9. THE QUESTION
WAS: Since the first century, the Catholic Church has said contraception is a
serious evil. Even before the first century, the Jewish faith also condemned
it. Protestants also regarded it as a grave evil until what century?
a. 5th
b. 10th
c. 15th
d. 20th
THE ANSWER IS…… D….20th
century. That’s right, all Protestant denominations taught contraception
was a despicable sin, contrary to God’s creation, until the 20th
century. The Anglican church caved on the issue around 1930 marking a total
break with all Christian and Jewish teaching on this moral truth. The other
Protestant denominations later followed. The Catholic Church remained
unwavering.
If you look at the writings of St. Augustine, St. Jerome and St. John
Chrysostom, you’ll find they all condemn contraception. You won’t find any
Early Church Fathers or documents approving it.
In “The Bible and Birth Control,” Protestant author Charles Provan writes: "We will go one better, and state that we have not found one orthodox theologian to defend Birth Control before the 1900s. NOT ONE! On the other hand, we have found that many highly regarded Protestant theologians were enthusiastically opposed to it, all the way back to the very beginning of the Reformation."
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Morality
Web Sites
http://www.geocities.com/peterpaulmin/ProtestantsandBirthControl.htm
(Quiz on what the Reformers said about birth control)
http://www.catholic-defense.com/contrcpt.htm
http://www.catholic-pages.com/morality/
http://www.catholic-pages.com/dir/contraception.asp
http://matt1618.freeyellow.com/birthcontrol.html
Books on the topic include “Catholic
Theology of the Family” by Dave Armstrong and the famous audiotapes, speeches
and book “Theology of the Body Explained” by the popular speaker Christopher
West.
Other books include Of Human Life by
Archbishop Charles Chaput and Contraception: Fatal to the Faith by Fr
John Hardon SJ.
Also Answers to some common
misconceptions by Paul McLachlan
http://ic.net/~erasmus/RAZ415.HTM
For info on Natural Family Planning, see
http://www.catholic.net/rcc/Periodicals/Issues/NFP2.html
Historically, devout Catholics ranging
from Augustine to my grandmother point to the Biblical story about Onan as one
clear condemnation of contraception.
So did Protestant Reformers Luther and
Calvin.
MARTIN LUTHER: "Onan
must have been a malicious and incorrigible scoundrel. This is a most disgraceful
sin. It is far more atrocious than incest or adultery. We call it unchastity,
yes, a Sodomitic sin. For Onan goes into her; that is, he lies with her and
copulates, and when it comes to the point of insemination, spills the semen,
lest the woman conceive. Surely at such a time the order of nature established
by God in procreation should be followed."
JOHN CALVIN: “Deliberately
avoiding the intercourse, so that the seed drops on the ground, is double
horrible. For this means that one quenches the hope of his family, and kills
the son, which could be expected, before he is born. This wickedness is now as
severely as is possible condemned by the Spirit, through Moses, that Onan, as
it were, through a violent and untimely birth, tore away the seed of his brother
out the womb, and as cruel as shamefully has thrown on the earth. Moreover he
thus has, as much as was in his power, tried to destroy a part of the human
race.”
One popular book you might
be interested in reading is…”Good News About Sex and Marriage” by Christopher
West
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