To Contracept, or Not to Contracept

Interesting, isn’t it? Up until the 1930’s the entire Christian Church was unified on at least one topic: birth control. In response to a papal encyclical on marriage at the time, the Anglican Church said that contraception was acceptable, on an exceptional basis, within the confines of marriage. It wasn’t until the mid 60’s and the arrival on the scene of “the Pill” that the Church started really challenging the age old position of “no contraception” - that every act of sexual intercourse in a marriage should have the possibility of conception. Now, I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that a belief held by the Church for 1900 years that gets questioned in the 60’s ought to raise concerns about why we’re starting to question it now.

So, on what basis did all Christian faiths prohibit contraception before 1930? Well, biblically there was Onan (Gen. 38:9) who “spilled his seed on the ground”. This has been offered as an argument against masturbation, but the real problem appears to have been that Onan intentionally stood in the way of conceiving children. That is, he indulged in the pleasure of making babies without risking the responsibility that would include. Then, of course, there is the very first command issued to human beings ever: “Be fruitful and multiply” (Gen. 1:28). Contraception would seem to say a resounding, “No!” to God.

I’ve already mentioned the purposes of marriage. One is companionship and the other is procreation. It would seem from this that contraception would be contrary to the purpose of marriage. Further, these two functions are reflections of the godhead. God is Triune and, therefore, His own “companion”, and He is the Creator. The intentional prevention of creation would not seem to be a valid way of reflecting the Creator.

Beyond the biblical and spiritual arguments against contraception, there are the physical arguments. Hormonal contraception, such as the Pill, has deleterious effects on the female body. Some of these operate as abortifacients, producing an abortion rather than preventing conception by causing the ovum to slough off rather than take hold.

And, of course, there is the nagging moral question: Why are we using contraception? It seems that our culture is highly tuned to preventing pregnancy. To suggest, as I am, that it might be wrong to use contraception is met with skepticism and dismissal. Why? “Because we get to decide when to have children.” Really? When did that happen? The command is “Be fruitful and multiply.”

According to the 2000 Census, the average number of children per family today in America is 0.9. If you eliminate the number of families without children and just use the number of families who actually have children, the average is 1.86 children per household. In 2002, the Telegraph reported that the average children per household in the U.K. had dropped to 1.64. In Australia it is around 1.7.

It seems we are developing a culture that prizes “my personal gain” over procreation. There are growing numbers that are saying, “No, thanks, we don’t want children.” There are a variety of reasons. “I want to have my career first.” “Children would disrupt our lifestyle.” “We’re already overburdened.” “Children cost too much to raise.” But it generally boils down to “I want my own personal comfort and am not willing to surrender it to obey God’s command.”

Now, I need to be careful. I know that this last paragraph was an overgeneralization. I know that some of today’s reasons are not self-centered. I can certainly understand that a woman with AIDS, for instance, would not want to pass that on to a child. That’s not selfishness. I’m not speaking about those relative few who fall in this category. I’m speaking about the alarmingly large number of people who have no reason not to have children but are choosing not to based entirely on their own personal preferences.

Is contraception something that Christians should use? I can find all sorts of reasons that they shouldn’t. I can hardly find any reasons that they should. I can see the need to regulate births, but to artificially prevent offspring purely for the purpose of personal pleasure (both in the act of procreation and in the lifestyle that childlessness would afford) seems to me to be an intentional effort to contravene God’s first command and a refusal to accept marriage for what God intended it. Maybe we’ve stayed away from this topic too long. Maybe it’s time that we question what we have accepted wholesale since the “free love” era of the 60’s and really examine if contraception is a moral, biblical thing to use.