Or is it Family Planning?
Many Christians, if not the vast majority, say that they trust God. They may go to church every week, read their Bibles, pray, give of both time and resources and genuinely believe that they are ‘walking in the light’.
But how many of them automatically began using some form of artificial contraception once they married, as the responsible thing to do, especially as it is free from a local family planning clinic or GP’s surgery? The number of children a couple intend to have is generally decided by the couple before marriage and the timing is normally dependent on both their careers, financial situation, how big the house is and even whether or not the latest technology or gadgets or holiday should take precedence over when the conceiving of children should be considered. Everything is planned down to the last detail and contraception plays a very important role in the procedures.
To maintain the acquired lifestyle, working wives then become working mothers. Children are brought up by the state in nurseries and schools where they are taught secular and humanistic ideas, including mandatory sex education that says sex is fun at any time with anyone so long as ‘safe sex’ is practiced. ‘Safe sex’ means using contraception. Because the youngsters believe their ‘sex educators’ they then go out and have ‘safe sex’ then wonder why they contract sexually transmitted diseases (one of which is HIV), or become pregnant. By then it is too late as their ‘safe’ contraception has failed. The morning after pill or abortion is promoted as the responsible backup facility to failed contraception, thus causing even more physical as well as emotional and spiritual pain.
Even teenagers of Christian parents fall for the lies of the sex educators, and their parents are not speaking out against sex education because they themselves use contraception and see it as ‘responsible’. Natural Family Planning is rarely considered by parents or taught to the children as an alternative responsible choice. However, how many people have actually considered how artificial contraception was introduced into the UK?
It may be called ‘Family Planning’ now but originally it was called ‘Birth Control’. Marie Stopes began the first birth control clinic in the UK (Margaret Sanger did similar in the USA) as she wanted to prevent poor uneducated people from having too many children, who were seen as a drain on society and must be prevented from being born.
Marie Stopes, like Hitler, was in favour of eugenics and the survival of the fittest. Following the second world war, when Hitler’s concentration camp eugenicists policies had been revealed she changed the clinics names from birth control to family planning to maintain support for her program. Eventually the Government were persuaded to support these policies and now the Family Planning Association (fpa) even run the sex education programs that are taught in the UK schools.
It was in the 1930s that the Church of England Synod had relented and allowed Christians to use contraception – ‘Pandora’s Box’ was opened. By the 1960’s and the advent of the Pill the Church had become basically silent on the matter and a whole draft of legislation swept away Christian laws including laws against adultery, divorce, and homosexuality. New found freedoms were encouraged by contraception that removed the fear of pregnancy and made sex ‘liberating’ for anyone.
Before Marie Stopes opened her clinics and introduced contraception, the majority of people went to Church each week and had larger families. There was a distinct link, especially as creation instead of the theory of evolution was still widely accepted. Christians knew that God was the author of life and that children were a gift from God. They also knew that to try and prevent children being conceived went against Church teaching. They had no option other than to trust in God for all their needs. Mothers
generally stayed at home and taught their children Godly values. Grandparents and the wider family lived locally so everyone would instill in children the difference between right and wrong. Couples married earlier and had children at a much younger age. Sexually transmitted diseases were hardly heard of amongst normal families as couples waited until they were married or, if the young woman became pregnant outside marriage it wasn’t long before they were wed.
Nowadays our life values have changed dramatically. People have more than one ‘partner’, and living together instead of marriage is condoned. Single parenthood is not seen as shameful, many siblings have different fathers and for those that do use contraception, it often fails and if a child is unwanted by its mother for whatever reason, then abortion is easily available.
Are Christians any different from the rest of society? As Christians do we really trust in the God who opens and closes wombs, who says that children are a blessing and that sterility is a curse? Or do we think that God is not able to supply our every need? That He doesn’t know our particular situation? That we couldn’t possibly cope if we had so many
children? That we are being responsible by using contraception so that we can afford to look after the children we do have? Do we really think that God needs us to help Him decide how many children we have? In our selfishness do we decide how many children we are going to have and to ensure that we do not have too many, we even sterilise ourselves after we have the number we have chosen?
As Christians is our trust really in God or do we prefer to trust in the man-made contraception that prevents us from having the blessings that God would wish us to have? When we understand that contraception is evil, abortion will be ended because abortion is the automatic backup for failed contraception. Until then, Christians who continue to use artificial contraception are not ‘walking in the light’ but are actually deceived and are ‘walking in the dark’.
To see the dangers of ‘man helping God’ in the planning of the family we only have to look at Abraham and Sarah in Genesis 15 and 16 who, despite being told by God that they would have a son, took it upon themselves to ‘help God out’ and Ishmael, the father of all Arabs, was born to Sarah’s servant Hagar. God was more than able to keep His promise to Abraham without any ‘help’ and when Abraham was one hundred years old Isaac was born (Genesis 21) and it was through Isaac’s descendents that Jesus was born. If we truly trust in God to provide all our needs, then as Christians we must stop using any man-made contraception and trust God to give us the children He plans naturally for us. Who are we to tell the Potter how many pots He can produce? Christians now need to repent of the sin of using contraception so that ‘He who the Son sets free, shall be free indeed’ (John 8:36).
May the Lord open our eyes to the truth about contraception.
The above was taken from a leaflet produced by United for Life in 2004. Has anything changed since then? Have things got better or are they worse? Jesus is returning soon and we all need to ensure we have confessed our sins and are right with the Lord before He comes, even if it means a complete new change of mind. Are you open to more blessings from the Lord?
The Bible and Birth Control 