Why is birth control a sin?

[MarianD]

Really, why? I never understood this.

If a married couple wants to solidify their union and have sex, but they don’t want a baby (most likely because they financially can’t support one right now), why do they have to have sex and roll the dice? As long as you’re married, then it’s fine, right?

Also, if birth control is a sin because it’s “wasting semen”, then does that also make oral and anal sex a sin, even if one is having it with their spouse?

Not trying to attack anyone’s beliefs (keep in mind I’m Catholic too), but I really want to know the logic behind this.

 

[teachccd]

Really, why? I never understood this.

If a married couple wants to solidify their union and have sex, but they don’t want a baby (most likely because they financially can’t support one right now), why do they have to have sex and roll the dice? As long as you’re married, then it’s fine, right?

Also, if birth control is a sin because it’s “wasting semen”, then does that also make oral and anal sex a sin, even if one is having it with their spouse?

Not trying to attack anyone’s beliefs (keep in mind I’m Catholic too), but I really want to know the logic behind this.

Sex is a gift and not a right. When a couple gets married they promise God that when they use the gift of marital intimacy that they will be open to procreation. The Church teaches that sex is a gift given for two purposes. One is for the conjugal union of the husband and wife so that the two may becoame one and unite in body and soul. The second and equally important is for the gift of life. Each marital act must be open to life. Any barrier to this possibility represents an artificial means to play God and tell Him when it is time to create a new life.

Natural family planning which is accepted by the Church allows the couple to have intercourse at times when fertility is most unlikely for those who want to space their children. This is a natural means and not blocking the possibility of life should it occur. There is a huge difference since NFP uses timing and not artificial barriers.

And, yes, oral and anal sex that is brought to complettion within the marital act is gravely disordered and sinful. This is to keep within the understanding that sex is a gift and the gift of the gift is life. We cannot play God and artificial birth control is doing just that. There are many Church documents including the Catechism of the Catholic Church that will reference to this. I hope that this helps. I’m sure that many others will chime in with additional details and resources… God bless…teachccd

 

[1ke]

Really, why? I never understood this.

“Birth control” is not a sin. Birth control is the spacing/planning the timing of children. There is nothing immoral about spacing births.

There are moral means of doing so, and immoral means of doing so.

Contraception is an immoral means of spacing children.

Abstaining-- either entirely or periodically based on a woman’s natural cycle-- is not immoral.

Each time a couple enages in the marital embrace it must be per se ordered to unity and procreation. This mean it must be a **completed **act of sexual intercourse that is unaltered.

If a married couple wants to solidify their union and have sex, but they don’t want a baby (most likely because they financially can’t support one right now), why do they have to have sex and roll the dice?

They don’t have to have sex. They can abstain if they have a just reason to avoid a child at that time. They can also use the readily available information about the wife’s cycle in order to determine when she is naturally infertile.

As long as you’re married, then it’s fine, right?

What’s fine? Your question is ambiguous.

Also, if birth control is a sin because it’s “wasting semen”,

That is not the reason contraception is immoral.

then does that also make oral and anal sex a sin, even if one is having it with their spouse?

The acts you describe are both immoral, but not because they ‘waste semen.’ They are immoral because they are a disordered use of the sexual faculties. The proper way to use the sexual organs is in a completed act of vaginal intercourse that is unaltered to attempt sterlizing the act.

Not trying to attack anyone’s beliefs (keep in mind I’m Catholic too), but I really want to know the logic behind this.

I suggest you read Casti Connubii and Humanae Vitae for starters.

Several contemporary Catholic authors also have good material on the topic. Christopher West and Greg Popcak are Catholic authors who write on the topic.

 

[Mark77]

**The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) teaches us;

"Periodic continence, that is, the methods of birth regulation based on self-observation and the use of infertile periods, is in conformity with the objective criteria of morality. These methods respect the bodies of the spouses, encourage tenderness between them, and favor the education of an authentic freedom.

In answer to your question; “Why is birth control a sin?”

In contrast, “every action which, whether in anticipation of the conjugal act, or in its accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible” is intrinsically evil:

Thus the innate language that expresses the total reciprocal self-giving of husband and wife is overlaid, through contraception, by an objectively contradictory language, namely, that of not giving oneself totally to the other. This leads not only to a positive refusal to be open to life but also to a falsification of the inner truth of conjugal love, which is called upon to give itself in personal totality. . . . The difference, both anthropological and moral, between contraception and recourse to the rhythm of the cycle . . . involves in the final analysis two irreconcilable concepts of the human person and of human sexuality. (CCC 2370)

"The spouses’ union achieves the twofold end of marriage: the good of the spouses themselves and the transmission of life. These two meanings or values of marriage cannot be separated without altering the couple’s spiritual life and compromising the goods of marriage and the future of the family.

The conjugal love of man and woman thus stands under the twofold obligation of fidelity and fecundity. " (CCC 2363)**

Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, Ora Pro Nobis Peccatoribus!

mark

 

[Scoobyshme]

Really, why? I never understood this.

If a married couple wants to solidify their union and have sex, but they don’t want a baby (most likely because they financially can’t support one right now), why do they have to have sex and roll the dice? As long as you’re married, then it’s fine, right?

Also, if birth control is a sin because it’s “wasting semen”, then does that also make oral and anal sex a sin, even if one is having it with their spouse?

Not trying to attack anyone’s beliefs (keep in mind I’m Catholic too), but I really want to know the logic behind this.

Marian, let me put it this way…

Tonight, in a hospital near you, a little baby is going to be born. The life of that little baby began about nine months ago. One day, that hospital won’t be there. Neither will the town, the county, the state, or the country, and maybe not even earth. But that little baby will still exist! He will exist forever!

What the contracepting couple are telling God when they practice artificial birth control is this: “We know that by this act, You may will to create a person who will live forever. We know that may be Your will. But WE won’t let YOU do it!” What an awful place to put yourself. Telling God, “No!” That is the essence of sin. Telling God, “No!”

It is also trying to supplant God with self. The original sin was such. The serpent (Satan) convinced Eve that if she ate the forbidden fruit that not only would she not die like God had promised, but that she would be like God, able to decide, for herself, what was right and what was wrong. And that’s the sin of almost every American that I’ve ever met. And I have been guilty of the same! That’s not the way to heaven. We must change, be humble and obedient to God, through His Mystical Body, the Church. Not try to insist on having things our way.

God will provide for all the kids you have. They’re really His kids. They will get what is necessary, not necessarily what they want. There’s a big difference and the American marketing firms know full well that all they have to do to sell anything is convince people that their wants are needs.

 

[VetA]

Really, why? I never understood this.

If a married couple wants to solidify their union and have sex, but they don’t want a baby (most likely because they financially can’t support one right now), why do they have to have sex and roll the dice? As long as you’re married, then it’s fine, right?

Also, if birth control is a sin because it’s “wasting semen”, then does that also make oral and anal sex a sin, even if one is having it with their spouse?

Not trying to attack anyone’s beliefs (keep in mind I’m Catholic too), but I really want to know the logic behind this.

you may want to use more tact when when writing about a subject like this, remember there are people here who are under the age of 18…

but it is a sin because it denies the procreative aspect of sex, sex is only to be had by married couples, for it is wiritten [BIBLEDRB]Genesis 2:24[/BIBLEDRB]
so therefore sex is not bad, but the bonding/pleasure aspect of it can never be divided from the procreative aspect, when you really think about it it will also cause a man to view a woman as an object and treat her less like a person if she will just give him sex with out thinking about consequences

you may want to read Paul VI’s ENCYCLICALHUMANAE VITAE

 

[bkayw]

Many birth control products are abortifactants.

Sperm is fertilizing the egg (producing life) and the drugs are creating conditions in the womb that result in the zygote being killed.

google.com/search?q=abortifacient+birth+control&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7

When a couple relies on chemical contraception, they are also one mental step closer to choosing abortion as a way to end pregnancy.

 

[Wowbagger]

Many good arguments have been given here, and I must second the recommendation given above of Chris West and Greg Popcak’s respective books. But I’ll give one more “micro-argument.”

Human beings are not just souls-controlling-bodies. We are souls and bodies. Both are important parts of the human person. What your body does, then, is just as important to who you are as the thoughts you thinks and the words you say. We see this union of soul and body quite radically in marriage: with the words of the wedding vows, the couple pledges to give themselves to one another, totally and for the rest of their lives, in a radical gift of themselves, which we call “love.” Then, after the words are said, the couple takes to bed and “says” the same thing with their bodies.

That is what sexual intercourse is: it is the physical expression of the wedding vows. Sex says, “I give myself completely and unreservedly to you, now and forever; and I simultaneously receive the gift you have made of yourself, with longing and great gratitude.” Sexual intercourse is everything that marriage is about – doing the dishes when your husband has had a long day, going out and getting a tough job to support your wife, caring for one another in sickness, surviving with one another through poverty, and always giving yourself to your spouse without reservation – all wrapped up, physically, in a miraculous microcosm.

Artificial contraception destroys that expression of gift. Contraception says, “I do not give myself to you. I block my fertility from you, and I refuse to accept the gift of fertility from you. We will not become one creature, given totally to one another; rather, we are going to use one another for pleasure and remain emphatically separate.”

Contraception is an attack on marital vows. Contraception uses the body to, literally, tell a lie and betray a vow. Contraception thwarts closeness between married people by putting men in rubber spacesuits and pumping up women with more chemicals, jellies, and wires than a forensics lab. Contraception takes one of God’s most beautiful gifts to humankind, fertility, and treats it like a disease.

It is possibly for this reason that loyal, faithful Catholics – who are almost alone in the modern world in following the Church teaching on this issue – report such high rates of sexual satisfaction compared to the rest of the population.

Really, Marian, to fully answer your question would take a semester-long course. There is no short, pithy answer that is completely satisfying. I recommend that you start reading those books that have been mentioned, to familiarize yourself better with the roots of Catholic teaching here. Or, alternatively, you might just go ahead and trust the Church on this one. She’s got 2000 years of wise men and saints behind her, and she’s never been wrong on a moral issue before. It’s a pretty decent track record.

 

[VetA]

maybe i will take my argument one step further: we all agree that God created us in His own image and likeness, right? well seeing as most birth control is of abortifacient nature, we can logically come to the conclusion that by taking abortificatent birth-control we are denying the dignity derives from being created in the image and likeness of God to whatever baby the mother chooses to murder.

that is just for the abortificaint birth control, what about the “normal” birth control, well that is as bad because like i said in my pervious post, it denies one of the purposes of the sex act, specifically the procreative one, to do that is to God’s commandment to “be fruitful and multiply” Genesis 1:28

[BIBLEDRB]Genesis 1:28[/BIBLEDRB]

 

[neophyte]

Really, why? I never understood this.

If a married couple wants to solidify their union and have sex, but they don’t want a baby (most likely because they financially can’t support one right now), why do they have to have sex and roll the dice? As long as you’re married, then it’s fine, right?

Also, if birth control is a sin because it’s “wasting semen”, then does that also make oral and anal sex a sin, even if one is having it with their spouse?

Not trying to attack anyone’s beliefs (keep in mind I’m Catholic too), but I really want to know the logic behind this.

A good place to start would be to study Humanae Vitae : vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae_en.html

I also suggest that you study JPII’s Theology of the Body, the original texts are very dense but there are excellent studies of it available. Christipher West has a good one, and Father John Riccardo has a great lecture series on it available in .mp3 format at frjohnriccardo.libsyn.com/category/Theology%20of%20the%20Body

And there were shows dedicated to the subject on CA Live, on Jan 14, 2005 and Nov 2, 2009. You can find them in the radio archive.

Contraception is an offense against chastity, which is the “sucessful integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of man in his bodily and spiritual being” (CCC, pp 2337).

God is love, love presupposes a lover and a beloved and this speaks of the mystery of the internal life of the Triune God, a mystery of generosity and generation of new life. We are greated in God’s image, male and female, and God himself uses the spousal union as the most powerful image of His tender love for us, of the relationship He has with His Church, and the way that we are created as new creatures through His union with His Body and Bride.

In the marital act we are bonded as man and wife as an image of The Bride and Groom, and we participate in generation of new life as an image of God’s fecundity. This is a deep fulfillment of our vocation as images of the invisible God, indeed it is the meaning of the act itself. The marital act is a total self-donation, the act itself says “this is my body, which is given up for you; I accept you totally in all that God made you to be; I wish to join with you until death in fulfilling our vocation as images of the life-giving God and to accept with joy the new life that He creates through us and with which He blesses.” “The spouses’ union achieves the twofold end of marriage: the good of the spouses themselves and the transmission of life. These two meanings or values of marriage cannot be separated without altering the couple’s spiritual life and compromising the goods of marriage and the future of the family.” (CCC, pp 2363)

To contracept is to make the entire act a lie. It is to say that one rejects the nature that God gave us, that one rejects a deeply central part of what it means to be a man and a woman, that one rejects God’s providence in blessing us with the miracle of new life. It rejects the sucessful integration of sexuality in our bodily and spiritual being. It treats our bodies not as temples of the Eternal one who is Life from Life, but rather as objects to be used. It is an offense against the nuptial meaning of the body and against our vocation as images of the invisible God.

 

[manualman]

The best answers to this question are not found in internet fora from amatuers like us.

The best answers are in books written on the topic. For the layperson just starting to look into the catholic view of sexuality, the best place to START is Christopher West’s “Good News About Sex & Marriage.”

The bottom line is that sex is a far deeper subject than our culture appreciates. Our culture unconsciously assumes that it is a coincidence that the baby-making part of sex is linked to the pleasure and uniting part. That is why people assume there is no consequence to severing the link. This is because today’s Western culture is poisoned by the idea that our souls are not much related to our bodies - an utterly uncatholic idea. We are a unity of body and soul and that fact colors EVERY aspect of our lives.

 

[VetA]

you may want to use more tact when when writing about a subject like this, remember there are people here who are under the age of 18…

but it is a sin because it denies the procreative aspect of sex, sex is only to be had by married couples, for it is wiritten [BIBLEDRB]Genesis 2:24[/BIBLEDRB]
so therefore sex is not bad, but the bonding/pleasure aspect of it can never be divided from the procreative aspect, when you really think about it it will also cause a man to view a woman as an object and treat her less like a person if she will just give him sex with out thinking about consequences

you may want to read Paul VI’s ENCYCLICALHUMANAE VITAE

oh and to my knowldge, as long as oral and anal culminate in the sexa act then i think it is permissable foreplay. (i am going off of what a timid Brother of the Sacred Heart said to me in a religious sex ed class told me)