Dear Thoughtful Pastor: I have family members who believe that using birth control is sinful because children are a blessing from God. They believe that people who use birth control are not only sinful but exceedingly selfish for not wanting children. They also believe that barrenness is a curse from God. I think they are wrong but am not sure. Can you help out here?
There are two related issues here: the curse of barrenness and intentionality in limiting family size.Let’s start with barrenness.
Few people today, especially in the US, know actual hunger to the point of near starvation. People may eat poorly, but food is plentiful and easy to access.
For most of history and in parts of the world today, food scarcity presents real danger. People must have fertile crops and fertile livestock and fertile women to survive. With few labor saving tools available, farming and animal husbandry were labor-intensive occupations.
Children participated in the family work, their lives nearly immediately intertwined with the primary concern of getting enough food. Subsistence economies will not support extended childhoods. Everyone contributes to the family well-being.
So when a woman was for whatever reason unable to bear children, that inability put the entire household at risk.
Crop failures periodically swept over the world during the times the Scriptures were written. People, desperate for food, saw the resultant famines as a punishment from God. The equation was simple: Abundant crops meant God’s blessing. Scarce crops meant an angry God laying curses upon weary, starving people.
The same equation applied to women. A sign of blessing: a woman bearing multiple offspring. A woman with none? She had done something to anger God in order to deserve being cursed that way. Tough place to be.
Multiple biblical stories begin with the “barren woman” theme. This narrative technique would have caused the ancient listeners to sit up and take notice. Something has gone awry. Generally, after the pronouncement of barrenness would come the pronouncement of promise. A healthy, live birth of some sort of savior figure followed, meaning a change in the fortunes of the family and of the Israelites.
Now, let’s take a moment and compare child-rearing then and child-rearing now.
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