Contraception

You have some references for me Paul, or am I going to have to google?

But my point stands, they may have had such things, but they didn't work consistantly or effectively or in such as way as to not cause an abortion. (with perhaps the exception of the condom, I understand those have been around longer than just the last century but I can't prove it)

Oh, and not all Christian's think that way. I know of several who just take whatever comes their way and if that is how they want it and they can support them all, I certainly don't have a problem with it.

But, to say that I've bought into some philosphy that I've never really heard of, is pushing things a bit. What I've bought into is the history of no birth control in my own family and the terrible consequences upon the children (14) that my grandparents brought into the world with few means to support. Perhaps a few of my mother's stories about eating nothing but turnips for weeks on end and going to school in the winter barefoot or with shoes that the holes had been patched with cardboard, might give you a little perspective. Or how about you just take a trip south of the border and take a look at all those babies living literally in the dumps because their parents have been told that BC is a mortal sin.

Personally, I believe that God gave the technology for BC at just the time that man needed to use such. One thing man has absolutely is multiply and fill the earth. What do you suppose will happen when the population of man outgrows the earth's ability to provide sustenance? Which is the worse sin: to stop conception before it happens or allow the child to be born only to suffer from starvation and disease and die before it is 5 years old?

 

Hi MK,

We need to work with the text of Scripture first, then apply what we learn to our situations.

For every pronouncement about what God commands us to do, there are thousands of reasons why we shouldn't follow them!

Yes, there are tragic cases of couples having one child after another and not being able to care for them.

Yes, there are tragic cases of families in third world countries or Mexico not being able to care for their children.

Yes, not all couples think like the world.

Birth control and abortion are not new to the 20th century. Abortion was also common place. Sources? This thread has many sources already listed, from the early church fathers to a discussion of what pharmakeia meant.

You may be right, God may have given us "advanced" birth control technology so that we wouldn't have the problems you are talking about south of the border. How well is that working? Not very well, indeed.

You see, sin has a nasty way of distorting God's good and perfect will, and that includes marriage, family life, and offspring.

Blessings,

 

LOL! That's not what I meant. I wanted links to the eugenics stuff you've mentioned and Margaret Stanger. Sorry I wasn't clear on what I wanted.

BC cannot possibly work in third world countries that are mostly Catholic and who's people are taught, wrongly, from childhood that BC is a mortal sin.

Sin distorts more than just family and child issues. If this were a perfect world, there would be no issues at all because solutions would miraculously appear. We have to live with the post Eden decline and God gave us brains to use in that endeavor. To pull a few verses out of context and declare BC a sin is just plain dishonest. Abortion is a sin, because it kills a living human being. Preventing the conception of that human being is not murder because you can't murder that which is not alive.

BC methods before the 20th century were all abortive in nature (with perhaps the exception of condoms). That means a woman had to know she was pregnant in order use said herbal remedies. Then it was possible to induce an abortion. There were no herbal remedies that prevented conception.

I have yet to see a scripture that pronounces BC either right or wrong that has not been taken out of context. When you find me one let me know. I've already gone through Mojo's list and pointed out where those were out of context. This one God left up to us to decide individually.

 

MK,

Yes, God left this one up for us to decide.

Yes, preventing conception is not murder. I disagree with the church fathers who thought that it was.

But:

The mindset behind birth control does lead many down the road to abortion. The reasons behind both are often the same.

The problem with birth control is the attitude it "often" engenders in the couple. When they do get pregnant by "accident," their attitude is anything but Christian.

Check out:

Weikert, Richard. From Darwin to Hitler; Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics, and Racism in Germany.

Rosen, Christine. Preaching Eugenics; Religious Leaders and the American Eugenics Movement.