Since the 1930 Seventh Lambeth Conference of the Anglican Communion, major mainline Protestant denominations shifted their doctrine to accepting contraception.
[1] Other traditions such as Laestadian Lutheran Churches, do not permit the use of birth control and may teach Quiverfull doctrine, which holds that Christians should have large families.
[2][3] The Church of England has stated in the 1958 Lambeth Conference that the responsibility for deciding upon the number and frequency of children was laid by God upon the consciences of parents 'in such ways as are acceptable to husband and wife'.
For example, in 1990 the Lutheran Churches of the Reformation passed a resolution titled "Procreation" stating that birth control, in all forms, is sin, although they "allow for exegetical differences and exceptional cases (casuistry)", for example, when the woman's life is at risk.
Its Resolution on Responsible Parenthood states that in order to "support the sacred dimensions of personhood, all possible efforts should be made by parents and the community to ensure that each child enters the world with a healthy body, and is born into an environment conducive to realization of his or her potential."
"[12][13] The Methodist Church of Great Britain also supports responsible use of birth control, welcoming its use as a means "towards fulfilment in marriage, the spacing of children, and the need to avoid pregnancy altogether, for example for medical reasons.
[20] All types of birth control, and also all forms of natural family planning such as calendar-based methods, are forbidden in Old-Order Amish communities.
[24]Before the Protestant Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church viewed procreation as the primary purpose of sexual intercourse and unity of spouses.
)[26][28][29] As an example of the dissent, the editor of a Nonconformist weekly journal in the United States wrote in 1893:There was a time when any idea of voluntary limitation was regarded by pious people as interfering with Providence.
"[31] Allan Carlson recounts how this affected the other Protestants: By 2005 acceptance had increased such that a Harris Interactive poll conducted online among 2,242 U.S. adults found that 88% of non-Catholic Christians who identified as either "very religious" or Evangelical supported the use of birth control/contraceptives.
[38]Jordan argues also that the views of early Protestant Reformers on contraception are unreliable because they were heavily influenced by not just the Bible but Neo-Platonic mysticism (otherworldliness) and Aristolean teleologism (measuring all things only by their result), philosophies they inherited from their Catholic predecessors such as Thomas Aquinas and Augustine of Hippo.
Bart Garrett describes it, "They operated in a time and context that unhealthily looked at sex as a base, physical pleasure that carried with it spiritual detriments.
He also cites technophobia among Protestants, as evident by their rejection of things ranging from buttons to airplanes ("if God meant for man to fly he would have given him wings").
Conservative evangelical leader John F. MacArthur states the view: Nothing in Scripture prohibits married couples from practicing birth control, either for a limited time to delay childbearing, or permanently when they have borne children and determine that their family is complete ...
Albert Mohler, Jr., the ninth president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky states:Evangelical couples may, at times, choose to use contraceptives in order to plan their families and enjoy the pleasures of the marital bed.
[41]Additional adherents of this view include Rainey, James Dobson,[42] Jordan, Mohler, and evangelical ethicists Franklin E. Payne[43][44] and John and Paul Feinberg.
[45] Although most Protestants adhere to this view, some such as Rainey may nonetheless advocate for one of the categories he describes, depending upon which Christian values they deem most important.
[38] John Piper's Desiring God ministry further explains:Scriptures also say that a wife is a gift from the Lord (Proverbs 18:22), but that doesn't mean that it is wrong to stay single (1 Corinthians 7:8).
"[47]Protestants, including Quiverfull adherents, also disagree over whether the Biblical statement "be fruitful and multiply" in Genesis 1:28 and 9:7 is a command or simply a blessing God spoke over its recipients.
[50]John Piper's Desiring God ministry states of NFP: Some conclude that "natural family planning" is acceptable but "artificial" means are not.
[54]Author and FamilyLife Today radio host Dennis Rainey suggests four categories as useful in understanding current Protestant views concerning birth control.
Protestants within this group believe that birth control is a contravention of God's purpose for marriage and that all children conceived during routine sexual intercourse (without regard to time of the month during the ovulation cycle or other matters) should be welcomed as blessings.
[55] The Quiverfull movement and its authors such as Mary Pride, Rick and Jan Hess, Charles D. Provan, Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Rachel Giove Scott, and others, predominate this group.
Based upon Bible verses that describe God acting to "open and close the womb" (see Genesis 20:18, 29:31, 30:22; 1 Samuel 1:5-6; Isaiah 66:9), Quiverfull adherents believe that Divine Providence alone should control how many and how often children are conceived and born.
According to Rainey, Protestants within this group are open to however many children they may conceive during their fertile years yet believe that only Natural Family Planning is acceptable and may use it.
[55] A young couple Sam and Bethany Torode advocated for this view in their 2002 book,[49] although they later accepted barrier contraception such as diaphragms and condoms.
They thus may feel freedom to use non-"natural" birth control in making personal choices in consultation with God about the number and spacing of children.
[55] While not their main emphasis on the subject, Protestant authors such as Samuel Owen and James B. Jordan support this as an acceptable option, but only when a higher ethical principle intervenes to make child bearing imprudent in comparison, such as health concerns or a calling to serve orphans or as missionaries in a dangerous location, etc.
Jordan also strongly supports the option for couples to have very large families, while Owen believes that non-use of birth control in any form should be normative.
McLaughlin.We therefore find ourselves sympathetic to the long-standing consensus of Lutheran church fathers from the Reformation through the mid twentieth century that neither abortion, abortifacient birth control, nor barrier contraception should be practiced.