I am not someone who would teach or insist that Birth control is always wrong all the time, though admittedly someday I might be. Still, when looking into the history of the advent of Birth control one can’t help but wonder if the trajectory we are on now, with the creeping legalization in state by state of sodomite marriage, was started with the legalization of birth control.
Of course, as others have noted, what Birth Control accomplished was to divorce sex both from marriage and from procreation. This had the effect of turning sex away from the intimacy sustained in the family that sex itself created. This divorcing sex from marriage and procreation also had the effect of straining stability and fostering personal irresponsibility. Separating sex from marriage and procreation turned sex into a entertainment function and created a casualness that did not previously exist. Birth control sex turned into a entertainment function that could be participated in as a cure to boredom for singles thus opened the door to other kinds of sex that could likewise be pursued as merely entertainment and with casual aplomb. With the 20th century marketing of birth control by Margaret Sanger and others we find the inevitable beginning point of all where we’ve arrived today in our sexually chaotic world. What putatively began as control for family size is now pursued in destruction of the whole idea of Christian family. The acceptance and even popularity of sodomy, lesbianism, bisexuality and any number of other perversions might legitimately be traced back to the advent of marketed birth control.
It is interesting that following the 1930 Lambeth Conference, where the first Christian denomination (Anglicans) made allowance for the usage of Birth Control the Washington Post wrote, when viewed in hindsight, an amazingly prescient and prophetic on what the implications of Birth control would be on a societal level.
“Carried to its logical conclusion, the committee’s report, if carried into effect, would sound the death-knell of marriage as a holy institution by establishing degrading practices which would encourage indiscriminate immorality. The suggestion that the use of legalized contraceptives would be “careful and restrained” is preposterous.”
The Washington Post, March 22, 1931
What I’ve noted above was seen even by “secular” Journalists when it was first approved.
How far our ability to connect the dots have fallen.
It is absolutely amazing not only how much the church has changed on this subject, but how little we know of what the church has always taught.
http://truelovedoesntwait.com/general-marriage-issues/purposes-of-marriage/the-blessing-of-children/always-being-open/
Thanks for the link Vaughn to an impressive article. I would encourage all to read it.
I agree with the article. My wife and I were taught this truth to late in life. We have one biological son and one adopted daughter.
We spent the first five years of our marriage on birth control. We so deeply regret it now I cant even express it in words.
However I do believe that absolutes in this area and others are not correct. There are a few and I would say very few exceptions when a couple should refrain from pursuing as many children as possible.
The willingness to accept the responsibility must be there. Good health to for the mother. These are valid wisdom issues.
Besides if the Lord wants you to have a child He can certainly overcome our feeble efforts to prevent it. It happened with my son 21 years ago and we are so grateful. The Lord can save us from our own sinful ignorance and selfishness. Praise be to God for our son.
Praise God for your Son Gray.
And I agree with your observations on the whole. I don’t want to say that it is always sin all the time.
Thats what I have come to really admire in you Bret.
You have balance when it is biblically appropriate.
I remember a long article you did on lying or rather false witness. I had only heard it taught once before the way you did. Some folk see only black and white when it isnt there. Not to say that there arent many absolutes we must not waver on.