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As Protestants, We Rejected Artificial Contraception
In a few weeks my wife and I celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary.
We have 5 children - the youngest of which is due to be born in late November.
When we first got married my wife did research into the contraceptive pill and quickly discovered it's abortifacient nature. This completely ruled out the pill as an option for us, since it's a basic biological fact that life begins at conception and the thought of killing our own children is repulsive and sickening.
This left barrier methods as the only alternative I knew about - but my wife looked into it a lot more and it was soon afterwards she discovered the sympto-thermal method of Natural Family Planning (NFP) and there was a Catholic-run NFP centre quite close by and used it in conjunction with condoms over my wife's fertile period. For over ten years we used this method successfully - having children when we wanted with a great deal of ease.
The Sexual Revolution
It was a couple of years ago now I began to become interested in history, that is recent history; I wanted to know why our society is currently shaped the way it is. I started asking questions - for example:
Why is marriage breaking down so dramatically? (people just aren't interested in getting married anymore)
Why are divorce rates so high?
Why is abortion out of control? (What happened to safe, legal and rare?)
What triggered the AIDS epidemic? (and the Syphilis epidemic, and the Gonorrhoea epidemic, and the Chlamydia epidemic...)
After doing a bit of research I discovered things started going pear-shaped before I was even born. Movements like the Free Love movement had embraced new technologies of contraception and the sexual revolution took place.
This is how I would sum up the sexual revolution in a few short sentences:
Sex is no longer tied to having babies. We can have sex with whoever we want! So there is no longer a need to get married! Yay!
The consequences of this disconnect are playing out before our eyes.
Young people are putting off getting married because they can have the benefits of marriage without the worry about children. One of the reasons divorce rates are so high is because cheating is easy to cover up, thanks to contraception. Abortion is out of control because contraception doesn't always work. Killing the child fixes these pesky little problems. Sexually Transmitted Diseases are out of control because this is what happens when everyone is having sex with everyone.
There are more problems than just these - pornography and prostitution are booming businesses - thanks in no small part to contraception. And I'm sure there are many other problems stemming from contraception I haven't even thought of.
Finally, and most importantly, we have to look at the Theology of Family and the Ordinances of God from the beginning of Creation itself. If you don't believe the Bible is true, then stop reading here... otherwise, read on!
Now, these are two positive examples of what God wants - God wants families. God wants children to be raised in those families, and God wants those children to be raised to know him. The Bible also contains a multitude of warnings against sexual immorality. Contraception hasn't created the sexual immorality - it has simply emboldened many more people to act on their urges who might have otherwise said, "It's not worth the risk".
Contraception has unleased a massive evil on the world the likes of which is probably unparalleled in human history.
It's our fault, and it's because of our own evil little hearts, and we can't say God didn't warn us.
Further reading:
Humanae Vitae and NFP: My Testimony - (written by a Catholic mother of 8.)
