by Kristen Moulton
Religion News Service
Religion News Service
Thursday, July 29, 2010
to conceive or not to conceive...
So, I came across this article today which discusses whether or not contraception is a sin. I had already been thinking about this a little...well, not so much whether it's a SIN or not, but whether or not God wants Christians to use contraception for our "family planning". {BTW, I just retyped that sentence like 5 times, in an effort to seem unbiased and to also not step on any toes. I'm still not sure if I succeeded.} I haven't quite come to a conclusion yet on what I believe, except that I'm pretty sure He's not gonna send us to hell based on our choice in the matter. I can see both sides of the argument, so I plan to do some more studying on the subject. ANYWAY...I had already been thinking about it some when I came across this article. What do you think? No, really...I want your opinions! Just keep it friendly please. :)
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Personally, I don't think there's anything wrong about any means of birth control. More so, I think it's the motivation behind it and the heart and attitude about it. I can support either decision for different reasons. If you don't use birth control because you want it all to be in God's hands, I say "good for you"!! I'm all about trusting God. But if someone uses it for medical reasons or because (as a couple) they feel it would be irresponsible to bring a child into their world at that point, I can go along with that as well. I can support the freedom to be intimate with a spouse on your own terms and when you want to (or "need" to). I can also support the learning of self-control when it comes to desires as well. In short, I don't know that one is more right that the other in general terms, I think you need to decide as a couple what is right for you. Truly praying and looking to God and scripture for tidbits to lead your heart to a conclusion for yourself is probably the best bet, if you ask me.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.crosswalk.com/11605806/
ReplyDeleteThe article you posted suggested this link above as a related article. I think what it said about the "levels of birth control" is something that should be taught widely (it's a long article, so you can skip to the "levels" part if needed). I was never told (nor did I think it was even in the realm of possibility) when I went on birth control that it could thin the lining of my uterus and prevent implantation. After being on it for 5 1/2 years, my husband and I started trying to conceive. A year and one miscarriage later, the birth control is still having negative effects on my cycles and lining. Had we known that the pill could have been preventing the implantation of a fertilized egg during that time period, we would have never have started it/stopped immediately. I think it's sad that so many of us (myself included) accept what our doctors say and don't question it. We see so many others using these methods and just think it's okay.
The two articles below I read recently-maybe others will find them interesting as well:
http://www.christiancourier.com/articles/145-are-contraception-and-abortion-siamese-twins
That article said to read this-the link on Christian Courier didn't work:
http://www.epm.org/resources/2010/Jan/7/does-birth-control-pill-cause-abortions-reviewed/
I read the summary of key points towards the bottom. I'm not sure how he can get the statistics he has, but he did clarify by saying there's no way to know.
If there is any chance that the form of birth control can prevent implantation, I don't see how a faithful Christian with the right heart could justify it.
Thanks for this post and for encouraging others to think about this as well!