greenfrog:
Of course not. We have a baby son whom we love dearly, he is a blessing from God. My wife is still recovering from his birth and is not yet fit enough for another pregnancy.
I’d appreciate it if people would keep posts on the issue… How is NFP morally different to condoms?, thanks.
Yes, I understand this, and I’ve been addressing this very point consistently.
First, I’ll appeal to your experience. Does sex with a condom emotionally feel the same as sex without? Why?
Second, I’ve provided the analogy of Bob and Tom. Both had it in their hearts that they wanted to make money. Making money is not an inherent evil, therefore God, knowing both their hearts, will judge them the same, correct?
Third, NFP is
never to be used as contraception. There should
never be a desire in a married person’s heart to *not *have a child. Here’s why: my bride’s parents (Catholic) used contraception all throughout their marriage when they didn’t want to conceive. When they had her brother, it was because a condom failed. Whenever her parents talk about it, her brother (~20 years old) will storm out of the room and refuses to talk about it. Why? Because children are the physical manifestation of the love experienced in that intimate union. When a child finds out that their parents were trying
not to have them, it is felt, however subconsciously, in the core of their being. As Scripture says: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you,” and so should it be with parents. They should *never *have the attitude of not wanting their future children because when the children are conceived in this way, they feel it.
Contraception concerns itself with what the parents want. NFP concerns itself with what is good our children.
Fourthly, per my example above, contraception is
far less effective than NFP in post-poning child birth. NFP is 99% effective.
Fithly, there is a
huge difference between preventing and post-poning. Even as we follow my bride’s cycles, there is always a chance that she could become pregnant. Thus, even when we engage in the marital union, we do so with this knowledge and thus without
fear of having a child. You can’t very well say you’re not afraid if you’ve got a gun in your hand.
As a better example, take the stock market. Let’s suppose that you’ve invested a sum of money in the market. When determing the best time to cash in on your dividends, you do not base the decision on how you feel or what you want, you do it based upon what’s good for the investment - when the investment is most likely to have the highest payoff. When you are post-poning child birth, its not because you don’t want to sell your stock just because you don’t want to, you do it because you feel that the situation is not as good as it good be yet for that child. However, the problem is that we are fallible human beings and we will *never *know when the best time is. Thus, with NFP, we’ve hired God as a “broker” to play the market. We suggest what we think is best to maximize our return, but ultimately it will be the broker’s decision because he knows the market better than we do.
Sixthly, suppose I said: “Hey! I’ve got a great drug for you! Now, the side effects are that it might give you cancer, give you terrible mood swings, migraines, and so forth BUT, guess what it can do? It will stop your lungs from working! Isn’t that great?!”
Now, you would probably think I was out of my mind, but that’s exactly what we do with the Pill. We give women this drug to actually stop her body from working the way it is supposed to, and then pile on a ton of terrible side effects. Doesn’t sound too great, does it?
Seventhly, its almost time for lunch and I need to get out of the office.
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