For puzzleannie: (part 1 of 2)
The Orthodox Church:
455 Questions and Answers
by Stanley S. Harakas
Light & Life Publishing
Copyright 1988
(Sixth Printing)
Birth Control
Question #56
Pg. 40-42
What beliefs does the Orthodox Church have about Birth Control?
Within modern Orthodox Christianity, varying views on the subject exist. They can, however, be classified in two basic approaches, with methods and conclusions appropriate to each. The Very Rev. Chrysostom Zafiris’ article is characteristic of one approach. A book written in Greek a number of years ago by Fr. Seraphim Papacostas, entitled “To Zetema tis Tecknogonias” (The Issue Concerning Child-Bearing), represents the other approach.
What should be noted at the beginning is that this lack of clarity has its roots in some of the tradition of the church itself. Basically, it is to be found in a varying understanding of sex in the life of the Christian. Searching the tradition, we receive the impression that sex is, on the one hand, a God-created distinction of persons through which men and women share in the creative work of God, a God-given desire and attraction which serves to unite a husband and wife into a psychosomatic unity. The Apostle Paul sees the sexual relations of husband and wife as required to ward off temptation. The church has designated the blessing of the material relationship as a sacrament. Those who have condemned sex and marriage as evil and debasing have, in turn, been condemned by the church in numerous church canons. On the one hand, then, as the service of Holy Matrimony says, “marriage is honorable and the bed undefiled.”
However, at the same time the powerful influence of monasticism has tended not only to lower the estimation of the married life, but also to equate sex in general to a condition not quite fitting and appropriate for Christians, if not, in fact, sinful. At its extreme, this view held that marriage itself was nothing but “legalized fornication.”
Both these views have been held and promulgated through the years within the church, even though they are mutually inconsistent. This inconsistency has been reflected in approaches to the question of contraception.
"Natural Law" View
Some of the tradition has emphasized the biological dimensions of sex in marriage, tending to see its place in the scheme of things as a basically evil passion which, however, is needed to propagate the race. Thus, sex is tied closely to a view of natural law which sees a biological purpose as the crucial factor.
The result of this approach is two-fold: sexual relations are seen as legitimate only when the intended purpose is to conceive and bear children; sexual relations entered into for pleasure, for the purpose of expressing love or deepening the marital relationship, are simply not considered relevant but as positively violating the natural and legitimate purity of sex relations. Thus, any method which circumvents the only admitted purpose for sexual relations in marriage, such as contraception, is morally wrong. This is the approach taken in the book, “To Zetema tis Teknogonias” and some of the letter writers who made frequent appeals to “the natural law.”
Sacramental View
The approach of Fr. Zafiris’ article and that supported in Fr. John Meyendorff’s book, “Marriage: And Orthodox Perspective,” places the emphasis for the meaning of sex in general and contraception in particular on the whole experience of marriage as a holy, interpersonal relationship within the total framework of the Christian life. The approach sees marriage and the sex within it as having many purposes, none of which is seen as the crucial and exclusive purpose. When marriage and the sexual relations within it are approached from this sacramental perspective, then sexual relations between husband and wife are procreative in purpose, but also unitive.
In this perspective, the sexual relations of husband and wife have an intrinsic value: they unite husband and wife in flesh and soul in a bond of mutual love and commitment. The procreative purpose remains, however. But when children have been born, and the task is now the nurture of those children in a family environment of mutual love and in an atmosphere dominated by the relationship of the husband and wife, that sexual relationship is also significant for the whole tenor and well-being of the family life. Within this perspective contraception is not condemned, but rather it is seen as a means for the furthering of the goals and purposes of marriage as understood by the church. Normally, it would be wrong to use contraceptives to avoid the birth of any children. However, once children have been born, the use of contraceptives by the parents does not seem to violate any fundamental Christian understand of marriage.
