That’s dumb to keep saying the ‘movement’. If you really believe there is some occultish conspiracy going on in the Catholic Church regarding natural family planning, why would you be worried about ‘us’ (whoever us is). If I felt there was some evil thing working against you, I’d go to a priest or Church authority to discuss it.
Mommamaree is obviously a person very sympathetic to your beliefs and you should at least feel some freedom to talk with her personally over private messaging if you are so afraid of ‘the movement’. Heavens to betsies!
First, I am sympathetic to people who are struggling, and I especially care about the weakness in Christian marriages in today’s world. Christians are trying so hard to build healthy, holy marriages founded on Christ, but with lack of catechesis and lack of pastoral support and direction and lack of models of good marriages in their parent’s and grandparents’ lives, marriage is a tragic mess right now. Proper use of sexuality within marriage is the core of this problem, and most Christians are having to wade through the emotional baggage and misinformation all on their own. So yes, I am sympathetic. Not because I approve what the Church condemns, but because I know just how darn hard it is to figure out the Truth and then be able to live it.
Second, there is a movement, and for you to mock sailor for referring to it is both dishonest and unkind. It is the supporters, advocates, teachers, practitioners of NFP, who have begun to speak out against the Culture of Death, as a sub-group of the Pro-life movement. There is the Couple To Couple League, as a notable group which requires membership, but there are also many other forms of NFP, each with their own devotees and support systems. There is the One More Soul organization of physicians who are NFP-only. These people are becoming more and more vocal in battling against the lies of our culture. If you accept that there is a Pro-life movement, then you must accept that there is an NFP-movement.
Finally, you did not start this thread, so you do not get to tell sailor that she must resort to private messaging rather than participate in the thread, to which she was invited to post, simply because you object to her opinions. I am surprised and saddened how quickly we all are to judge each other and make assumptions about each other’s characters and how little we actually ever listen. People who struggle with NFP are patronized and marginalized. There are hundreds of threads here at CAF that demonstrate this very phenomenon. People who promote NFP (not those who merely use it, but those who actively promote it) deny that its use could ever cause any problems, and when they must admit that it sometimes does, the struggling couple gets blamed. The promoters have very little patience with those people who find it difficult or burdensome. There are those within this movement, and yes it is a movement, who say that to NOT use NFP, but instead merely enjoy marital relations with no consideration of fertility and just letting the babies come naturally, are actually sinning as well. I won’t name names, because I cannot recall which spokesperson said that (maybe someone else recalls and can provide the link here?), but it is obvious that the leaders of this movement have “drunk the koolaid” and are really over-reaching.
I think a much more level-headed approach, with intellectual honesty and a strong desire to help couples rather than push an agenda, is really what is needed. And couples who struggle and are willing to be open and talk about it should not be censored. We should listen and learn from them. Who knows what difficulties we might encounter in our marriage? To deny that NFP can ever be difficult and act as if we would never be tempted to go against the teachings of the Church out of fear and confusion is an example of pride goeth before a fall. It would be far better to examine these problems and come up with strategies to deal with the challenges in a timely fashion so that a speed bump is not allowed to grow into a mountain of an obstacle.
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