In order for us to have the proper perspective on Abortion we must first begin with the proper perspective on sex and birth control.
Birth Control is not something I ever gave much thought to till lately. We have been on a journey in my family. My wife, 3 girls, and I recently left our Reformed Presbyterian Church and have gone back home to the Anglican Church. I say home because while neither my wife nor I were raised in the Anglican tradition but we became a family in it. So we have become exposed once again to truly Orthodox and Catholic views of sex, family, and worship. And let me say that the Protestant world used to be very close to those ideas yet have in the past 100 years or so has not just run but galloped away from them.
Up until the advent of the pill and somewhere in the 1940′s-1960′s Protestants agreed with Roman Catholics and the Orthodox Church that birth control was a sin. This change in protestantism coincides most alarmingly in my opinion with the increase of women in the work place, the sexual revolution, the onset of the Gay/Lesbian agenda, free love, swingers, and of course the change from men being creators and workers to mere consumers (a point that Brett McKay makes very well in his Art of Manliness Blog). Of course in the period leading up to this you have in American and Europe in particular the rise of the Eugenics movement. A view and movement that sought the eradication of all who were not fit to procreate and participate in society by being productive and functioning according to the decided norms of the time. This movement played fatefully into the hands of the Nazi’s in Germany and now is being touted again by the Planned Parenthood crowd of today. And we wonder why our country is struggling with so many issues today…
One view of this movement in protestant circles to accept birth control is that it is the movement of Modernism and social releventism into the Church. You see neither of these ideas (birth control or population control) are based in Biblical Principles. Both are instead based on Evolution and completly secular ideas of man being the lord of the realm and not God. In Genesis God commands Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply. Never has He said that we could over populate the earth or that we may destroy it. God has reserved the right of opening and closing the womb for himself. Not us. These ideas of population control fly in the face of the traditional Augustinian views of God’s soveriegnty.
If we as a society and as a Church (truly the body of Christ) accept birth control we accept sex as a past time. As a non binding socially acceptable event between two consenting people. Sex is meant to be the enacting of our love and sharing of ourselves in the most intimate of moments with the one God has chosen for us to spend our life with. When Christ tells us that whatever we bind on earth shall be bound in heaven this includes marriage. Christ obviously thought enough of the institution of marriage to perform His first miracle at a wedding feast. He continues this teaching thru all of the Gospels and even into the book of Revelation. The Wedding Feast is probably one of the most recognizable analogies and with it Christ being the Bride Groom and the Church being the bride. The Old Testament is also filled with the image of Israel being a harlot and cheating wife. If this is important enough for Him to make those connections then sex and marriage are important enough for us to spend a great deal of time understanding and figuring out the proper biblical view.
Two of the most obvious to me examples of God’s hand in procreation and His desire for us to participate with Him in creation are Abraham and Sarah in the Old Testament and in the New Testament Zechariah and Elizabeth. Now both of these stories are about elderly men and women we are told being blessed with children late in their lives. So what do they have to do with Birth Control???
When this topic comes up most protestants today and most Christians point towards the verses in Genesis about Onan (Gen 38:8). To me those are the weakest points in this particular instance. Onan is punished BECAUSE he refused to do what he was commanded. Not because of Birth Control. So let’s just leave those verses where they are and move past them. To me the prime example of what we should be discussing here are the two couples I mentioned above. God is the opener and closer of the womb.
In Genesis 20:18 he closes the wombs of the household of Abimelech. Psalm 127:3 “Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.” Both Abraham and Zechariah are rewarded late in life with children. Both of whom go on to do great things for the Lord. God kept them from bearing children until He needed them to. It was in God’s time. Not theirs that they brought forth life. If these cases are used as prime examples God will give us the children He desires us to have.
Clearly this is a difficult and complex issue. One that is unfortunately now tied up in the realm of sexual freedom, choice, abortion, and the modern view of mankind as an animal. A base creature to whose base and selfish needs we cater to on a daily basis. In no way do I mean to say here that you should not use yoru God given brain and intelligence here. In cases of death and extreme health issues I can certainly see the need for birth control but like everything we cannot take the extremes as case law here. The norm is what I am trying to explore and explain.
Thanks man, really got me thinking. We had a discussion in my New Testament class yesterday about sexual immorality and birth control came up. I think as Christians we see the extremes of culture, and consider our actions tame in light of society. We then disregard whether our actions, though modest in comparison, are still Biblical. It’s really helpful to see someone considering their own life outside the context of the world, and inside the context of the Word. Ultimately that’s the only social standard that we should compare ourselves to.
Dear James,
Actually, the beginnings of all this lie in the late 19th c, extending through the Great War into the ’20s.
In 1930, the Labeth Conference brought forth a resolution on the subject of contraception. This essentially broke a relatively united front of all denominations against artificial contraception.
I don’t think that the Lambeth Fathers really imagined what followed in this train. Actually, as I suggest, the breakdown in sexual morality was well along in certain circles.
The destruction of whole generations of the best men in the USA, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and elsewhere left what it did behind. The best men were gone. We cannot really comprehend the enormous losses through the period 1914-1945–the Second Thirty-Years War. Whole empires were swept away, leaving demoralised people behind.
Truly, in terms of general morality, the 20th century was incredibly destructive, leaving societies vulnerable to the insanities of the ’60s and ’70s. We really cannot know how long it will take for the insanities to run their courses.
I might suggest that parents need to home-school their children and be very pro-active in building of moral foundations. this cannot be left to public schools or the looser churches. Parents need to ensure that their children can be a saving remnant.
Heaven protect us all.
In +,
Benton
Benton- Good points. Your most valuable one though is the destruction of civilization from the two world wars. That has had more impact on the global economy and the global security issues than we will ever know in our life times. Makes sense it will impact us religiously and socially.
Also out of that same time period came a resurgence in Socialist economics and theory. Which last raised it’s head in the 1848 era and the revolutions in Europe then. Lots of these people immigrated to the US midwest and then promptly voted for Lincoln. Ironically while not yet being citizens….