[Dilbert San Diego]

Are there connections between use and acceptance of birth control, and a decline in sexual morality?

I recall once hearing Jerry Falwell discussing birth control, and he said that birth control was part of intelligent family planning for married couples.

For married couples, is perhaps the important point to make. Rev. Falwall was not in any way endorsing sexual activity outside of marriage.

But has it been a slippery slope, from saying that married couples have a legitimate use for birth control, to saying that engaged couples who aren’t ready yet for marriage should use birth control, and then say that birth control should be moral and allowable for anyone involved in casual sex?

I have no firm answers, just posing some questions.

And other potentially hot question to think about, is whether to reject the concepts behind Humanae Vitae just because they were espoused by a Catholic Pope?

[Tax-chick]

I think part of the “slippery slope” has been the shift from saying married couples “may” use contraception to the assumption that married couples “will” contracept, and indeed, they must, because having a lot of children is, like, kind of lower class, and pretty gross, when you think about it.

Just yesterday, a FReeper asked how many babies I had “popped out.” He probably would have said “pooped out,” if he thought I was black or poor.

[fatima]

Great questions,will ask my expert :)

[daniel1212]

And other potentially hot question to think about, is whether to reject the concepts behind Humanae Vitae just because they were espoused by a Catholic Pope?

Then why would Bible Christians be foremost defenders of core Truths such as re affirmed in the Apostle's Creed? Rather, it is because Prot. leadership overall did not lool at the issue deep enough and failed to see contraceptives in contrast with Scriptural teaching, and espoused as counsel what Catholics did in practice in going along with the sexual revolution.

• 73 percent of Catholics rejected Catholic teaching artificial methods of birth control. Catholic World Report; 1997 survey of 1,000 Catholic Americans by Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at the University of Connecticut

• Just 15% of U.S. Catholics say that using contraceptives is morally wrong. 41% say that using contraceptives is morally acceptable, while 36% say it is not a moral issue. 37% of Catholics who attend Mass at least once a week say using contraceptives is morally wrong while 33% say it is morally acceptable and 30% say it is not a moral issue. — http://www.pewresearch.org/key-data-points/u-s-catholics-key-data-from-pew-research/#abortion

• 74% of Evangelicals, 73% of Mainline Protestants, and 68% of sexually active Catholics women use birth control. 3% of the Catholics rely on natural family planning. Attendance at religious services and importance of religion to daily life are largely unrelated to use of highly effective contraceptive methods. ^

• 88% of Catholics believe that they can practice artificial means of birth control and still be considered good Catholics. New York Times/CBS News poll, Apr. 21-23, 1994, subsample of 446 Catholics, MOE ± 5%

• 98% of self-identified Catholic women ages 15-44 who have ever had sexual relations have used a method of contraception other than natural family planning at some point in their lives. .” http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/the-claim-that-98-percent-of-catholic-women-use-contraception-a-media-foul/2012/02/16/gIQAkPeqIR_blog.html?wprss=fact-checker

• 40% of 18- to 29-year-old Catholics said the church’s “teachings on sexuality and birth control are out of date.” http://www.barna.org/teens-next-gen-articles/528-six-reasons-young-christians-leave-church

• 59% of all Catholic women of childbearing age practice contraception—a rate of usage statistically equivalent to that of the general population (60%). Calvin Goldscheider and William D. Mosher, "Patterns of Contraceptive Use in the United States:

• 58% of Catholics 52% if they are voters) believe that employers should be required to provide their employees with health care plans that cover contraception;

• 50% of white Catholics support this requirement, versus 47% who oppose it, along with 38% of white evangelical Protestants an 50% of white mainline Protestants. Public Religion Research Institute, February 2012 http://publicreligion.org/research/2012/02/january-tracking-poll-2012/

  - https://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/chapter-3-demographic-profiles-of-religious-groups/