Birth Control and the Church
I spent the weekend with Christian women leaders from denominations across the US, Canada, and Guyana. There were several opportunities for me to share my passion for maternal health and the research on which I'm working. I did my best to explain body theology and how it contributes to maternal health and maternal mortality locally and globally.
Every time I share my thoughts on maternal health, I am reminded of how important it is for the church to embrace birth control. Birth control, yes birth control. Maybe it's semantics that limits the needed message. What if we called birth control, "How to save the lives of women," pills, or, "Wear this and she will live," condoms?
As I see it, Christians are encouraged to reflect and share abundant life in this world. Somewhere along the way it is as if the church has mistaken abundance as a literal number and not the spirited life of which Christ spoke.
(This post was inspired by a weekend of not saying everything I wanted to say, and Nicholas Kristof's sunday column. Read it here.)
Every time I share my thoughts on maternal health, I am reminded of how important it is for the church to embrace birth control. Birth control, yes birth control. Maybe it's semantics that limits the needed message. What if we called birth control, "How to save the lives of women," pills, or, "Wear this and she will live," condoms?
As I see it, Christians are encouraged to reflect and share abundant life in this world. Somewhere along the way it is as if the church has mistaken abundance as a literal number and not the spirited life of which Christ spoke.
(This post was inspired by a weekend of not saying everything I wanted to say, and Nicholas Kristof's sunday column. Read it here.)
posted by Sparkfly at
6:48 PM
1 Comments:
for the record i would like to say . . . i believe in the individual's right to choose what is best when it comes to family planning. my point is - the church's silence and condemnation can be a deterrent to safe motherhood.
i also know that not everyone has access to contraception. some churches have wells on their property where they parallel living water with literal water. why not have condoms available and parallel abundant life? when writing the post i had the "developing" world in mind, but this would apply to all locations really.
s
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