I am always amazed (in awe, struck with reverence, reminded of my creatureliness) when God hits me with a 1-2 punch of life. You know those times when you read a verse for your morning devotional, and then ‘it just so happens’ to be the very verse you needed to share with an unbeliever that day. Or the Spirit brings to mind an attribute of God, and then you have an experience soon after that that displays it in an unmistakable way. Some may call that coincidence, but I call it confirmation. And wouldn’t ya know, the day after I wrote that poem about our culture viewing their children like they were an animal, I read this quote from an article published in Touchstone magazine, written by John Haas:
“However, today we live in a desacralized, secularized society. Nothing is sacred any longer, not even innocent human life. Not only is human life no longer sacred, it is no longer even understood for what it is. Having lost sight of God, we no longer understand even who or what man is.
Medical science now treats man as veterinary medicine had dealt with lower animals. Contraceptive and reproductive techniques, some of which have been around for centuries, were never applied to human beings until our own day. Camel drivers on caravans wanted to prevent the female camels from becoming pregnant during the trek across the desert. So they would simply thrust a stone up into the camel’s uterus. Centuries later in America we now thrust IUDs into women’s uteruses for the same reason.
Cats would be spayed, dogs neutered. Now we do it to human beings. Artificial insemination has long been standard in the breeding of cattle. We now do it to women. Human life in its coming into being is no longer considered human life and is subjected to experimentation and the ignominy of cryopreservation. We no longer treat human beings with the awe and reverence due to those endowed with the divine image.”
Pretty powerful, don’t you think?
‘BH
7 Comments
April 3, 2008 at 12:26 am
“Pretty powerful, don’t you think?”
Wow .. yes, I do. Very powerful indeed. Not such a brave new world, but a more cowardly one.
April 3, 2008 at 12:49 am
So true. As the old quote goes, “There is a fine line between bravery and stupidity…”
It seems, in pursuit of self-mastery, we have left both our morals and our dignity in the dust that is gathering upon our Bibles…
April 3, 2008 at 6:42 am
Well actually couples who choose contraception or sterilization LOVE children most of the time. In fact, they love them so much they want to be able to adequately provide for them financially, emotionally, and physically. They want to be able to send their kids to college, to help them out throughout life if need be, to stay home and spend time with them throughout their early years.
Many people start out their marriage with the idea that they will have as many kids as God can give them. Then life throws curveballs and by the time they have already bore 3-4 children finances are tight or the marriage has issues. They realize that having that number of kids is hard enough in and of itself and that they must be able to provide for what they already have and not intentionally bring more innocent children into a situation that isn’t good for them. So they choose sterilization. God calls us to care for what we already have, if we know we cannot afford another child it would be foolish to not at least try to prevent pregnancy. We must be wise with our finances and with our bodies. A woman’s body can only handle so many pregnancies before childbearing becomes dangerous.
April 3, 2008 at 8:16 am
MW-
I’m interested to hear you address the dignity issue here, especially in light of the quote above.
Also, I would like you to notice that the pro-Abortion movement in the 60’s and 70’s (and even earlier through Margaret Sanger, etc) used the exact same language that you are using in their support of abortion. The only difference is, you make a moral judgment and set your limits at killing a child. The arguments however are are the same - finances, intentionality, situation, dangerous child bearing, etc — none of which are biblically founded reasons to sterilize, or effectively do so through medical means. As I said elsewhere, it would seem like evangelicalism has taken a eugenic fire into its bosom, and only history will show how bad we’ve been burned…
‘BH
April 3, 2008 at 9:42 am
BH-
Thanks for the reply. Although the pro-abortion movement may have used the same language they were using it for voluntarily taking the life of another human being. This is where most Christians draw the line.
There are reasons for contraception or sterilization and they cannot be ignored. Now what does the Gospel have to do with this? I really do not know and I have respect for people who choose the quiverfull idealogy if that is their conviction. I really don’t believe the Bible addresses birth control intentionally. God knew that one day birth control was going to come about in an effective manner and he’d rather, I believe, leave that up for every individual believer to decide.
Now, we know children are a blessing, that is clear and God loves children. So I believe, in many cases, the Bible address the issues of hurting a child and condemns abortion. However God never addresses avoiding getting pregnant as negative. If the Bible did address birth control, there wouldn’t be this debate.
I just don’t believe the use of contraception neccessarily implies that the couple hates children or thinks of them as undue burdens. Children are a responsibility and they are a blessing. That blessing should be cared for and some of us don’t feel that we could care adequately for more than 4 (or 6 or 10). If I were to never use any sort of birth control method at all, I could easily have between 13-16 kids between now and when I hit menopause. Would that be wise of me? Would I be using my God-given wisdom and mind in that decision? Knowing that their father could get sent off to a war for a year possibly and face the possibility of something going horribly wrong (like him never coming back)? Would it be right of me to leave those children childless? Would it be wise of me to never give my body a rest from childbearing if I can? Would I really be looking out for my health or the health of the children I already own?
There are many factors to consider in why couples choose sterilization or contraception. It isn’t because we hate children. It is because we love them dearly and want to give them the best we can.
April 3, 2008 at 9:44 am
children fatherless* is what I meant, sorry
August 19, 2008 at 8:53 pm
[...] Contracepting Koalas? Jump to Comments This video reminds me of this post from a few months ago: From Beast to Men: Distorted Dignity, if any at all… [...]
Leave a Reply