Does The Bible Forbid Birth Control?

[kpete]

Contraception’s Con Men
Garry Wills

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T. Pope Pius XI once said that it did, citing in his encyclical Casti Connubii (1930) the condemnation of Onan for “spilling his seed” rather than impregnating a woman (Genesis 38.9). But later popes had to back off from this claim, since everyone agrees now that Onan’s sin was not carrying out his duty to give his brother an heir (Deuteronomy 25.5-6). Then the “natural law” was fallen back on, saying that the natural purpose of sex is procreation, and any use of it for other purposes is “unnatural.” But a primary natural purpose does not of necessity exclude ancillary advantages. The purpose of eating is to sustain life, but that does not make all eating that is not necessary to subsistence “unnatural.” One can eat, beyond the bare minimum to exist, to express fellowship, as one can have sex, beyond the begetting of a child with each act, to express love.


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MUCH MORE:
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/feb/15/contraception-con-men/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nybooks+%28The+New+York+Review+of+Books%29
http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/02/does-the-bible-forbid-birth-control.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+andrewsullivan%2FrApM+%28The+Daily+Dish%29

[customerserviceguy]

1. If there had been one modern pope since Paul VI

we wouldn't even be having this debate right now. If the RCC had simply dissolved after the pedophile scandal, we wouldn't be having it either. But the people who are still in that church can be cowed by their hierarchy into doing whatever they want, most of the time.

[hedgehog]

2. Yep, those 98% of Catholic women who have used/are using birth control

are completely cowed by the hierarchy!

[customerserviceguy]

3. It's one thing to speak up

and completely another to do what you do in the privacy of your own home. Most people here simply don't understand the hypocrisy that it takes to be a Catholic. I do, and that's why I got away from it nearly thirty years ago.

It's one thing to take the Pill, and another thing to let your goverment tell your bishop that he has to pay for it for other people. That's how the Catholic hierarchy is going to spin this. The bishops are not stupid, they know full well how much smaller Catholic families are these days compared to previous generations. But they're going to thunder from the pulpits that they should be exempt from going along with that "sin", and the average Catholic in the pew is going to feel the guilt buttons pushed yet again.

Those Catholics know that if a Rethug gets elected and "Obamacare" goes away, they'll still have their ability to use contraception. Yes, even if it's Sick Rantorum. Catholics know that candidates pay lip service to Neanderthal principles, but as a practical matter, they are rarely able to put those ideas into law, except at the very edges.

[Bluerthanblue]

4. thanks- this WAS a good read.

funny how the 'Onan' premise falls apart when you take into account a few things. Onan and Tamar lived long before Moses and the writing of Deuteronomy. The punishment for refusing to impregnate your dead brothers wife isn't 'death' it is having your sister in law spit on you, throw a sandal at you and being known as 'one who wouldn't honor his dead brother' (my paraphrase).

Onan's brother Er- the one who Onan refused to be the surrogate husband for, was "an evil man" who "displeased Jehovah. So Jehovah killed him." Would "Jehovah" really want an 'evil man' to procreate?

Jehovah kills Onan for spilling his seed, and then Judah -the father in law tells Tamar, live with your parents until my next son is old enough to do the deed. So she waits, but Judah doesn't send his son Shelah to marry her. She finds out that he's gone travelling, dresses up as a prostitute, and waits outside the temple. Judah sees her, doesn't recognize her, and asks her to have sex with him (thinking she is a prostitute).

she says: What will you give me if I do?

he says: one of my young goats

she says: what will you give me until you send the goat?

he says: what do you want?

she says: The ring on that cord around your neck, I also want the special walking stick you have with you.

So he gives them to her. They slept together and she becomes pregnant.

They both return home. Judah sends the goat to her but his messenger comes back saying that no one knows of any "temple prostitute" having been there.

So Judah says: let her keep what she has, we did try and send the goat.

Three months go by and Judah is told that his 'daughter-in-law' Tamar is guilty of prostitution and is pregnant as a result. Judah says "bring her out and have her burned to death!"
Tamar sends a message to Judah as she is being brought out to be killed saying :I am pregnant by the man who owns these....See if you recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are.

Judah recognizes them and says "She is more righteous than I, since I would not give her to my son Shelah." he doesn't sleep with her again.

She ends up giving birth to twin sons.

This story is what the Catholic church uses to claim that sex is only for 'procreation' and should only happen between a man and his wife???

this is so ridiculous - beyond ridiculous.

[yurbud]

5. I think ''Onan'' is the sound guys make when they use his birth control method...

''okay, okay, just a few more sec-- ONAN!''

[jhasp]

6. The Bible actually says that sex is more than just for procreation

1 Corinthians 7:1 Now for the matters you wrote about: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” 2 But since sexual immorality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband. 3 The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. 4 The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife. 5 Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.