Friday, July 25, 2008

Go Natural


What is this brouhaha about contraceptives all about? Do these pro-artificial contraceptive advocates really know what they are talking about? I have no family yet but I can see that this is a critical issue being debated upon for quite some time now and Church's stand is still the same as far as the encyclical Humanae Vitae by Pope Paul VI first came out 40 years ago. To begin with, I sincerely believe that the politicians advocating contraception as a method of curbing population growth are really not concerned with the poor at all. It's all about publicity and money. Once the reproductive health bill is signed into law they'll definitely get something from the companies who manufacture contraceptives. Easy money for 2010 eh? Well, what can you expect from morally corrupt politicians? But of course the Catholic Church will never ever consent to their schemes. Not in a thousand years. It's like asking the great physicist Isaac Newton to repeal the law of gravity. Good luck!

Now here is where my confusion comes from. Why insist on artificial birth control when there is a safer and acceptable alternative which is the Natural Family Planning method? Isn't natural more acceptable than artificial? Hey ladies do you want your boyfriends to give you artificial red roses on your first date? For example, when a man and a woman or a man and another man perform anal sex, that is unnatural. It does not serve any legitimate purpose. It does not accomplish anything. In the case of a man and woman doing that, I bet you the sperm cells won't be able to reach the ovaries via the rectum even if it can swim like an Olympic swimmer, because the rectum is a passageway for feces and waste materials and you won't ever get pregnant by doing that. In the case of a man and another man engaging in anal sex, you're just merely pushing whatever feces there is inside further up the intestine which might cause a fecal impaction later. I'm sorry for being gross but Im trying to drive home a point here.

When a woman deliberately terminates her pregnancy, that is unnatural (that's the nicest thing I can substitute for saying that abortion is a very grievous sin). Mammals don't do such a horrible thing. It is something so unnatural for a mother - whether she is a human being or an alligator to harm her offspring purposely and so you see anything that is unnatural, like artifical contraception for this matter, merits a severe consequence. In that regard, I hope you can read a commentary on Humanae Vitae , the prophetic encyclical of Pope Paul VI on the issue of contraception.

The natural family planning method is the only moral acceptable alternative the Christian couple has at their disposal. You married couples out there should be responsible enough for yourselves to know how this thing works. The problem with artificial contraceptives is that it does not promote self-control and respect towards your spouse. It makes you think that your partner is just an instrument for your sexual enjoyment and that taking responsibility is completely out of the picture. It's the easier alternative and people in general like quick fixes. The problem with us Catholics is that we impose our own relativistic and personalistic view of morality and make it fit our situations. We don't want to subject ourselves to the Catholic Church's teaching, who alone can direct us with authority regarding everything moral and upright, with a view that the teachings are somewhat outdated, passe, and out of touch with reality. We don't see the bigger picture do we? Sometimes, I even wonder why the matter of contraception is such an issue in a predominantly Catholic nation such as ours. Neither do I subscribe to the opinion that overpopulation aggravates poverty. More likely the culprits are social injustice, corruption, and bad governance.

I also want to share this Commentary on Family Planning for a deeper spiritual insight on this highly controversial topic.

Go NATURAL. There is just really no other better option.

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