RS SUPPORT REVISION

 

 
 
What is the Christian teaching about contraception?
 
 

 

Christians are deeply divided over this issue.

Bible evidence?

Contraception was virtually unknown in Old Testament and New Testament times.


Some Christians opposed to any form of contraception would say that the creation of life belongs to God. Contraception interferes with that.


God created man in his own image Gen 1:26-27
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb Psalm 139:13.

Roman Catholic view

Contraception of any kind is wrong.


Sex was designed by God for a purpose – of producing children.


1968 Humanae Vitae – issued by Pope John Paul VI which condemned the use of artificial aids to control the size of a family.

Church of England Methodists, Baptists etc
Responsible adults should be able to decide when they have children.


Contraception enables parents to control the size of their family. Children need to be loved. No one benefits from a product of an unwanted pregnancy.


Sex is a natural instinct – as such it does not necessarily need to have a purpose.


Social factors such as health and wealth need to be considered in this equation – eg Africa where there is insufficient food for the children produced.

Quakers
See sex as a gift from God, which they see as neither good nor evil. They don’t have a collective view of rightness or wrongness of contraception, but many Quakers support artificial means of birth control.