Catholics, can someone please help me to understand why birth control use in marriage is a sin?

Question

Of all the doctrines, I have the most trouble with this one. If we base it soley on the story of Onan, wouldn't sex outside of marriage also be ok, since that's what he was supposed to be doing with his brother's widow?

Answer 1

--Is Catholic--

This can only be really understood within the complete Catholic ethics on sexuality. On this subject, for lay use, the best books would be ( in order of difficulty)

Life-Giving Love : Embracing God's Beautiful Design for Marriage by Hahn
Good news about Sex and Marriage by West
Purity Purity: The Mystery of Christian Sexuality by Dietrich Von Hildebrand (takes some finding as it is out of print)
Love and Responsibility by Karol Wojtyla

Ok on to a quick response to your question:

First, the Onan story. This is about contraception. If anyone says otherwise, they teach not according to the historical and ancient Jewish reading. The several thousand year old explanation on this verse is that Onan was killed for "spilling his seed", or using primitive contraception. If you do not believe me, look this verse up on Google in traditional Jewish biblical interpretation. If you want, you can also check the verse in the Church Fathers, where it is read the same way. BTW, Onan was married to his brother's widow. That is how that worked.

When you talk about birth control, we have to be very careful of what exactly you mean. Each type is different and the sin is different.

In marriage, there are 3 ends
1. Procreation
2. Mutual Aid/Up building
3. Remedy for sexual concupiscence (aka sex outside of marriage).

Within the sexual activity, the act must be unitive and open to life.

Now let us talk about the types of birth control and why they are wrong.

Prophylactics and Barrier Methods.
The use of such methods denies the unitive act. The man and woman are not actually having sex with each other but rather there is a prophylactic between them and it is that which they are having sex with. This method denies the fundamental right of the partner to be united with the other as well as the obligation of the other to be united. It is a grave violation of trust and a lie about the sexual act. It says that the person does not truly love the other and wish to give themselves to the other. It is a holding back of one of the deepest humans bonds. Additionally, it is wrong because the intent is to not be open to life and shows a despising towards life and God's desire to create children via the sexual activity of humans.

Spermacides and the Like
The intent of this method is to kill the sperm and make the possibility of pregnancy impossible. It is wrong because the fundamental intent is to kill the possibility of life. It shows contempt for the man's greatest gift to his wife, the ability to become pregnant through the introduction of sperm.

The Pill, Morning After Pills, etc.
These are actually classified as abortificats. They make the uterus incapable of having the embryo implant. The intent is murder. It is a rejection of a created life and not simply the possibility of life.

Sterilization methods -- Tying of Tubes, etc.
This is self metallization and is primarily that type of sin. It is also a grave rejection of the person's gender and God's gift that the person be capable of having children.

There are other types of birth control that are also sinful such as Onan’s method.

There are types of birth regulation that are not sinful. One of these is NFP, natural family planning. This method uses the woman’s natural cycle to plan intercourse so that there is the least likelihood of getting pregnant. This method can become sinful if it becomes the intent and sole purpose of the method never to have children. Its use must always correspond with the joy at the possibility of becoming pregnant.

Hope this helped.

Answer 2

The reason they will give you is that sex is ONLY for procreation. To use birth control, of course, makes that impossible and therefore is a sin.
Now, why, really? Well, if you ban birth control, there will be more Catholics than anyone else. There's also the ingrained "sex is sinful" idea--you don't do it because it feels good (although wouldn't it be God who made it that way?), you do it solely to reproduce. Seems to me it would then be sinful for an infertile man or woman to have sex, married or not, or for any woman past menopause to engage in marital sex.
This, of course, doesn't make sense to most Catholics and they disregard this particular rule probably more than any other. What they should just do is switch to a Protestant denomination so they don't have to feel like they're sinners anymore.
And, Mamma Mia, how do you then explain the Catholic ban on condoms? Those DO prevent any kind of egg fertilization. Even in the face of the AIDS crisis, the Church kept its head firmly in the sand (or, more correctly, up its butt) and still forbids condom use.

Answer 3

Marriage to Catholics is one of the Seven Sacraments of the church and as such, it is a Holy and Blessed Union between one man and one woman, meant to last forever, and in that union, the couple have a divine share in the procreativity of the human race. To use birth control is to be "closed to this gift of procreation", which is part of God's plan for marriage. Birth control does not prevent conception, most birth control agents just prevent the fertilized egg from attaching in the womb and is then destroying a life already created by not giving it the opportunity to attach and grow in the womb. It is a life from the moment of conception and as such is a form of abortion in itself. There are ligitimate reasons for some women to use the birth control pill but never okay to prevent a life by use of it. The Catholic answer to birth control is Natural Family Planning and if unmarried, abstinance and chastity.

Answer 4

Catholics are against contraceptives for two reasons. A) They block the child-making, or "procreative" aspect of sex. God created the sexual facilities of men and women to work a specific way – a woman can get pregnant only at a certain point in her menstrual cycle, and of course the man’s role is to inseminate her. During most of that cycle, God has made sex infertile, and so having sex during that time doesn’t produce children. However, when the woman is fertile, having sex is SUPPOSED to produce children. Using contraception, at any part in the cycle, essentially tells God, “I like this gift you gave us, but I don’t like the true purpose it’s made for – having children – so I’m going to take the “free” part of it and slam the door in Your face.” Not particularly nice. B) Contraceptives also block the bonding, or “unitive” aspect of sex. Sex is meant to be a total self-giving of one to another, just like marriage vows. When you use contraception, that bonding is incomplete because the fertility, and the uniqueness, of each spouse is denied.

Answer 5

>>>Catholics, can someone please help me to understand why birth control use in marriage is a sin?
Of all the doctrines, I have the most trouble with this one.<<<

Well, you're not alone. Surveys show that birth control use among Catholics is pretty much in line with that of society in general.

First, the Church teaches that artificial birth control is wrong because it goes against God's natural order.

Second, the Church teaches that it's wrong because it very often leads people to treat other people as sex objects. It makes it easier to engage in casual sex, which in turn leads people (in many cases) to treat sex as just another contact sport -- rather than the beautiful union of husband and wife that God intended.

Third, use of artificial birth control has led to dramatic increases in out-of-wedlock births, divorce, promiscuity, and an overall decline in societal morality.

Pope Paul VI predicted all these things back in the late 60s in his encyclical "Humanae Vitae," in which he reiterated the Church's teaching that artificial birth control was morally illicit.

Now, 40 years later, it's absolutely undeniable that Paul VI's predictions were right on the money, as far as artificial birth control's detrimental effects on society as a whole.

Answer 6

The use of any contraceptive is a sin according to the Catholic faith. It is the belief of the Holy Father that "sex" is for purpose of having children. You may have sex and not produce a child but in no way is it OK to prevent conception. It is God's Will if you do or do not conceive. Believe it or not.! To use any contraceptive is killing a child. Having sex and not wishing to have a child is fine and it is OK to enjoy sex however you should be ready to except when you do have a child.

Answer 7

Birth control is not spoken of in the bible. You quote the story of Onan, second son of Judah.

He was not struck down for the act of spilling his seed on the ground, he was struck down for his selfishness of in his heart not wanting to give his dead brother a son.

This has nothing at all to do with birth control. it has only to do with attitude and self will, which we know we are not supposed to have.

SO, Birth control is not biblically right or wrong. It is however a man made law. Reminisent of the Pharissis and the Sagitities. Making up their own laws instead of following them. Self important, self willed and doing it all in the name of a God that they do not truely know and follow.

Answer 8

catholics are too corrupt to believe anything they say, they say what they want to keep people how they want. all they really want is money and power. (conquistadors - spanish armada of catholics who ran around the americas slaughtering any indians who wouldnt convert to their religion. or the Roman empire was mainly backed up by the catholic church and its influence on people, therefore the catholics had a say in the romans doing - and the romans warred with many different countries. Crusades?)

Answer 9

As Thomas Merton explained it, a love that fears/does not wish to create is not love. And a couple that fears they will not be able to handle however many children God gives them is a couple that does not have faith in God.

This is what one Trappist monk said. Just food for thought.

Answer 10

Because, the more little baby Catholics you have, the more little Catholic recruits there are to support the faith, and the more money goes into the Catholic church.