants, so from a persuasive-writing point of view, she is not going to cite Papal encyclicals as authorities.

3) The theological bright-lights she does cite, are either married lay Catholics (Christopher West) or Moody Bible Institute evangelicals (John Jefferson David). Unsurprising, considering her intended audience.

[stanne]

All due respect, you missed my point

She said, “I thought the Catholic view of sex and contraception was ridiculous.”

I said, “People think the Catholic view of contraception is ridiculous because they don’t know what it is.”

When people tell you what the Catholic position or view is, if they are not citing the catechism or the magesterial authority, they are not talking about the Catholic position, they’re talking about what some uninformed Catholic told them was the Catholic position whic is never correct.

[stanne]

As if the Catholic teaching is not from the Bible

[Mrs. Don-o]

"If Catholic Latin America hadn’t been making so many babies over the past few years..."

This assertion is exactly wrong.

As of now (2019) at least 5 Latin American countries now have fertility rates below the replacement level.

If you'd like a more fact-based hypothesis look into the dismantling of Mexico's and Central America's rural economies by NAFTA, destroying small farms and communities to impose large export-centered agribusiness (think corn--> ethanol. ) Rural Mexico and Central America are being emptied out -- everyone pushed out of the pueblos and into the big cities (e.g. Mexico City) and unemployment and displacement misery.

To seriously oversimplify, blame NAFTA, blame international banking, blame the Bush family.

[Boogieman]

Conversely, if Protestant Americans had been making babies, then maybe we could keep our entitlement programs funded without hoping that a bunch of illegal immigrants would solve the problem for us.

[Dartoid]

Are you intentionally being deceptive or just lack basic reading comprehension. His issues was disobedience not spilling his seed. If Gen 38 is your proof text you’re in trouble.

[Tell It Right]

These are the facts across decades. Until the western world adopted the "nuclear family" model the western world was making more babies than just about everybody.

I'm not saying Latin American hasn't dropped their fertility rates in recent years. I'm just saying we'd have less adults from Latin America trying to come across the border if they had dropped their fertility rates decades ago when we did. I mean, according to your graph most of the Latin American nations were still making 6 kids per adult woman as recently as the mid-1970's. That's way outpacing the U.S.

[Tell It Right]

"Conversely, if Protestant Americans had been making babies, then maybe we could keep our entitlement programs funded without hoping that a bunch of illegal immigrants would solve the problem for us."

This Protestant American ain't depending on entitlement programs, not even social security. Will I file to collect it when I'm able? Sure. But I'll retire 5 to 10 years before that despite having to put into SS all these decades, living off a 4% per year withdrawal from our investments. I'd retire even earlier if the govt wasn't forcing me to into SS and pay for the current SS recipients.

[fproy2222]

“People think the catholic view of contraception is ridiculous because they don’t know what it is”

When we were having our first child we had the delivery at the local Catholic hospital. Before giving birth we took advantage of the classes they offered in family planning. Very informative and well thought out and helpful. Very caring.

It felt strange getting family planning information from a nun, untill I relised I was getting trained by a nurse who was also a nun.

I am thankful they have the program.

[Captain Walker]

It preceded the Bible, as the Church itself preceded the Bible.

But all of the teachings of the Church certainly have supporting “documentation” in the Bible.

[Captain Walker]

Are you intentionally being deceptive or just lack basic reading comprehension. His issues was disobedience not spilling his seed.

Are you suggesting Protestants had simply misinterpreted this passage for the four centuries between Luther’s revolt and the 1930 Lambeth Conference?

[Boogieman]

Good for you, but the problem still remains that we are running a ponzi scheme without a steady supply of new customers.

[Albion Wilde]

Methodist / former Methodist ping!

LCMS ping!

To be added or dropped, freepmail Albion Wilde