Seminary Birth Control Fanatics Attack!
Cruising Down the Coast of the High Barbaree: Birth Control The following are selections from an exciting blog post from a new Seminary student. Why can't I get 42 comments on my posts? Perhaps I should write more provocative statements, like this:
In case you don't follow the comments, I recently met my first consistent anti-birth control guy here at the Seminary. Yes, that's right, even using NFP or the "rhythm method" is a sin. This position is consistent since NFP and condoms have the same goal. So what should you be doing? Actively trying to have the most children possible. He said that even simply refraining from sex is a sin. The logic is pretty simple when you (a) read the Bible as a magic book and (b) take everything that's not about forgiveness as an extreme moral demand. Since it's a magic book, we don't have to talk about things like culture. If not having kids was a mark of shame then, it is now. It wasn't a mark of shame because of the agrarian economy and tribal politics. It was a mark of shame because God made it one. How do I know God did it? Someone in the Bible, which is a magic book dictated by God to reveal propositional truth, said so. Having 10 kids is an unqualified blessing, not because it allows you to continue your tribal bloodline and have lots of hands for your field, but because God says so. So wanting to stop at 7 means you have called evil what God has called good and despised his blessings. And finally, "be fruitful and multiply" is an extreme moral demand. Since there is no "you can stop having kids if you can't afford it, or if you live in a culture where you live on tiny plots of land and work in cubicles" condition, this means that to be obedient, we must always be striving to have more children. This is God's will, and interfering in any way is sin. He seriously said that if you have 7 kids and stop on purpose, you've broken the "be fruitful and multiply" command. Add to that the Lutheran myth that "Give us our daily bread" implies that all our bodily needs will be taken care of (no exceptions--Christians never starve to death), and any reason you might give for not having that 8th kid is not trusting God and therefore a sin. Crazy people make me which I was a Buddhist sometimes.The comments on Josh's blog flesh out the various arguments and positions. Much could be said in reaction. It seems throughout the post and comments there is a confusion of the nature and purpose of free will. Do I have the free will to chose contraception? Does God leave us to pick and choose when and where life is appropriate? How does God work through our actions? Luther's Bondage of the Will provides some answers and this is a topic of thorough study in the Lutheran Confessions. I think what is more interesting is the perspective presented throughout the post. Consistently conception is presented in terms of law. Can we choose when to conceive? Is it right to prevent conception? Is it law to have as many children as possible? This really isn't a useful discussion. The realm of the Law always leads to despair, failing, and sin. If you make conception a law (or a necessary result of marriage) then you will fail (to conceive as often or at all.) You can never complete the law fully. "Be fruitful and multiply" is an imperative. Is it law? Well, yes! Can we complete it fully? No. We will fail to utilize every fertile opportunity to conceive, whether for selfish reasons or incidental ones. We then limit God's ability to work conception (although we have enough Biblical examples of miraculous conception to suggest our limited scientific understanding of fertility could be superseded by God's will. Go figure) "Be fruitful and multiply" is Gospel. God promised Eve a savior from her seed. God promised numerous offspring to Abraham. The fruit of marriage is children (as well as companionship and chastity.) These children are gifts. Do we sinfully supersede God's will? Yes... The better question is how do we align our choices with God's will? Are we free to make our own choices? Are we bound to God's will? Does God move a couple with motives of pleasure, companionship, or chastity when His intent is conception? I've run out of steam but someday we'll revisit the topic. Pr. Walter Snyder has a well written post that expands on some of the paths in a Lutheran way. I submit it for your further reading: Questions on Working Women and Birth Control
