Humanity's Rebellion Against God's Plan For Life
The Pro-Life movement is in a state of crisis because it is losing the battle. It is losing the battle because:
It does not understand the full scope of the evil that it is fighting.
It is missing a key strategy.
It does not have the full support of the Christian church in general and the Catholic Church in particular.
The movement tends to think that it is a battle to save babies. It focuses heavily on the issue of abortion. Rather, it is a battle to save God's plan for life. It is a battle that must involve every soul on the planet. It rages with every single decision by that soul to accept or reject God's plan for life.
Contraception was condemned by God (The Onan Account, Gen 38) long before the Church was begun.
All Christian Churches, Catholic and Protestant, condemned artificial contraception up until 1930. Martin Luther said that contraception was “far more atrocious than incest or adultery” [1]. The Onan account (Gen 38) provides a strong basis for that view. Furthermore, every Protestant theologian prior to 1930 condemned contraception. Saint Augustine condemned contraception, referring directly to the Onan account (see Castii Connubii, Vices Opposed to Christian Marriage).
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.” 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.
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.