How "pro-life" are evangelicals?

An interesting article from a professor at Wheaton College, a bastion of evangelicals, comments on the phenomena concerning why so many evangelicals use contraception or "family planning" as it is called.

American evangelicals, as it happens, are pro-contraception. A Harris Poll conducted online in September 2005 shows that evangelicals overwhelmingly support birth control (88%).

This fact exists amongst a group of people who on the one hand claim adherence to "Scripture alone" even despite the fact that Genesis 38 was interpreted by not only the "Catholic" Church for 2000 years, but even Protestant Reformers such as Luther and Calvin as being the "sin of Onan." Of course, that interpretation existed until the full force of modernism and American utilitarianism took hold of the various mainline Protestant churches beginning in the late 19th Century:

Protestants' acceptance of contraception has a relatively short history. The 1930 Lambeth conference of Anglican bishops was the first Christian church body to authorize the use of contraceptives within marriage, even as it condemned certain motives for using it, like "selfishness, luxury, or mere convenience." The introduction of the birth control pill in the 1950s and 1960s offered "free love" to society at large; married evangelicals embraced its convenience and effectiveness. The Catholic Church, by contrast, stated in Pope Paul VI's "Humanae Vitae" encyclical of 1968 that the unitive and procreative aspects of marriage are inseparable.

And more:

Still, many evangelicals portray abstinence not as obedience but as an investment in future great sex. For those who marry, the "my body, my choice" attitude contributes to a contraception culture that places fulfillment of personal desires ahead of God's desires.

Perhaps this is also a hint of evidence suggesting an incomplete theology or understanding of suffering for the Good not only of God but also of one's soul. Also, it gives credence to the claim that evangelicals argue from the position of a three-legged stool when they rail against homosexual relationships, cohabiting couples, and even abortion. For the contraception mentality is what, in essence, led to the mainstreaming and popular acceptance of these behaviors and practices.   

SBW

Comments

[John F Kippley]

The article by Christine Gardner was published in the Wall Street Journal Online about a year ago, August 18, 2006. She mentions the Torrodes, and thus the article is dated, for they have reverted to the acceptance of contraception. For information on Protestants who have led the way in the small Protestant rejection of contraception and acceptance of Natural Family Planning, see "Not Just for Catholics" on the Home Page of my website below. By and large, Evangelical Protestants share the Liberal Protestant commentment to unnatural forms of sex. The periodic abstinence of systematic NFP generally involves carrying the daily cross of Jesus regarding the control of our sexual inclinations. It appears that the liberal position among Catholics and Protestants and Orthodox alike is that "modern man" is exempt from the evangelical teaching of the need to accept the daily cross as the price of Christian discipleship, at least as far as sexuality is concerned. No wonder the country is in decline.

John F. Kippley
"Sex and the Marriage Covenant: A Basis for Morality"
"Natural Family Planning: The Question-Answer Book," a short, readable and free e-book available at
www.NFPandmore.org