Questions for Protestants about Contraception

  • Thread starter Thread starter Genesis315
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
G

Genesis315

Guest
One thing I can never understand is how Protestants can approve of contraception.

Do you guys approve of the pill, which leads to abortions?

Do you believe that God intended man to use condoms, diaphragms, and spermicide to stifle one of the purposes in His design for sex?

Do you believe surgically sterilizing oneself is part of God’s plan for sex?

Why do you think the Catholic position on contraception is wrong?
 
Because birth control in many Protestant churches is never mentioned. To me, it’s just another lovely medical breakthrough (please no one crucify me, this is only my opinion and I’m aware how offense articial birth control is to serious Catholics). I myself am on the pill and have never given it the first thought (or the second) at all. But let me say this. Your typical combined oral contraceptives (estrogen and progestin combined) do not cause abortion. They prevent ovulation. It sort of “tricks” your body into thinking it has ovulated. If there is no egg, a sperm can’t penetrate it and therefore there is no babe.
Admittedly though, the progestin component of these pills (and the same applies for progestin-only pills), makes the endometruim “less favorable for implantation.” Hmmmmmm…:hmmm:

Now getting back to your original question - not only is birth control not even mentioned, but the negative connations the “rhythm method” has and all the hype that it just doesn’t work. I know you’ll say you don’t use the rhythm method - you use Natural Family Planning - but I don’t know the difference - yet.

Contraception is not one of those issues that I personally am prepared to deal with yet. If ever become Catholic, I will have to by sheer force of will, grit my teeth and go off the durn pills because the Church doesn’t approve. But I cannot even imagine how birth control pills could be considered sin - much less MORTAL sin.

I honestly don’t know what God thinks about birth control. And I honestly can’t say the Catholic position on it is wrong. It’s just so effective in preventing pregnancy (lord, don’t I sound awful? again - don’t crucify me).

I don’t however, approve of IUD’s. If I’'m not mistaken, they are abortifacents.

Hope that was a good reply. As I’ve stated numerous times before, I’m fairly muddled about various things.
 
you can’t assume that all Protestant preachers, denominations, or believers accept contraception or teach against it. There are many denominations and preachers that counsel against ABC, divorce as well as are strongly supportive of the very pro-life issues articulated by this Pope. You need to reframe the question.
 
40.png
Genesis315:
One thing I can never understand is how Protestants can approve of contraception.

Do you guys approve of the pill, which leads to abortions?

Do you believe that God intended man to use condoms, diaphragms, and spermicide to stifle one of the purposes in His design for sex?

Do you believe surgically sterilizing oneself is part of God’s plan for sex?

Why do you think the Catholic position on contraception is wrong?
Click to expand...
My own view is that anything that might remotely cause an abortion is wrong (such as the pill). I suppose sterilization might be OK in certain circumstances, but I’m dubious about that. Non-abortifacient methods of birth control that don’t permanently destroy fertility are definitely less than ideal, but I tend to think that they are OK when there are extenuating circumstances making pregnancy a very bad idea at that particular point. My wife and I currently use NFP and find it far preferable, however. I probably don’t count, since I’m one of the more Catholic-minded Protestants you’ll find out there!

In Christ,

Edwin
 
40.png
puzzleannie:
you can’t assume that all Protestant preachers, denominations, or believers accept contraception or teach against it. There are many denominations and preachers that counsel against ABC, divorce as well as are strongly supportive of the very pro-life issues articulated by this Pope. You need to reframe the question.
Click to expand...
hmmm

…these questions are only for Protestants that believe in contraception…

how’s that?
 
40.png
Curious:
Because birth control in many Protestant churches is never mentioned. To me, it’s just another lovely medical breakthrough (please no one crucify me, this is only my opinion and I’m aware how offense articial birth control is to serious Catholics). I myself am on the pill and have never given it the first thought (or the second) at all. But let me say this. Your typical combined oral contraceptives (estrogen and progestin combined) do not cause abortion. They prevent ovulation. It sort of “tricks” your body into thinking it has ovulated. If there is no egg, a sperm can’t penetrate it and therefore there is no babe.
Admittedly though, the progestin component of these pills (and the same applies for progestin-only pills), makes the endometruim “less favorable for implantation.” Hmmmmmm…:hmmm:

Now getting back to your original question - not only is birth control not even mentioned, but the negative connations the “rhythm method” has and all the hype that it just doesn’t work. I know you’ll say you don’t use the rhythm method - you use Natural Family Planning - but I don’t know the difference - yet.

Contraception is not one of those issues that I personally am prepared to deal with yet. If ever become Catholic, I will have to by sheer force of will, grit my teeth and go off the durn pills because the Church doesn’t approve. But I cannot even imagine how birth control pills could be considered sin - much less MORTAL sin.

I honestly don’t know what God thinks about birth control. And I honestly can’t say the Catholic position on it is wrong. It’s just so effective in preventing pregnancy (lord, don’t I sound awful? again - don’t crucify me).

I don’t however, approve of IUD’s. If I’'m not mistaken, they are abortifacents.

Hope that was a good reply. As I’ve stated numerous times before, I’m fairly muddled about various things.
Click to expand...
I’ve read that ovulation is not prevented 100% of the time and that’s why there is the back-up effect of preventing implantation. This is why the pill can cause an abortion.

I suggest you read up on NFP. I’m sure if you google it you can get good info.

The pill (and all contraception) is bad because it separates the unitive and procreative aspects of the conjugal embrace. This is selfish because you artificially tamper with God’s design so you can prevent life while you get your sexual pleasure without consequences.

Another side effect is the contraceptive mentality that makes babies burdens instead of bundles of joy. Haha, you knew it sounded bad when you said, “It’s just so effective in preventing pregnancy (lord, don’t I sound awful? again - don’t crucify me).”

Here are some awesome sites on the Catholic view of human sexuality:
theologyofthebody.net/
christopherwest.com/works.asp
 
From what I have seen they want Jesus in their heart, but out of their bedroom.
 
Another side effect is the contraceptive mentality that makes babies burdens instead of bundles of joy. Haha, you knew it sounded bad when you said, “It’s just so effective in preventing pregnancy (lord, don’t I sound awful? again - don’t crucify me).”
Click to expand...
lol. yeah…it doesn’t sound too good does it?

Thanks for the links. I will do at least a little looking on NFP even if it’s not very high on my list of things to study right now.

It’s a mentality thing I guess. The pill’s fabulousness has been ingrained in me.
 
40.png
Curious:
I will do at least a little looking on NFP even if it’s not very high on my list of things to study right now.
Click to expand...
Sexuality is near the very core of our being. If we are wrong there, it will have wide repercussions. It’s worth any effort to be right in this area.
 
Sexuality is near the very core of our being. If we are wrong there, it will have wide repercussions. It’s worth any effort to be right in this area.
Click to expand...
I suppose. But mainly my focus has been apologetics type stuff - what the Church believes, and why, and so forth. Now I’m moving on to church history and the early christian writers. There’s a lot to look through. Sorry, but contraception, divorce, and other “social” issues will have to wait. I’ll get around to them, but one thing at a time. The catholic church is pretty darn old. There’s a lot to study.
 
40.png
Curious:
I suppose. But mainly my focus has been apologetics type stuff - what the Church believes, and why, and so forth. Now I’m moving on to church history and the early christian writers. There’s a lot to look through. Sorry, but contraception, divorce, and other “social” issues will have to wait. I’ll get around to them, but one thing at a time. The catholic church is pretty darn old. There’s a lot to study.
Click to expand...
Good luck in your research. I’m convinced that as you journey through the History of theChurch and our beliefs, you come to see how beautiful the Catholic Chruch is.

My wife was a non practicing protestant. She started researching the contraception issue and NFP and found that it made sense to her. She realized that if the Catholic Church was right about contraception, then they might be right about other things that protestants misunderstand (Marian theology, the Eucharist, etc…). She converted last year.
 
40.png
Curious:
Now I’m moving on to church history and the early christian writers. There’s a lot to look through. Sorry, but contraception, divorce, and other “social” issues will have to wait.
Click to expand...
I’ll help you kill two birds with one stone curious. This is from the early church father, St John Chrysostom:

Why do you sow where the field is eager to destroy the fruit? Where there are medicines of sterility? Where there is murder before birth? You do not even let a harlot remain a harlot, but you make her a murderess as well. Do you see that from drunkenness comes fornication, from fornication adultery, from adultery murder? Indeed, it is something worse than murder and I do not know what to call it; for she does not kill what is formed but prevents its formation. What then? Do you condemn the gift of God, and fight with His laws? What is a curse, do you seek as though it were a blessing? Do you make the anteroom of birth the anteroom of slaughter? Do you teach the woman who is given to you for the procreation of offspring to perpetrate killing? That she may always be beautiful and lovable to her lovers, and that she may rake in more money, she does not refuse to do this, heaping fire on your head; and even if the crime is hers, you are the cause. Hence also arise idolatries. To look pretty many of these women use incantations, libations, philtres, potions, and innumerable other things. Yet after such turpitude, after murder, after idolatry, the matter still seems indifferent to many men–even to many men having wives. In this indifference of the married men there is greater evil filth; for then poisons are prepared, not against the womb of a prostitute, but against your injured wife. Against her are these innumberable tricks, invocations of demons, incantations of the dead, daily wars, ceaseless battles, and unremitting contentions.

{St. John Chrysostom, Homily 24 on the Epistle to the Romans (PG 60:626-27) }

Men who are avaricious and desirous to avoid children as a burden “mutilate nature, not only killing the newborn, **but even acting to prevent their beginning to live.”–**St. John Chrysostom, Homily 28 on Matthew 5 (P 57:357).
 
**Curious, **You said," I myself am on the pill and have never given it the first thought (or the second) at all. But let me say this. Your typical combined oral contraceptives (estrogen and progestin combined) do not cause abortion. They prevent ovulation. It sort of “tricks” your body into thinking it has ovulated. If there is no egg, a sperm can’t penetrate it and therefore there is no babe."
You have a FREE WILL, a gift from God. I have two questions.
  1. WHY do you take the pill? 2. Are you married? :bounce:
 
40.png
Curious:
To me, it’s just another lovely medical breakthrough.
Click to expand...
Oh, my!:eek: When I think of the pill, I lump it with a few other medical “breakthroughs”. They are not “lovely”, more like, um… hately.
40.png
Curious:
I myself am on the pill and have never given it the first thought (or the second) at all… Your typical combined oral contraceptives (estrogen and progestin combined) do not cause abortion. They prevent ovulation. It sort of “tricks” your body into thinking it has ovulated. If there is no egg, a sperm can’t penetrate it and therefore there is no babe.
Click to expand...
First of all, I am glad that you seem to beleive abortion is immoral. However, it also seems that you have, in fact, given oral contraception a thought (or two), and have convinced yourself that the pill is 100% effective at preventing ovulation. :hmmm:. How is it, then, that the pill is not 100% effective at preventing pregnancy? Remember that the the failure rate of the pill is 9% and that abortion clinics and the morning after pill are supposed to be the backup plans to oral contraception. Common sense, when properly applied, is a wonderful gift of God. Let’s try to apply it here. If the pill is only 91% effective at preventing pregnancy, what is it’s success rate at preventing ovulation? Well, common sense tells us that it is well under 91% because unwanted ovulation does not guantee pregnancy.
40.png
Curious:
Admittedly though, the progestin component of these pills (and the same applies for progestin-only pills), makes the endometruim “less favorable for implantation.”
Click to expand...
Ahh, now we are getting somewhere. Since we now know that fertilization can occur and that the progestin component of these pills makes the endometruim less favorable for implantation, what can we conclude? Perhaps, that use of the pill can cause babies to die?
40.png
Curious:
Contraception is not one of those issues that I personally am prepared to deal with yet. If ever become Catholic, I will have to by sheer force of will, grit my teeth and go off the durn pills because the Church doesn’t approve. But I cannot even imagine how birth control pills could be considered sin - much less MORTAL sin.
Click to expand...
If you are thinking about becoming Catholic, forget appologetics, and forget Church history. Deal with this issue first! According to Judie Brown, the expert from the EWTN Pro-Life forum:

“If a Catholic uses the pill with the full knowledge that the Church condemns the use of birth control, that Catholic is committing a mortal sin. If this Catholic ALSO knows that the pill can abort and uses it anyway, then of course she is excommunicated. Canon Law is clear on the fact that a Catholic who obtains an abortion automatically excommunicates herself.”
40.png
Curious:
I don’t however, approve of IUD’s. If I’'m not mistaken, they are abortifacents.
Click to expand...
Good, and you’re correct. IUD’s and oral contraceptives have similar side-effects. Namely, they can cause babies to die.
 
Hi. I’m a Protestant and I’ve done a fair bit of research on contraception. My wife and I totally agree with the Catholics on this issue. We do not use the rhythm method - we use the Creighton Model .This method is 99.5% effective (which is just as good, if not better than the pill). In addition to this, the Creighton Model requires both of us to exercise it and this has only helped our relationship. In addition to birth control, it also has other health benefits such as the possible early detection of ovarian cysts. I highly encourage anyone who is considering a form of birth control to look at this.

Until 1930, every Christian denomination thought that contraception was wrong - so if it’s wrong in 1930, what makes it right in 2005? Are we willing to let society’s whims and convenience dictate what is right and wrong? The fact is that we have been raised in an over-sexed society that cares only about convenience. We want the “fast-food” solution to everything. A pill for whatever ails us. We treat pregnancy as an ailment, but it’s one of the most precious gifts we have.

I used to think that the pill was just a trick to “fool” your body as well. The fact is that they don’t always stop ovulation and they don’t always stop fertilization. In this case, you have a new baby growing inside of you, but it can’t attach itself to the uterine wall therefore it dies. While the odds of this may be low, are you willing to play Russian roulette with your children?

I highly recommend reading the following article by Dr. Janet E. Smith titled Contraception: Why Not? She also has books and an audio CD out that I recommend. Humanae Vitae is good and right and inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Don’t just take my word for it, do the research and let God guide you.

Claude
 
I recently did a report for one of my classes on sex and sexuality in the Bible. One theme I continually found was that when male and female relations are mentioned in the Bible, procreation is nearly always implied.

Also in the OT God talks to his people as harlots and prostitutes when they worship other gods. This suggests to me that He values fidelity and that marriage is an anthropomorphic sign of how we should love God.

This is why the Church teaches the unitive and procreative when it comes to sexuality. To separate the two (as in contraception and homosexuality value only the unitive) is to not reflect what divine love is. Divine love is fruitful.

The contraceptive mentality (and believe me I’ve had that before) is ultimately an abortive mentality regardless of whether or not it actually aborts a child. When contraception is used, fertility and offspring are already viewed as a curse rather than a blessing. Since the introduction of the pill, abortion has spiked, along with divorce, STD’s, teen pregnancies, etc. Why? Because the child is a burden, not a blessing.

It is a lot easier to be unfaithful when you don’t have to worry about getting caught. Contraception lowers the risk of getting caught. Hence, skyrocketing divorce.

Contraception degrades women, making them objects of male conquest, rather than human PERSONS. Contraception is anti-female, as it denies one of God’s greatest gifts to femininity, the ability to carry a child. Contraception essentially makes the female male.

Basically contraception is the premise to the conclusion of abortion. For many this is not easy to see. It is a false logic to assume that contraception leads to less abortion. Empirically we’ve seen the reality that contraception leads to abortion. That along with broken families, which has led to unknown amounts of crime.

Simply put, the Catholic Church is right on this issue. It offers the only comprehensive pro-life philosophy and theology.

The lies of contraception are so subtle that initially they are hard to see, but once the light is shined on it, it becomes obvious this comes from the father of lies. He deceived me in the past, but praise God for Pope JP2’s Theology of the Body.
 
40.png
TobyLue:
Here are two websites that might be helpful to Protestants.
notice on the second one what is stated by St. Augustine

catholic.com/thisrock/1991/9107chap.asp
Click to expand...
But isn’t NFP “spilling the seed”? I realize the intent is different. Onan didn’t want to create children and those who use NFP just don’t want them right now. It seems to me that each temporarily are doing the same thing. NFP seems to be used by those who simply want to “space out” their children’s arrivals. I don’t see much difference. Maybe you can clear this up for me.

Peace…
 
40.png
CSJ:
Hi. I’m a Protestant and I’ve done a fair bit of research on contraception. My wife and I totally agree with the Catholics on this issue. We do not use the rhythm method - we use the Creighton Model .This method is 99.5% effective (which is just as good, if not better than the pill). In addition to this, the Creighton Model requires both of us to exercise it and this has only helped our relationship. In addition to birth control, it also has other health benefits such as the possible early detection of ovarian cysts. I highly encourage anyone who is considering a form of birth control to look at this.

Until 1930, every Christian denomination thought that contraception was wrong - so if it’s wrong in 1930, what makes it right in 2005? Are we willing to let society’s whims and convenience dictate what is right and wrong? The fact is that we have been raised in an over-sexed society that cares only about convenience. We want the “fast-food” solution to everything. A pill for whatever ails us. We treat pregnancy as an ailment, but it’s one of the most precious gifts we have.

I used to think that the pill was just a trick to “fool” your body as well. The fact is that they don’t always stop ovulation and they don’t always stop fertilization. In this case, you have a new baby growing inside of you, but it can’t attach itself to the uterine wall therefore it dies. While the odds of this may be low, are you willing to play Russian roulette with your children?

I highly recommend reading the following article by Dr. Janet E. Smith titled Contraception: Why Not? She also has books and an audio CD out that I recommend. Humanae Vitae is good and right and inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Don’t just take my word for it, do the research and let God guide you.

Claude
Click to expand...
Dear Claude,

That was an exellent post! God Bless you!

smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/17/17_1_12v.gif
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top