This is the fourth of a series of 4 posts we'll do on why Fertility Awareness-Based Methods (FABMs) of contraception are superior to artificial ones. We propose that FABMs are better for the body, your relationship, your self-empowerment, and your soul.
Your Soul and Living in Alignment with God's Elegant Design
I'm a Cradle Catholic and grew up learning about my faith, I think my parents did a good job teaching me the breadth of how our faith (and more generally the Christian faith) can be applied and considered in everything we do in this life, but they didn't go into great depth about the theology, philosophy, and biblical interpretation of the manyfold topics. I often observed kids who seemed to know more than me about our faith, say for example, how to pray the rosary in elementary school, or they knew about the lives of saints, and I specifically remember a girl and I discussing how to say "Psalms" in 3rd grade (she was right… I said Palms because I argued that the S was silent…), but I found that these kids would do things that really weren't in alignment with the Christian faith as they got older. Didn't they know that making out at recess in 8th grade was not honoring the body God gave them? Or honoring a loving relationship before giving of yourself to that other person? This is a little example, and I'm sure they weren't having a sexual relationship at that age, if this is your behavior in 8th grade, what can happen before you're married? At the time of this writing, she is 30, though she is in an outwardly committed relationship, she's not married, has no children, and those are things she wants in the future.
I've found that there is so much depth in theology on the topic of the body. Though I've just scratched the surface of the depth of the elegant design which God has gifted us in our sexuality, the simplified guidance of wait until marriage has endless wisdom behind it.
- Sex is an act which bonds a man and a woman together, women release oxytocin (same hormone which enables birth, breastfeeding, and bonding with a new baby), men release vasopressin.
- When engaged in a sexual relationship outside of the confines of marriage, you lose objectivity as to whether the person you're dating is marriage-material. "Love" takes a front seat, leaving for the trunk things which ought to be the primary contribution to the marriage decision: alignment of values, shared future goals, good character, and ability to care for and support a family.
- In 2021, 9.5% of children living with two parents lived below the poverty level, compared to 31.7% of children living with a single parent. Children living with only their mothers in 2021 were more than twice as likely to live in poverty than those living with only their fathers (35.0% vs. 17.4%).
- And when a poor choice in partner occurs, the rate of divorced or never-married parenthood increases
And so, so many other negative results. I highly encourage you to look into the work of Christopher West, or St. John Paul II's many writings like Humanae Vitae, or his books to start.