Why do so many Protestants embrace Contraception?

Non-Catholic Religions
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What begins spiritually eventually becomes physical, every non-catholic religion is not fully receiving from God what should be there, especially by schism or heresy.

Choosing not to fully receive from the Christ what he offers to give the person is a form of spiritual contraception, as if the woman replace a barrier between herself and the husband.

Inevitably then what begins spiritually becomes manifest physically so that eventually non-catholic Christians will embrace literal contraception because their religions refuse to accept some of the truths of Jesus Christ

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22

Very well said and so true.

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23

For what it is worth, I was blessed to have an article about contraception and the meaning of human sexuality based on the Trinity and the incarnational relationship between Christ and the church in the publication known as the homiletic and pastoral review.

I think it could really add some good insights here if one would like to check it out. Here is the link

Artificial Birth Control, the Sexual Revolution, and the Modern Collapse of Morality

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24

This. I was raised in a Protestant denomination. I was taught that fornication and adultery were definitely sinful (in Sunday School during my teenage years, we were taught that fornication could be substituted for adultery in the 10 Commandments), but nothing about contraception. Something changed between my grandparents’ generation and my parents’, though. My parents (both Greatest Generation) were both from large families, but they only had 2 children and 1 miscarriage. None of my aunts or uncles had more than 3 children each. Somewhere in there, contraception became acceptable and available.

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Exactly. There are two ways to live. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart…”. “All” means “All”.Jesus teaches that we live for God’s pleasure, that everything we do is in a spirit of love for God. The other way to live is for the pleasure of our senses…sense gratification. Those are two ways to live. One way is service to God. The other way is service to mammon. The church doesn’t condemn sex. The church condemns service to mammon. Sex for entertainment is service to mammon, service of our senses. Sex for bringing a soul into this world for delivering that soul to God is service to God. Sex without a conscious demeanor of the heart that we are God’s servants with every thought, word, and deed, is service to mammon, married or not married. Marriage is not a license for sense gratification. The same goes for homosexuality (which is recently being discussed on this site). A person, man or woman may be inclined towards homosexuality. They are not condemned for having that inclination. They are condemned for serving that inclination. Serving a homosexual inclination and having sex with one’s wife for entertainment are both on the same level - service of our senses. Contraception simply means that “I want to enjoy my senses. Service to God comes later.” This orientation is on the same level of orientation as homosexuality. One form of self-centered pursuit of pleasure is not different from another. Living a Godly life is not about a collection of rules. It’s about the condition of our hearts. Either things are done for my pleasure, or things are done for God’s pleasure. Seeing God’s pleasure is the healthy condition of the soul. We are addicted to being self-centered. Spiritual life is about breaking that addiction. At first it’s difficult. When one has some forms of liver disease, sugar tastes bitter. But rock candy is prescribed as the cure. As one recovers from the disease, the rock candy begins to taste sweet again. For one is spiritually diseased, living only for God’s pleasure tastes bitter; but by living in that way, gradually it becomes very sweet.

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The members of the Jewish church asked Jesus, “what is the most important rule?” People think religious life is about keeping rules. Jesus said the rule of all rules is to love God with all of our heart. Loving God with all of our heart means that the only thing we desire is God’s pleasure. If that rule is in place, the question of contraception or not contraception no longer exists. If someone thinks, “I’m a good Catholic, or good Christian…I only do it with my wife.”, they have missed the understanding of the message of Jesus…everything only for God’s pleasure…not mine. One may think that such an orientation is too severe, too strict. But Jesus says, “Straight is the gate…”. We have the freedom to choose. People may think, “If I keep all God’s commandments, I’ll go to heaven.” But Jesus taught that “It’s not by good works alone…”. What God really wants is our love. If that love is in our hearts, all these questions are easily answered. How do we cultivate this love for God? We cultivate love for God by loving Him. It grows.

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Contraception did become acceptable and available, but please don’t assume that people with few (or no) children are using it. My first wife (God rest her soul) and I were married almost 8 years before our first child was born. We were wondering whether we would ever have children. My second wife has one child and had four miscarriages. Friends of ours had one baby and wanted more, and now they have three adult children, but they waited a long time for the second one. Some people are naturally infertile, and some have low fertility.

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29

No assumption made. I do know that my own parents used something, though. My sister was born 13 months after they married. When my sister was 11 or 12, Mom asked the doctor if she was too old to have another baby. He said no, and she shortly became pregnant. That pregnancy miscarried. I was born when my sister was 13. I once asked my mother about it, and she confirmed that they used some form of contraception. Again, I’m talking about my own family experience. No generalization implied.

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Well, I would generalize. Polls show that a large majority of Catholics think that the Church should allow contraception, and I guess that many, maybe most, Catholic couples of childbearing age who currently want to avoid pregnancy are using contraception. Back in 1974, the pre-Cana conference we attended was partly about which contraceptive method to use, and a few years before that, at a Catholic high school, at least one teacher spoke to us in favor of contraception. What I was cautioning against is not generalization but drawing conclusions in particular cases where we don’t know.

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That is not good. Lord, forgive them for they know not what they do.

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Contraception is nothing but pleasure of the genital organs of this material body, no different from the sexual activities of cats and dogs.

Sensual gratification is our disease. Ask yourself, “Did Jesus have sex?”, “Did Jesus have sexual desire?” No. Why? Because when one loves God with all of one’s heart… which is what Jesus is teaching…one becomes filled with spiritual joy. “My cup runneth over.”

In such a condition of the heart, all material desire departs without separate endeavor. Becoming a Christian is not a license for sensual pursuit. Becoming a real Christian is about the sublimation of all desire by finding fulfillment in our realtionship with God. Does the Pope have sex? Why not? Because sex is the greatest of all desires of the flesh. As much as we wish to come closer to God, we have to become detached from the pursuit of material desires. This is what religion is all about. “One cannot serve both God and Mammon.”

If a Christian, regardless of denomination, wants to have his cake and eat it…he’s kidding himself. We can’t put out a fire by pouring gasoline on it.

By adding water to milk, more and more it gradually becomes water. Jesus was not teaching watered-down Chrisitianity. He said, “Accept the yoke that I wear.” He is completely self-controlled, because he is yoked in the service of the Lord.

Being a follower of Jesus is not about becoming a “member of the church”, wearing a pin, putting a few dollars in the collection box. Jesus will simply say, “I never knew you.”

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The Pope may be more forgiving, more indulgent…because the church likes to have members. Big membership means big wealth, big power. These things are going on. Ask Jesus in prayer, “What kind of contraception should I use?” He will tell you. “Are you engaging in sex for giving pleasure to the Lord? Or is this for the pleasure of your sexual organ? Is you every thought, word and deed for the pleasure of the Lord? Or is it “time out” when you get in bed with your wife? The best contraception method is the one that I use. I don’t do it. If you want to follow me… follow me.”

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That’s the answer to the question: “Why do so many Protestants embrace contraception?” The answer is because they are not really “protesting” against the dictates of the flesh. They are serving those dictates. All of us have to make a choice moment to moment: God or Mammon. One may think this is a very harsh statement. But we have to try to understand what Jesus is saying: “Straight is the gate…”. Religion is not a hobby. It’s a war against the temptations of the world.

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My brother Steve says: " Catholic The Church is binding on earth as it is in Heaven and always should follow the pattern."

This is the point! Either we are of the flesh, or we are of the spirit. The two are in opposition. Mammon versus God. This is the whole struggle of religion, whether Hindu, Christian, Muslim or Jew. Jesus says, “I am in this world, but I am not of this world.” The same applies to all of us. It is only a matter of understanding and accepting.

Who created the material world? Was it “the Big Bang”? Did it all happen “by chance”? And if it happened by chance, that all the material elements suddenly combined, with a bang, to cause creation…where did those elements come from? The so-called scientist has no answer.

Actually the material world is part of the kingdom of God. He is in complete control. “Not a blade of grass moves, except under His omnipresent will.” Therefore the material world is part of the spiritual world. And we have to choose. The material world dictates that we are servants of Mammon. And God and His son dictates that we are all His servants. And we have to choose. Therefore Stephen says: “Catholic The Church is binding on earth as it is in Heaven and always should follow the pattern.” Some may say that Steve is a little bit mad…but we could all use some of that madness.

The question may arise in our hearts: “If God is so loving and so kind, and He wants our love in return, why has He created the material world which deludes us and causes us to think that the gratification of our material senses is the goal of life?”

The answer is there in the first part of our Bible: Someone made a choice, not to surrender our will to the supreme instruction of God, but to make a choice of independence. This is called temptation. Therefore we were placed in exile, outside of the Garden of Eden. That same temptation rules us today. Therefore we live outside of the Garden.

But God is very loving and very kind. So he sends His son, to give us a wake-up call. “You are in the world…but you are not of this world. Please come back home.”

But where is this “home”? This home is in our hearts. Because the material creation rests within the spiritual creation. “He’s got the whole world, in His hand.” And the choice is ours, moment to moment. At one moment we are in the material world. And the next moment we can be in the spiritual world…which is the reality. We are free to choose.

It’s not simply a question of being a “member” of a church, going through a ritual, or a ceremony. Those things can be helpful to us as reminders. It’s about really getting clean, inside and out. Accepting the baptism of the spirit. "Like Jesus tells us: “Accept the yoke that I wear.” Understanding and accepting. It’s a choice.

So Jesus says, “Rejoice! for great is your reward in heaven!” This world is also in heaven. But we have to accept it: “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Don’t we recite this every day?

This is the real meaning of being a Catholic. Joyful acceptance. “Rejoice!” This is the price, the ticket. When we embrace the faith, the faith embraces us in return. Then we are free…free of being in bondage, in the service of Mammon. It is simply a matter of acceptance. “Accept the yoke that I wear.”

It is not that I am living on that platform. I am just trying to understand and remember. And in order to remember, I’m turning to you, and discussing the path that we are on…the path that leads “straight to the gate.”

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37

Yes…if we are in contraception in our beds…
we are in contraception to God.
There will be no birth.
We won’t be born again.

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Yes, dear Stephen,

For those who are married to Christ,
Contraception in bed,
with my wife,
is an act of adultery

This is not about asceticism.
Remember what David said:

“The Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want.”

It is the flesh that “wants”.

For one who truly lives
“in the house of the Lord”,
“My cup runneth over.”

The houses in which we live,
are really the houses of the Lord.
We own nothing.

  We are born naked,
   and when we die,

we take nothing with us.

To live in the house of the Lord,
is to understand
that we are His loving servants.

“Accept the yoke that I wear.”

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They hold a disordered approach to the marital act and its end goal. Having said that, maaaaany Catholics have the same problem.

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42

Because they are ‘in protest’.

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I’m not sure I understand what you are saying here. Who is not in protest? Because in a way, Protestants are in protest of God’s natural plan.

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I was saying what you more or less just said. I was answering the question directly: Protestants embrace contraception…because they are in protest. They are in protest to His Divine plan, to some degree, as well as His “natural” one. They need to get with the program!

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