The threshold of marriage : a practical guide for all who intend to be married in church / [Church of England Moral Welfare Council].

  • Church of England. Moral Welfare Council
Date:
1949
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The threshold of marriage : a practical guide for all who intend to be married in church / [Church of England Moral Welfare Council]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    28/36 page 26
    A PE IN ED A FAMILY PLANNING AND BIRTH CONTROL 1. Christians are inevitably faced with moral problems about which there is a difference of opinion even among themselves. In such matters each must decide as seems right to his own conscience, after getting the best advice and information he can. Birth control is one of these prob- lems and most married couples have to consider their attitude towards it. 2. There is general agreement that it is right to limit the size of the family when the well-being of mother or children demands it. It is — about the method of doing this that opinions differ. Some Christians hold that to abstain from intercourse for as long as necessary is the only right way. Others use what is called the ‘safe period,’ though many doctors think this is quite unreliable. The method of ‘withdrawal’ before intercourse is complete spoils the act for both husband and wife, and in any case often fails to prevent conception. 3. Itis on the use of artificial contraceptives that disagreement is sharpest. There are, speaking generally, three different points of view: ; A. That the use of contraceptives is always wrong, since it imposes an artificial limitation upon intercourse such as to alter the nature of the act. Those who hold this view allow that the use of the ‘safe period’ is a legitimate means of birth-control, since it involves no interference with the sex act itself: seed is deposited where it can reach the womb, even though there is no egg-cell present to be fertilised. What is not permissible (they say) is to make the act of intercourse something less than it is by nature. B. ¢ That expressed by the Lambeth Conference of 1930 (the assembly of all the Bishops of the Anglican Church throughout the world) in the following resolution (carried by 193 votes to 67):— “Where there is a clearly felt moral obligation to limit or avoid parent- hood, the method must be decided on Christian principles. The prim- ary and obvious method is complete abstinence from intercourse (as far as may be necessary) in a life of discipline and self-control lived in the power of the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless in those cases where
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3