Attitudes Among Southern Baptist Leaders Shifting on Birth Control

Associated Baptist Press ^ | 3/5/14 | Bob Allen

[marshmallow]

Questions about the morality of birth control increasingly appear in columns and blogs by SBC ethicists and ministers.

On the surface, Roman Catholics and Southern Baptists might seem unlikely bedfellows in opposing mandated coverage of contraceptives under Obamacare, but observers say it points to ongoing reconsideration of the morality of birth control among the Southern Baptist Convention’s leading thinkers.

“Evangelical leaders are tripping over themselves in the rush to stand with Roman Catholic bishops against this perceived governmental overreach,” Jacob Lupfer, a doctoral candidate in political science at Georgetown University, said in a Religion News Service commentary in December. “At the same time, a growing number of white evangelical leaders are attempting to sow seeds of doubt about the morality of birth control itself.”

Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., responded that on that point, Lupfer “understates his own case.”

“A good many evangelicals hope to do far more than sow seeds of doubt about the morality of birth control,” Mohler replied. “Our concern is to raise an alarm about the entire edifice of modern sexual morality and to acknowledge that millions of evangelicals have unwittingly aided and abetted that moral revolution by an unreflective and unfaithful embrace of the contraceptive revolution.”

Shift in the 1980s

In a 2012 column for the Christian Post, Mohler said most evangelical Protestants welcomed the development of artificial birth control as a medical advance just as they celebrated the discovery of penicillin. A shift occurred in the 1980s, with the rise of the Religious Right and opposition to abortion on demand.

Affirming life as sacred at the moment of conception caused many to view intrauterine devices not as contraceptives but abortifacients, he said, and that conviction has extended to the use of oral contraceptives.

[Mr Rogers]

I’ve been a Southern Baptist since roughly 1977, and I don’t know what a “Southern Baptist Leader” is. My suspicion is that they reflect the average member of the SBC about as well as Peggy Noonan represents the average Republican.

[ReformationFan]

If Baptists and other Protestants are truly rethinking contraception issues to make them more aligned with Christian history, that is good news. However, is this news source affiliated with liberal Baptists, i.e., the CBF?

[ThisLittleLightofMine]

I am a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, I attend a conservative baptist church. Before receiving Christ, I was neutral but after being saved I had to think about this and other issues. I truly believe that it doesn’t align with scripture to use birth control.

[.45 Long Colt]

Southern Baptists have no business joining with Rome on anything. You don’t link arms with Satan to fight Satan on another front. Separation from apostate Rome is biblical.

“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.”
—Ephesians 5:11

“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them…and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”
—2 Corinthians 6:14-18.

[ReformationFan]

Many evangelical protestants are unaware of it but Protestantism historically held to the same position as Rome concerning this issue until the Anglican Lambeth conference of 1930.

Interestingly enough, the Washington Post of all papers editorialized against Protestantism moving in that direction:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2613278/posts

‘Until the Anglican Lambeth Conference of 1930 no Christian denomination had ever said that contraception could ever be objectively right. The Washington Post, in an editorial on March 22, 1931, said of the Federal Council of Churches’ endorsement of Lambeth:

“It is impossible to reconcile the doctrine of the divine institution of marriage with any modernistic plan for the mechanical regulation of or suppression of human life. The Church must either reject the plain teachings of the Bible or reject schemes for the ‘ scientific’ production of human souls.

Carried to its logical conclusion, the committee’s report, if carried into effect, would sound the death knell of marriage as a holy institution by establishing degrading practices which would encourage indiscriminate immorality. The suggestion that the use of legalized contraceptives would be ‘ careful and restrained’ is preposterous.”’

[ReformationFan]

Would you vote for a Roman Catholic candidate who shared your political views?

[married21]

I used to have a lot of, um, pejorative and ignorant thoughts about Southern Baptists. Over time, I have come to see them as people of rectitude, commitment and, I guess, as some of the “grown-ups” among Christian sects. May God bless them with good discernment on this and other moral issues.

[redleghunter]

Questions about the morality of birth control increasingly appear in columns and blogs by SBC ethicists and ministers.

Well .45 it seems this article on the SBC is recycled quite often here in the RF. It seems when there is some embarrassing news about Pope Francis, the FRomans "run to the keep" to recycle articles about Protestants and birth control.

However, I will opine as I always do. God said be fruitful and multiply. We do well to obey Him. Now what the Bible says about the morality of yanking a rosary out of the cold dead hands of a priest??? I leave that for others to address as I have already on other threads. Just wanted to mention that, though, as we are on the subject of morality.

[ThisLittleLightofMine]

I have had conversations with females within the body asking why they used birth control, they have said it is what you do and hadn’t really thought about it, also have found it has been the husbands pushing for this, even getting vasectomy to stop pregnancy. My brothers in Christ need to repent on this issue.

[JPX2011]

The sola interpeter speaks. Nevermind the fact that protestantism and its rebellion against God is the genesis of much of the gross moral evil that is infecting western civilization these days.

The apostates are the ones who rejected Christ’s Church and His teachings 500 years ago. Not unlike those who walked away in John 6. Birth Control? the 20th century version of, “this is a hard saying.”

[JPX2011]

What’s worse, one man’s sin or those who lead us to sin by theological error due to individualistic pride and arrogance? Since we’re comparing and contrasting.

[ealgeone]

I voted for a Mormon who doesn’t hold all of my views but holds more than the socialist in the white house.

[ReformationFan]

Indeed. I remember having a conversation some years back with my aunt(who’s a Baptist elementary school principal) and her son(a country singer though not a famous one) and they just assumed birth control was OK or at least neutral like water or air with no sense that they ever considered otherwise. There’s sadly much historical ignorance of the faith among many Christians.

[Vince Ferrer]

This isn't just theology, science and its limits may have the final word. Centuries ago, sexually transmitted diseases were not treatable, and their effects on health were debilitating. Then, with the development of antibiotics, many of these disease became curable or manageable.

But that is all changing quickly. Many infections currently treatable are mutating into drug resistant versions, and science cannot keep up. We may be in the last stages of a "sexual revolution bubble," a temporary period where the effects of sexual liberation were temporarily suspended. But if drug resistant strains take over, and scientists are extremely pessimistic right now, then sexual liberation is over, and we are back to the traditional morality that allowed us to survive in the presence of these diseases.

CHICAGO, Aug 9 (Reuters) - U.S. health officials are urging doctors to stop using a key antibiotic to treat routine cases of gonorrhea due to signs of bacterial resistance, leaving one treatment left for the sexually transmitted disease.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday it no longer recommends the use of cefixime, marketed under the brand name Suprax by Lupin Ltd, because it is becoming less effective. That leaves the injectable generic antibiotic ceftriaxone, used in combination with another antibiotic, as the last treatment option.

Drug-Resistant Gonorrhea: Only One Treatment Left For Sexually Transmitted Disease

What happens if I don’t get treated?

Untreated gonorrhea can cause serious and permanent health problems in both women and men. In women, untreated gonorrhea can cause pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). Some of the complications of PID are

Formation of scar tissue that blocks fallopian tubesExternal Web Site Icon;

Ectopic pregnancy (pregnancy outside the wombExternal Web Site Icon);

InfertilityExternal Web Site Icon (inability to get pregnant);

Long-term pelvic/abdominal pain.

In men, gonorrhea can cause a painful condition in the tubes attached to the testicles. In rare cases, this may cause a man to be sterile, or prevent him from being able to father a child.

Rarely, untreated gonorrhea can also spread to your blood or joints. This condition can be life-threatening. Untreated gonorrhea may also increase your chances of getting or giving HIV – the virus that causes AIDS.

Gonorrhea - CDC Fact Sheet

[Dilbert San Diego]

I saw Jerry Falwell interviewed some years ago, and this subject came up. Rev. Falwell indicated that he was okay with artificial birth control for married couples. For what it’s worth, there seems to be lots of divided opinions on this particular subject.

[ReformationFan]

I would have been surprised if Falwell said otherwise. I once had a co-worker who was a very nice, conservative Baptist lady(her husband was a youth pastor). We generally agreed on most socially conservative topics but when I advised her about the ethical problems with contraception, she reacted with shock as if she’d never heard that viewpoint before.

[Mrs. Don-o]

I'm not sure that a leader is to "represent" so much as to, you know, lead.

[Mr Rogers]

Leading only works when someone follows. The SBC member churches are all independent, and don’t need to follow any SBC leader. A couple of the SBC seminaries have good reputations, but several are quite liberal compared to the average member.

[Mrs. Don-o]

We Christians should be careful to respect those who say "Jesus is Lord," since we know this faith is of the Holy Spirit.

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