Interesting discussion. Ex C of E in my case by the way. Head choirboy don’t you know. But it was like a social club with religious rules. Dress this way (cassock and ruffles!), adopt a particular stance and say certain words in a certain way. Kneel here, drink this, eat that. Some call and response (always good to get a crowd together) and sing a few songs.
Adam and Eve, a talking snake, animals two by two and baby Jesus in a manger (she walked over a hundred miles when 9 months pregnant? In the bleak mid winter?). But all harmless stuff. Then I found out that everyone actually believed it. Or at least told me that they believed it. So I left them to it.
As regards contraception, I have oft wondered why Christians don’t ponder the completely bizzare method that God has decried we use to populate the planet. Do you remember when you first heard about the mechanics when you were a kid: ‘Are you kidding me? You put what into where?’
Being omnipotent and all, He could have set it up any way He wanted. Maybe as per my parents first attempt at explaining it (when a man and a woman really love each other very, very much…). Except that the dot dot dot was ‘he puts this in there’ but that bit was always left out.
Now we all know why sex feels great. Nature has a way of weeding out those who can’t be bothered trying to inseminate the female of the species. And let’s face it, it still can be a matter of life and death for most mammals just to get to first base. There are generally a lot of equally keen males who would dearly like take you out of the picture any which way they can. Just check out any bar near closing time that has a mix of hormone driven males and healthy young women.
So God knew (Him being omniscient as well) that this method, apart from being a monstrously inconvenient and messy affair, was going to cause more angst, guilt, misery and probably result in more spilled blood than all other aspects of humanity combined.
If someone had told me when I was young that having kids was a natural result of loving someone and committing to them completely and sex had been designed by the devil to bring out the worst of our animal instincts, then I would have thought - yeah, that sounds about right.
So. Sex is entirely natural. If it feels good and does no-one any harm, then go for it. We’re clever enough to have designed methods to prevent pregnancy. And yes, that means more people have sex more often when using contraception. Including the vast majority of Catholics.
If God doesn’t like it, then that’s His problem. He designed it that way.
