I went to Dr. Kelly Kapic's Tuesday night class on Christian Ethics last night, up at Covenant College, to hear a debate about birth control, or as Kapic put it "the use of contraceptives." It was a particularly rousing debate leading Kapic to say at one point "You guys really are passionate....passionate about sex!" One side argued that the use of contraceptives (not including the rhythm method) was wrong because the ability to procreate is a gift from God that we should never selfishly deny. Their mantra was "no penetration without procreation!" This was by far the harder position for the rest of the class to accept, so Kapic really challenged the class to see the position in a more positive light. There are some really strong arguments in favor of this idea. 1) There is something wrong and hurtful to society about the modern notion that sex is a purely recreational activity. We treat sex too casually when we take the primary function of sex, to procreate, out of the equation. 2) While there are other purposes for sex (the consummation of love between two people, mutual pleasure, the development of deeper intimacy), the fact is sex will very likely produce life when allowed to take its natural course. Kapic made the good point that the burden of proof in this debate should be on those who want to interfere with this natural course, with creation's design and function, not the other way around. 3) I think there is something to the fact that Christians really are not having enough babies. Richard Pratt was at Covenant last week, and he made the point that the primary reason that Islam is growing so much as a world religion is not conversions. It is due to the fact that Muslims have a lot of babies. Christians, who in the western world are typically the more affluent individuals in society, tend to have less children so that they can enjoy the niceties of life more. But if Christians dont watch it, we could see a major diminishing of our numbers just by the fact that we arent having enough kids. There is something to the fact that we need to take the command "to be fruitful and multiply" a lot more seriously.
On the other hand, I dont think we can take the position that we should never self-consciously deny procreation in sex. There is a little thing called "wisdom" in the Bible that is supposed to help us make good decisions without having to resort to formulaic mandates. We have the ability as human beings to carefully weigh all the factors in any given situation and make the decision that best glorifies God given the set of circumstances. And I do think that there are probably scenarios where it is good for a couple to continue to have marital relations (it would be unhealthy to deny each other) and yet prevent procreation. We arent bunny rabbits. We are humans with rational and moral faculties and we have to use them constantly. There is probably no easy rule in this debate. I wouldnt say "no penetration without procreation" but I wouldnt say "prevent procreation as much as you want." There is some middle ground in there somewhere.
Posted by todd at November 15, 2006 09:41 AM