I was surprised to learn that Pope Paul VI and the Washington Post had taken substantially similar positions regarding the dangers that contraception would bring. With such dire warnings, we as a society forged ahead, guided by our desires to live according to our will rather than accept the truth implanted in our heart by God.
The 1930 Lambert Conference of the Anglican Church approved contraception for married couples in certain circumstances. The following are excerpts of “Forgetting Religion” from the March 22, 1931 edition of the Washington Post. “Carried to its logical conclusion, the [Lambert] committee’s report, if carried into effect, would sound the death knell of marriage as a holy institution by establishing degrading practices which would encourage indiscriminate immorality. The suggestion that the use of legalized contraception would be ‘carful and restrained’ is preposterous.” The article continues: “It is the misfortune of the churches that they are too often misused by visionaries for the promotion of “reforms” in the fields foreign to religion. The departures from Christian teachings are astounding in many cases, leaving the beholder aghast at the unwillingness of some churches to teach “Christ and Him crucified.” If the churches are to become organizations for political and scientific propaganda, they should be honest and reject the Bible, scoff at Christ as an obsolete and unscientific teacher, and strike out boldly as champions of politics and science as modern substitutes for the old-time religion.”
Does this not sound like the situation we are today? Marriage degraded. Contraception pervasive. Christ is no longer Christ crucified, but a “buddy,” guru, or someone to “friend.” As predicted, society has deemed God obsolete.
Pope Paul VI did not write Humanae Vitae as prophetic document, however, it did include four prophecies: 1) the widespread use of contraception would “lead to conjugal infidelity and general lowering of morality”; 2) men who grew accustomed to the use of contraceptive practices may lose “respect for the woman” and, therefore, “no longer caring for her physical and psychological equilibrium” would come to consider her “an instrument of selfish enjoyment, and longer as his respected and beloved companion”; 3) acceptance of contraception would place a “dangerous weapon … in the hands of those public authorities who take no heed of moral exigencies”; and 4) acceptance of contraception would lead men and women to believe that they, and not God, had dominion over their bodies and bodily functions.
As a society we cannot deny that we have experienced a widespread decline in morality, in general, and sexual morality in particular. Life has been devalued. In the United States alone we have executed more babies than the Nazi death camps (56,384,500 babies since Roe v. Wade alone – Nazi death camps around 14,000,000 persons), and 1,300,415,100 babies aborted worldwide since 1980. Morality has not declined; it has vanished.
As Pope Paul VI predicted, women are no longer respected. Pornography is rampart. Sadly, women are no longer viewed as “flesh of my flesh, bone of bone” but as objects of pleasure. Even more sadly, the acceptance of contraception by women has led them to view themselves as an object of pleasure.
We have seen our local, state and federal governments who have no regard for moral constraints use contraception as weapon of power. Nations now impose contraception and abortion on their own citizens and those of other countries.
Persons now deem their bodies and bodily functions as gods. Some have gone so far as to deemed their dominion over their bodies and bodily functions as sacred temples and sacred ground.
As a society we must renounce contraception. It is obvious that it bares bad fruit.
To Love and Truth 
No society can survive a contraceptive worldview.
“….the use of contraceptives has made sexual intercourse independent of parenthood, and the marriage of the future will be confined to those who seek parenthood for its own sake rather than as the natural fulfillment of sexual love.
But under these circumstances who will trouble to marry?
Marriage will lose all attractions for the young and the pleasure-loving and the poor and the ambitious…….It is impossible to imagine a system more contrary to the first principles of social well-being.”
Christopher Dawson, 1933
I had never thought of the use of Jesus as our “friend” in this way, as something opposed to Christ crucified, before…very interesting.
My husband and I teach NFP, and the contraception thing is a real sore spot for me in this society, for many of the reasons you outline. I cannot fathom how people can be so blind to the way it has changed our attitudes for the worse. And I wish our leaders at the local level would speak up a little more. Or that people would listen when we speak. Or…well. People within the NFP movement often compare this issue to the smoking issue; it took fifty years or more for cultural attitudes to shift on smoking. I pray that’s the case here, too, but sometimes I don’t feel hopeful. Sex is so much more….I don’t know, personal. People feel much more threatened when you threaten their access to unrestricted sex.
Pingback: Being Hit By A Truck ≠ Having Babies | RightToMe.com
Humanae Vitae surely qualifies as a prophetic document, inspired by the Holy Spirit.