Posted on 10/22/2025 11:11:26 AM PDT by Morgana
In a culture saturated with contraceptive messaging, one Baptist ethicist is encouraging Christians to reflect more deeply on the morality of birth control.
“It’s things like hormonal contraception,” Evan Lenow, associate professor at Mississippi College and director of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in Clinton, Mississippi, recently told Baptist Press. “The students say, ‘I didn’t even think there was even an issue to be considered here.’”
While students recognize abortion as morally wrong, they rarely consider the ethical implications of preventing pregnancy within marriage. Lenow argues that believers should reexamine assumptions about family planning.
“What I want to prevent from happening is just a wholesale acceptance [of the notion] that everyone should use contraception until they feel like now is the right time to have the 2.1 children we’re going to have,” he said.
Contraception is widespread. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 99% of sexually active U.S. women have used birth control, and 65% report using at least one form in the past year, the Baptist Press article noted.
Historically, many Christians opposed contraception. The article noted that the Catholic Church opposes all contraception except Natural Family Planning, teaching that every marital act should be open to new life.
Ethicist and moral philosopher C. Ben Mitchell, writing for the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) in 2022, noted believers “mostly avoided contraception until recently, welcoming children as a gift from the Lord and realizing that widespread use of contraceptives would inevitably lead to promiscuity.”
Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) resolutions have addressed the issue since 1934, initially opposing loosening federal restrictions, the article noted. Later resolutions objected to contraception for minors without parental consent but did not reject birth control entirely.
The SBC’s confession of faith affirms: “Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord.”
Lenow warned against shifting from this view. “I would caution against saying, ‘this is not convenient, or I don’t need the burden of another child,’” Lenow said. “That shifts our perspective away from Psalm 127 [and] children as a blessing from the Lord, and we begin to view children as burdens rather than blessings.”
He also warned against commodifying children — weighing their cost against lifestyle goals like travel or luxury. He discouraged couples from settling on a “perfect number of children” and ruling out more after reaching it.
Still, Lenow acknowledged that postponing pregnancy may be appropriate in some cases, such as mental illness, financial strain, or unresolved medical conditions.
Medical professionals share Lenow’s concerns about contraception. Dr. Jeff Barrows, a pro-life OB-GYN and former senior vice president of the Christian Medical and Dental Associations, urged couples to avoid any methods that might harm a fertilized embryo.
“Life begins at fertilization,” the moment the egg and sperm come together to generate a new human life; methods of contraception should prevent fertilization rather than preventing a fertilized egg from implanting in a woman’s uterus and developing, Barrows said.
He encouraged couples to consult a pro-life OB-GYN to navigate questions about various forms of birth control and whether a certain type is embryocidal.
Lenow, meanwhile, says he hopes believers will simply begin the conversation.
What is the 411 on New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in Clinton, Mississippi and this Evan Lenow?
It’s badly written. NOBTS is in New Orleans. Mississippi College is in Clinton.
Genesis 1:28 — And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, just don’t go past 2.1.
“Life begins at fertilization,” the moment the egg and sperm come together to generate a new human life...”
Life begins when the woman conceives — the egg becomes implanted on the wall of the uterus.
Scientists say that about half the fertilized eggs pass on out the body and are wasted.
Life begins at conception.
Arguments for life beginning at conception
Jeremiah 1:5:
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you” is used to suggest that God’s knowledge and plan for an individual exist before birth.
Psalm 139:13-16:
This passage describes God forming a person’s “inmost parts” and notes that God’s “eyes saw my unformed body”.
Exodus 21:22-25:
Some interpret this passage, which describes a penalty for causing a miscarriage, as indicating that the fetus is a person with a life worth protecting.
That’s true.
No, the DNA of an individual, unique, never-before-existed, human life DOES begin at fertilization because that is the start of the new life. The embryo's journey to the uterus to be implanted is the next step in the process just like the proceeding weeks of development until birth. That newly fertilized egg contains everything that was our beginning and all that needed to be added was time and nourishment inside the womb.
"Scientists" say a lot of things that they can't possibly know for sure, but even if all fertilized eggs don't reach implantation that doesn't mean the new human life is disposable. God is who opens and closes the womb. There are only a few contraceptives that do not have as either their primary or secondary function to prevent the embryo from implanting which is indeed causing the death of the nascent human being.
“Arguments for life beginning at conception”
No, they are not.
Recently, a pregnancy resulted from using a thirty year old frozen fertilized egg. There was no life, could not have been life, in the fertilized egg until implantation.
“”Scientists” say a lot of things that they can’t possibly know for sure”
It is not really difficult to separate out of whatever composes a menstual flow.
Is this objection an extension of the Onan example?
Is this really your argument for what defines "life"? A frozen human embryo IS a life in suspension - it isn't dead. The method used to freeze it didn't kill the life else there could BE no continuation of the life cycle once thawed. You get that, don't you? As long as there is no cellular death, the embryo can begin where it left off in development.
Is it your intent on this thread to defend all forms of contraception? Do you know that the IUD works to prevent the embryo from being able to implant in the uterus? Do you know that most hormonal methods make the lining of the uterus inhospitable to implantation should ovulation happen and an egg is released and fertilized? These are technically "mini" abortions and most women aren't even informed of that. I think that is also wrong.
“These are technically “mini” abortions and most women aren’t even informed of that.”
If there is no implantation there is no abortion. Is using a prophylactic the same as abortion; it is a preventive. Is the rythmn method an abortion; it is a preventive. You are barking up the wrong tree; you should be jumping up and down about the abortion pill. 63% of abortionss in the United States are caused by that pill, and most of these occur in private homes and it is gory procedure.
Technically correct but it is a still the ending of a human life.
Is using a prophylactic the same as abortion; it is a preventive. Is the rythmn method an abortion; it is a preventive.
Neither of those results in a fertilized egg or zygote which contains all the building blocks needed to continue to develop into a full adult human being.
That contraception is wrong is manifest be precept and in principle, by design and decree. Men and women are constituted to have children and raise them in the secure stable home that marriage is to provide. And children are described as being a blessing, not a curse,
You either choose continent celibacy or marriage and as many children as results from a temperate lifestyle, by the grace of God.
And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb [in her sixth month]; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost: (Luke 1:41) For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. (Luke 1:44)
And that from a child [same Greek word for “babe” above] thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. (2 Timothy 3:15)
At maturity, a woman has between 300,000 and 400,000 eggs. Men have countless sperm cells. Obviously, those two things are not sacred. Biblically speaking, the woman has to conceive, not the egg has to only be fertilized. And just when is the baby’s soul created and established and placed into the embryo? Definitely not when only the egg is fertilized.
“Neither of those results in a fertilized egg or zygote which contains all the building blocks needed to continue to develop into a full adult human being.”
Fertilized eggs can be washed out of the woman’s body through natural processes. Even implantations fall off. Did God form nature as an abortionists?
And once more the concept of "soul" is invoked by people who want to kill people. Amazing how often that happens.
And you saying you know for sure when it arrives or doesn't arrive is nonsense.
Sorry, I am not interested in your metaphysical jibber-jaber but am relying on scientifically provable reality. And the reality is that the zygote is a complete person. Nothing needs to be given but time, shelter and nutrients. Which is something we never stop needing until death arrives.
Fertilized eggs can be washed out of the woman's body through natural processes.
So?
Even implantations fall off.
So?
Did God form nature as an abortionists?
Death is a part of life on this planet.
Babies are born and die after one breath. Infants die. Toddlers die. Children die. Teens die. Adults die.
None of that means that they did not live or that it is ok to kill them.
Well, you just took this discussion to the toilet, you self-righteous prick. Don’t post me again.
Absolutely! We live in a fallen world and death is a part of that. It wasn't how God initially created it. But life and death are in HIS hands, not ours. We are called to respect human life as created in the image of God.
I'm convinced that those who strongly support and defend abortion and abortifacient methods of contraception and then get enraged when someone points out the intrinsic value to every human life - born or unborn - do so out of denial and because of their own unresolved guilt over personal abortion decisions and experiences.
God can and does forgive and He wants us to walk in newness of life. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from ALL sin. The first step is acknowledging the wrong.
No, odawg, I think you did. What's the real reason why this topic gets you so riled up?
When you said I wanted kill people, you miserable POS.
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