Contraception and the Informed Conscience

The question was recently raised:

"Can anyone tell me (authoritatively) whether or not artificial contraception is a sin?"

Since we are addressing this question in an Anglican environment, I must begin with the short answer, "No." There is no one who can answer that question "authoritatively", nor should there be, or at least not in the way the term is usually meant. Our larger sister church, that of Rome, tends to conflate the teaching role and the role of judgment, to the extent that, among them there is no inconsistency, for example, in adjudging the eating of meat on a summer Friday to be mortal sin one year and perfectly acceptable another, the sin being not in the eating, but in the denial of the authority that so defines sin. Our bishops and clergy do not (or at least lack the authority to) make pronouncements of this nature, but rather are commissioned to teach the Word of God as faithfully as their ability, guided by the Fathers, by the whole of Christian Tradition, and, of course, by the Holy Spirit, can enable them to do.

Obedience to divine Law is, of course, required of all Christians; but that is an entirely different matter from obeying whatever rules Bishop so-and-so or Father thus-and-such may put forth, simply because they have declared disobedience to be sin. What God requires of us is that we obey Him because it is His will, out of a desire to please Him. No lesser motive is even acceptable.

How, then, do we know His will, if not simply because someone in authority should tell us? There is that faculty that we call "conscience", that inner voice that gives us an awareness of right and wrong. Christians believe that God has given us this faculty to hear him and to know his guidance, but we also know that conscience can end up being very wrong indeed. It is probably true that the hijackers of 9/11 were very highly principled and flew those planes into those towers at the direction of conscience, and we firmly believe that they were tragically wrong. We know this, but how?

Conscience has the ability to hear God, but it also has the ability to listen to other voices. In Genesis, chapter 3, we see the First Couple, who have heard God's Word as to what is expected behavior, nonetheless listening to another voice, a voice that tells them that they can eat the forbidden fruit and come to be able to judge good and evil for themselves, thus, merely by their own desires. They took control of their consciences from their Creator and determined to set out on their own, without His instruction. That decision is the very nature of Original Sin.

Conscience needs to be formed. It needs to be fed with God's Word and brought into conformity with God's Word, and that is not an easy thing. How is a Christian conscience properly formed? God's law, ethics, and morality are taught and learned, in a variety of ways, all of which work together. It is the clergy's teaching of the Word of God, our own exposure to the written Word, the handing down of truth from parents to children, the life within the believing community, constant participation in truth-filled liturgy, commitment to personal prayer, and such influences that we need to submit ourselves to, to hear, learn, and inwardly digest. On the other hand, we are surrounded by voices we cannot heed, the world, the flesh, and the devil we promised, at our Baptism, to forsake. The tastes, desires, and common "wisdom" of secular society are, all too often, attempting to do the same thing the voice of the serpent accomplished back in Genesis - to lead us to hear them rather than the voice of God.

The Christian conscience is formed when we have determined to find God's will and to follow it because it is God's will, whether it seems pleasant, whether others (yes, even religious leaders) try to lead us otherwise, even should it lead to the bearing of a Cross. Jesus' prayer in Gethsemane points the way. He recognized in his humanity a desire to avoid the coming pain, and expressed that desire to His Father, but ended the prayer with, "Not my will, but thine be done," and that is just what He instructed us to pray, and just what we do pray (at least in words) in every service we attend.

As I wrote before: "I think it rather good that I, as a layman, have been asked to speak to such a serious issue. As such I do not speak with ecclesiastical authority, but with the conviction that I do not avoid sin because of the pronouncements of men speaking for the church, but out of a desire to know and do the will of God. At least that is what a Christian conscience is supposed to impel me to do. I need to know the Word of God, both by the teaching of the Church AND by my own learning and internalization of the Scriptures. As Anglicans and Catholics we know ourselves to be responsible for the formation (by the Holy Spirit) of our consciences from Scripture, with the guidance of the Church, not merely from directives from above."

Now, as a layman, I will attempt, very briefly, to show what it is that seems to inform my conscience in this matter of contraception. This will be a scriptural discussion, though I won't be larding it with quotes, but rather asking the reader to search the Scriptures and to internalize their assumptions, their way of thinking, more than looking for proof texts.

I approach the subject with questions. What, in Scripture, is the primary purpose of sexual intercourse? Is pleasure the main thing to be sought in such an act? Pleasure is certainly a major and God-ordained part of sexuality, but is it the reason for its existence? Is the purpose, perhaps, found in the very first of all commandments: "Be fruitful and multiply?" Is there any case in Scripture where a sexual act is spoken of with approval when a child is not desired? What is the Scriptural attitude toward children? Is it not one of fervent desire for the coming of new life? Where does the line come between preventing the inception of a new life moments before conception and killing it moments after? I know, the common "wisdom" of this society declares children to be a liability, and even looks on large families with a scorn that sometimes approaches hatred, but, when common "wisdom", even if it looks logical, points in a direction opposite to what God has revealed of His heart, which should be forming our conscience?

I have no authority to pronounce on such questions, and can only share what I have come to see, even against my own will. I believe that I speak in accord with the Scriptures and in accord with the unbroken tradition of the Church until very recent times. My position is the same that Anglicans held without question until the 1930s. There's something terribly wrong with engaging in this supremely creative act while at the same time attempting to prevent its intended fruit. I cannot manage to see how artificial methods of contraception can be compatible with a conscience formed by the Holy Scriptures, and, while unwilling to judge any individual, I simply cannot understand how such an act can be other than sinful. I am far from infallible, but I don't think I have failed in this. May God direct us all.

ed pacht