The church is one entity that you cannot fully understand its operation. The way various churches operate is so intricate to the extent that myriads of doctrines laid down by the churches have no basis. Yet, many hold on to such doctrines—breeding countless hypocrites who by no stretch can obey such dogmas.
Truth be told, these hypocrites are the very zealous ones we come across everyday but beneath their zealousness – portrayed to deceive others – there are lots of insalubrious secrets to uncover.
I, on my part, do not blame such individuals very much. I rather blame the churches for being overly strict and imposing unreasonable doctrines on their members.
According to the Bible, God gave human beings the privilege to fill the Earth by way of reproduction. As to the number of children a couple ought to have, the scripture did not specify. By logical reasoning, couples are supposed to give birth to the number of children they can take care of.
This is because God will neither send money nor manner from the heavens to couples who bring forth more than the number of kids they can raise. It therefore makes sense if couples conjointly decide to plan the size of their family according to their strength and resources.
It will be unwise on the part of a couple not to control their birth; considering the current global economic hardship and challenges. Parents have long sought practical ways to limit the number of children they want to have.
Over two thousand years ago, Aristotle spoke of the value of controlling population growth in order to alleviate the spread of poverty. He refers to some birth control methods that were popular in his day.
Despite these, there are quite a number of churches that frown on practices that result in birth control. According to most of them, children are angels provided by God so the more children you have, the more proof there is that God is blessing you and using you for His glory. Even to the extent of not being able to cater for all of them, you still have to reproduce since God is using you for His glory.
The churches declare that only “natural” methods of birth control are morally acceptable. The “natural” methods are described by them as discerning the rhythms of human fertility and guiding parenthood according to these rhythms. Possibly, following the menstrual cycle calendar…
In this age of overpopulation, widespread poverty, and mushrooming shantytowns, should it be the church that decides the family size of couples? My honest answer is no.
In recent years, because of somewhat improved health care, the average mother in some African countries has as many as eight children, close to the size of a soccer team. If for example the birthrate in India (nearly five children to each mother) continues at its present level, I am afraid we cannot count them in some years to come if births are not controlled.
Each individual is born with conscience. It will be therefore good for churches to leave such decisions to the couples involved since the Bible does not state that controlling birth is a sin. Yet, in many churches, it’s either you use contraceptives to control birth and get anathematized or you use not contraceptives and continue to be a member of the church.
A bulk number of church-goers ignore church teachings on birth control even though well over half of these consider themselves staunch Christians. What happen is, they secretly go for these contraceptives.
What of those who intend to obey such a doctrine? In as much as they try their best to heed to the directive, there comes a time when they get stuck. In the process, some of them get pregnant but because they are not prepared for kids or have limited resources to cater for the kid(s), they abort the pregnancy. If controlling birth is a sin, what then is abortion?
In the long run, the house of God becomes a place where all kinds of atrocities, including 1st degree murders, are orchestrated—simply because we fail to choose reason over dogma.