If contraception is ok, who’s to say that homosexuality isn’t? Whom does it harm?
The Church’s job is to teach Christian sexuality. Just take a look at our culture and compare for yourself who’s teaching is correct.
Now, here’s the thing. Whether you subscribe to notions of ‘correct’ teaching or not, the fact is that if you are not a Christian and don’t believe in the Christian concept of God, then there
is a lot of Catholic morality - sexual or otherwise - that is rationally indefensible.
The question of whether artificial birth control causes harm (and I am talking here in the context of being used correctly, by persons who have no contrary medical indications) is answered one way in a Catholic context and generally the opposite way in a secular context. In fact, use of birth control methods has been shown to have many benefits - reduced incidence of unwanted pregnancy, and consequently abortion; reduced incidence of sexually transmitted infections; and studies have shown that when young people are educated in the use of birth control and safe sex options, they tend to delay sexual activity, have fewer partners and fewer complications in the form of pregnancy or infection. These are all practical benefits.
However, the Catholic church takes the view that all these benefits are obtained through abstinence. From a practical point of view, if you’re not exposed to sex, you can’t get pregnant nor contract an infection. This is also perfectly correct.
Had I more time (and not just my lunch break at work) I would endeavour to refute the notion that sexual activity outside marriage is harmful in and of itself, without recourse to religious doctrine. That would take a lot more explanation, however, so for the moment I will simply say that if one does not make reference to Christ or to the Christian God, an act of sexual intercourse between consenting adults is not wrong, immoral or harmful in and of itself. It only becomes morally problematic through other means - if it is an act of exploitation, for example (prostitution, one partner being less-than-honest about their feelings in order to dupe the other partner into sex, etc.)
So, Pete, you’re quite right in saying that many of the Catholic Church’s teachings on sexuality are indefensible, or at least misleading and unnecessarily complex - provided these claims are made independently of any religious context.
