Birth Control
“Forty years I loathed that generation; I said: ‘This people’s heart goes astray; they do not know my ways.’ Therefore I swore in my anger: ‘They shall never enter my rest.’” – Psalm 95
We have now reached fifty years since Pope Paul VI issued Humanae Vitae, reaffirming the Church’s constant teaching on the sinful nature of contraception. Yet despite this clear guidance, the encyclical has been widely disregarded. Surveys indicate that roughly 80 percent of Catholics use some form of contraception within marriage.
How Did We Get Here?
It is striking to recall that prior to 1930, every Christian denomination—Catholic and Protestant alike—condemned contraception as contrary to God’s law. This is especially noteworthy given that Protestants hold Scripture as the sole infallible authority. For centuries, they recognized that the Bible condemns contraceptive acts as sinful and offensive to God. This teaching was universal. Everything changed in 1930, when the Anglican Communion, meeting at Lambeth, declared that contraception could be permissible within marriage under grave circumstances. This marked the first break in Christian unity on the matter. Other denominations soon followed, gradually abandoning the historic Christian stance. Today, contraception is broadly accepted across most Christian communities, often without any moral conditions at all.
The Consequences
What has this shift produced? In the wake of widespread acceptance of contraception, society has seen increased acceptance of other moral evils: abortion, homosexuality, pornography, immodest dress, cohabitation, divorce, and remarriage. Has your own church accepted any of these—whether in part or in whole?In his 1989 essay The Body’s Grace, Dr. Rowan Williams, then Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, argued that once the Church accepted contraception, it implicitly affirmed the legitimacy of non‑procreative sexual acts. He wrote that this could be interpreted as “a green light for gay sex.”It is worth considering: couldn’t homosexual acts be viewed as the ultimate form of contraception?
Contraception and Abortion
Even the United States Supreme Court has linked contraception to abortion. In Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the Court stated:“In some critical respects abortion is of the same character as the decision to use contraception… people have organized intimate relationships… in reliance on the availability of abortion in the event that contraception should fail.”
Would the Early Christians Recognize Us?
The earliest Christians lived in a pagan Roman world that embraced homosexuality, abortion, contraception, polygamy, divorce, and remarriage. Christians rejected all of these practices, and many were martyred for refusing to conform. Today, many Protestant communities have abandoned ancient Christian teachings and adopted practices once associated with pagan Rome. Whether partially or fully, these practices were never compatible with Christianity.
Contraception Within Marriage
How harmful is contraception to a marriage? Consider the words of Fr. Gordon Knight in Rational Theology: Marriage:“One of the worst features about the use of contraceptive means of birth is that the one who is willing to use such means may be requiring his partner to cooperate in an act which is wrong… He may be leaving his partner with no possibility of a happy marriage, for no one can be happily married who lives in fear of what he deserves from God or who lives in fear of estranging her partner by refusing to do as he requests… Improper intercourse is fatal to a happy marriage.”
Marriage as Covenant
Marriage is not a contract but a covenant—between husband, wife, and God. God provides grace to sustain the marital union. But we cannot offend God within marriage while simultaneously asking Him for blessings upon it. To reject His moral law is to reject the very grace we need.
