I've decided it's...

[melinky]

...time to get our fingers busy posting again, so I thought I'd ask for your opinions. This topic came up on Jamesquinn's Xanga site:

Are contraceptives okay for Christians to use?

I'll add my thoughts later....

Yours in Christ,

Melinda

[rgrove]

Yes, they are, so long as it is in the context of a marital relationship of course. Not for the purpose of sex with a non-spouse without consequences.

[melinky]

I would have thought this topic might bring a few people out of hiding. Since it didn't, I'll bump it a notch. What does the Bible say either for, or against, birth control. Also, are some methods okay while others are not. What about the-morning-after pill? What about the m-a pill after instances of rape?

[rgrove]

I don't personally think it says much about it, but I can't say I've investigated things that hard. I know that a lot of people say that this is God's domain and we shouldn't try to fiddle in it, but my wife and i went quite a while where it was a REALLY bad idea to start a family. So should we have possibly brought a child into the world where it would have caused great stress? Obviously we didn't think so. We used the medical advances the Lord has provided in our day and age to plan having our family when circumstances were right. Somebody will have to come up with a whale of an argument that we sinned by doing this.

As for any pill that terminates an unwanted pregnancy, I am opposed to it. Even in case of rape. We would probably give the child up for adoption, but not sure. Hopefully it never happens. But the child is his/her own person, not "part of my wife's body" as so many like to say. The body must bring forward specialized proteins and whatnot in order to protect the child from the mother's body, whose natural instinct is to try to kill the child (there's a good article on the science of what happens in the latest Creation magazine). The placenta also creates a wall of separation demonstrating the extraordinary nature of the situation. Therefore we'd respect the child's God given right to life and not kill him/her.

[Alejandro]

I am not in favour of them at all.

For the following reasons:
If used, it would seem they are trying to get around the more powerful uses of sex, and just going straight for pleasure. Though, God created sex to be pleasureful, I have serious doubts that he did so for that to be the bottom line of why we lie with our partner. We lie with them to comfort them, to become one flesh with them, and to fulfill our jobs as being husband and wife.

If they are used to get away from having a child, it seems they are running from God and ultimately attempting to put their will above God's saying: "we are not ready for a child; we know best," etc. This, seems to me, to be both dangerous and unhealthy for the relationship between both spouse and God. If you are putting your will above God's, we are not taking up our cross. If God is the one who breaths life into the child, not the sperm and the gg, we should not fear having a child at an "unfortunate time," so long as we are in God's will. This is not to say the thousands (and I do mean thousands) of births that occur out of wedlock at God ordained, but I think God allows us to live with our decisions, and so on. (Although after reading this, the previous sentence seems contradictory to the one before it, I kept it anyhow; I might be able to clear it up later, and probably will.)

In summation, it is my belief that contraceptives are just something to keep us from holding any responsibility in our having sex. Though, some argue that using contraceptives is just that--being responsible.

[Soulfyre]

Good questions, Melinda!

That sex is not only meant as a pleasurable activity to enhance and solidify marital union, but is also the means by which we are to answer God's call to be "fruitful and multiply" is a worthy argument. In fact, I would agree that to create an unnatural division between these issues may underly many of the problems we are facing in an over-sexualized society. Nevertheless, aside from family-planning issues (for which I think some consideration is valid) there are many valid medical reasons for using contraception, especially barrier contraception (which I encourage in preference to oral contracptives or patches that manipulate a woman's system hormonally). For example, women with severe diabetes may, in some cases, face renal failure (remember "Steel Magnolias"?). And people who have been infected with herpes must be extremely careful, as herpes can be passed on even when no visual lesions are present. And what of those currently infected with HIV? Or whose parents both carry a recessive gene for sickle-cell anemia? Should such issues prevent married couples from enjoying sexual bonding at all? Should they live effectively celibate lives, as "brother and sister"?

This is, in fact, a difficult issue towards which the Bible does not speak directly. Nevertheless, even Paul speaks of married couples refraining from sex only for "a season", to devote themselves to prayer and fasting, but to come together again to avoid temptation. What temptation? The temptation to have a family with someone else, or the temptation to have sex with someone else. Marital union in the sexual act is not unimportant for a variety of reasons, and Paul certainly seemed to recognize its benefit in keeping within appropriate and godly boundaries the "urge to merge". The problems we face today are less that the sexual act is recognized as a pleasurable, bonding experience that is, in its proper context, somewhat an end in itself, but that all people who are so inclined have an inherent right to experience this pleasure regardless of gender, and engage in the sexual act outside of the clear limitations established by God. At that point, sex is no longer a unifying experience but a dividing experience, in which the partner is objectified as a source of pleasure, not one to whom responsibility and reciprocation is due. The result, of course, is that sex becomes just another drug of self-absorption, and "variety" (to the point of perversity) becomes an integral (and logically extensible) part of the experience. People who would not dream of hiring a "professional" develop a pattern of deception to achieve their individual "high", and the number of people who fall for this sweetly-worded invitation to physical and emotional abuse is reflected in the number of single parent families, homosexual parental "unions" and out-of-wedlock pregnancies.

As usual, the question should not be whether contraception is used, but why it is used. Because even such a simple decision can have unanticipated results. Incidentally, when I have spoken to young people, I have supported the use of condoms, although in a rather "back-handed" manner. I explain their potential failure rate (which can not only cause a faillure in preventing pregnancy, but can also be a factor in the spread of STDs, including HIV), the fact that they will not, in fact, prevent the spread of such diseases as chlamydia, and that to use them to enable a "try-it-before-you-buy-it" mentality is actually detrimenetal to the future development of a stable married relationship (since it fully divides the sexual act from marriage and acclimatizes individuals to a desire for variety in partners). But I do tell them that if they are going to engage in risky and compromising behavior, they should use condoms, if for no other reason that to attempt to protect their health and lives long enough to for people such as myself to convince them of the foolishness of their choices. This is simply facing reality! I make it clear that I am not encouraging sex outside of marriage, but view the use of barrier condoms as a "last resort" issue. I NEVER support the use of oral contraceptives, patches, or implants for young people (and would hesitate to do so for adults), not only because they provide no protection from disease, but because I believe such hormonal manipulation of a woman's body can have future health effect that are undesirable.

In Christ,

Matthew (soulfyre)

[melinky]

Matthew, great points and I agree with 99.9% of it. There are times when using oral contraceptives can make a woman's life much more bearable, especially in the years just prior to menopause when the menstrual cycle goes haywire and the woman experiences prolonged or highly sporadic menstruation. Even in some young women, oral contraceptives are used to regulate their cycle. Believe me, there is nothing worse than not knowing when, or if, mother nature is going to visit; not to mention those times she stays 15-20 days.

I think that one of the most interesting points you made is that it's not so much if one uses contraceptives, but why. If it is for family planning within a marriage, I have no problem with it. If it is being used to enable a lower risk of pregnancy in a sexual relationship outside marriage, I have to think it's not such a good thing.

Yours in Christ,

Melinda