GK Chesterton on Birth Control
"What is quaintly called Birth Control . . . is in fact, of course, a scheme for preventing birth in order to escape control." ("The Surrender upon Sex" The Well and the Shallows)
"Normal and real birth control is called self control." ("Social Reform vs. Birth Control")
"Birth Control is a name given to a succession of different expedients by which it is possible to filch the pleasure belonging to a natural process while violently and unnaturally thwarting the process itself." ("Social Reform vs. Birth Control")
"We can always convict such people of sentimentalism by their weakness for euphemism. The phrase they use is always softened and suited for journalistic appeals. They talk of free love when they mean something quite different, better defined as free lust. But being sentimentalists they feel bound to simper and coo over the word "love." They insist on talking about Birth Control when they mean less birth and no control. We could smash them to atoms, if we could be as indecent in our language as they are immoral in their conclusions." ("Obstinate Orthodoxy" The Thing)
_________________________________________________________________________
I wish everyone would take the time to read G.K. Chesterton's Eugenics and Other Evils and mull over it a while. Birth control is strongly tied to Margaret Sanger and her ideas about eugenics. She thought that persons "unfit" should not be allowed to procreate and sought ways to prevent their doing so (i.e., promoting sterilization, opening birth control clinics in specific neighborhoods, etc.). Guess who was influenced by Sanger's eugenics? Hitler. After WWII, Sanger distanced herself (smartly) from eugenics and instead marketed her ideas as a feminist issue. Eugenics isn't (directly) talked about much today; but the arguments and ideas supporting eugenics are still very much around. They are the same arguments used to defend birth control, abortion, euthanasia, and cloning. And though oftentimes we tend to think of birth control as a "women's issue", it's not.
The reason I suggest a read of Cheserton is this. He started writing Eugenics and Other Evils in 1910 (it wasn't published until 1922). He predicted what would happen if we (as a society) embraced birth control... long before it happened. Though people will argue that birth control was happening and being practiced long before Chesterton wrote his condemnations, the point is, it was taboo. It was no okay. Birth control was not looked upon as a repectable nor responsible thing to do. The female body has natural means of spacing births. If children were not a good idea, then the best route was not to have sex (and this still is the best route, and the only route than can guarantee no babies).
With the acceptance of birth control comes an acceptance of another idea: sex without consequences.
Not all consequences are bad. Our language has grown so contricted over the years that certain connotations tend to take over. The natural consequence of sex is pregnancy. That's what sex is designed to do. It is the only natural way by which a man and a woman become parents. It's a big deal. You introduce birth control into the equation and tell people that "odds are, you won't get pregnant" this changes the nature of sexual intercourse. No longer is a revered act by which man and woman become father and mother; instead, it becomes mere pleasure, and over time, gratification. What does this change? Everything. Sex is a deeply personal act. Perhaps the most personal of all human actions. Birth control makes this impossible because it does not embrace the whole person. Fertility is part of who we are, part of what we were designed to do. What greater act of love can we say to another than to say "I love you so much I want another one of you to come to be"? Birth control makes sex objective instead of personal. Instead of being about the beloved, it's about the self, and self-gratification. The biggest sexual sin our society struggles with today is lust. It's a loss of control in relation to our sexuality.
Furthermore it underscores an idea that babies are bad. Children are burdens and should be avoided unless explicitly 'wanted'. This is the most false and vile idea a socity which calls itself civilized can promote. Yet is is exactly the foundation of the "pro-choice" movement. It's a denial of the future, a denial of responsibility, and above all, it is a denial of love. True, pure, and selfless love.
Birth control is bad for society, bad for the family, and bad for love.
Humanae Vitae (On the Regulation of Birth)
"Conjugal love reveals its true nature and nobility when it is considered in its supreme origin, God, who is love, "the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named." Marriage is not, then, the effect of chance or the product of evolution of unconscious natural forces; it is the wise institution of the Creator to realize in mankind His design of love.
By means of the reciprocal personal gift of self, proper and exclusive to them, husband and wife tend towards the communion of their beings in view of mutual personal perfection, to collaborate with God in the generation and education of new lives.
For baptized persons, moreover, marriage invests the dignity of a sacramental sign of grace, inasmuch as it represents the union of Christ and of the Church.
Under this light, there clearly appear the characteristic marks and demands of conjugal love, and it is of supreme importance to have an exact idea of these.
This love is first of all fully human, that is to say, of the senses and of the spirit at the same time. It is not, then, a simple transport of instinct and sentiment, but also, and principally, an act of the free will, intended to endure and to grow by means of the joys and sorrows of daily life, in such a way that husband and wife become one only heart and one only soul, and together attain their human perfection.
Then, this love is total, that is to say, it is a very special form of personal friendship, in which husband and wife generously share everything, without undue reservations or selfish calculations. Whoever truly loves his marriage partner loves not only for what he receives, but for the partner's self, rejoicing that he can enrich his partner with the gift of himself.
Again, this love is faithful and exclusive until death. Thus in fact do bride and groom conceive it to be on the day when they freely and in full awareness assume the duty of the marriage bond. A fidelity, this, which can sometimes be difficult, but is always possible, always noble and meritorious, as no one can deny. The example of so many married persons down through the centuries shows, not only that fidelity is according to the nature of marriage, but also that it is a source of profound and lasting happiness.
And finally this love is fecund for it is not exhausted by the communion between husband and wife, but is destined to continue, raising up new lives. "Marriage and conjugal love are by their nature ordained toward the begetting and educating of children. Children are really the supreme gift of marriage and contribute very substantially to the welfare of their parents."
Casti Connubii (On Christian Marriage)
"Thus amongst the blessings of marriage, the child holds the first place. And indeed the Creator of the human race Himself, Who in His goodness wishes to use men as His helpers in the propagation of life, taught this when, instituting marriage in Paradise, He said to our first parents, and through them to all future spouses: "Increase and multiply, and fill the earth." As St. Augustine admirably deduces from the words of the holy Apostle Saint Paul to Timothy when he says: "The Apostle himself is therefore a witness that marriage is for the sake of generation: 'I wish,' he says, 'young girls to marry.' And, as if someone said to him, 'Why?,' he immediately adds: 'To bear children, to be mothers of families'."
How great a boon of God this is, and how great a blessing of matrimony is clear from a consideration of man's dignity and of his sublime end. For man surpasses all other visible creatures by the superiority of his rational nature alone. Besides, God wishes men to be born not only that they should live and fill the earth, but much more that they may be worshippers of God, that they may know Him and love Him and finally enjoy Him for ever in heaven; and this end, since man is raised by God in a marvelous way to the supernatural order, surpasses all that eye hath seen, and ear heard, and all that hath entered into the heart of man. From which it is easily seen how great a gift of divine goodness and how remarkable a fruit of marriage are children born by the omnipotent power of God through the cooperation of those bound in wedlock.
But Christian parents must also understand that they are destined not only to propagate and preserve the human race on earth, indeed not only to educate any kind of worshippers of the true God, but children who are to become members of the Church of Christ, to raise up fellow-citizens of the Saints, and members of God's household, that the worshippers of God and Our Savior may daily increase.
If a true Christian mother weigh well these things, she will indeed understand with a sense of deep consolation that of her the words of Our Savior were spoken: "A woman . . . when she hath brought forth the child remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world"; and proving herself superior to all the pains and cares and solicitudes of her maternal office with a more just and holy joy than that of the Roman matron, the mother of the Gracchi, she will rejoice in the Lord crowned as it were with the glory of her offspring. Both husband and wife, however, receiving these children with joy and gratitude from the hand of God, will regard them as a talent committed to their charge by God, not only to be employed for their own advantage or for that of an earthly commonwealth, but to be restored to God with interest on the day of reckoning.
Arcanum (On Christian Marriage)
"The true origin of marriage, venerable brothers, is well known to all. Though revilers of the Christian faith refuse to acknowledge the never-interrupted doctrine of the Church on this subject, and have long striven to destroy the testimony of all nations and of all times, they have nevertheless failed not only to quench the powerful light of truth, but even to lessen it. We record what is to all known, and cannot be doubted by any, that God, on the sixth day of creation, having made man from the slime of the earth, and having breathed into his face the breath of life, gave him a companion, whom He miraculously took from the side of Adam when he was locked in sleep. God thus, in His most far-reaching foresight, decreed that this husband and wife should be the natural beginning of the human race, from whom it might be propagated and preserved by an unfailing fruitfulness throughout all futurity of time. And this union of man and woman, that it might answer more fittingly to the infinite wise counsels of God, even from the beginning manifested chiefly two most excellent properties -- deeply sealed, as it were, and signed upon it -- namely, unity and perpetuity. From the Gospel we see clearly that this doctrine was declared and openly confirmed by the divine authority of Jesus Christ. He bore witness to the Jews and to His Apostles that marriage, from its institution, should exist between two only, that is, between one man and one woman; that of two they are made, so to say, one flesh; and that the marriage bond is by the will of God so closely and strongly made fast that no man may dissolve it or render it asunder. "For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they two shall be in one flesh. Therefore now they are not two, but one flesh. What, therefore, God hath joined together, let no man put asunder."
"Normal and real birth control is called self control." ("Social Reform vs. Birth Control")
"Birth Control is a name given to a succession of different expedients by which it is possible to filch the pleasure belonging to a natural process while violently and unnaturally thwarting the process itself." ("Social Reform vs. Birth Control")
"We can always convict such people of sentimentalism by their weakness for euphemism. The phrase they use is always softened and suited for journalistic appeals. They talk of free love when they mean something quite different, better defined as free lust. But being sentimentalists they feel bound to simper and coo over the word "love." They insist on talking about Birth Control when they mean less birth and no control. We could smash them to atoms, if we could be as indecent in our language as they are immoral in their conclusions." ("Obstinate Orthodoxy" The Thing)
_________________________________________________________________________
I wish everyone would take the time to read G.K. Chesterton's Eugenics and Other Evils and mull over it a while. Birth control is strongly tied to Margaret Sanger and her ideas about eugenics. She thought that persons "unfit" should not be allowed to procreate and sought ways to prevent their doing so (i.e., promoting sterilization, opening birth control clinics in specific neighborhoods, etc.). Guess who was influenced by Sanger's eugenics? Hitler. After WWII, Sanger distanced herself (smartly) from eugenics and instead marketed her ideas as a feminist issue. Eugenics isn't (directly) talked about much today; but the arguments and ideas supporting eugenics are still very much around. They are the same arguments used to defend birth control, abortion, euthanasia, and cloning. And though oftentimes we tend to think of birth control as a "women's issue", it's not.
The reason I suggest a read of Cheserton is this. He started writing Eugenics and Other Evils in 1910 (it wasn't published until 1922). He predicted what would happen if we (as a society) embraced birth control... long before it happened. Though people will argue that birth control was happening and being practiced long before Chesterton wrote his condemnations, the point is, it was taboo. It was no okay. Birth control was not looked upon as a repectable nor responsible thing to do. The female body has natural means of spacing births. If children were not a good idea, then the best route was not to have sex (and this still is the best route, and the only route than can guarantee no babies).
With the acceptance of birth control comes an acceptance of another idea: sex without consequences.
Not all consequences are bad. Our language has grown so contricted over the years that certain connotations tend to take over. The natural consequence of sex is pregnancy. That's what sex is designed to do. It is the only natural way by which a man and a woman become parents. It's a big deal. You introduce birth control into the equation and tell people that "odds are, you won't get pregnant" this changes the nature of sexual intercourse. No longer is a revered act by which man and woman become father and mother; instead, it becomes mere pleasure, and over time, gratification. What does this change? Everything. Sex is a deeply personal act. Perhaps the most personal of all human actions. Birth control makes this impossible because it does not embrace the whole person. Fertility is part of who we are, part of what we were designed to do. What greater act of love can we say to another than to say "I love you so much I want another one of you to come to be"? Birth control makes sex objective instead of personal. Instead of being about the beloved, it's about the self, and self-gratification. The biggest sexual sin our society struggles with today is lust. It's a loss of control in relation to our sexuality.
Furthermore it underscores an idea that babies are bad. Children are burdens and should be avoided unless explicitly 'wanted'. This is the most false and vile idea a socity which calls itself civilized can promote. Yet is is exactly the foundation of the "pro-choice" movement. It's a denial of the future, a denial of responsibility, and above all, it is a denial of love. True, pure, and selfless love.
Birth control is bad for society, bad for the family, and bad for love.
Humanae Vitae (On the Regulation of Birth)
"Conjugal love reveals its true nature and nobility when it is considered in its supreme origin, God, who is love, "the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named." Marriage is not, then, the effect of chance or the product of evolution of unconscious natural forces; it is the wise institution of the Creator to realize in mankind His design of love.
By means of the reciprocal personal gift of self, proper and exclusive to them, husband and wife tend towards the communion of their beings in view of mutual personal perfection, to collaborate with God in the generation and education of new lives.
For baptized persons, moreover, marriage invests the dignity of a sacramental sign of grace, inasmuch as it represents the union of Christ and of the Church.
Under this light, there clearly appear the characteristic marks and demands of conjugal love, and it is of supreme importance to have an exact idea of these.
This love is first of all fully human, that is to say, of the senses and of the spirit at the same time. It is not, then, a simple transport of instinct and sentiment, but also, and principally, an act of the free will, intended to endure and to grow by means of the joys and sorrows of daily life, in such a way that husband and wife become one only heart and one only soul, and together attain their human perfection.
Then, this love is total, that is to say, it is a very special form of personal friendship, in which husband and wife generously share everything, without undue reservations or selfish calculations. Whoever truly loves his marriage partner loves not only for what he receives, but for the partner's self, rejoicing that he can enrich his partner with the gift of himself.
Again, this love is faithful and exclusive until death. Thus in fact do bride and groom conceive it to be on the day when they freely and in full awareness assume the duty of the marriage bond. A fidelity, this, which can sometimes be difficult, but is always possible, always noble and meritorious, as no one can deny. The example of so many married persons down through the centuries shows, not only that fidelity is according to the nature of marriage, but also that it is a source of profound and lasting happiness.
And finally this love is fecund for it is not exhausted by the communion between husband and wife, but is destined to continue, raising up new lives. "Marriage and conjugal love are by their nature ordained toward the begetting and educating of children. Children are really the supreme gift of marriage and contribute very substantially to the welfare of their parents."
Casti Connubii (On Christian Marriage)
"Thus amongst the blessings of marriage, the child holds the first place. And indeed the Creator of the human race Himself, Who in His goodness wishes to use men as His helpers in the propagation of life, taught this when, instituting marriage in Paradise, He said to our first parents, and through them to all future spouses: "Increase and multiply, and fill the earth." As St. Augustine admirably deduces from the words of the holy Apostle Saint Paul to Timothy when he says: "The Apostle himself is therefore a witness that marriage is for the sake of generation: 'I wish,' he says, 'young girls to marry.' And, as if someone said to him, 'Why?,' he immediately adds: 'To bear children, to be mothers of families'."
How great a boon of God this is, and how great a blessing of matrimony is clear from a consideration of man's dignity and of his sublime end. For man surpasses all other visible creatures by the superiority of his rational nature alone. Besides, God wishes men to be born not only that they should live and fill the earth, but much more that they may be worshippers of God, that they may know Him and love Him and finally enjoy Him for ever in heaven; and this end, since man is raised by God in a marvelous way to the supernatural order, surpasses all that eye hath seen, and ear heard, and all that hath entered into the heart of man. From which it is easily seen how great a gift of divine goodness and how remarkable a fruit of marriage are children born by the omnipotent power of God through the cooperation of those bound in wedlock.
But Christian parents must also understand that they are destined not only to propagate and preserve the human race on earth, indeed not only to educate any kind of worshippers of the true God, but children who are to become members of the Church of Christ, to raise up fellow-citizens of the Saints, and members of God's household, that the worshippers of God and Our Savior may daily increase.
If a true Christian mother weigh well these things, she will indeed understand with a sense of deep consolation that of her the words of Our Savior were spoken: "A woman . . . when she hath brought forth the child remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world"; and proving herself superior to all the pains and cares and solicitudes of her maternal office with a more just and holy joy than that of the Roman matron, the mother of the Gracchi, she will rejoice in the Lord crowned as it were with the glory of her offspring. Both husband and wife, however, receiving these children with joy and gratitude from the hand of God, will regard them as a talent committed to their charge by God, not only to be employed for their own advantage or for that of an earthly commonwealth, but to be restored to God with interest on the day of reckoning.
Arcanum (On Christian Marriage)
"The true origin of marriage, venerable brothers, is well known to all. Though revilers of the Christian faith refuse to acknowledge the never-interrupted doctrine of the Church on this subject, and have long striven to destroy the testimony of all nations and of all times, they have nevertheless failed not only to quench the powerful light of truth, but even to lessen it. We record what is to all known, and cannot be doubted by any, that God, on the sixth day of creation, having made man from the slime of the earth, and having breathed into his face the breath of life, gave him a companion, whom He miraculously took from the side of Adam when he was locked in sleep. God thus, in His most far-reaching foresight, decreed that this husband and wife should be the natural beginning of the human race, from whom it might be propagated and preserved by an unfailing fruitfulness throughout all futurity of time. And this union of man and woman, that it might answer more fittingly to the infinite wise counsels of God, even from the beginning manifested chiefly two most excellent properties -- deeply sealed, as it were, and signed upon it -- namely, unity and perpetuity. From the Gospel we see clearly that this doctrine was declared and openly confirmed by the divine authority of Jesus Christ. He bore witness to the Jews and to His Apostles that marriage, from its institution, should exist between two only, that is, between one man and one woman; that of two they are made, so to say, one flesh; and that the marriage bond is by the will of God so closely and strongly made fast that no man may dissolve it or render it asunder. "For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they two shall be in one flesh. Therefore now they are not two, but one flesh. What, therefore, God hath joined together, let no man put asunder."