A pipedream is a pleasant but impossible dream. A vision is an idea about what’s possible. It guides your plans and actions. Our vision is about what is eminently possible with a change of heart. It should be obvious, however, that our vision is not going to “just happen,” and here’s why.
•There will be no freedom from the culture of death and fear without building a culture of life.
•There will be no culture of life without a stop to legalized abortion. As Mother Teresa said at the National Prayer Breakfast in 1994, “I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?” If a culture cannot tell people not to kill others who stand in their way, how can it expect people not to engage in the lesser crimes of assault, muggings, rape, robbery, dishonesty, fraud, and mutually voluntary sins such as adultery, fornication, sodomy, and dealing in drugs?
•There will be no stopping abortion without a widespread acceptance of chastity.
•There will be no widespread acceptance of chastity outside of marriage without a widespread acceptance of chastity within marriage.
•There will be no acceptance of marital chastity without the rejection of unnatural forms of birth control, many of which can also cause early abortions.
•There will be no widespread rejection of unnatural forms of birth control without the widespread knowledge and practice of natural family planning (NFP).
•There will be no widespread practice of NFP without serious efforts to promote it and without sufficient NFP teachers and/or materials.
•In many sub-cultures, that will happen only when the clergy require couples to learn NFP, including ecological breastfeeding, as a normal part of preparation for marriage.
•In the fast growing computer-oriented subculture, the vast, vast majority of married couples—say at least 90% and probably 95%—can teach themselves how to practice chaste NFP from the online manual, free charts, and other materials at this website.
The bottom line is that in order to roll back the culture of death that is built on the logic of unnatural birth control, it is necessary to promote, teach, and practice the natural ways that God has given us to space babies.
Next Week: The Role of NFP International
John F. Kippley
Sex and the Marriage Covenant: A Basis for Morality (Ignatius) Now on sale until April 4, 2010 at $3.95. Contact www.ignatius.com.