[Walts Ice Pick]

Artificial contraception is wrong because it violates the gift of self that ought to be at the center of every act of physical love. When you take the pill or use a foam, diaphragm, condom, or whatever, you are, in effect, saying to your spouse, "In this, the most intimate act of our marriage, I am going to give myself to you, but only up to a point." Or, conversely, you are saying, "I want you in this act to make a total gift to me of yourself, except that part of you which so deeply defines you as a sexual being, your fertility." The body has its own deep language, and when we add chemicals or latex to the act of love, when we deliberately destroy its potential for making new life, we falsify the nuptial meaning of its actions. We hold back the full gift of self which during the wife's fertile period must include an openness to new life.

I'm sorry, but this sounds like crazy talk to me.

Isn't it more likely that a church would discourage contraception for business reasons - to grow the flock?

[Tax-chick]

What’s “crazy,” specifically? The concept that a human being is an integrated whole, body-soul, so that actions done by the person have physical and spiritual meaning? Or that rejecting something integral to the person, such as his or her capacity to produce a new life, is contradictory in a relationship (marriage) that is supposed to create the One-ness of two people?

Or do you just think Christianity in general is crazy?

[mas cerveza por favor]

Read the OT story of Onan. He was struck dead for "spilling his seed" by way of the withdrawal method. Once the contraception lifestyle became established, abortion had to follow as a necessary backup.

A couple that is intimate but uses contraception is very much like a homo couple with regards to procreation. If (intentional) DINK's can get married, why not homos?

[ThisLittleLightofMine]

God has told us all along to be fruitful and multiply. I do not attend a catholic church. I wonder if any believers actually ponder that “family planning” is not biblical.

[FateAmenableToChange]

Isn't it more likely that a church would discourage contraception for business reasons - to grow the flock?

This proposition is problematic because it takes a deeply-held, philosophically and theologically sound moral and ethical proposition that has been steadfastly considered and held by the catholic church since the advent of modern anti-conception technology and asserts that all they're really trying to do is increase their coffers.

It also ignores that even Catholics are commissioned and charged to be evangelists. Children are more likely to stay in the religious faith of their parents, but Christianity is an evangelistic faith in which members sin by failing to communicate the gospel to the lost. The church grows by evangelism to both family members and to the unsaved.

And this next statement is more apropos of the fact that I'm about to leave work for my personal evangelism class at church and is not related to my above critique, but do you consider yourself to be a good person?

If God were to judge you for how you've lived your life, do you think you'd be innocent or guilty?

The bible says that anyone who has violated any portion of God's law -- told a lie, stolen anything, looked at another person with lust -- is guilty of sin and the punishment for that is death and hell. Christ, however, by living a sinless life and dying on the cross as a sacrifice for sin paid the penalty for my sin and everyone else's and that by accepting his propitiation of our sin we can be set free of God's judgment.

Thanks in advance for letting me get that out. Best regards, FATC

[Salvation]

Are not you aware that contraception is the killing of the union between an egg and a sperm?

It is just as eveil as
abortion,
invitro fertilization that wastes many eggs,
embryonic stem-cell research which hasn’t proved fruitful (adult stem cell research is doing very well, thank you.)
or euthaniasia.

[vladimir998]

You wrote:

“I’m sorry, but this sounds like crazy talk to me.”

Don’t most Christian things sound like crazy talk? Incarnation, virgin birth, miracles, resurrection, etc.?

“Isn’t it more likely that a church would discourage contraception for business reasons - to grow the flock?”

No. The growing flock just costs the parish money: ministers, ministries, schools, scholarships, services of all kind. Ever notice how loaded with cash many contracepting sects are?