Posted on 06/09/2010 6:00:15 AM PDT by NYer
Evangelical leaders are overwhelmingly open to artificial methods of contraception, according to the April Evangelical Leaders Survey. Nearly 90 percent said they approved of artificial methods of contraception. In a separate poll conducted by the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) in partnership with Gallup, Inc., 90/91 percent of evangelicals find hormonal/barrier methods of contraception to be morally acceptable for adults.1
“Most associate evangelicals with Catholics in their steady leadership in pro-life advocacy, and rightly so,” said Leith Anderson, president of the NAE. “But it may come as a surprise that unlike the Catholic church, we are open to contraception.”
Indicative of their commitment to honoring the sanctity of human life, several leaders included caveats in their affirmative answers saying while they approve of contraception, they would strongly object to drugs or procedures that terminate a pregnancy once conception has taken place. George Brushaber, president emeritus of Bethel University, said that contraception should be used “with proper biblical and medical guidance.”
“Personally, I don’t believe there are any Scriptural prohibitions to most common methods of contraception,” said Randy Bell of the Association for Biblical Higher Education. “I can say from personal experience that God can defeat such methods if he chooses to do so.”
Many noted that biblical sexuality is not limited to procreation, but that its purpose extends to the consummation and expression of love within marriage. “Our leaders indicate that contraception can be utilized if all biblical purposes of sex are upheld and that it may actually aid in keeping the balance,” Anderson said.
Greg Johnson, president of Standing Together, approves of artificial methods of contraception, but added, “I believe the church does have a responsibility to communicate and preach the importance of family and that couples should not carelessly allow themselves to use contraception as a way to avoid having children and a growing family altogether.”
Two leaders said they would not approve or disapprove, but would leave it to married couples to decide based on the ethical and biblical criteria of a given situation.
The NAE Generation Forum’s publication, “Theology of Sex,” is a resource to help ministers and church leaders create healthy dialogue about God’s intentions for sex. For more information on the Generation Forum or the “Theology of Sex” publication, visit www.naegeneration.com.
The Evangelical Leaders Survey is a monthly poll of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Evangelicals. They include the CEOs of denominations and representatives of a broad array of evangelical organizations including missions, universities, publishers and churches.
You're right, in a certain sense, that NFP can be abused if there's a contraceptive mentality behind it. But when NFP is done for the right reasons, it preserves openness to life, whereas contraception completely thwarts it.
Here is something we can agree on whole-heartedly: Children are a blessing from God, and it would be wise to consider why we might want to refuse such a blessing.
I always assumed that progeny was the result of a biological event.
No need to be snarky. The *heart* of this matter is that couples have accepted a low estimation of children. The *heart* of this matter is to affirm that children are a blessing. Surely you agree with that.
Absolutely.
I've seen that propaganda posted multiple times on FR, but the truth does not support it. According to National Council of Churches´ (NCC) new 2010 Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches the Catholic Church´s membership in the United States grew at the "robust" rate of about 1.5 percent in 2008. The growth outpaces the estimated U.S. population growth rate in 2008, listed as 0.9 percent, according to the CIA World Factbook. There are now an estimated 68.1 million Catholics in the United States.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, whose members are known as Mormons, grew 1.7 percent to almost 5.9 million members. The Assemblies of God grew 1.3 percent to about 2.9 million.
Other denominations lost membership. The Presbyterian Church (USA) shrank 3.3 percent and now has about 2.9 million members. American Baptist Churches in the USA decreased two percent to 1.4 million, while the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America lost 1.9 percent of its membership, which now stands at 4.7 million.
The Southern Baptist Convention, the largest denomination after Catholics, lost 0.24 percent of its membership and now stands at 16.2 million. It also declined in membership in the year prior.
World wide the Catholic Church is gowning at a rate of 1.4% per year.
Thank you for the dialog.
The heart behind contraception is this idea that children are not a blessing. The thing is, people are free in this country to use it or not use it; few are going to stop using it simply because the Vatican demands it.
So how do we facilitate less contraceptive use? By addressing the *heart* behind its use. Instead of simply demeaning those who use contraception (whether birth control or NFP), we should promote the value of children, show how God has given them as a blessing. That will facilitate less contraceptive use.
Some contraception is in fact abortifacient. We should educate Evangelicals (and others) about when it is abortifacient, so that they can stop killing pre-born babies.
Which particular church or denomination is growing or shrinking is ultimately not that important.
Let’s pray instead that the number of Christ-followers, regardless of organizational affiliation, increases.
I also believe in a positive message, but the Church must instruct its members and to be pro-life one must believe that promoting life is worth bearing the possibility of censure.
That is simply not realistic in a universal sense. Do not attempt to convince me that children born as a result of brutal and repeated mass rapes are a blessing. [e.g. Bosnia]
Did you know that “the pill” isn’t the only method of birth control?
Abortion is a sin. But barrier contraception is legal, moral and up to the discretion of a husband and wife.
As I said, please continue to have crotchety old celibate men and the pederasts among them keep telling women they must have a child for every year they are married in order to swell the papist ranks.
Many of those families will see this as one more good reason to depart Rome and find themselves in a Scripturally-faithful church which acknowledges no mediator nor redeemer but Christ.
“Until the Lambeth conference in 1930, all Christian churches condemned birth control as sinful.”
“ALL Christian churches” definitely does not include most Baptists who are inherently independent and not ecumenically minded.
BTW, every Catholic woman I know practices some form of birth control.
Some people just don’t want to see the forest for the trees. Aside from the direct consequences, taking the procreative aspect from the marriage bed objectifies women. Imagine being seen as an object and be found wanting. It happens.
In the rest of the country, the RCC is declining.
According to THIS PEW SURVEY
No other religion in the United States has lost more members to other faiths, or to no faith at all, than Catholicism, according to the new survey released by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. The survey, conducted in 2007, found that 31 percent of Americans were raised Catholic, but less than 25 per cent of them still identify as Catholic. Roughly 10 percent of all Americans have strayed from Catholic roots, the study reported. Despite the loss, the survey shows that Catholics still represent nearly a quarter of the American population – just as surveys conducted in the early 1970s found. So how does a religion lose so many members and continue to break even? “It may well be that a factor in the Catholic numbers are the repeated waves of immigration,” said John Green, senior fellow at the Pew Forum. The study found that almost half of all immigrants coming into the U.S. are Catholics, most of them from Latin-American countries. The wave of immigration is changing the make-up of Catholicism. Latinos represent 45 percent of all Catholics aged 18-29 years, while only accounting for 20 percent of Catholics aged 50-59. Much of Catholicism’s loss can be chalked up to previous generations of immigrants assimilating into American culture and remaining less faithful to their ethnic identities and religions, Green said... In the marketplace of American faith, Catholicism is the big loser.
It's true several liberal Protestant churches are declining, but conservative Protestant churches are increasing. The Presbyterian Church in America is up almost two percent over last year.
In fact, the churches which have seen the most growth in Central and South America are reformed Protestant and Pentecostal churches.
As God wills.
You posted it but perhaps you didn't read it. I suggest you do so.
In case you didn't read the paragraphs you posted, I'll supply one of them for your understanding...
In the end, God doesn't give a pat answer about contraception. But he does provide a framework within which believers are responsible and free to make godly decisions. In fact, this framework does condemn most of the world's approach to contraception—but not because it's contraception. Rather, it condemns its fundamental self-centeredness (Ps. 10:4). Believing couples should soberly examine themselves as to whether they conform to this worldly selfishness and, if so, repent. Still, the biblical principles which we've considered seem to imply that—given right motives—God does permit contraception.
Hopefully you have now read these few words from the OPC to comprehend the simple fact that much of the world's contraception is based on "self-centeredness" (no doubt alluding to the world-wide use of abortion as a contraceptive.)
In case you're still not getting it, I'll repeat the last four words on the subject from the Orthodox Presbyterian Church which YOU posted...
"GOD DOES PERMIT CONTRACEPTION."
The Italian cheese stands alone.
Pinging you in case you, too, had trouble reading Wagglebee’s post offering comments from the OPC which clearly differ from Rome’s restrictions.
The rapes are terrible, horrible sins.
The children that result from such violent and forced sexual assault are blessings.
“Evangelical Leaders are Ok with Contraception”
A) All of them?
B) What is wrong with contraception?
“My point is that many who consider themselves evangelical try to escape the fact that they are part of Protestantism.”
Why would anyone want to do that?
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