Posted on 06/22/2016 10:13:21 AM PDT by NRx
CHICAGO, June 13, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – Catholics are not alone in holding that birth control is a sin against God.
Father Patrick Henry Reardon, pastor of All Saints Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church in Chicago, who’s also an author and senior editor for the Christian magazine Touchstone, spoke in a recently published YouTube video of how throughout history until the 20th century all Christians, not just the Orthodox, but the Church fathers and Protestants as well, regarded birth control use as immoral and a sin.
“Now it’s lost,” he states in the video. “And the Church really must not go with the flow on this matter. Because this really is an insult to God.”
Watch Father Reardon deliver his sound message with clarity on God’s gift of life and the consequences of separating procreation with the marital act:
AXIOS!
The Orthodox gave up on this bit of orthodoxy a long time ago:
http://www.orthodoxevangelical.com/2014/02/04/eastern-orthodoxy-and-contraception/
Who controls the fruit of the womb? Are there any other blessings to which we tell God thanks, but only this much? We would love for Him to pour out His blessings generously with wealth, health, success, etc. but not so much with children, that we desire to control.
Accepting birth control is a slippery slope in the hearts of men. If it is moral and right to decide to have children based on convenience to us using abortifacients such as the pill or an IUD, then it isn’t much of a leap of reasoning to abort a child which avoided destruction by the other methods at an inconvenient time.
Early in our marriage we held the contemporary view accepting birth control (though never used any abortifacients) and set a number we would like to have based on what was reasonable for our income level. All I can say is that God humbled us greatly and our hearts were changed in how we viewed His sovereignty over all areas of life. We often got teased as our family increased, though to me we have only a medium sized family. As my youngest is now three and I am in my forties my only disappointment is that God did not see fit to allow us more children on earth. I do, however have three who I will meet in heaven.
Reardon’s books are fantastic, in particular the one on the Psalms.
bkmk
Old order Mennonites and the Amish still reject it as well, as well as some independent type Christians. It really is amazing how fast the culture capitulated once the technology made it so easy. And of course the majority of Catholics in the west/1st world simply ignore their own rules on it.
How often do Orthodox couples seek and receive permission from their spiritual advisor to use it within marriage?
Freegards
Thank you for explaining this so well. May God bless you and your family.
Unfortunately it is true that some of the Orthodox churches, especially here in the disapora, have watered down the traditional prohibition on artificial birth control. In this country the OCA and even Fr. Patrick’s own Antiochian Archdiocese have certainly done so. I am not sure what the official position in the Greek Archdiocese is but from purely anecdotal evidence the practice appears to be one of leaving it to the conscience of the individuals in question.
I am comforted however by the more clear and traditional stand of the churches in the old country where, with few exceptions, artificial birth control is condemned. Exceptions are sometimes admitted for grave risks to the health of the mother or child in the even of pregnancy. But even then it is only tolerated within marriage, and the use of abortificient birth control is flatly prohibited without exception.
“I am comforted however by the more clear and traditional stand of the churches in the old country where, with few exceptions, artificial birth control is condemned.”
I’m not so sure that’s the case. I think most Orthodox prelates stay away from the issue just as much as most Catholic prelates do these days.
By the way, Greece, a decade ago - before the economic crisis - had one of the highest abortion rate in Europe. Now it’s gone up 50% since then: http://www.ekathimerini.com/203320/article/ekathimerini/community/abortions-up-50-percent-in-greece-since-start-of-the-crisis
I generally have great love and respect for the Antiochian Church, but in America it is infested with convert priests like this Reardon fellow who have, in my opinion, no more of an Orthodox phronema than my dog!
bump
LOVE YOUR TAGLINE!
According to the late Pro-Life champion Fr. Paul Marx, the first Christian church to allow even limited contraception use was the Episcopalians at their Lambeth Conference in 1930. Since then it has pretty much downhill all the way.
:-). Wish I had thought of it myself.
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