[Dr. Eckleburg]

I say let Rome preach against contraception all it wants. Loony restrictions like that fill the RCC and eventually drive its members to a more Scripturally-faithful church.

I know of dozens of husbands and wives who were raised RC and who left, initially, because Rome's various prohibitions were capricious. In time, those same couples came to understand the truth found in their Protestant church and they became solid, Biblically-literate Christians.

Contraception is not equitable to the murder of abortion. Rome just wants more bodies in the pews so it (theoretically) outlaws contraception, and RCs are catching on.

[wagglebee]

I say let Rome preach against contraception all it wants. Loony restrictions like that fill the RCC and eventually drive its members to a more Scripturally-faithful church.

Odd that you would say that:

From the Orthodox Presbyterian Church's website:

Before You Use Birth Control, Consider ...

God has been teaching his church down through the ages. He has endued generation after generation of his people with wisdom. We should therefore respect the long-standing wisdom of our Christian heritage. We should depart from it only if Scripture truly forces us to do so.

It is therefore highly significant that the church down through the centuries—Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant alike—held one view on contraception with remarkable unanimity until just recently. It was condemned in strong terms, and contraception was often made a criminal act.

~snip~

This historical context alone does not prove that contraception is wrong. However, should we expect an immoral and hedonistic society to come up with genuine moral insight, contrary to nearly two millennia of consistent Christian teaching?

You May Use Birth Control, If ...

In the end, God doesn't give a pat answer about contraception. But he does provide a framework within which believers are responsible and free to make godly decisions. In fact, this framework does condemn most of the world's approach to contraception—but not because it's contraception. Rather, it condemns its fundamental self-centeredness (Ps. 10:4). Believing couples should soberly examine themselves as to whether they conform to this worldly selfishness and, if so, repent. Still, the biblical principles which we've considered seem to imply that—given right motives—God does permit contraception.

So is contraception just some sort of "holdover" of Catholicism? Did Protestants ALWAY think that teachings against contraception were just "loony restrictions"? If this is the case, why did they wait so long to clarify things?