The Contraceptive Worldview

What goes on in the bedroom does not stay there. It determines the rise and fall of civilization. Contraception is therefore not just a private matter that goes on in the so-called ‘privacy of the bedroom.’ Contraception is actually about an entire worldview that has come to be reflected in every dimension of modern western civilization.

Contraception is a way of doing something but not really doing it and we contracept everywhere and in so many ways. It’s artificial turf, artificial colors, artificial flowers, artificial sweeteners and artificial flavors. It’s, “I can’t believe it’s not butter!” (Then what is it!?) It’s light beer and decaf coffee—double decaf coffee… half double decaf on the half caf….  It’s fish sticks and wine coolers.

We insist with tyranny on the social sacred cows of sensitivity, inclusiveness, tolerance and respect for diversity yet are quick to apply the labels ‘chauvinist’, ‘homophobic’, ‘sexist’, ‘offensive’ and ‘racist’ in the name of our being sensitive, inclusive and tolerant. We communicate but not really—we prefer to give a text rather than our presence. We recognize achievement, but not really. Everyone gets an award and everyone gets to win. There are no losers. It’s education but not really. Everyone gets to pass and graduate. Our children must be content rather than competent.

It’s family life but not really family life. We are like ships passing in the night as we live in homes with 7.5 bathrooms for 1.5 children. It’s processed cheese and genetically modified foods. It’s cohabiting–sort of being married. It’s genetically modified and invitro-processed children. It’s condoms, pills and vasectomies while we make love but not really make love.

Even we priests can contracept: We can practice “safe homily” and so often our bride walks away from Church not really having become impregnated with the life giving Word of God. It is because we deliver a homily but not really: “Be careful. That’s a sensitive issue and you don’t want to offend anyone. A lot of people have a problem with some of the Church’s teachings.”

Whatever happened to just a good old fashion cup of coffee, a plain old fashion beer? Whatever happened to nearly every aspect of our lives in which we are now doing something but not really? And now we have come to the point where our sexual identity and marriage itself is whatever we consider it to be. A male is only sort of a male–he prefers to be a she.

What happened and is happening in modern western civilization is the same thing that happened at the beginning—the fatal reach of Adam and Eve—the intruding, manipulating hand of man, going where it should not go, where God ordered it not to go, even though the hand of man was capable of going there. Behind this intrusive reach was the loss of the once sacramental worldview, what St. John Paul II would call the ‘peace of the interior gaze’ (TOB13:1): “The man and his wife were both naked, yet they felt no shame.” (Genesis 3:25). In place of the sacramental worldview Adam and Eve adopted a worldview that was non-sacramental—contraceptive: They saw but they did not really see. What went on between Adam and Eve in Eden did not stay there. It affected the universe forever.

The Church’s insistence on natural family planning versus contraception is simply a call to retrieve in the sanctuary of the bedroom that original sacramental, mystical, Eucharistic worldview because what goes on in the Eden of the bedroom does not stay there. It determines and reflects the very soul of civilization.