CONTRACEPTION AND MODERN WOMEN: the morals of reproduction and morals generally.
Until 1930, every branch of the Christian Church opposed contraception.
The Anglican Church was the first to declare contraception permissible under certain circumstances.
Now all non-Catholic denominations seem to say more or less the same.
* * *
The results in terms of disrespect for marriage, disrespect for women and children and disregard for personal morality are obvious.
One leader of the US Baptist denomination, Dr Albert Mohler, has written that since the year dot, no development has had a greater impact on human beings than the development of the Pill . . . .
Is that right? Or is it too superficial?
Truer, perhaps, to say that no development has had greater effect on human beings than the Protestant Reformation.
And that one disastrous effect of the Reformation is the Pill.
The Pill won’t go away until all followers of Christ disown the Reformation.
* * *
P.S. Are there Reformation-friendly, Pill-friendly semi-Catholics, some occupying powerful positions in the Catholic Church – as bishops, Catholic Education Committees etc.?
If so, they may need replacement.
Arnold, what an outstandingly superficial piece you have written here.You have given no arguments just a list of assertions backed up by a “follower of the Reformation”.
You need to do a lot better as the vast majority of catholics practise contracepti0n.
Cheers,
barry
Dear Barry.
You would be old enough to know that the way people in Australia behave has been revolutionised by the existence of contraception. I don’t think you need “arguments” to demonstrate that.
Yes you are right. My post was primarily a message to Catholics. Many Catholics practise contraception. For a better society, the changes must start within the Church. The Reformation has inflicted its effects not just on Protestants and other non-Catholics . . . .
For Catholics to become Pill-users it required a change inside Catholic heads — not just an awareness that keeping an act of sex sterile is now facilitated by new technology . . . .
No, it involved also a particular attitude regarding how one decides how one will act:
Is one’s first motive that of pleasing God?
Or is it doing what one hopes one can get away with, and God will just have to like it?
Is marriage, first and foremost, a Sacrament of the Church?
Or is it a photo opportunity and/or something undergone because mum, dad or grandma likes that kind of thing?
Thanks for the comment.
I’m certainly concerned about the impact the Pill has had on society, but I was surprised to see the blame laid at the feet of the Reformation. It would be interesting to hear your views on how the Reformation has caused these problems.
Dear Peter
The Catholic view on marriage, the reproductive act and what is the ultimate purpose of family life is set out better than I can hope to do it in the 1968 Encyclical letter of Pope Paul VI entitled “Humanae Vitae” (subtitled “On the Regulation of Birth”).
It can be accessed on the net at: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae_en.html.
The encyclical starts off talking about Natural Law — getting the right ”total vision of man”– and what the family means in that context. Also how changes in society do not change God.
Towards the end, it says:
“The Church, in fact, cannot act differently toward men than did the Redeemer. She knows their weaknesses, she has compassion on the multitude, she welcomes sinners. But at the same time she cannot do otherwise than teach the law. For it is in fact the law of human life restored to its original truth and guided by the Spirit of God.” (para 19)
And later on:
“Everything therefore in the modern means of social communication which arouses men’s baser passions and encourages low moral standards, as well as every obscenity in the written word and every form of indecency on the stage and screen, should be condemned publicly and unanimously by all those who have at heart the advance of civilisation and the safeguarding of the outstanding values of the human spirit. It is quite absurd to defend this kind of depravity in the name of art or culture or by pleading the liberty which may be allowed in this field by the public authorities.” (para 22)
The teaching of this encyclical is a call to Catholics to adhere to God’s will above all else.
I doubt whether any other denomination holds to the teachings spelt out in this Encyclical.
Am I wrong?
Are you aware of any such denomination?
Thanks Peter. Keep in touch.