Answering Christian objections to Natural Family Planning

It seems that most of non-Catholic Christianity falls either side of the family-planning fault line when it comes to contraception – either fully “Quiverfull” or pro-artificial birth control. To be sure there are sliding scales to the extreme on both sides of that schism. Interestingly both sides seem to share a disdain for Natural Family Planning. I have read the opinion on QF sites that NFP is NOT being open to the will of God, and some pro ABC (artificial birth control) folks see NFP as just another form of birth control, only more time consuming, and to their mind, not as effective or spontaneous as any available form of ABC!

Consistent Catholic teaching seems to hold the middle ground between the two! It’s logical, it is theologically sound AND (probably most important to sola scriptural Christians) it’s scriptural. I recently read two objections to NFP on a non-Catholic Christian blog.

We read 1 Corinthians 7 as clearly forbidding marital abstinence for reasons other than fasting and prayer.

Here is 1 Corinthians 7:

Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control

Do not deprive yourself except for mutual consent – meaning something that the husband and wife can both agree upon maybe because one or the other just doesn’t feel like making love because of fatigue, stress, illness, grief, etc. Or maybe because both spouses agree that as far as they can see, by their own logic and reason, they have good and just serious reasons to avoid a pregnancy that month!

The intepretation of the next part always amuses me. Yes, it says for “prayer.” So sure… don’t have sex while you’re praying I guess if you want to take such a literal view. (For that matter I guess you shouldn’t pray during sex either!) But I think what that type of literalism misses is the reason for prayer! And I think a very licit reason for abstaining is to think, pray and ponder God’s will for your marriage in regards to being open to the possibility of having another child in the family!

Not to mention that the idea of avoiding each other during the precise times that God and nature have made the wife most desirous was not at all appealing to us. Still isn’t.

Yea, that’s the thing about sacrifice – it’s not usually very appealing to the flesh. A verse that helped me in this matter and others comes from the book of Romans:

Romans 12:1-2

1I appeal to you therefore, brothers,by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2Do not be conformed to this world,but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Our bodies our to be kept holy to do God’s work. Speaking as a wife and a mom that most definitely requires sacrifice! Sometimes it means means my husband’s sexual needs first. Seven times it has meant letting a little one grow and live in my body! Now it means doing without sleep, time, money, all for the welfare of my family. That IS a being a living sacrifice! In this sense it can also mean husband and wife forgoing sexual intercourse to avoid a pregnancy that month, unless God has different plans for them. It’s a sacrifice that puts God’s design for the body and the fertility cycle into play and for that reason it most certainly is a pure, holy and acceptable method. It is taking a time out to “discern the will of God.”

Artificial birth control and the contraceptive mentality is merely conforming the mind of the world which pretty much suggests that every itch needs to be scratched, every desire fulfilled, every need met. Not exactly the stuff that living sacrifices are made of.

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