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At the Anglican
Episcopalian Lambeth conference in London in the fall of 1930, contraception was
deemed acceptable under special circumstances.
This opened the door to the greatest evil the world has ever
seen. In December of that
same year, Pope Pius XI issued the encyclical “Casti
Connubii” (Christian Marriage) which maintained the teaching
that artificial contraception was “shameful
and intrinsically vicious”.
He said that “There are no special circumstances in which
husband and wife cannot, strengthened by the grace of God, fulfill
faithfully their duties and preserve in wedlock their chastity
unspotted.” (Casti Connubii, p.
31).
However, within three decades, the Lambeth ruling penetrated most
of Protestantism and the restrictive guidelines from the conference were
lost.
Aided by a
period of vast social change, a surging force in 1930 was the sexual
revolution and birth control movement led by Margaret Sanger, who later
founded Planned Parenthood. A
vocal and bitter opponent of Christianity, Sanger urged full
sexual freedom for everyone and especially for women.
She also urged firm population control and particularly so among
large segments she called “unfit”.
Her persistent denunciation of Papal support for large Catholic
families and her passionate attacks against “enslavement” of women
by unwelcomed pregnancy began to take root in the popular media, in
academia, in Congress and with Catholics and Protestants in the Church.
The
great Papal encyclical, Humanae Vitae,
was issued by Pope Paul VI in 1968. It re-iterated God’s plan for life, provided a morally
acceptable definition of
responsible parenthood
and repudiated contraception. The
majority of the Catholic laity did not accept it.
Supported by dissident theologians, dissident priests and even a
few dissident bishops, the laity ignored the teaching and continued to
use contraception, especially the “pill” in ever increasing numbers.
Whether or not some clergy accepted it, the vast majority of the
clergy went silent on the subject.
What is the price of that silence?
The
price of silence is that large numbers in our congregations are
practicing some form of artificial contraception.
The pews are filled with people who have had vasectomies, tubal
ligations and hysterectomies. Women
are on the pill and men use barrier methods.
Small families abound; large families are scarce.
These facts are independently proven by the very low fertility
rates in every sector of society all the way up to the national level.
The problem of low fertility rates extends internationally
throughout the world. Fertility
rates are declining in every country on the planet.
God's Plan For Life Aborted
The proof
that humanity has gone completely off the track is now manifest in the
world. We have stopped multiplying. Sixty one countries
have fertility rates below the replacement rate. The replacement
rate is 2.1 children per woman. Two are required to replace the
parents and 0.1 to make up for infant mortality and women who do not
procreate. A fertility rate
of 2.1, in the long term, does not multiply population – it only
maintains it. Some fertility rates in "Catholic
countries" are staggering low - Italy (1.2), Spain (1.15),
Portugal (1.37) and Ireland (1.9). Most of Europe averages to 1.4.
The US is 1.99. This reality is well known by the US government
which predicts that the current situation with social security which has
four people working for every person receiving social security, will
shrink to 2 to 1 by the year 2030.
It is unlikely that the economy can support such an arrangement.
Italy is burying more people than are born.
Russia has lost 500,000 in total population every year since
1989. Europe will shrink to
a fraction of its current population by the end of the 21st
century. Japan, which has
negligible immigration, will lose 25% of its population by 2050.
Not only have we disobeyed God by ceasing to multiply, we have
not filled the earth. Australia, a continent nearly the size of
the United States only has 19 million people versus 280 million for the
US. Most of South America is so sparsely populated that telephones
do not exist except in major cities.
The entire population of the world can fit into the State of
Texas, with 1000 square feet per person, which is a slightly higher
density than San Francisco but a slightly lower density than the Bronx
in New York City.
What is
the Holy Spirit saying to the Church?
The Holy Spirit is saying that God’s loving procreative plan
has been replaced with our own selfish contraceptive plan. The contraceptive mentality has infected the Church.
A major effect is a fall from grace which results in a blindness
to the surrounding reality. There is a loss of awe and respect for God’s loving
procreative plan. Parents
then develop a false fear of the economic and emotional impact of
children to the point that children are not wanted.
There is a loss in living faith in God as a provider.
Conjugal relationships get distorted by dishonest love.
Every
single intended “benefit” of contraception, that was promised in the
sixties, has not occurred. Instead,
the opposite of what its promoters once promised has arisen. The pill was supposed to make marriages better by relieving
parents of the worry of pregnancy in their sexual relationship.
It failed to achieve that promise.
In fact, the opposite occurred.
The divorce rate went from 25% in 1960 to 50% in 1980 as the pill
came into widespread use. Although
other factors were involved in the escalating divorce rate, it is hard
to make a case that the pill improved marriages.
Barrier contraceptives were supposed to reduce sexually
transmitted diseases. The
opposite has occurred. The
pill was supposed to reduce abortion.
The opposite has occurred. In
fact, abortion mills provide contraceptives free of charge to their
clients because they know that it is good for business. About 50% of all abortions are due to contraceptive failures.
The abortionists know that contraceptive failures will occur and that
the woman, with or without her partner will seek an abortion.
There is
loss of respect for Church moral teaching authority.
People who cannot trust the Church in its moral teaching on
contraception, will not trust the Church in other areas, such as
abortion, as well. About
22% (60 million) of the nation is Catholic.
Yet exit polls at abortion mills indicate that Catholic women are
as likely as women in the general population to have an abortion. Being Catholic does not seem to make a difference!
The tap
root of abortion is contraception.
All of the reasons that a woman uses to abort are the same
reasons that she uses to contracept.
Abortion follows contraception like night follows day.
Finally we
get down to the political arena where so much effort by so many people
is spent struggling about the issue of abortion.
People march, wave banners, pray and spend huge sums of money
lobbying but the political situation is regressing. The contraceptive
mentality is so perverse and pervasive, that it causes a disinterest in
pro-life causes and yields immoral voting.
In 1992, about 44% of the country voted for Bill Clinton. About
44% of Catholics who voted, voted for Bill Clinton.
Being Catholic did not seem to make a difference.
Bill Clinton twice vetoed the partial birth abortion act.
After the 1996 election, exit polls showed that 53% of Catholics
who voted, voted for Clinton. In
1998, in the state of California, 58% of the total votes for Governor
went to Gray Davis. Gray Davis avidly promoted his pro-choice
(pro-abortion) public policy position and having won the election, is
now providing millions of dollars in the State budget to fund the
abortion mills. Of
Catholics who voted, 58% voted for Gray Davis for Governor.
Again, being a Catholic did not make a difference.
The non-Catholic Christian vote for Davis was somewhat lower
(47%), but still a poor testimony to pro-life values.
The percentage should be zero!
See The Contraception Deception
for more information and statistical references.
The leading pro-life political lobbying organization in the
country, the National Right to Life (NRL) refuses to take a stand on
contraception. They too
seem blind to its role in the culture of death debacle.
Satan wants to
destroy the human race and God’s plan for life. He now has tools that
far exceed the power of the plague and the sword.
Contraception has already reduced the human race more than wars
and disease ever have. Pope
John Paul II noted in his encyclical letter, Evangelium
Vitae, that the moral decline seems greatest where the "Church's
teaching on contraception is rejected".
He points out that "contraception and abortion are often closely connected, as fruits
of the same tree." (See
Evangelium Vitae, Ch1-13) It is no longer necessary to defend Humanae Vitae with fancy
theological and philosophical arguments.
The rotten fruit of the contraceptive generation speaks for
itself. Contraception
belongs to the culture of death.
For men of good
conscience, the only way back is to repent and accept God’s
plan for life. The
laity must repent of their evil practice of contraception.
The clergy must repent of their silence, their fear of speaking
out and their false teaching.
There are
300,000 Christian pulpits in the United States. Of those, 19,000 are Catholic.
Each pulpit is backed by a parish organization with an annual
budget averaging approximately $200,000.
That amounts to a total budget of $60 billion.
No one can say that the pro-death forces, which spend millions of
dollars, outspend the pro-life forces.
The problem is that the pulpit is paralyzed! Therefore, a successful pro-life strategy must include
renewal and rejuvenation of the pulpit with moral teachings, especially God’s
plan for life and the evil of artificial contraception, abortion and
euthanasia.
The
culture of death will not be defeated until there is repentance from
contraception.
Jesus
Christ is the author of life, the healer of life, the redeemer of life,
the provider of abundant life and the donor of eternal life.
Those who are called to preach and teach the message of salvation
through Jesus Christ are therefore compelled to proclaim God’s plan
for life, to warn against any evil that attacks that plan and to
directly call men to repent of their rebellion against God’s plan for
life.
Those who
choose God’s plan for life will be
more likely to vote pro-life.
Then laws can be passed to protect all human life.
Only then will contraception, abortion, euthanasia and the
culture of death fade into history.
[1]
Charles D. Provan, The Bible and Birth Control, Monongahelia, PA,
Zimmer Printing, 1989, 81.
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The
Contraception Deception
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