At 09:55 AM 8/4/01 -0500 Marvin Long, Jr. wrote:
>As in the case of "natural" law, this is one of those irritating uses of
>the word natural to mean "the proper prejudice," or, in this case, "the
>approved technology."
Well, the idea of "natural" comes from the fact that God has endowed women
with a natural cycle of fertility and infertility. Natural family
planning simply exploits this natural cycle.
Catholic teaching has long held that unbridled sexual expression, even
within marriage is a bad thing. The beauty of NFP is that it forces
couples into a natural cycle of "courtship" and "honeymoon" each month.
During the "courtship" phase, couples have to necessarily seek other ways
of showing their love for each other. Its also an opportunity to serve as
a positive example to those who do not have the opportunity to have sex
regularly, such as their unmarried teenage children.
Finally, please let me clarify - I have very serious difficulties with the
Church's teaching on artificial contraception. I am simply providing the
official Church position for informational purposes only. In other words,
if you have disagreements with the policy outlined above, please do not
count on me rebutting them. In this case, I took Marvin's position as
being more of a question than a disagreement - but its a fine line. I'm
nevertheless going to try and avoid playing devil's advocate.
JDG
__________________________________________________________
John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - ICQ #3527685
We are products of the same history, reaching from Jerusalem and
Athens to Warsaw and Washington. We share more than an alliance.
We share a civilization. - George W. Bush, Warsaw, 06/15/01
