"A Humble Servant's Catholic Blog"

I ran across this post/question on a social media outlet. "JH" favors option #2 in his proposition to gradually reduce the number of abortions.  But has that actually ever worked? JH’s proposition: "This is particularly aimed at…the pro-birth brigade. First of all: Can we agree that we all want fewer abortions? We could even aim for zero abortions in the long run. The discussion then becomes how best to achieve this goal. There seem to be two opposing schools of thought. 1) Legislate against abortion. This is typically led by the religious right. The problem is that they go further and seek to deny education to women on abortion, contraception, sexual health, anything sex related at all really. 2) Allow abortion up to a date determined by viability of the foetus and provide educational resources to women (and men) in order to prevent pregnancy in the first place. This is typically led by the more liberal groups who use secular reasoning rather than emotion...

In A Catholic Response to "The Scandal of NFP" I pointed out where Church Militant TV overstepped in trying to tell lay Catholics who use NFP just how "serious" their reasons need to be, misrepresented what NFP is, and implicitly linked NFP use with contraception, among other things.  I sent that article to CMTV for a response.  What I got was an email reply from the CMTV Executive Producer that did everything EXCEPT address my concerns.  I responded to that with a rebuttal and I have received the go-ahead from CMTV to post this in its entirety.     Because a few links (to sources that he wanted me to study) were not in my final response, nor was this article that I refer to as "anti-Catholic propaganda", I am providing a link HERE to a Catholic Answers Forum thread where these appear in their entirety on Page 2 of that thread.   The purpose of posting this is 2-fold:  1) to help people recognize logical fallacies in arguments, reg...

On “The Vortex” episode released September 5, 2013, Mr. Michael Voris discusses what he feels is a scandal in the making centered around a Catholic couple’s welcoming, or not, of children per Catholic Doctrine. In all honesty, I believe Mr. Voris is sincere and is focused on what SOME Parishes SEEM to be doing…which is advertising NFP as a form of “Catholic Birth Control”. But, his Vortex episode does not make this distinction…that’s my own appraisal, giving him the benefit of the doubt. If we take his episode at face value, not only does he misrepresent what NFP is, but he crosses over a boundary in trying to discern for every Catholic couple whether they can use NFP or not. Here’s just a quick overview on NFP: NFP is information that can tell a couple whether they are fertile or infertile, whether they can increase or decrease their chances of conception, on any given day (by engaging in an act, or abstaining from it). Sex is an act. Contraception is the acting-against...

The question went like this: "How do you refute this argument?" It was followed by ( I'll address it in its entirety, point by point, so don't feel like you MUST read the initial argument...I provide it here for context in case you come across this arguement in real life ) : PREVENTION IS NOT ABORTION! If there is no conception, there is no fetus or life. Having contraception available to the adults prevents conception and therefore prevents abortion. Irresponsible pro-creation has put many people in misery even using their children to beg on the streets to survive when they could have been in school. We cannot stop people from having sex! So why not give them the tool to plan their family? It's their decision to have sex and when or how many children they can afford to raise. To see people living on the streets with many children is heartbreaking. But it's the kind of life many of them can't run away from because NO ONE CAN PREVENT PEOPLE FROM HAVING ...

Probably the first thing to answer is, "what's contraception?".  "Contraception" literally translates to "against" + "conception".  It is something that is intended to prevent conception. It is a means by which a couple enjoys the unifying nature of sex, while also working to block (or attempting to) the procreative aspect of sex.  In other words...it's sex while trying to avoid kids...AND *doing* something to the sexual faculty to prevent conception...it is working "against conception".  Okay, so regardless of what the Church says about it (another time perhaps), some people are under the impression that Scripture does not address this topic AT ALL.  Well, I disagree.  I think Scripture has ALOT to say about it.  I won't go into the Catholic theology on the topic...I'll just let the Bible do the talking.  Here you go: Gen 1: 27-28…And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and fem...