Missing the Point About the Contraceptive Mandate

We at Answers in Genesis have been praising God this week for the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of the Hobby Lobby company regarding its free exercise of religion as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. It should have been an easy decision, but the vote was 5-4. Four justices ultimately had wanted to decide to oppose the free exercise of religion for certain Christians—the Christian owners of Hobby Lobby, who did not want to offer abortion-causing drugs to their employees as mandated by Obamacare. Instead they wanted to abide by Christian principles and not be forced to accept a secular view on the sanctity of life (i.e., not be involved in killing children in the womb).

Denying the sanctity of life by four justices and tens of millions of Americans is reflective of something alarming in our culture. Many who supported the Obamacare mandate seemed either to miss the biggest problem with the law or flatly opposed what God says in His Word. (Or they just didn’t care.) Regardless, many people have bought into the false religion of man’s word determining truth—and that it is greater than God’s Word on a host of issues.   Continue at Ken Ham

Should Christians use Birth Control?

The most recent issue of The Journal for Biblical Manhood & Womanhood has just released. The lead article is from Albert Mohler, who takes a critical look at the “contraceptive mentality” that so much defines the spirit of the age. Mohler writes:

 

The effective separation of sex from procreation may be one of the most important defining marks of our age—and one of the most ominous. This awareness is spreading among American evangelicals, and it threatens to set loose a firestorm…

A growing number of evangelicals are rethinking the issue of birth control—and facing the hard questions posed by reproductive technologies. Several developments contributed to this reconsideration, but the most important of these is the abortion revolution. The early evangelical response to legalized abortion was woefully inadequate. Some of the largest evangelical denominations at first accepted at least some version of abortion on demand.   Continue at Denny Burk

Sneering at Parents, Hiding Behind “Science” — The Emergency Contraception Controversy

Looking for evidence that our society is losing its mind? Just look at the controversy over so-called “emergency contraceptives” and a federal judge’s effort to make these drugs available, over the counter, to girls of any age.

 

Last month, Judge Edward Korman of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York handed down an order forcing the Food and Drug Administration to make emergency contraceptives, sometimes called the “morning-after pill,” available without a doctor’s prescription or parental permission to girls without any restriction on age.

Judge Korman’s order would open the door for girls as young as 10 or 11 to obtain the morning-after pill without any involvement by either a doctor or a parent. That same girl, of course, could not be given an aspirin in a school clinic without parental permission, much less a simple antibiotic like penicillin. Nevertheless, this federal judge ruled that girls and women of any age must be allowed over-the-counter access to emergency contraceptives.   Continue at Al Mohler


See also:

 The Birds, The Bees, and The Plan B

Making Birth Control Pills Available Over the Counter?

Prolifer Mike Brady has expressed concern over the recent move of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists to recommend that birth control pills be available over the counter. (Learn more.) 

Mike goes on to explain why people should oppose this. One major reason is the third mechanism of the pill prevents implantation of a newly created human being, thus it would result in many more chemical abortions. He also explains that “The other side effects of the pill, including risk of blood clots, and cancer, would not be monitored.”  

(If you’d like to read more specifically about the abortifacient effect of the pill, see my book Does the Birth Control Pill Cause Abortions?, available in print and as a free ebook.)

I recommend you take action by contacting the FDA and sending them a brief comment. This can be done at www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/email/cder/comment.cfm.

HT: Randy Alcorn

Should the Church Promote Contraceptives for the Unmarried?

One of the significant debates at the General Assembly was the debate about whether or not to stay in the National Association of Evangelicals. The answer was that we will stay in but keep an eye on the NAE. For the record, I thought this was a good decision. You can read a full report of what happened on Wednesday, June 20th on this action here. On Thursday, news came out at Worldmag.com that the NAE accepted $1 million to promote contraceptives among the unmarried. The story states in part:

The $1 million (apparently for use over several years) was not much by Hewlett or National Campaign standards, but it’s big for the NAE, which had a total budget of about $1 million in 2009, 2010, and 2011, according to the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. And what exactly is “the work” that will continue if the NAE gets another grant?

Here’s an example: The NAE sponsored a panel in April at the Q Gathering in Washington, D.C., where young evangelicals gathered to hear speakers and panels address numerous topics, including abortion reduction. According to Q founder Gabe Lyons, the NAE “highly recommended” for inclusion in the panel the speaker who ended up dominating it, National Campaign CEO Sarah Brown—without disclosing its financial connection to her.

Brown urged contraceptives for the unmarried as well as the married. No one on the panel disagreed. When it concluded, 372 audience members had the opportunity to answer electronically this question, “Do you believe churches should advocate contraception for their single 20-somethings?” Almost two-thirds voted yes.  Continue at Wes White

Can Christians Use Birth Control?

The effective separation of sex from procreation may be one of the most important defining marks of our age–and one of the most ominous. This awareness is spreading among American evangelicals, and it threatens to set loose a firestorm.

Most evangelical Protestants greeted the advent of modern birth control technologies with applause and relief. Lacking any substantial theology of marriage, sex, or the family, evangelicals welcomed the development of “The Pill” much as the world celebrated the discovery of penicillin — as one more milestone in the inevitable march of human progress, and the conquest of nature.

At the same time, evangelicals overcame their traditional reticence in matters of sexuality, and produced a growth industry in books, seminars, and even sermon series celebrating sexual ecstasy as one of God’s blessings to married Christians. Once reluctant to admit the very existence of sexuality, evangelicals emerged from the 1960s ready to dish out the latest sexual advice without blushing. As one of the best-selling evangelical sex manuals proclaims, marital sex is Intended for Pleasure. Many evangelicals seem to have forgotten that it was intended for something else as well.

For many evangelical Christians, birth control has been an issue of concern only for Catholics. When Pope Paul VI released his famous encyclical outlawing artificial birth control, Humanae Vitae, most evangelicals responded with disregard — perhaps thankful that evangelicals had no pope who could hand down a similar edict. Evangelical couples became devoted users of birth control technologies ranging from the Pill to barrier methods and Intrauterine Devices [IUDs]. That is all changing, and a new generation of evangelical couples is asking new questions.

A growing number of evangelicals are rethinking the issue of birth control–and facing the hard questions posed by reproductive technologies. Several developments contributed to this reconsideration, but the most important of these is the abortion revolution. The early evangelical response to legalized abortion was woefully inadequate. Some of the largest evangelical denominations at first accepted at least some version of abortion on demand.  Continue at Al Mohler

The Bible and Birth Control

I have been asked to write about the Christian position on birth control. This is something I have discussed in the past, but there are many ways to approach the topic and this time I would like to approach it from a bit of a different angle. I intend to share how I have gone about arriving at my own position. I will begin by immediately stating what the Bible clearly forbids when it comes to birth control. From there I will survey the Bible to find principles that are helpful in the discussion. That will take us to the end of this article, leaving me to say more another day.

We begin here: The Bible is silent on any explicit discussion of the subject of birth control. (If you are wondering about Onan, feel free to scroll to the bottom of this article.) Nowhere in the Bible does God command that a couple must or should use birth control at any stage in their marriage. Likewise, nowhere in the Bible does God explicitly forbid the use of birth control. It’s not that birth control did not exist in the day the Bible was written, but simply that God, for his own good purposes, chose not to give us explicit direction. However, the Bible has so much to say about marriage and sexuality and family and human life that we are not simply left guessing and hoping for the best.

What God Forbids

From what the Bible teaches about life and marriage, we can all affirm that two methods of birth control are clearly forbidden by Scripture.  Continue at Tim Challies