Birth control

[Philo Koinonia]

Why are people allowed to use birth control in the Orthodox Church?

[Laudate_Dominum]

In Eastern Orthodox teaching and practice of 50 years ago it seems that contraception was totally condemned as against the true faith. Suprisingly it is quite common today, although you do find those who reject it. The main reason for this confusion of probably the lack of the central and definitive teaching authority. Here are some interesting quotes.

This is a statement from the Patriarchate of Moscow:
[quote]XII. 3. Among the problems which need a religious and moral assessment is that of contraception. Some contraceptives have an abortive effect, interrupting artificially the life of the embryo on the very first stages of his life. Therefore, the same judgements are applicable to the use of them as to abortion. But other means, which do not involve interrupting an already conceived life, cannot be equated with abortion in the least. In defining their attitude to the non-abortive contraceptives, Christian spouses should remember that human reproduction is one of the principal purposes of the divinely established marital union (see, X. 4). The deliberate refusal of childbirth on egoistic grounds devalues marriage and is a definite sin.

At the same time, spouses are responsible before God for the comprehensive upbringing of their children. One of the ways to be responsible for their birth is to restrain themselves from sexual relations for a time. However, Christian spouses should remember the words of St. Paul addressed to them: 'Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency' (1 Cor. 7:5). Clearly, spouses should make such decisions mutually on the counsel of their spiritual father. The latter should take into account, with pastoral prudence, the concrete living conditions of the couple, their age, health, degree of spiritual maturity and many other circumstances. In doing so, he should distinguish those who can hold the high demands of continence from those to whom it is not given (Mt. 19:11), taking care above all of the preservation and consolidation of the family. [/quote]

This is from an encyclical by the Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America:
[quote]H. Birth Control

1. The greatest miracle and blessing of the divinely sanctified love of marriage is the procreation of children, and to avoid this by the practice of birth control (or, more accurately, the prevention of conception) is against God's will for marriage.

. . . 2. In all the difficult decisions involving the practice of birth control, Orthodox families must live under the guidance of the pastors of the Church and ask daily for the mercy and forgiveness of God.

Orthodox husbands and wives must discuss the prevention of conception in the light of the circumstances of their own personal lives, having in mind always the normal relationship between the divinely sanctified love of marriage and the begetting of children. Conception control of any sort motivated by selfishness or lack of trust in God's providential care certainly cannot be condoned.[/quote]

From [i]Pastoral Practice and Contemporary Moral Questions[/i] by Father Gregory Naumenko, Orthodox Life no. 1 (1992), 30.
[quote]The true Church of Christ has never in the past given her blessing for such a practice. This is clearly stated in the Book of Needs (Trebnik), where, in the Order of Confession, among the questions addressed to women we find the following: “Did they wear herbs so as not to have a child,… or whether someone poured something into her womb so as not to conceive, or ate some herb…She is to desist and be excluded for six years.” Here the Book of Needs draws support from a ruling of the Sixth Ecumenical Council. Thus, the use of contraceptives goes against not only the spirit and purpose of the Christian marriage and the teachings of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, but also goes against the clear and direct decrees and laws of the Church. [/quote]

Here are some Orthodox reactions after the promulgation of Humanae Vitae:
[quote]Metropolitan Chrysostom of Athens stated: [i]“While I am by no means a lover of the papacy, I feel the need to commend the papal encyclical.”[[/i]6] Metropolitan Nikodim of Leningrad went on record as saying, [i]“Every form of birth control is undesirable.”[/i][7] Father Virgil Gheorghiu, a Romanian Orthodox priest living in Paris, said: [i]“We Christians know that it is not the mouth of the pope that has spoken in forbidding the use of contraceptives. It is God who has spoken through the mouth of the pope—and through the mouth of the ecumenical patriarch.”[/i][8][/quote]

This is a 1957 statement of the Greek Orthodox position:
[quote]“If a husband and wife do not desire to have any children, they ought to abstain from all conjugal relations until they are able to have children, and then to come together again in sexual union, relying entirely and solely on God’s omniscience. The use of contraceptive devices for the prevention of childbirth is forbidden and condemned unreservedly by the Greek Orthodox Church.”[/quote]

To be blunt, much of modern Orthodoxy has abandoned the ancient Christian teaching on this matter and has totally contradicted its own teaching of just a few decades ago. This is to me perhaps the greatest scandal in the Orthodox Church today. I pray that more patriarchs and theologians in the Orthodox Churches will have the vision and courage to accept and defend this truth of the orthodox Faith.