Recently my congregation stopped funding a local prolife pregnancy center because they provide birth control to the unmarried. When I told this to the center this is how they responded:
You are correct. The Source currently provides contraceptive care. We believe God’s gift of sex is intended only for the context of biblical marriage. The best option for women and men is to practice abstinence, or to have sexual intercourse only within a marital relationship in which the couple is willing to love and raise any children who may be conceived from that union. Local churches, pregnancy resource centers, and women’s health clinics must continue to promote God’s plan for human sexuality by encouraging these actions.
Yet, because we do not live in a world in which every couple is willing to follow God’s commands—commands he lovingly gives us to maximize human flourishing and his glory—we should pragmatically do the best we can to love our neighbors and help women avoid the crisis of an unintended pregnancy and the frequent resulting trauma of abortion.
Some make the argument that providing contraception is encouraging sexual behavior. However, we have to keep in mind that the women who are coming to us are already sexually active and will likely continue to be sexually active regardless of if we intervene or not.
Consider it this way… If a person is diabetic and in need of intervention, does their doctor simply tell them “Take better care of yourself. Stop eating junk and get some exercise,” and send them way? Of course not! The doctor prescribes them insulin and then helps support them in making the necessary lifestyle changes to improve their health and manage their diabetes.
Our goal is to provide an intervention (contraception) that will help our patient avoid an unplanned pregnancy, while we work with her and walk alongside her providing support to help her make healthier lifestyle choices that impact her sexual health as well as her mental, emotional, and spiritual health.
Contraceptives are an important tool in the fight against abortion: they help save unborn lives and protect women from the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual complications that so often follow an abortion.
Sounds like a reasoned, rational, if not Biblical approach, but it is the way of the world in matters of right and wrong, in moral matters, to say ‘half a loaf is better than no loaf’. However, if the whole loaf is available, that policy convicts you. Rome provided ‘bread and circuses’ to keep their population sated and docile as they were. That’s not what the Church wants for people living in fornication.
Here’s the response by Roland Warren, the president and CEO of Care Net, the largest network of pregnancy resources in America. He was interviewed in WORLD Magazine’s 12-26-20 issue by Marvin Olasky.
Care Net affiliates do not encourage behavior that is not Biblical. Jesus never violated a principle to do a good. I understand the relationship argument, but violating a Biblical principle to support a Biblical principle is a house divided against itself. If you think maintaining the relationship is more important than upholding the Biblical principle about sex outside of marriage, you’re making an idol out of a relationship.
When they were coming to you not to get pregnant, they’re unlikely to come back to you to help them bring the child into the world. Say you have a friend who’s an alcoholic. Other friends have been giving the person alcohol to preserve the relationship. Will people who don’t want to drink anymore go to the person who’s been giving them alcohol? No, they’ll go to that one friend who made the Word of God, truth, primary. Jesus didn’t value relationship above truth when the rich young ruler asked a question (32).
Nuff said.
