Catholics, what's your stand on Artificial Birth Control?

Times change.

People change.

Therefore, I suppose it's human nature to assume God should change.

God is the One Constant. His Way is 'the' Way. That's why Church Dogma doesn't change. It's not supposed to change.

If God is constant, and He is, why should we presume to change His Dogma? It's our lot to conform ourselves closer to God, rather than tempt God to confirm Himself closer to us.

When it comes to artificial contraception, that's an Absolute 'no'.

Gen 1:28, 9:1,7; 35:11 - from the beginning, the Lord commands us to be fruitful ("fertile") and multiply. A husband and wife fulfill God's plan for marriage in the bringing forth of new life, for God is life itself.

Gen. 28:3 - Isaac's prayer over Jacob shows that fertility and procreation are considered blessings from God.

Gen. 38:8-10 - Onan is killed by God for practicing contraception (in this case, withdrawal) and spilling his semen on the ground.

Gen. 38:11-26 - Judah, like Onan, also rejected God's command to keep up the family lineage, but he was not killed.

Deut. 25:7-10 - the penalty for refusing to keep up a family lineage is not death, like Onan received. Onan was killed for wasting seed.

Gen. 38:9 - also, the author's usage of the graphic word "seed," which is very uncharacteristic for Hebrew writing, further highlights the reason for Onan's death.

Exodus 23:25-26; Deut. 7:13-14 - God promises blessings which include no miscarriages or barrenness. Children are blessings from God, and married couples must always be open to God's plan for new life with every act of marital intimacy.

Lev.18:22-23;20:13 - wasting seed with non-generative sexual acts warrants death. Many Protestant churches, which have all strayed from the Catholic Church, reject this fundamental truth (few Protestants and Catholics realize that contraception was condemned by all of Christianity - and other religions - until the Anglican church permitted it in certain cases at the Lambeth conference in 1930. This opened the floodgates of error).

Lev. 21:17,20 - crushed testicles are called a defect and a blemish before God. God reveals that deliberate sterilization and any other methods which prevent conception are intrinsically evil.

Deut. 23:1 - whoever has crushed testicles or is castrated cannot enter the assembly. Contraception is objectively sinful and contrary, not only to God's Revelation, but the moral and natural law.

Deut. 25:11-12 - there is punishment for potential damage to the testicles, for such damage puts new life at risk. It, of course, follows that vasectomies, which are done with willful consent, are gravely contrary to the natural law.

1 Chron. 25:5 - God exalts His people by blessing them with many children. When married couples contracept, they are declaring "not your will God, but my will be done."

Psalm 127:3-5 - children are a gift of favor from God and blessed is a full quiver. Married couples must always be open to God's precious gift of life. Contraception, which shows a disregard for human life, has lead to the great evils of abortion, euthanasia, and infanticide.

Hosea 9:11; Jer. 18:21 - God punishes Israel by preventing pregnancy. Contraception is a curse, and married couples who use contraception are putting themselves under the same curse.

Mal. 2:14 - marriage is not a contract (which is a mere exchange of property or services). It is a covenant, which means a supernatural exchange of persons. Just as God is three in one, so are a husband and wife, who become one flesh and bring forth new life, three in one. Marital love is a reflection of the Blessed Trinity.

Mal. 2:15 - What does God desire? Godly offspring. What is contraception? A deliberate act against God's will. With contraception, a couple declares, "God may want an eternal being created with our union, but we say no." Contraception is a grave act of selfishness.

Matt. 19:5-6 - Jesus said a husband and wife shall become one. They are no longer two, but one, just as God is three persons, yet one. The expression of authentic marital love reintegrates our bodies and souls to God, and restores us to our original virginal state (perfect integration of body and soul) before God.

Matt. 19:6; Eph. 5:31 - contraception prevents God's ability to "join" together. Just as Christ's love for the Church is selfless and sacrificial, and a husband and wife reflect this union, so a husband and wife's love for each other must also be selfless and sacrificial. This means being open to new life.

Acts 5:1-11 - Ananias and Sapphira were slain because they withheld part of a gift. Fertility is a gift from God and cannot be withheld.

Rom.1:26-27 - sexual acts without the possibility of procreation is sinful. Self-giving love is life-giving love, or the love is a lie. The unitive and procreative elements of marital love can never be divided, or the marital love is also divided, and God is left out of the marriage.

1 Cor. 6:19

Yes, I agree with it and FYI: Jupiter is dead wrong. The Pope has reiterated that artificial birth control is wrong. The reasons are ancient and yet relevant today. God does not change, his desire for us, to fill the earth and subdue it, is still in force. The Church has no authority to change what God has said or defy divine truth, she can only reveal and teach it to the faithful. The ban on birth control comes from God, through his Church. Many people don't like it because they want to have sex whenever they want. They want it easy and birth control seems to make it easy, but the long term consequences are not worth it. The pill has many unfortunate consequences such as a higher risk of cancer for women and other complications. Also, it tricks a woman's body into believing she's pregnant 12 months a year. That just sounds unhealthy from a practical standpoint. Additionally, the pill and other hormone birth control methods are abortifacients. This means they can cause a baby to be aborted. They don't always stop the egg from being fertilized, sometimes a human being is conceived and because of the hormones, the baby cannot implant in the womb. Or it does implant but the uterus cannot support it and it starves to death. The sad thing is that many women on the pill have had this happen and they have no idea. But even condom use is wrong. The reason is that birth control takes the life giving aspect out of sex. The reason God gave us sex was to "multipy and fill the earth" and to unite a husband and wife. Sex is a gift, not a right and not only for recreation with anyone and everyone. Sex, when it works properly, brings children into the world. Birth contol has rendered sex sterile and people believe it is now normal to have sex without the consequence of children. This is a dangerous perspective and has led to many more abortions. In fact, the Supreme Court has stated that because of birth control abortion is neccessary. It is the "backup" to failed birth control. Our contraceptive mentality, that sex and children do not go together, has caused us to have many more unwanted pregnancies and therefore abortions. To those who say silly things like they don't want 15 kids or that the world is too over populated now...get real. Those are both fallacies. Russia, Japan and even America are seeing a decline in birth rate. France is paying people to have children. Catholics who practice Natural Family Planning have a 99% success rate of avoiding pregnancy when they find it neccessary. This is as good as the pill and healthier. It also works with God's design and not against it. Additionally, if a couple using NFP yet trying to avoid pregnancy, had sex ever day they could, they'd have sex at twice the national average. People who use NFP report stronger marriage, better sex and a divorce rate of zero. Think about it, God knows what works best for us and the Catholic Church only preaches his will.

The Catholic Church teaches that artificial contraception should never be used.

The Catholic Church approves of abstinence and "Natural Family Planning" as a way to avoid a pregnancy.... but avoiding pregnancy with NFP should only be done when there is a valid reason.

http://www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/nfp/index.shtm...

As for "over population".... If you allotted 1250 square feet to each person, all the people in the world would fit into the state of Texas. Try the math yourself: Approximately 7,438,152,268,800 square feet in Texas, divided by the world population of 5,860,000,000, equals 1269 square feet per person.

I'm Protestant and I personally don't believe in artificial birth control.

You are wrong on every single point: Population is not "booming consistently" - in most countries of the world the population is declining. Resources are falling in price lately, so there must be more supply than demand at present.

The spread of AIDS will not be stopped by the use of Condoms: The Pope made it clear that the false faith in Condoms actually makes the situation worse by encouraging people to engage in casual and indiscriminate sex, in the belief that this is "Safe Sex". It is in reality "Slightly less dangerous Sex" - condoms are only 90% effective against AIDS. Do the math.

Promiscuity kills - condoms just extends the infection time a little. Only monogamy (having only one partner) or abstinence (having no partner) is a sure bet.

Condoms will not save you - they will make you brave enough to get infected. The Pope is correct on this.

Presbyterian, not Catholic, but everyone knows that if people actually followed the rules, only having sex and children within the confines of marriage, the world would be far LESS overpopulated. Of course, all you really want to do is bash Christians, so you have to ignore the facts here...

Catholics have not banned birth control.

If you have a valid medical reason for using it, it is neither a sin or offense.

Only fornication and lust is.

Since I am married and am free from the guilt of either, I don't have any guilt.

Catholics are more enlightened than you suggest, but don't count on the Pope promoting condoms or such anytime soon.

That is the free clinic's job.

Considering that "whatsoever the Church binds upon earth is bound in heaven", by the word of God Himself, yes, I would feel guilty about rejecting God's Word. You are supposed to feel guilty when you act immorally. As for population "booming", in fact it is plummeting in many parts of the world, including almost every country in Europe, and stable in most other countries.

Well no. They should stick to their guns. And i would feel stupid, kinda for not following those rules. It makes sense. You can't just compensate for your mistakes in the bed, you just have to learn to not make them. Then there will be no need for artificial birth control.

If you follow church teaching correctly, you shouldn't need to used artificial birth control.