Contraception...Your beliefs?

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aidanbradypop

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Many of my Protestant friends are against abortion, but find no fault in taking birth control. They do not see it as a sin. They believe it is a modern issue that only came about around the 1960s and 70s. They Early Church and the Fathers were very clear on the matter of contraception.

Clement of Alexandria: Because of its divine institution for the propagation of man, the seed is not to be vainly ejaculated, nor is it to be damaged, nor is it to be wasted (The Instructor of Children 2:10:91:2 [A.D. 191]).

To have coitus other than to procreate children is to do injury to nature (ibid. 2:10:95:3).

Epiphanius: They [certain Egyptian heretics] exercise genital acts, yet prevent the conceiving of children. Not in order to produce offspring, but to satisfy lust, are they eager for corruption (Medicine Chest Against Heresies 26:5:2 [A.D. 375]).

More can be found here staycatholic.com/ecf_contraception.htm
 
Most cannot see the fruits of contraception. Once you remove the reproductive element from sex and reduce it to exclusively pleasure, the gender of the participants become irrelevant. If John and Jane and can pleasure each other…why can’t John and Jim do the same thing?

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All I can say contraception is wrong here are some verses I would quote to prove my point

Galatians 5:22-23
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

1 Corinthians 7:5

Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
 
Contraception has been condemned throughout Christianity up to the 1930’s when the Anglican Church permitted its use.

It is now coming out that the pill in conjunction with progesterone and estrogen becomes a carcinogenic combo. The pill can affect a woman’s dna and cancer takes about 10 years to show up.

The predictions of the use of contraception by Pope Paul VI has become true. We are seeing less and less fidelity in marriage, massive abortions to stop unwanted pregnancy, women allowing themselves to be used as sex objects with men in turn not seeing a need for marriage, so many co-habitate together, and what is so tragic, is the increase of sexually transmitted diseases among minors in America.

There are movements within public schools to sexualize American children as young as 6 years old, to teach them various forms of sex at this age. We have sex shops in my state that have had mannequins wearing skimpy porn shows that are allowed to co-exist in family neighborhoods. One shop put such a display up across the street from the Catholic grade school.

At the beginning of Christianity, many died for their faith, and we read of saints who did not want to have sex but remain virgin/celibate for Christ. So our kind of Christianity today has tolerance for using the pill and rejecting the Cross.

I would add that people viewing this thread look up the background of Margaret Sanger. She was part of the eugenicist movement that promoted birth control to be used against people of color, the intellectually disabled, and minority races as population control.

Instead, it is the affluent industrial that is contracepting itself out of existence. Japan and France native populations are getting low, and Japan is not reproducing itself.
 
I was under the impression that the OP was addressed to Protestants. Is it addressed to everyone?
 
Well, I dropped in because of the profound effect contraception has on culture, and contraception’s effects has so little impact on people’s thought.

Many American Catholics use contraception,

Catholic pastors look the other way, and its negative effect is never talked about at the pulpit. ETWN had a program on with a women’s panel, and they had a physician who spoke of the physiological danger of the pill, and there are brochures finally now being made that are working their way into Catholic parishes.

So I jumped in to address the Catholics using it as well. But carry on with thread!
 
KathleenGee said:
Well, I dropped in because of the profound effect contraception has on culture, and contraception’s effects has so little impact on people’s thought.

Many American Catholics use contraception,

Catholic pastors look the other way, and its negative effect is never talked about at the pulpit. ETWN had a program on with a women’s panel, and they had a physician who spoke of the physiological danger of the pill, and there are brochures finally now being made that are working their way into Catholic parishes.

So I jumped in to address the Catholics using it as well. But carry on with thread!
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lol Thanks dear. I see it so often with Catholics as well. Sad!
 
Well, I did say it and know the frustrations especially felt by Catholic laity working with pastors!!!..another place the bishop and Holy Father have work to do with the American Catholic Church!!!

So I will leave now.
 
My parents raised me with a bit of a different understanding. First, let me tell you who my parents are.

Collectively, they are conservative (politically and for the most part theologically), traditional, and a bit old-fashioned. Let me put it this way- they’re not Mennonites, but they easily could be. All they would have to do is join a Mennonite church, and if we lived in a different kind of town, I believe they might have. I have a few Mennonite friends, and I was just a bit more sheltered than most of them were as I was growing up.

My mom has a background in nursing, which she put on hold in order to be a mom. With the kids grown, though, she’s gone back to school and is finishing up her internship in order to get her Masters is psychology. Some of her psych education was done at a Christian school, and some was done at a state school. As conservative as she is, she’s finding her way in that type of environment.

My dad is a doctor at a Catholic hospital. His immediate bosses are a couple of CEOs who also happen to be nuns. He has spent some years as a medical missionary, and is therefore ordained. He is just as committed to Biblical study as he is to medical study- and my mom is right there with him, of course.

With younger people, and with the work they do in general, contraception is something that comes up quite a bit. More than anyone else I’ve met personally (including clergy), they are looked to as trusted sources of information and wisdom due to the depth of experience and the combination of expertise in medicine, psychology, and theology.

A chat with them about contraception is not something they take lightly, because they understand the gravity of their responsibility. Young people regularly weigh decisions regarding their sexuality against what they have to say, and as professionals in relevant fields, they take it very seriously. If I were to make a comparison, I would say they take it more seriously than an average person who posts their opinions and thoughts on a message board.

So that’s what I was brought up in. And my upbringing has led me to believe that some of the scary stories posted here so far are largely untrue- particularly the ones that play up medical and psychological concerns. There is a discussion to be had, but I’ve seen what that looks like in the hands of professionals. It doesn’t look like this.

I do come from a place where contraception is not held to be grave sin, or even an automatic sin whatsoever. But even if you do come from that standpoint, you need to be a bit more responsible with the medical and psychological facts. I see fearmongering here, and I see people who are more interested in marshalling arguments with minimal care for accuracy than they are in careful consideration of all that really goes into this.

What is it that goes into this? All the things that make contraception ubiquitous both here and around the world, among Catholics and all other Christians. It wasn’t always so, but it is now and there are reasons for that. Good reasons, too- not the stuff that’s being posted here. And it doesn’t automatically lead to debauchery and whoremongering, either. My parents have three children, raised with the understanding that certain forms of contraception are in bounds, and all of them have waited or are waiting until marriage.
 
The non-Catholic churches I have attended do not regard artificial contraception as a sin. Neither do I. My maternal great-grandmother died in 1909 from a self-induced abortion, apparently because she could not face having a 7th child. If reliable artificial contraception had been available then, she might have lived a full life and not deprived her children of a mother.
 
Check out 1Flesh’s website. They have many credible resources about the dangers of contraception. Of coarse the desire for sex always trumps reason even when the desire for sex masquerades as reason.
 
Can those whom are supporters of contraception explain why Protestants were against it from 1517 to 1930’s? And why was it now morally permissible even when the original reformers were adamant against it?
 
My wife was hospitalized for about a week due to compliations due to the pill. That was part of the long story of how we both were received last easter vigil.

When we began talking about this event with others we discovered that its far more common to see women having complications than the formal stats about the drugs say.
 
My church teaches that barrier methods and timing are tolerable, but no method that could damage a fetus is allowed. My wife an I (before we were married and were pretty much agnostics 😦 ) used a method similar to the calendar method promulgated by Catholics.

My personal belief fits with my church’s belief - but I would like to help develop a culture that accepts children. In my case I got caught up feeling ‘young’ and don’t want to become a parent. Sadly my wife and I are done having children and I look back on the years when we could have had more children with regret.

I do have a lot of respect for the Catholic Church’s stance and the steadfast way it has defended life.
 
I think contraception is a sin, but a lesser sin than abortion. That’s not to say I condone it or think it should be encouraged. We must all try as best we can to avoid ALL sin, no matter how minor or trivial it may seem at the time (something I myself am still working on, sadly).
 
hmmmm…I wonder how many people buy organic foods because they want to stay away from artificial hormones given to animals but gladly give their daughter who is God’s gift a prescription for the pill on her 16th birthday.

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benjohnson said:
My church teaches that barrier methods and timing are tolerable, but no method that could damage a fetus is allowed. My wife an I (before we were married and were pretty much agnostics 😦 ) used a method similar to the calendar method promulgated by Catholics.

My personal belief fits with my church’s belief - but I would like to help develop a culture that accepts children. In my case I got caught up feeling ‘young’ and don’t want to become a parent. Sadly my wife and I are done having children and I look back on the years when we could have had more children with regret.

I do have a lot of respect for the Catholic Church’s stance and the steadfast way it has defended life.
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Thanks Ben
concretecamper said:
hmmmm…I wonder how many people buy organic foods because they want to stay away from artificial hormones given to animals but gladly give their daughter who is God’s gift a prescription for the pill on her 16th birthday.

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I actually know someone like that lol.
 
It’s justifiable for some married couples who want marital relations but want to wait (i.e. find good work, travel some more, apply for a mortgage or something) before having kids. They’re expensive, and a lot of couples don’t feel ready to have one just yet.
 
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