Natural Family Planning International

Last week’s topic was the malaise of our present culture. There is a way out. There is a way to reverse the downward spiral and to rebuild a culture of life and hope that respects purity and marriage. The downward sexual revolution started with an idea—the notion that it is morally okay to take apart what God has put together in the sexual act. The sexual counter-revolution starts with the opposite idea expressed by Jesus in his teaching about marriage—“What God has put together, let no one take apart” (Mt 19:6). This applies not only to marriage but also to the marriage act.

The NFPI vision is built on the rock of God’s revelation. God exists and has made himself known. God created human nature and has a plan for us. Personal happiness and the well-being of society depend on following that plan.

In God’s plan, sexual intercourse is exclusively a marriage act. Within marriage, the marriage act ought to be a true marriage act. It ought to reflect and renew the gift of self, the commitment, the caring love, the faithfulness, the fruitfulness, and the permanence of the marriage covenant. This can be summarized in a way that everyone can understand: Sexual intercourse is intended by God to be at least implicitly a renewal of the marriage covenant.

Next Week: A Vision of a Culture of Life and Hope

John F. Kippley
Sex and the Marriage Covenant: A Basis for Morality (Ignatius)

What you see at present in Western culture is fearful. Ordinary folks feel compelled to install outside security lights and indoor security systems. A culture once marked by respect for life and purity has become degraded. The daily news provides every thinking person with ample evidence that the family, the Church, and traditional morality are taking a beating. In short, the culture is in crisis.

At the heart of the downward spiral of morality has been the acceptance of a sexual revolution “based on the logic of birth control instead of the logic of human nature,” as secular humanist Walter Lippmann described it in 1929. The sexual theorists of the early 20th century equated human happiness with unlimited sexual pleasure, and they set about to capture the American heart and soul with their ideas. Their hook was unlimited sex. Their line was that unlimited sex and very few children would make happy families. Their sinker was contraception, called by Lippmann “the most revolutionary practice in the history of sexual morals.” They promoted the immorality of serial bigamy as “progressive,” but they were clueless about what happens when sex is idolized and married couples are encouraged to take apart the marriages that God has put together.

Gradually, the American public bought it—hook, line and sinker, and today American culture shows the effects. The organized promotion of contraception has not brought marital happiness but has been accompanied by a 500% increase in the divorce rate. Out-of-wedlock pregnancies have not only greatly increased but have become socially acceptable. The jails are full of men who were deprived of their God-given right to have their natural father in the home. Secular leaders offer no hope, only more police, bigger jails, and higher taxes to pay for them.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Next week:  For a Better Future

John F. Kippley
Sex and the Marriage Covenant: A Basis for Morality (Ignatius)

The primary mission of NFP International is to promote and teach Natural Family Planning. This includes ecological breastfeeding, systematic NFP, marital chastity, and the call to generosity in having children and raising them in the ways of the Lord. A secondary mission is to uphold traditional Christian teaching about love, marriage and sexuality and to provide materials that people can use to improve their spiritual lives.

We seek to accomplish this mission through this website and volunteer teachers.

Our service area is the world. At present, anyone in the world who has access to the Internet and can read English at the 10th grade level can teach themselves how to practice NFP from the NFPI manual, Natural Family Planning: The Complete Approach, available both in print and online. We recognize that most people prefer to learn from face to face instruction, and thus we encourage the development of networks of volunteer teachers in countries throughout the world. The International Mission statement describes the NFPI efforts in Eastern Europe that still suffers the effects of decades of Communist rule.

Next week: The Present Culture

John F. Kippley
Sex and the Marriage Covenant: A Basis for Morality (Ignatius)