Thought of the Day 12.08.09

Last night, we spent an hour talking about the ethics of contraception, an issue which is notable mostly for not being an issue at all for the vast majority of Americans, both Christian and secular. As usually happens in these discussions, someone called to ask about getting married and waiting to have kids so as to pay off debts, in her case to facilitate going to the mission field.

I responded with a simple question: “If contraception were either unavailable or illegal (as it historically has been), would your marriage plans be any different?” She answered that they wouldn’t, and to her credit, I believe she immediately understood the reasoning behind both my question and her answer.

The truth is that technology has created and the law has permitted many things which Christians must pretend are not so. Though divorce is available, I must ignore the fact. Though abortion and pornography and even adultery are allowed, I must act as if they are not. And since contraception is such a grave moral evil (for reasons I obviously haven’t explained here), our simple duty in this society is to pretend it does not exist.