About NFP

I am here (it will be worth the click).

Two flesh? No silly. One flesh.

Go there.

Many of you do not know that one of the reasons my wife and I considered the Catholic Church was her teachings on human sexuality. Like most humanoids on planet earth, when my wife and I got married -- under Christian pastoral counsel nonetheless -- we chose a hormonal contraception that "fit us". "Our needs" demanded it of course, because as the mantra goes "you have to live a little before you can have children".

So we did.

And then we decided to start a family. It was the natural next step. There are only so many episodes of Seinfeld you can watch together -- alone -- without thinking that there has to be more to married life.

And then we lost our daughter.

But met a friend.

So we began to ask ourselves questions like "What is in this stuff?" and "Why does the bottle say to take 3-4 pills if you miss one?"

We cried. We prayed. We conceived, again.

Thank you God. 

"Guys! Guys! There is no
'C' (contraception) in TULIP"

Then our friend gave us a book about God's plan for sex and marriage. We also read a scandalous book about what ALL protestant groups thought about contraception for MOST of their history.

Scandalous.

So, we wondered why the change. Apparently even the Catholics were ready for the change.

Enters Humanae Vitae. 

Like one crying in the wilderness, the POPE (shriek!) read our mail and gave us back the stamps. Really, it was a waste of postage. The Pope, protected by the Holy Spirit, warned all of us what was to come. It had an Orwellian feel to it, the encyclical that is. A kind of Fahrenheit 451 for the groin.

And so it has come to pass.

AIDS victims: Nobody told
these ladies about "free love"

You see, I'm a son of the 80's. That means that I was an eye witness to the "free love" generation finding out that love is far from free. There is a price. Particularly, when you trade in God's plan for your own. Which, of course, is always the case -- only in the bedroom the consequences seem to compound. Why? Because in the bedroom, God is trying to communicate something to us. By communicate, I mean "to share", for at the root of communication is the deep desire to give to the other what you possess.

And God said, "Let us make man in our image and likeness."

So the couple can say, "Let us make (a child) in our image and likeness".

And the giver communicates the gift. And in the marital embrace, the couple says, "Come Holy Spirit!" And in the same breath, countless millions quench the Spirit, saying "just kidding", "not so much", or "not this time". It appears that this is not working out so well.

Enters a new generation.

So, without any further bidding, I encourage you to check out my good friend's site 1flesh.org. Go there.

Let start a revolution. After all, it's organic, duh.

The Other Scandal of HHS (UPDATED!)

 Is that Protestants are not scandalized by it too. I know, I know, some Evangelicals and Jews have told the White House "we support Catholics". That's dope. [pause. fist bump] However, for the Evangelicals, I think saying "let them Catholics be Catholics" ain't enough. It's not like the White House has said:

"All Catholics must no longer hold to the dogma of the Immaculate Conception."

If they did, I get what the Evangelicals would be doing.

Evangelicals:

The new inalienable right

"Hey, we don't believe that Mary was born sinless, but no government can tell someone they can't?  That's the evangelical way, by gollie. It is your God-given right to believe whatever the heck you wanna believe. Sure we don't agree with the Catholics, but let em' go on doing their thing."

But, that is not what this whole thing is about.

The HHS mandate is not about the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception (IC). It's about the doctrine of the Compulsory Contraception (CC). Unlike the IC, the content found in the doctrine of CC (contraception) is something all Protestants disbelieved for most of Protestant history. Moreover, what's at stake here is not just the Protestant's right of conscience to believe that spraying pesticides on their reproductive organs is their God-given right. No, it is about the right to life, and that is a cause we still share in common. I think. You see, the HHS mandate is not just about rubbers--its about morning after pills. It's about abortafacient drugs; and the lack of Protestant personal and institutional outrage is an about-face to their historic stance for life.

Q: Is this one of the logical ramifications of systemically accepting the spaying and neutering of entire Christian denominations? I'm not sure I can answer that question, but it is a question that interests me and one worth considering.

You may be thinking that I am coming down too harsh. You Catholics always have something to say about what other people are doing. Leave us "Occupy Rome: 491 Years and Counting"-ers  alone. But in my case, I'm a former Protestant of only a few years ago, and I find this issue to be quite personal. I've found myself asking myself:

"Self. Do Protestant employers not care if they have to subsidize chemical abortions?"

Wait a minute Brent, no one is forcing anyone to use contraception.

Not being forced to use contraception is about as
relevant to the HHS debate as a free hat to Colorado

That's a non sequitur. No one is arguing that. The doctrine of the CC is not about compulsory use. It's about compulsory payment. It's about using a gulag-esque power to coerce those--whose consciences reject the use of contraceptions--to pay for the very thing their conscience prohibits. Worse yet, for those that want to use contraception, "preventative services" or other euphemized products or procedures, the buck is passed. Liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and the right to prevent life are the new "inalienables", and those that still believe in "life" at that beginning of that string of rights are forced to foot the bill for the society nouveau. That is the doctrine of the Compulsory Contraception.

So again I ask, where is the Protestant--of any ilk--outrage? Not outrage over the principle of "general religious freedom" or fear that the government might control the millions of "para-church" ministries in the evangelical world, but about the principle that they have to foot the bill for chemical abortions.

Where is it?

Somebody, please point me to it.

Please.

I'm outraged, not as a Catholic, but as a former Protestant. Help this former Protestant believe, again, in the virtues of his Protestant separated brothers or for goodness sake (literally) become Catholic.

Then again, you could always just become Catholic either way.

Update: Rick Warren: You. Da. Man.


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Reason #489-Why I'm Catholic

Non-Contraceptive Marriages

I'm going to make this one short and sweet. I said I was going to do this two posts ago, so sorry it's late. When my wife and I got married, we picked out our new place, some dishes, a dvd/vcr combo (bad idea) and of course contraception. This is what every good protestant is coached to do: enjoy the fruit of mariage without all the baggage; at least until that baggage miraculously becomes the bundle of joy you are longing for.

Instead of railing against contraception, I will send you here.

Instead of recapitulating an argument I'll quote the one from two posts ago:

"Thus the innate language that expresses the total reciprocal self-giving of husband and wife is overlaid, through contraception, by an objectively contradictory language, namely, that of not giving oneself totally to the other. This leads not only to a positive refusal to be open to life but also to a falsification of the inner truth of conjugal love, which is called upon to give itself in personal totality" CCC 2370

Okay, I'll just try a simile...

Contraception is like partaking of the Eucharist with a plastic bag in your mouth. As awful as that image sounds, that is what we do when we act as if we want everything the sacrament of marriage has to offer, but spit out of our mouth, so to speak, the potentiality of the zoe (life) of God.

One more (not a simile)...

In the marital act, a couple asks the Holy Spirit to meet them. The Holy Spirit can cause the act to bring into existence that which did not exist before, and it is precisely in that moment (conception) that a soul is created and put into that which the naked eye cannot see. "Quench not the Holy Spirit". Contra (against) ception (from conception). To act against the possibility of the Spirit's free range is to do precisely what our Lord warned against.

Let us not be deceived, life is not in our hands. However, the Lord does set before us two options and we should choose life.

For more reading go here.

Eat Anything You Want with No Side Effects!

There is an amazing new device out. Did you hear about it? It is simply installed in your throat. There is a small hormonal package that is time released but the device does primarily all the work. The diagram above shows you basically how it works. What's even better is that you don't need a prescription to get one. After the device is installed:

You can eat anything you want! You can enjoy endless ice cream, cake, hotdogs, cookies, you name it. Absolutely, positively, no side effects. Does this sound too good to be true? (Oh yeah by the way, a couple thousand women have died testing this device, but they were, uh, you know, in need of it. The sacrifices we make for science. Pause for a brief moment of silence for the martyrs for self-indulgence.) Doesn't this kind of end the whole gluttony sin? That was so before this innovation. We have certainly evolved past the archaic view that "you are what you eat". I am no longer defined by the choleric possibilities of my intake. No longer do the nutrient deficiencies of a twinkie delimit my life expectancy. Krispy Kreme and Big Mac here I come...

Enters contraception.

Same story except this amazing device is designed to prevent something far worse then bulging hips or a too tight pant line. What you might ask could be worse? Human life of course. Typically interposed in a place I cannot in decency diagram, the contraception's intention is to allow an individual endless sexual pleasure without the possibility of the lamentable outcome that a child is conceived. I know what you are thinking, simply incredible!

Much like this new device, contraception is a real advancement in human flourishing. Before, we were bound to the natural outcomes of our actions. Many people had many babies, sometimes more than 4! Family reunions consisted of more than can fit in one 12 passenger van. Gasp! Eco-hoards! Even worse, married couples were scared into fidelity for the fear of what might happen if they defiled the marriage bed. Young men lived in constant fear that nights of reckless promiscuity would come back to bite them.  As you can see it was truly a time of barbarism. Here's an excerpt from that arcane period:

"Thus the innate language that expresses the total reciprocal self-giving of husband and wife is overlaid, through contraception, by an objectively contradictory language, namely, that of not giving oneself totally to the other. This leads not only to a positive refusal to be open to life but also to a falsification of the inner truth of conjugal love, which is called upon to give itself in personal totality" Catechism of the Catholic Church 2370

May it also be outdated to ever read something like this again:

“There’s an association between added sugar intake and what we call dyslipidemia -- higher triglycerides and lower HDL ("good") cholesterol," says Rachel K. Johnson, RD, MPH, PhD, a professor of nutrition at the University of Vermont and a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association (AHA).

So old fashioned. So disgustingly limiting. So...responsible?

Next Post: Reason #489-Why I'm Catholic (hint: it has something to do with human sexuality)