[creole]

Contraception is nothing new; history records people using various methods of artificial birth control four thousand years ago. Ancient people swallowed potions to cause temporary sterility; they used linens, wool, or animal skins as barrier methods; they fumigated the uterus with poison to keep it from bearing life.

At the time of Jesus, the Romans practiced contraception but the early Christians stood out from the pagan culture because they refused to use it.(1) Scripture condemned the act (Gen. 38:8–10), as did all Christian denominations before 1930. At that time, the Anglican church decided to allow contraception in some circumstances. They soon gave in on the issue altogether and, before long, all Protestant denominations followed suit. Now only the Catholic Church stands fast on the teaching of historic Christianity. But why? Why doesn't the Church "get with the times"?

The modern world has trouble understanding the Church's stance on contraception because the world does not know the purpose of sex. The writer Frank Sheed said that "Modern man practically never thinks about sex." He dreams of it, craves it, pictures it, drools over it, but never pauses to actually think about it. Sheed continued: "Our typical modern man, when he gives his mind to it at all, thinks of sex as something we are lucky enough to have; and he sees all its problems rolled into the one problem of how to get the most pleasure out of it."(2)

But we should put more thought into the matter. Who invented sex? What is sex? What is its purpose? What is it worth? For starters, God invented sex. Since he is its author, he knows its meaning and purpose better than we do. God has revealed that the purposes of sex are procreation and union (babies and bonding), and that the sexual act can be thought of as the wedding vows made flesh. The wedding vows are promises that your love will be free, faithful, total, and open to life. Each act of marital intercourse should be a renewal of these vows.

Some couples say that they will be open to life, but in the meantime they will contracept. In other words, they will be completely open to life . . . except when they sterilize their acts of love. Imagine if they had the same mentality with other parts of the wedding vows. Can a husband say the marital act is free even if he forces himself upon his wife? No, she must be able to freely offer the gift of self. Can he say that he will give himself totally to his bride even though he refuses to give her the gift of his fertility and wants nothing to do with her fertility? No. He must make a total gift of self. Or can a wife say she is faithful because 99 percent of the time she has intercourse with her husband and rarely sleeps with other men? This is obviously absurd, but contracepting couples turn away from their vows to be open to God's gift of life. When it comes down to it, they are afraid of what sex really means.

But sex is more than the wedding vows made flesh. It is also a reflection of the life-giving love of the Trinity. In the words of Carlo Cardinal Martini, "In the Bible, the man-woman couple is not meant to be simply a preservation of the species, as is the case for the other animals. Insofar as it was called to become the image and likeness of God, it expresses in a bodily, tangible way the face of God, which is Love."(3) God's plan for us to love as he loves is stamped into our very being, and so there is really only one question to ask when it comes to sexual morality: "Am I expressing God's love through my body?" When a married couple does this, they become what they are--an image of trinitarian love--and through this they unveil the love of God to the world.

The act of life-giving love between a husband and wife is also meant to be a mirror of the love that Christ has for his Church. We should ask ourselves: "If we consider the relationship between Christ and his Church, where does contraception fit into the picture? What is contraceptive about Christ's love?"

Beyond the theology, consider the consequences of contraception in society. When contraception spread among Christians, the Catholic Church warned about the harm it would inflict on relationships. Rates of marital infidelity would rise because spouses could be unfaithful without fear of pregnancy. Since contraception offers an easy way to elude the moral law, there would be a general lowering of morality. The Church "feared that the man, growing used to the employment of anti-conceptive practices, may finally lose respect for the woman, and no longer caring for her physical and psychological equilibrium, may come to the point of considering her a mere instrument of selfish enjoyment, and no longer as his respected and beloved companion."(4) Furthermore, if people could separate making love from making life, then why would those acts that are unable to make life (homosexual sex or masturbation) be forbidden? Sex would lose its deepest meaning and the clear sign of God's love would be lost.

The Church did not hesitate to point out the vast implications of contraception. Anthropologists who study the origin and destruction of civilizations point out that societies that do not direct their sexual energies toward the good of marriage and family begin to crumble.(5)

The love between a husband and wife holds a marriage together. A strong marriage holds the family together. Strong families hold society together, and a civilization will stand or fall upon this. "The future of humanity," according to the Church, "passes by way of the family."(6) If it can be shown that contraception compromises intimacy between a husband and wife, invites selfishness into the marital act, and opens a door for greater infidelity, then contraception is a cancer within civilization.