Why in the world would anyone ever use BC pills?

[dcharles]

If married couples have to limit their children for legitimate reasons, why in the world would they ever do so by using birth control pills instead of natural family planning?

All the studies show those who use birth control pills have a very high divorce rate, 30-50% depending on how the divorces are measured. NFP has a very low divorce rate. Here is a good link. physiciansforlife.org/content/view/193/36/ It showed a divorce rate of 0.2%, but I read the sociologist conducting the study had to make some adjustments to make it compare with other Catholics and the final rate was 4%. This is still astoundingly low.

Birth control pills decrease the sex drive of the wives, (which is expected since the pills simulate pregnancy). This makes life miserable for the husbands. This does not make for a happy marriage. The husbands end up going through most of the marriage living with a semi non responsive wife, who now gives the impression she does not love the husband as much because of her coldness. Of course she does, but she simply has much less sex drive. Why would anyone want to be in this kind of marriage?
This is probably one of the reasons for such a high divorce rate.

Sometimes the opposite happens. The husband can now have to much sex, since there are no abstinence periods. The wife now feels used after a number of years, since she no longer has much of a desire. Because of all this sex, the husband becomes self-centered and can no longer love others as he should. This is the definition of sin from the catechism. " a failure in genuine love of God and neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods". In other words, any good the God gives us, whether food, alcohol, drugs, sex, money, etc. WILL cause a person to develop a perverse attachment to that good, this is known as sin. That perverse attachment will cause a failure to love others to a certain extent. That will lead to misery for the sinner and for those around him. In marriage that will tend toward unhappy marriages and divorce. Only love of God and the grace He gives can break that perverse attachment. That is why God became man, to free us from our strong inclination to sin, to free us from our perverse attachments to the goods God gives us so that we can love God and others and thus be happy.

Rejecting God’s teachings on contraceptives causes one to conclude that God is not good. For why would a person reject a teaching if he knew this teaching was for his good and happiness here and now? Thus he begins to believe that all God teaches is not for his good and happiness, thus God must not be all good. God must have some faults. This causes the contracepting person to believe that he is now the one who decides what actions are good and what are evil, instead of relying on God for his source of the what is good and evil. Naturally, that leads to more sin and more misery for himself and others.

Since he is now in partial rebellion against God, he no longer prays as he should. This lack of grace from a decrease in prayer leads to more slavery to sin and more unhappiness for himself and others.

And of course, if he dies unrepentant in rebellion against God, the result is not good.

Thus why in the world would anyone even THINK about using birth control pills??

 

[Trevor_Stamm]

If married couples have to limit their children for legitimate reasons, why in the world would they ever do so by using birth control pills instead of natural family planning?

All the studies show those who use birth control pills have a very high divorce rate, 30-50% depending on how the divorces are measured. NFP has a very low divorce rate. Here is a good link. physiciansforlife.org/content/view/193/36/ It showed a divorce rate of 0.2%, but I read the sociologist conducting the study had to make some adjustments to make it compare with other Catholics and the final rate was 4%. This is still astoundingly low.

Birth control pills decrease the sex drive of the wives, (which is expected since the pills simulate pregnancy). This makes life miserable for the husbands. This does not make for a happy marriage. The husbands end up going through most of the marriage living with a semi non responsive wife, who now gives the impression she does not love the husband as much because of her coldness. Of course she does, but she simply has much less sex drive. Why would anyone want to be in this kind of marriage?
This is probably one of the reasons for such a high divorce rate.

Sometimes the opposite happens. The husband can now have to much sex, since there are no abstinence periods. The wife now feels used after a number of years, since she no longer has much of a desire. Because of all this sex, the husband becomes self-centered and can no longer love others as he should. This is the definition of sin from the catechism. " a failure in genuine love of God and neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods". In other words, any good the God gives us, whether food, alcohol, drugs, sex, money, etc. WILL cause a person to develop a perverse attachment to that good, this is known as sin. That perverse attachment will cause a failure to love others to a certain extent. That will lead to misery for the sinner and for those around him. In marriage that will tend toward unhappy marriages and divorce. Only love of God and the grace He gives can break that perverse attachment. That is why God became man, to free us from our strong inclination to sin, to free us from our perverse attachments to the goods God gives us so that we can love God and others and thus be happy.

Rejecting God’s teachings on contraceptives causes one to conclude that God is not good. For why would a person reject a teaching if he knew this teaching was for his good and happiness here and now? Thus he begins to believe that all God teaches is not for his good and happiness, thus God must not be all good. God must have some faults. This causes the contracepting person to believe that he is now the one who decides what actions are good and what are evil, instead of relying on God for his source of the what is good and evil. Naturally, that leads to more sin and more misery for himself and others.

Since he is now in partial rebellion against God, he no longer prays as he should. This lack of grace from a decrease in prayer leads to more slavery to sin and more unhappiness for himself and others.

And of course, if he dies unrepentant in rebellion against God, the result is not good.

Thus why in the world would anyone even THINK about using birth control pills??

Ave Maria and welcome to CAF

You forgot option B alongside natural family planning, abstaining (self-control).

To your question, because people are not as informed about this sort of information then you think. This is why the message needs to get out there as fast and as full as possible. Planned Parenthood is notorious for falsifying information, concealing it, and destroying information. How long did they spew that abortions do not harm the female before actual studies show the very opposite? It’s natural they would lie or conceal this sort of information about birth control pills, or affiliated parties that surround them and force the eugenic agenda.

 

[Pfaffenhoffen]

dcharles:
Life is not a straight line and not everitime we make the right decisions.

 

[GunnerQuick]

It’s a mind set that people have. expecially if you haven’t been brought up that way.
“…Rejecting God’s teachings on contraceptives causes one to conclude that God is not good. For why would a person reject a teaching if he knew this teaching was for his good and happiness here and now?..”
I grew up in a very non-religious household. We believed in god but that was about it. I had never even heard of NFP before I started RCIA last year, and I had never had any reason to think about it.
Before my wife and I where married we used both BC pills and Condoms, (yes we had pre-marital sex) Mainly because we didn’t want kids and no one ever told us it was wrong… It’s all a mind set and your question seems to insinuate that we all grew up the same way. So my question is if someone uses contraception because they have never been told why not to,are they at fault?

P.S. Im happily married now, with a 2 year old and another on the way and share in the fullness of the church as of last Easter

Pax

 

[Warrior1979]

All the studies show those who use birth control pills have a very high divorce rate, 30-50% depending on how the divorces are measured. NFP has a very low divorce rate.

This is what is called lying with statistics. These statistics that are thrown out by by NFP supporters to support their cause.

The problem this set of statistics is that it is comparing apples to oranges. The two items being compared, NFP vs. BC, are not the only considerations, and in this case those additional consideration have a dramatic effect on the results. The most significant of those is the religious beliefs and practices of the various groups. Those practicing NFP are typically very devout Catholics, and thus are most likely to follow the Church’s teaching. To do a proper study, you’d need a randomly selected group of devout Catholics practicing NFP, and another devout group of Catholics using BC. Better yet, take the group the originally used NFP and randomly split it in two, one group using NFP and the other BC, then examine the results. Obviously, it won’t happen because the Church won’t allow it.

There is nothing inherent to NFP that causes people to stay together. Do you really believe that forcing the BC group to practice NFP will change the results?

Birth control pills decrease the sex drive of the wives, (which is expected since the pills simulate pregnancy). This makes life miserable for the husbands. This does not make for a happy marriage. The husbands end up going through most of the marriage living with a semi non responsive wife, who now gives the impression she does not love the husband as much because of her coldness. Of course she does, but she simply has much less sex drive. Why would anyone want to be in this kind of marriage?
This is probably one of the reasons for such a high divorce rate.

Sometimes the opposite happens. The husband can now have to much sex, since there are no abstinence periods. The wife now feels used after a number of years, since she no longer has much of a desire. Because of all this sex, the husband becomes self-centered and can no longer love others as he should. This is the definition of sin from the catechism. " a failure in genuine love of God and neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods". In other words, any good the God gives us, whether food, alcohol, drugs, sex, money, etc. WILL cause a person to develop a perverse attachment to that good, this is known as sin. That perverse attachment will cause a failure to love others to a certain extent. That will lead to misery for the sinner and for those around him. In marriage that will tend toward unhappy marriages and divorce. Only love of God and the grace He gives can break that perverse attachment. That is why God became man, to free us from our strong inclination to sin, to free us from our perverse attachments to the goods God gives us so that we can love God and others and thus be happy.

Sorry to say that this is all nonsense, at least from my own experience and that of anyone I’ve ever come across. Not only that, similar arguments can be made for NFP, since sex is performed when the wife’s sex drive is not at it’s peak. Fact is, all birth control has its side effects, natural (including NFP) or otherwise.

Rejecting God’s teachings on contraceptives causes one to conclude that God is not good.

A lot of Catholics have a problem with statements such as this, mainly because the contraceptive teachings are not based on anything that Christ taught, but rather are based in Tradition. People like me find it incredibly odd that something that is supposed to be as important as this and has been around before Christ gets no mention by Christ.

As always, the disclaimer is that this issue has no effect on my personal life, since I do not practice birth control of any type.

 

[maryjk]

If married couples have to limit their children for legitimate reasons, why in the world would they ever do so by using birth control pills instead of natural family planning?

I have been married for almost 20 years. For the first few years, I used ABC. For the last few years, we have used NFP.

All the studies show those who use birth control pills have a very high divorce rate, 30-50% depending on how the divorces are measured. NFP has a very low divorce rate. Here is a good link. physiciansforlife.org/content/view/193/36/ It showed a divorce rate of 0.2%, but I read the sociologist conducting the study had to make some adjustments to make it compare with other Catholics and the final rate was 4%. This is still astoundingly low.

I was no closer to a divorce then, than I am now. I loved my husband and wanted to stay with him forever. I still do.

Birth control pills decrease the sex drive of the wives, (which is expected since the pills simulate pregnancy). This makes life miserable for the husbands. This does not make for a happy marriage. The husbands end up going through most of the marriage living with a semi non responsive wife, who now gives the impression she does not love the husband as much because of her coldness. Of course she does, but she simply has much less sex drive. Why would anyone want to be in this kind of marriage?
This is probably one of the reasons for such a high divorce rate.

I was hot for my husband on the pill. I am still hot for my husband.

Sometimes the opposite happens. The husband can now have to much sex, since there are no abstinence periods. The wife now feels used after a number of years, since she no longer has much of a desire. Because of all this sex, the husband becomes self-centered and can no longer love others as he should. This is the definition of sin from the catechism. " a failure in genuine love of God and neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods". In other words, any good the God gives us, whether food, alcohol, drugs, sex, money, etc. WILL cause a person to develop a perverse attachment to that good, this is known as sin. That perverse attachment will cause a failure to love others to a certain extent. That will lead to misery for the sinner and for those around him. In marriage that will tend toward unhappy marriages and divorce. Only love of God and the grace He gives can break that perverse attachment. That is why God became man, to free us from our strong inclination to sin, to free us from our perverse attachments to the goods God gives us so that we can love God and others and thus be happy.

No one had “too much sex.” No one felt used. Sexual relations are a mutual decision.

Rejecting God’s teachings on contraceptives causes one to conclude that God is not good. For why would a person reject a teaching if he knew this teaching was for his good and happiness here and now? Thus he begins to believe that all God teaches is not for his good and happiness, thus God must not be all good. God must have some faults. This causes the contracepting person to believe that he is now the one who decides what actions are good and what are evil, instead of relying on God for his source of the what is good and evil. Naturally, that leads to more sin and more misery for himself and others.

I would speculate that most Catholics that use ABC are using it because they do not understand the teaching of the Church. It probably doesn’t help that most teachers of NFP have 5-10 children. It is a great hurdle for those of us that should avoid having children have to jump.

Since he is now in partial rebellion against God, he no longer prays as he should. This lack of grace from a decrease in prayer leads to more slavery to sin and more unhappiness for himself and others.

And of course, if he dies unrepentant in rebellion against God, the result is not good.

Thus why in the world would anyone even THINK about using birth control pills??

Yes, NFP is what the church teaches if you need to avoid having children. But you make quite the leap from using ABC to no longer praying or slavery to sin.

I see it more that most Catholics don’t understand the teaching, rather than they are going against it.

 

[ringil]

If married couples have to limit their children for legitimate reasons, why in the world would they ever do so by using birth control pills instead of natural family planning?

All the studies show those who use birth control pills have a very high divorce rate, 30-50% depending on how the divorces are measured. NFP has a very low divorce rate. Here is a good link. physiciansforlife.org/content/view/193/36/ It showed a divorce rate of 0.2%, but I read the sociologist conducting the study had to make some adjustments to make it compare with other Catholics and the final rate was 4%. This is still astoundingly low.

Birth control pills decrease the sex drive of the wives, (which is expected since the pills simulate pregnancy). This makes life miserable for the husbands. This does not make for a happy marriage. The husbands end up going through most of the marriage living with a semi non responsive wife, who now gives the impression she does not love the husband as much because of her coldness. Of course she does, but she simply has much less sex drive. Why would anyone want to be in this kind of marriage?
This is probably one of the reasons for such a high divorce rate.

Sometimes the opposite happens. The husband can now have to much sex, since there are no abstinence periods. The wife now feels used after a number of years, since she no longer has much of a desire. Because of all this sex, the husband becomes self-centered and can no longer love others as he should. This is the definition of sin from the catechism. " a failure in genuine love of God and neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods". In other words, any good the God gives us, whether food, alcohol, drugs, sex, money, etc. WILL cause a person to develop a perverse attachment to that good, this is known as sin. That perverse attachment will cause a failure to love others to a certain extent. That will lead to misery for the sinner and for those around him. In marriage that will tend toward unhappy marriages and divorce. Only love of God and the grace He gives can break that perverse attachment. That is why God became man, to free us from our strong inclination to sin, to free us from our perverse attachments to the goods God gives us so that we can love God and others and thus be happy.

Rejecting God’s teachings on contraceptives causes one to conclude that God is not good. For why would a person reject a teaching if he knew this teaching was for his good and happiness here and now? Thus he begins to believe that all God teaches is not for his good and happiness, thus God must not be all good. God must have some faults. This causes the contracepting person to believe that he is now the one who decides what actions are good and what are evil, instead of relying on God for his source of the what is good and evil. Naturally, that leads to more sin and more misery for himself and others.

Since he is now in partial rebellion against God, he no longer prays as he should. This lack of grace from a decrease in prayer leads to more slavery to sin and more unhappiness for himself and others.

And of course, if he dies unrepentant in rebellion against God, the result is not good.

Thus why in the world would anyone even THINK about using birth control pills??

Folks use BC because it’s convinient and has few side effects.

As Catholics we understand that BC is not consistent with the social order so we shouldn’t use it but to deny that it is quite useful for couples doesn’t make any sense.

 

[EasterJoy]

People smoke cigarettes, don’t get enough sleep, don’t exercise, watch TV programming that even they think is stupid just becuase it is what is on, buy lottery tickets, fail to study for exams, don’t show up for court dates, fail to wear seatbelts, eat things that they know will increase their likelihood of getting cancer, diabetes, stroke, and cancer, and spend billions of dollars a year trying to look better and to lose weight without having to eat less or take care of themselves.

Now think about that. Why on earth would it surprise you that people would try to regulate their family size with a pill instead of behavioral change that require education, forethought, and self-control?

 

[ryecroft]

Being a Catholic who has had to use ABC for medical reasons (yes sanctioned by the Church) -I have to say that I haven’t had to deal with ANY of the things you’ve described (the OP) -my husband and I have a wonderful, loving relationship -I have never felt “used” because we were able to be with each other and not had to worry about pregnancy. Honestly, what really frustrated us and got to me especially was the times when I went off of the pill and used NFP (unsuccessfully, but that’s another post - and yes we tried it for a good amount of time and may use it if/when the doctor’s ever think I’m well enough to try to go off the pills and have the possibility of conceiving again)- (BTW before getting married went through the charting and learning, etc - even wound up with extra hospital trips due to need of transfusions because I went off the pill).
I guess my point is that these kind of ‘horror’ stories of people - Catholics who use the pill, I just don’t see it. Perhaps because of our situation, we’re just lucky or blessed, but I have to admit, I have plenty of undivorced, Catholic friends who have been using ABC for years for whatever reason and have wonderful, loving marriages. I’m not trying to sound like “ha ha I have a serious disease so I’m allowed to use the pill…” if anything, I wish I didn’t have to - (and please don’t tell me to go with the Pope Paul institute or try another version of NFP or go to a NAPRO doctor - we’ve done most if not all of the things people have mentioned - but with kidney disease and female problems, short of a miracle, it’s not happening - and I’m tired of the constant testing I went through for years trying to find a way to fix it that didn’t involve a hysterectomy)-
anyway, not everyone on the pill is going to have this horrible marriage where the spouse feels used by the husband for sex or like he’s not accepting of “all” of her including her ability to procreate.
I just wanted to throw this out there, because according to the stats I’ve read (and yes I can site them if needed)- most married Catholic couples use or have used some form of ABC (for reasons other than those sanctioned by the Church). I also wanted to mention that I have read many stats for NFP showing that they have 99.6 % or some other very high amounts of “success” - but how is that ‘success’ defined? I either live and have friends that live in areas where NFP just isn’t working anywhere near this well in their part of the country or success for NFP isn’t being properly defined. (I know (personally - not just on here) of multiple couples who used NFP ‘religiously’ and still got pregnant. Since NFP can be used for both conception aid and for conception prevention, I’m wondering how these hugely high numbers are arrived at)
I just wanted to put out there that just because a Catholic Couple uses ABC for whatever reason doesn’t mean they’re going to have some awful, horrible marriage or a spouse that doesn’t respect her fertility.
God Bless
Rye

 

[Bobby_Jim]

I just wanted to throw this out there, because according to the stats I’ve read (and yes I can site them if needed)- most married Catholic couples use or have used some form of ABC (for reasons other than those sanctioned by the Church). I also wanted to mention that I have read many stats for NFP showing that they have 99.6 % or some other very high amounts of “success” - but how is that ‘success’ defined? I either live and have friends that live in areas where NFP just isn’t working anywhere near this well in their part of the country or success for NFP isn’t being properly defined. (I know (personally - not just on here) of multiple couples who used NFP ‘religiously’ and still got pregnant. Since NFP can be used for both conception aid and for conception prevention, I’m wondering how these hugely high numbers are arrived at)

I agree, what is “successful” use of NFP? We conceived 2 of our 3 children when NFP said conception was unlikely. But the children are a great gift from God. We have exactly the children God wants us to have, and so NFP was tremendously successful that way, even if it wasn’t necessarily the result we were planning on.

With respect to the supposedly 99.6% rate at preventing pregnancy - there was a post in another thread to the effect that, that number comes from cherry-picking the data, eliminating women who for a variety of reasons aren’t “ideal” for the study. I would gather that for one reason or another we must somehow not be “ideal”. And we have been very cautious in how we practice it, giving an extra couple of days of abstinence beyond what was taught in our class… Oh well, even if it’s 99.6% effective, someone has to be part of the 0.4%, and again, I’m not complaining, the kids are a great blessing. But our experience suggests that, if we had a grave reason to avoid pregnancy, I would have a hard time trusting NFP to absolutely avoid pregnancy.

 

[Bobby_Jim]

Back to the question of why would anyone use BC pills - this is just part of our culture. There’s a pill for everything. You have a headache, you take a pill. You have trouble going to the bathroom, you take a pill. You go to the bathroom too much, you take a pill. You feel excitable, you take a pill. You feel depressed, you take a pill. You have “Low T”, you take a pill. You have “RLS”, you take a pill. You want to get pregnant but can’t, you take a pill. You don’t want to get pregnant, you take a pill.

There’s a pill for just about everything now. Except NDM-1.

 

[Allegra]

People use birth control pills because they have been indoctrinated by their schools, family, friends, and doctors that it is the responsible and intelligent thing to do. It seems that it has gotten to a point where even practicing Catholics do not know that using birthcontrol is wrong and unsafe. You want to see expressions of surprise? Try and convey that message in the average women’s Bible study. People are actually convinced of the misconception that the Church is okay with using birth control pills if the couple is happily married and has had children or plans to eventually. What’s more, they assume it is safe because doctors will actually give it to teenage girls for acne! Then we wonder why so many women have difficulty getting pregnant after two-decades of being on a pill that stiffles their natural reproductive cycles!

 

[Lucky102]

I agree, what is “successful” use of NFP? We conceived 2 of our 3 children when NFP said conception was unlikely. But the children are a great gift from God. We have exactly the children God wants us to have, and so NFP was tremendously successful that way, even if it wasn’t necessarily the result we were planning on.

With respect to the supposedly 99.6% rate at preventing pregnancy - there was a post in another thread to the effect that, that number comes from cherry-picking the data, eliminating women who for a variety of reasons aren’t “ideal” for the study. I would gather that for one reason or another we must somehow not be “ideal”. And we have been very cautious in how we practice it, giving an extra couple of days of abstinence beyond what was taught in our class… Oh well, even if it’s 99.6% effective, someone has to be part of the 0.4%, and again, I’m not complaining, the kids are a great blessing. But our experience suggests that, if we had a grave reason to avoid pregnancy, I would have a hard time trusting NFP to absolutely avoid pregnancy.

Well if you had a grave reason and don’t trust NFP then you would just have to be abstinent.
And although it is not 100 percent effective, it is way more effective than BC though.

 

[Lucky102]

chastity.com/chastity-qa/birth-control/morality/why-catholic-church-again

 

[dcharles]

This is what is called lying with statistics. These statistics that are thrown out by by NFP supporters to support their cause.

The problem this set of statistics is that it is comparing apples to oranges. The two items being compared, NFP vs. BC, are not the only considerations, and in this case those additional consideration have a dramatic effect on the results. The most significant of those is the religious beliefs and practices of the various groups. Those practicing NFP are typically very devout Catholics, and thus are most likely to follow the Church’s teaching. To do a proper study, you’d need a randomly selected group of devout Catholics practicing NFP, and another devout group of Catholics using BC. Better yet, take the group the originally used NFP and randomly split it in two, one group using NFP and the other BC, then examine the results. Obviously, it won’t happen because the Church won’t allow it.

Actually the sociologist who did the study DID compare those Catholics to others who weren’t devout, but just ordinary Catholics. The original study had a divorce rate of 0.2%. When he adjusted for ordinary non-devout Catholics he came up with the divorce rate of 4%. This is the usual rate the I have seen with other studies.
In fact I have searched and searched and I have never found a study where those who use NFP have a divorce rate above 4%. Never.
Again we forget that God is GOOD. Thus all His teachings are for our GOOD here and now, for our happiness here and now.

The very first paragraph in the Catechism in the prologue teaches:

1. God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life.
   Blessed is defined as “happy and fortunate”. Look it up in dictionaries.
   Thus God created man to share in His HAPPY life. The Church teaches that this sharing begins here and now on this earth.

Then again in Part 1, Chapter 1, in Article 1, the very first paragraph in the formal beginning of the Catechism the Church teaches again:
27. The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and HAPPINESS he never stops searching for:

Thus, God created man for OUR happiness. God became man, suffered and died , and founded a Church to carry on His teachings for OUR HAPPINESS.

It is amazing the number of Catholics who think God is not good, who think that His teachings are for our misery, who think that if we only obey and suffer through these miserable teachings, that in the end we will be rewarded with happiness only in heaven.
This is FALSE.
Pope JPII condemned this heresy in his encyclical the Splendor of the Truth. The Pope teaches that God is good, thus ALL His teachings are for our GOOD. Granted, that we don’t see the good in His teachings at first, and sometimes never at all because of our limited understanding. That is because we are not God. Just as those who give in to alcoholism and drug abuse do so because they can’t see the long term harm to these practices. Contraception is exactly the same thing. God forbids it because in the long run it makes us self centered, it destroys marriages, it causes unhappiness during the marriage, etc.
If contraception made people happy in the long run, God would command us to use contraception.

 

[dcharles]

A lot of Catholics have a problem with statements such as this, mainly because the contraceptive teachings are not based on anything that Christ taught, but rather are based in Tradition. People like me find it incredibly odd that something that is supposed to be as important as this and has been around before Christ gets no mention by Christ.

They certainly ARE based on what Christ taught. The Sacred Tradition handed down by the apostles ARE the teachings they learned from Christ. In fact the Church did not learn any teachings of the Gospel from the bible. That is because Jesus taught the entire Gospel (the Catholic faith) to His apostles. In John 15:15 Jesus said
I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
Since Jesus came to proclaim the Gospel, then Jesus taught the entire Gospel, “everything” to His apostles.
And again He said
John 14:26
But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
Since the apostles could not remember the whole Gospel that Jesus taught them He sent the Holy Spirit to teach them again and to remind them of everything Jesus said. Thus the Church could not learn a single teaching of the Gospel from the bible because the Church already had been taught the entire Gospel directly from God.
Then in Mark 16:16, Jesus sent out the apostles, the first leaders of His Church to preach the Gospel to all nations and Jesus said “He who believes and is baptized will be saved”. Thus salvation comes from believing the Gospel the apostles taught and preached. And the Gospel they taught and preached, (handed down in Tradition) is found no where in the bible. It is NOT written down. The four Gospels are narratives of the life of Jesus. They do not claim to be the Gospel the apostles taught and preached, though they contain some of His teachings. There is not a single chapter or paragraph in the bible that claims to present this Gospel that the apostles taught and preached. But we do know what they taught and preached because the first Christians wrote down many of these teachings. Anyone can read the writings of these early Church Fathers. The Gospel that the apostles taught and preached was the Catholic faith.

Thus the Church teachings on contraception ARE the word of God, which was handed down in Tradition. They are part of the Gospel Jesus taught to his apostles so they could hand them down forever to bring liberation from the misery of sin and bring happiness to man.

 

[dcharles]

It’s a mind set that people have. expecially if you haven’t been brought up that way.
“…Rejecting God’s teachings on contraceptives causes one to conclude that God is not good. For why would a person reject a teaching if he knew this teaching was for his good and happiness here and now?..”
I grew up in a very non-religious household. We believed in god but that was about it. I had never even heard of NFP before I started RCIA last year, and I had never had any reason to think about it.
Before my wife and I where married we used both BC pills and Condoms, (yes we had pre-marital sex) Mainly because we didn’t want kids and no one ever told us it was wrong… It’s all a mind set and your question seems to insinuate that we all grew up the same way. So my question is if someone uses contraception because they have never been told why not to,are they at fault?

P.S. Im happily married now, with a 2 year old and another on the way and share in the fullness of the church as of last Easter

Pax

I am sorry. I should have said,

“Why would in the world would any Catholic who has been taught the entire truth of the Catholic faith ever use BC pills?”

 

[dcharles]

I want to repeat what I wrote earlier. I have never read of a single study where Catholics or Christians or anyone who used natural family planning had a divorce rate higher than 4%

Please inform me if anyone can find such a study and if it is a reasonably good study, then I will amend my statement.

On the other hand, I have never seen any study of Catholic divorce rate that included all Catholics that was less than 21%. In this study atheists, Lutherans and Catholics had the same divorce rate of 21% .** Most of the time the studies show from a 30% divorce rate to 50% if divorces from second marriages are included.** And since at only 5% at the most, of Catholics use only NFP, we can only conclude that those Catholics who use artificial birth control, on average, have a divorce rate of 30% or higher.

Since God is good, since God wants us to be happy, since ALL of God’s teachings are for our good and happiness, then of course we should expect these results.

Thus again, since NFP reduces the divorce rate to only 4%, why in the world would any Catholics who were taught the whole Catholic faith, ever want to use artificial birth control, which not only decreases the sex drive of the wife, causes unhappiness, a high divorce rate, but also causes dangerous blood clots and breast cancer?

 

[Calliso]

I want to repeat what I wrote earlier. I have never read of a single study where Catholics or Christians or anyone who used natural family planning had a divorce rate higher than 4%

Please inform me if anyone can find such a study and if it is a reasonably good study, then I will amend my statement.

On the other hand, I have never seen any study of Catholic divorce rate that included all Catholics that was less than 21%. In this study atheists, Lutherans and Catholics had the same divorce rate of 21% .** Most of the time the studies show from a 30% divorce rate to 50% if divorces from second marriages are included.** And since at only 5% at the most, of Catholics use only NFP, we can only conclude that those Catholics who use artificial birth control, on average, have a divorce rate of 30% or higher.

Since God is good, since God wants us to be happy, since ALL of God’s teachings are for our good and happiness, then of course we should expect these results.

Thus again, since NFP reduces the divorce rate to only 4%, why in the world would any Catholics who were taught the whole Catholic faith, ever want to use artificial birth control, which not only decreases the sex drive of the wife, causes unhappiness, a high divorce rate, but also causes dangerous blood clots and breast cancer?

Like someone pointed out before NFP doesn;t have some magical divorce reducing qualities about it. But the lower divorce rates probably have more to do with the fact that those using NFP are likely to be those who also donlt believe in divorce. Besides what about the marriages that NFP has put a lot of stress on? I have heard many cases just on this board alone! I mean if NFP is supposed to bring happiness why are these people instead miserable?

Also not all people have those side effects with the pill. Plenty of women still have a high sex drive on it and plenty of people have happiness and wonderful marriages when the wife is using the pill. Not all of course much like with NFP there are people on the pill or who were on that pill that were unhappy because of it. But much like the NFP situation it is not a black and white thing!

 

[Warrior1979]

I want to repeat what I wrote earlier. I have never read of a single study where Catholics or Christians or anyone who used natural family planning had a divorce rate higher than 4%

This is a misrepresentation. For clarification:

The Natural Family Planning group studied consists of the typical middle class families of the United States of America, primarily Catholic, with small minority of Protestant and Evangelical.

In other words, all participants are Christan, the majority of whom are Catholics. There are no “anyone who used NFP”…it is restricted to a population segment.

Select a random sample of atheists and randomly select which ones will use NFP and BC, this way the religious factor is eliminated from the study. If the results from that study conclude similar results, you’ll have something to hang your hat on.

Right now, all that is displayed is that deeply religious, and in particular Catholic, families have a lower divorce rate. Not that there is anything wrong with that. But is it improper to start isolating factors and applying them to the general population.

Furthermore, deeply religious families simply don’t divorce. One section of my family is Irish Catholic. I can tell you that there members of my family from the past that absolutely could not stand each other, but would not divorce because of their religious beliefs. That hasn’t changed, and NFP had nothing to do with it. If the core belief system isn’t there, NFP won’t solve anything; if fact, the lack of sex will aggravate it.