In the meantime, I'm going to continue working through specific methods of birth control/family planning and then discuss how we are to think through all this information in a God-honoring fashion--demonstrating good stewardship of our bodies, the lives of others, and the gift of sex within marriage.
So far, we've covered some very basic information about Natural Family Planning/Fertility Awareness Method as well as barrier methods. This post will be a discussion of an age-old method of birth control...
Withdrawal
Otherwise known as "coitus interruptus" or "pulling out", this is the simple act of male withdrawal right before ejaculation (Sorry, Bro, I had to use "the word").
In general, this method is only as good as the guy's ability to recognize what's happening with his body and get out of dodge in time. Apparently, he cannot always know without fail when it's about to happen. Even if he's got it down, there tend to be small amounts of sperm that escape throughout intercourse, so the method is not 100% reliable. According to Toni Weschler in Taking Charge of Your Fertility, the method failure rate of withdrawal is about 4% (which means that 4 in 100 women will become pregnant by the end of one year's perfect use of this method). When you factor a man's wrong guesses, the user failure rate is typically about 19%. (p. 355)
Among Christians, the discussion surrounding the morality of withdrawal is based on a scripture reference to Onan in Genesis 38:1-10, taken here from the English Standard Version of the Bible:
Genesis 38:1 It happened at that time that Judah went down from his brothers and turned aside to a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah. (2) There Judah saw the daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua. He took her and went in to her, (3) and she conceived and bore a son, and he called his name Er. (4) She conceived again and bore a son, and she called his name Onan. (5) Yet again she bore a son, and she called his name Shelah. Judah was in Chezib when she bore him. (6)And Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. (7) But Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD put him to death. (8) Then Judah said to Onan, "Go in to your brother's wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother." (9) But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his. So whenever he went in to his brother's wife he would waste the semen on the ground, so as not to give offspring to his brother. (10) And what he did was wicked in the sight of the LORD, and he put him to death also.
Essentially, there are two different ways to look at this sin of Onan. The first interpretation is that God killed Onan because of what he did--spilling his semen on the ground--because it was a disgrace to the marital covenant. Additionally, this is seen as the basis for the opinion that all forms of unnatural birth control are also unbiblical and ungodly.
The second interpretation is that God killed Onan because of WHY he did what he did--he spilled his semen on the ground because he was rejecting his lawful obligation to provide children for Tamar. Since it was Onan's older brother who had died without leaving any children behind, Onan would get the birthright and inheritance that would have been his brother's. He was so greedy and selfish that he refused to fulfill his obligation to provide children in his older brother's line, children who would get that birthright an inheritance, but who would also care for Tamar. In effect, he was "leaving her to the wolves", because in that day, widows with no sons to provide and care for them were in real danger of not making it--all in the name of keeping all the rights and inheritance to himself and his family.
Just about any material produced by the Catholic Church will suggest that it is the first interpretation that is correct, so you will see this theme throughout materials published by the Couple to Couple League. (This is also tied to their fundamental view of the purpose of sex which I mentioned in an earlier post--that every act of intercourse must be equally open to the gift of children, and if you're preventing pregnancy, the only appropriate way to do this is abstinence.)
On the other hand, almost all material produced by Evangelical Christians suggests that the second interpretation is correct. They would say that it was Onan's failure to do everything he could to provide a child for Tamar, his duty according to Jewish law, which is the sin leading to Onan's punishment.
It is this second interpretation with which I also agree. Again, this is my personal opinion (which happens to be shared by many others), but there are also many who disagree. This is the point at which you need to study the Word in addition to reading outside sources--so you know the biblical foundation for why you believe what you believe.
Additionally, it is not my intention to pit Catholics against Evangelicals in any way, but rather simply to point out the differences in interpretation so that you can understand the basis for the conclusions in materials you are reading.
I have touched on the purpose of sex within marriage in a sort of scattered fashion through many of these posts, but I do plan to write a bit more about this theme in a concentrated fashion and provide you with additional resources to help you think through this important issue. After all, we need to have this issue settled if we are to consider whether or not ANY form of contraception is acceptable.
Up next... the IUD, then "the pill", then sterilization.
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