Birth Control
This is an area that most people with the Catholic Church. But, as GK Chesterton once said, not only is the Catholic Church is always right, but it is right where the whole world is wrong. There is no other church besides that Catholic Church that teaches that artificial birth control is wrong. Now, if it turns out that the Catholic Church is right and all the others churches are wrong, then this is a pretty strong argument that the Catholic Church is what it professes to be - the only true Church founded by Christ whom He promised that the gates of death and hell shall not prevail against and that the Holy Spirit will guide it into all truth. This is what I want to argue – that the Catholic Church is right where the whole world, even all other churches are wrong.
Divorce Rates
There has been a study of which group has the lowest divorce rate. Surprisingly, they found divorce is still high for even Catholics and Evangelicals. These group’s divorce rates were not much lower than the rest of the world – around 50% of all marriages end in divorce. But there is one group that has an astonishingly low birth rate. In fact, it is under 3-5%! So that means that if you are part of this group, your chances of ever getting a divorce are virtually non-existent.
This group is the one that practices National Family Planning (NFP). NFP is practicing birth control the natural way, which is approved by the Church. It is a couple abstaining from sex for one week every month.
The divorce rate has been climbing in every industrialized country in the world. There are two significant factors affecting the rising divorce rate in the
http://missourifamilies.org/quick/divorceqa/divorceqa3.htm
Also, while the divorce rate in the United States hovers around 50 percent during the first five years of marriage, those who use Natural Family Planning have a divorce rate of about 0.6 percent according to the Couple to Couple League, and 2-5 percent according to research conducted by California State University, attesting to the strong covenant love shared by these couples.
http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/religion/re0661.html
NFP fosters true intimacy and love.
I recently received a letter from a woman who said that while she and her first husband were using contraception, she felt like a “toy or a recreational vehicle.” The contraception made her husband assume that she was always sexually available, and she felt used and taken for granted. She has since been married in the Church and has used NFP for years. In her words, “a chaste marriage is the ultimate!” After abandoning contraception and switching to NFP, another woman said, “I now know the true meaning of the word ‘intimate.’”
http://www.chastity.com/chastity/index.php?id=7&entryid=121
NFP forces the couple to be intimate with each other in a non-sexual way at least one week a month. It teaches the couple self-control. Even Paul saw the value of abstinence for couples “for a season” (1 Cor 7:5).
Birth Control is condemned in the Bible
9 But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so whenever he lay with his brother's wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from producing offspring for his brother. 10 What he did was wicked in the LORD's sight; so he put him to death also.
Genesis 38:9, 10
Onan had sex with his wife and when he had orgasm, he withdrew so that his semen spilled on the ground. In other words, he had sex without being open to life. The Bible says that what he did “was wicked in the Lord’s sight”, so the Lord caused him to die. Modern Protestants try to explain this away by saying that Onan’s sin was that it was rude for him to withdraw. But it is hard to believe that God would kill someone just for being rude.
In Genesis, God commanded man and woman to multiply. It also says that man and woman became one flesh. Sex served two functions – it caused man and woman to multiply and it caused man and woman to become intimate. God designed sex for both committed love and openness to life. The absence of one or the other is an abuse of God’s gift. Onan’s sin was abusing the gift of sex by not being open to God’s gift of life.
This was understood by Christians for the first 19 centuries by both Catholics and Protestant. They always believed and taught that sexual climax other than by penal-vaginal penetration is a grave sin.
Barnabas
Moreover, he [Moses] has rightly detested the weasel [Lev. 11:29]. For he means, "Thou shalt not be like to those whom we hear of as committing wickedness with the mouth with the body through uncleanness [orally consummated sex]; nor shalt thou be joined to those impure women who commit iniquity with the mouth with the body through uncleanness (Letter of Barnabas 10:8 [A.D. 74])
Barnabas commanded women not to be committing wickedness with the mouth. I once asked an Opus Dei priest about oral sex. He said we can be creative in foreplay but the actual sexual orgasm must be with the openness to God’s gift of life.
Clement of
Because of its divine institution for the propagation of man, the seed is not to be vainly ejaculated, nor is it to be damaged, nor is it to be wasted (The Instructor of Children 2:10:91:2 [A.D. 191]).
To have coitus other than to procreate children is to do injury to nature (ibid. 2:10:95:3).
Man’s seed cannot be vainly ejaculated, and must be done with the possibility of the procreation of children. Some may argue “But does that mean that an elderly couple cannot have sex? Or what if couple biololgically cannot have children? Does that mean they cannot have sex since they are not able to procreate?”. No, they can have sex, as long as they have sex in such a way that they are still open to God’s gift of life, even if that gift would be a miracle.
Hippolytus
the so-called faithful want no children from slaves or lowborn commoners, they use drugs of sterility [oral contraceptives] or bind themselves tightly in order to expel a fetus which has already been engendered [abortion] (Refutation of All Heresies 9:7 [A.D. 225]).
So-called faithful use drug of sterility, as opposed to those who are truly faithful.
Augustine
This proves that you [Manicheans] approve of having a wife, not for the procreation of children, but for the gratification of passion. In marriage, as the marriage law declares, the man and woman come together for the procreation of children. Therefore, whoever makes the procreation of children a greater sin than copulation, forbids marriage and makes the woman not a wife but a mistress, who for some gifts presented to her, is joined to the man to gratify his passion (The Morals of the Manichees 18:65 [A.D. 388]).
The Manicheans were heretics at the time of Augustine. Augustine would debate them often. According to Augustine, the Manicheans approved of marriage not for the procreation of children, but the gratification of passion. In fact, the Manicheans saw the procreation of children as a great sin. But Augustine argues that that makes the wife nothing but a mistress.
Martin Luther
"[T]he exceedingly foul deed of Onan, the basest of wretches . . . is a most disgraceful sin. It is far more atrocious than incest and adultery. We call it unchastity, yes, a sodomitic sin. For Onan goes in to her—that is, he lies with her and copulates—and, when it comes to the point of insemination, spills the semen, lest the woman conceive. Surely at such a time the order of nature established by God in procreation should be followed. Accordingly, it was a most disgraceful crime. . . . Consequently, he deserved to be killed by God. He committed an evil deed. Therefore, God punished him" (Commentary on Genesis).
Luther saw that Onan committed a most disgraceful sin. The order of nature requires that once Once went into her, that Onan must be open to procreation. Since he was not, he deserved to be killed by God.
JOHN CALVIN
(SIXTEENTH-CENTURY FOUNDER OF CALVINISM)
The voluntary spilling of semen outside of intercourse between man and woman is a monstrous thing. Deliberately to withdraw from coitus in order that semen may fall on the ground is doubly monstrous. For this is to extinguish the hope of the race and to kill before he is born the hoped-for offspring (Commentary on Genesis)
Deliberately to withdraw in order to avoid children is a monstrous thing to Calvin.
SYNOD OF
(SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY CALVINIST COUNCIL)
"[Onan’s contraceptive act] was even as much as if he had, in a manner, pulled forth the fruit out of the mother’s womb and destroyed it" (Dutch Annotations on the Whole Bible, authorized by ort).
One of the major councils of the Protestants saw the sin of Onan as bad as killing a baby in the mother’s womb.
JOHN WESLEY
(EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FOUNDER OF METHODISM)
"Onan, though he consented to marry the widow, yet to the great abuse of his own body, of the wife he had married, and the memory of the brother that was gone, refused to raise of seed to his brother. Those sins that dishonor the body and defile it are very displeasing to God and evidences of vile affections. Observe, the thing which he did displeased the Lord—and it is to be feared; thousands, especially of single persons, by this very thing, still displease the Lord and destroy their own souls" (Commentary on Genesis).
Up until 1930, all Christians perceived artificial contraception as a serious offense to God. So what changed the views of all Christians after 1930? It was all politics, the Anglican Church, and Planned Parenthood!(see http://books.google.com/books?id=kAJN-OcsZhAC&pg=PA41&lpg=PA41&dq=planned+parenthood+lambeth&source=bl&ots=e7dW5PncjT&sig=ymV5pznIkQ12BmQ40yMGfn7zzOU&hl=en&ei=VVVqSrjSONCnlAfJ9uXJCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2). Magarett Sanger of Planned Parenthood sought to influence the Anglican Church. Through her influence, the Anglican Church reversed their previously held position on birth control in 1930 at the Lambeth Conference. Every other church soon followed the Anglican Church.
It is important here to notice that the Anglican Church did not change its view by its study of the Bible. Instead, it was through the political maneuvering of Planned Parenthood, not exactly a religious institution. And then all the other churches followed. But there has been one church that stood its ground – the Catholic Church. All the other churches have compromised its moral doctrine to conform to the thinking of the secular world. Only the Catholic Church has stood firm. Not only has it stood with the Early Church Fathers, but the Protestant Fathers as well. The Protestants have not waffled on this until the twentieth century. But now all Protestant churches have changed their position.
Truth is unchanging. Truth is rooted in God, and God is unchanging. Before 1930, all Protestant churches believed that birth control was a sin. Now, all Protestant churches think it is OK. Jesus Christ promised His Church will be guided into all the truth. Paul called the church the pillar and foundation of all truth. Either all the Protestant churches before 1930 were wrong, or all of them after 1930 were wrong. In either case, one cannot say that these churches are pillars of truth if they are always changing the truth. Critics of the Catholic Church try to argue that the Catholic Church changes its teachings, too. Yes, the Catholic Church does change in matters of discipline and practice. Ages ago, the Church told the faithful it must abstain from meat on every Friday throughout the year. Now the faithful only needs to do this at Lent. There was a time when the faithful had to receive the Eucharist in the mouth. Now they can take it in the hand. But these are not matters of faith and morals. Years ago I did not allow my daughter to stay up past 9:00. Now she can stay up much later. When she goes to bed is not a moral issue. It can change as she gets older. But at no matter what age, I would still teach to her the same morality. Lying is wrong whether she is 9 or 19. The Protestant leaders in other ages called birth control a monstrous thing to do. This was not just a matter of discipline or practice. Something that was evil before 1930 cannot be acceptable after 1930. Either they were wrong then or they are wrong now. But the Catholic Church has remained constant for 2,000 years. Through that time, it has not changed on a major doctrine or moral issue. It has been like a rock, because it has been founded on the rock, Peter, who was made the rock by the ultimate rock, Jesus Christ.
The Birth Control Pill and Abortion
There are many Evangelicals who are against legalizing the RU-486 or the “morning-after” pill. They say that life begins at conception, and this pill kills human life after it has been conceived. The Evangelicals are right on this, and we pro-life Catholics would agree with them. But then these same Evangelicals would have no problem with the birth control pill. And yet one of the ways the birth control pill works is by killing human life if conception has already occurred.
The Pill is used by about fourteen million American women each year and sixty million women internationally. Thus, even an infinitesimally low portion (say one-hundredth of one percent) of 780 million Pill cycles per year globally could represent tens of thousands of unborn children lost to this form of chemical abortion annually. How many young lives have to be jeopardized for prolife believers to question the ethics of using the Pill? This is an issue with profound moral implications for those believing we are called to protect the lives of children.
The Pro-Life America list four ways that the birth control pill can prevent a pregnancy, 2 of them cause an abortion:
3) One way the Pill causes early abortions is that it interfers with the flexing motions and the cilia movement of the fallopian tubes. These changes slow the transportation of newly conceived child from the fallopian tubes to the womb. Unfortunately, many small babies starve to death in the fallopian tubes because chemicals caused changes that prevented them from reaching the womb in time to be nourished.
4) Another way the Pill causes early abortions: If your tiny baby survives the ride down the fallopian tube to your womb, the Pill will almost always cause the endometrium (the lining of your uterus) to reject your child. Chemical reactions often cause the lining of your womb to become thin, shriveled and unable to support implantation of your newly conceived child.
http://www.prolife.com/BIRTHCNT.html
A dirty, little secret in the pharmaceutical world is that the Pill if taken in a certain way can actually work AFTER conception by preventing the embryo from implanting on the uterine wall. In other words, the pill can cause the baby to die. This is simply abortion by another name.
The “Morning After” Pill is nothing more than the regular birth control pill taken in massive dosage to insure that the embryo will not implant.
http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/edn-bcpill.html
When Pope Paul VI wrote Humanae Vitae 40 years ago, he was standing up for the unchanging truth when all Protestant preachers compromised. Conservative Protestant ministers would say that abortion is murder and yet saw nothing wrong with taking the pill, which in some cases can cause an abortion. I am not condemning them. I assume that they did not realize that the birth control pill can do this. What I am saying is this – the Catholic Church has been right where every other church has been wrong. This is just one instance where the Catholic Church, in particularly the pope, has been right and everyone else has been wrong. There are many others that I will cover elsewhere.
The upcoming demographic crisis
Planned Parenthood was wrong! They argued that unless we start lowering the birth rates, we will face massive overpopulation with global starvation. They scared
Planet Earth is loaded with room. We could put the world's entire population into the
http://economics.gmu.edu/wew/articles/99/Population-Control.htm
In a land area as small as
http://www.jefflindsay.com/Overpop.shtml
Abortion and birth control are going to cause an economic crisis in the very near future. We are becoming an aging population. We are living longer, but we are having far less babies than ever before. What will happen when the baby boomers (and I am one of them) start to reach retirement age? This is a huge demographic problem that is going to effect social security and pensions. We just will not have enough young workers to support those who are retiring. So what will we do? One thing I am sure we will do is raise the retirement age. But that will not be sufficient. At a certain age, the elderly will not be able to continue to work.
Another solution is forced euthanasia. Harold Brown, my professor at seminary, predicted that society will eventually force people to take a death pill when they reach a certain age. This is definitely possible, since our society has become desensitized by the killing of life by legalizing abortions. People today are pushing for the legalization of euthanasia – calling it death with dignity. Right now they are talking about merely allowing euthanasia as an option and not actually forcing euthanasia on anyone. And yet look what happened at Terry Shiavo. She was slowly starved to death. It took weeks for her to die. How can people say that Terry actually wanted to suffer like that? The so-called experts said that she was in the “vegetative state”. But see http://terrisfight.org/pages.php?page_id=37
Father Frank Pavone, a Catholic priest, has testified that Terri was not in a vegetative state:
I have had two opportunities to visit Terri Schiavo, most recently on the first Sunday of February. I have been able to talk to her, to listen to her struggle to speak, to watch her focus her eyes and smile and attempt to kiss her parents. I have prayed with her, blessed her, and assured her that she has many friends around the country and around the world, who love her and want her to enjoy the same protections we all enjoy, even when we're wounded.
http://www.prolifeblogs.com/articles/archives/2005/02/terri_schiavo_s.php
Someone is lying here. Either this priest is lying or the experts are lying, or at least hiding the truth. I put a lot more stock in a testimony of a priest than the testimony of so-called experts, most of whom never even met Terri when she was alive. I know that for any people ideology means more than people. Experts know we have a demographic problem. We have an aging population – not because we have too many old people but because we do not have enough young people to replace the old people in the work force. We could start encouraging people to have more babies and stop having abortions. But that works against the agenda of the moral left. So if we cannot have more young people, then we have get rid of the old people. They must de-sensitize us to forced euthanasia procedures, so the “experts” are saying that they are in a “vegetative state”. Then no one is bothered by it.
Soon after Terri’s Schiavo’s death, there was another person who was forced to die by de-hydration - Brad Whaley. See http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jul/08071114.html. This is what happens. Terri Shiavo received national news coverage. But no one heard of Whaley. We are becoming de-sensitized. De-hydration is one of the most agonizing way to die. We worry about water-boarding terrorists, but we do not care that an innocent person is tortured to death in the name of euthanasia. People argue that they probably do not know what is even going on. But how do they know that? Unless we are totally sure, should we not err on the side of life? Remember, in both cases, the issue was not even about them wanting to die. We let the government make that choice for them. The government played God.
But this is the dilemma because of our decreasing population. The left cannot admit it was wrong to do that. The world cannot admit that the Catholic Church was right all along.
These are the reasons I believe that the Church was always right about birth control. Birth control severely increases divorce rates. The Bible itself condemns the attempt to have sex while preventing the possibility of God’s gift of life. Historically, all Christians were against birth control for the first 19 centuries, both Catholic and Protestant leaders. The birth control pill, the most common birth control method, could cause abortions. Birth control is going to cause a demographic crisis that will either cripple our economy, increase the immigration of the militant Muslims into western civilization, or force the government to decide when it can kill an elderly person.
Things would have been much simpler and better if we had listened to that elderly bachelor in
