This is Alex's views on the weekly discussion topic:
Besides those reasons already stated, contraception destroys the marital act in two additional concrete ways:
1) One of the most beautiful aspects of sex is fertility--the ability to create life with your spouse through the marital act of love. Contraception would eliminate procreation, holding back the fertility and therefore making the act an incomplete gift of self--a lie. No, the "l" in "love" does not stand for "latex." By holding back fertility, one attempts to diminish the act of love that God created for us--he insults God. He also insults his partner because he is telling her he loves her with all of himself, when in fact he is holding back the most beautiful aspect.
2) The second reason is that contraception is most responsible for making premarital sex as commonplace as it is today. Without the fear of having a pregnancy, or getting sexually transmitted diseases, couples (particularly teenage couples) can have sex any day of the week with little or no pressure and all of the pleasure. And none of the comittment, I might add. After contraception was widely legalized, divorce rates skyrocketed:"
Basically, there are two reasons. Contraception allows for marriage to become less child-centered and more focused on the emotional side of marriage. Therefore, people don’t stick together for the child. They stop seeing marriage as intrinsically linked to kids. When problems arise, people think it’s better to divorce — even if they do have kids — because they see marriage in primarily emotional terms.
Second, the introduction of the pill allowed more women to stay in the workforce after they married in ways that they would not have before. Prior to the pill, women typically would have married, had children and stopped working. Thus, after the contraceptive revolution, married women became more career-focused and economically independent. Women thus felt freer to divorce because they had more economic and social resources."(source: http://ccli.org/nfp/morality/socialscientist.php)"
Studies also show that those who have premarital sex are most likely not to get married and if they do get married; they are more likely to divorce than those who have not had premarital sex."
(source: http://www.marriageromance.com/stories/10802697703.htm)
These are both quite alarming statements--are marriages in society taking a bow to sex? The uprise in teen pregnancy seems to suggest this, as does the legalization of contraception, abortion, and same-sex unions (in some countries). Celebrity marriages don't seem to boost the popularity of marriage, either. Let's face it--sexual prudence is unpopular. But it is necessary if we are to have stable societies and maintain the institution of marriage as it needs to be maintained.
Premarital sex is a knife in your future spouse's back. I would know--I've felt this knife. It hurts. And contraception puts this knife in everyone's hands. That's a dangerous thought.
~AleX
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Besides those reasons already stated, contraception destroys the marital act in two additional concrete ways:
1) One of the most beautiful aspects of sex is fertility--the ability to create life with your spouse through the marital act of love. Contraception would eliminate procreation, holding back the fertility and therefore making the act an incomplete gift of self--a lie. No, the "l" in "love" does not stand for "latex." By holding back fertility, one attempts to diminish the act of love that God created for us--he insults God. He also insults his partner because he is telling her he loves her with all of himself, when in fact he is holding back the most beautiful aspect.
2) The second reason is that contraception is most responsible for making premarital sex as commonplace as it is today. Without the fear of having a pregnancy, or getting sexually transmitted diseases, couples (particularly teenage couples) can have sex any day of the week with little or no pressure and all of the pleasure. And none of the comittment, I might add. After contraception was widely legalized, divorce rates skyrocketed:"
Basically, there are two reasons. Contraception allows for marriage to become less child-centered and more focused on the emotional side of marriage. Therefore, people don’t stick together for the child. They stop seeing marriage as intrinsically linked to kids. When problems arise, people think it’s better to divorce — even if they do have kids — because they see marriage in primarily emotional terms.
Second, the introduction of the pill allowed more women to stay in the workforce after they married in ways that they would not have before. Prior to the pill, women typically would have married, had children and stopped working. Thus, after the contraceptive revolution, married women became more career-focused and economically independent. Women thus felt freer to divorce because they had more economic and social resources."(source: http://ccli.org/nfp/morality/socialscientist.php)"
Studies also show that those who have premarital sex are most likely not to get married and if they do get married; they are more likely to divorce than those who have not had premarital sex."
(source: http://www.marriageromance.com/stories/10802697703.htm)
These are both quite alarming statements--are marriages in society taking a bow to sex? The uprise in teen pregnancy seems to suggest this, as does the legalization of contraception, abortion, and same-sex unions (in some countries). Celebrity marriages don't seem to boost the popularity of marriage, either. Let's face it--sexual prudence is unpopular. But it is necessary if we are to have stable societies and maintain the institution of marriage as it needs to be maintained.
Premarital sex is a knife in your future spouse's back. I would know--I've felt this knife. It hurts. And contraception puts this knife in everyone's hands. That's a dangerous thought.
~AleX