Mollie at GetReligion has posted a really interesting entry about Protestants and Natural Family Planning. This is typically a Roman Catholic practice, but it seems that quite a few Protestants, my wife and I included, have taken an interest. I don’t really have any commentary to add to what she posted, so give it a read.
In a (somewhat roundabout) introduction to the story, she posted this:
Last week, Ruth Gledhill at the Times (U.K.) wrote about Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams’ view that gay relationships can be comparable to marriage. Part of his reasoning was the ubiquity and official acceptance of contraception:
“In his 1989 essay The Body’s Grace, Dr Williams argued that the Church’s acceptance of contraception meant that it acknowledged the validity of nonprocreative sex. This could be taken as a green light for gay sex.”
I get the logic here - if sex isn’t just for procreation then sex that can’t lead to procreation is ok - but it bothers me for two reasons. The first is that Archbishop Williams hangs his conclusion on the church’s acceptance of contraception, and it’s acknoweldgement that nonprocreative sex is valid. The church’s acceptance of something doesn’t make it OK (divorce/remarriage, slave trade, members who don’t believe in Jesus, televangelism, Pat Robertson…), and how much of the church accepts it anyway? The Roman Catholic Church makes up about half of Christendom.
The second reason is that nonprocreative sex has always been valid. Unless Zecheriah and Elizabeth were abstinent because of her barrenness. Or Abraham and Sarah. Or Elkanah and Hanna. What about the Song of Solomon? Just as the church’s acceptance of something doesn’t make it right, the rejection of something doesn’t make it wrong. There was a time when the church rejected the notion that any person had a right to read the Bible himself. Did that make it wrong?
I don’t mean this strictly as an attack on homosexuality, or on contraception. It’s mainly about bad logic, and the crazy things it can lead us to do.
Technorati Tags: catholic, contraception, homosexuality, logic, natural family planning, protestant, rowan williams
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