April 15, 2025 • 35 mins
Birth control methods seem straightforward on the surface—just find what works, right? But for Christians seeking to honor God's design for life, the decision requires deeper consideration than our convenience-focused culture suggests.
Let's unpack the critical distinction between "safe" and "risky" birth control methods from a biblical perspective. This isn't primarily about medical risks to the user, but about whether certain methods might endanger an already conceived human life—a crucial distinction for believers who affirm that life begins at conception.
The conversation takes a thorough look at barrier methods, sterilization, natural family planning, and hormonal options, examining not just how they work but whether they align with a Christian worldview that values all human life. Particularly eye-opening is the discussion of hormonal birth control's three mechanisms, including its potential to prevent implantation of a fertilized egg—essentially functioning as an early abortion in some cases.
"Everything in our society is constantly fighting with you to only think about the here and now," Pastor Fleischmann observes. Yet Christians are called to an eternal perspective in all decisions, including family planning. This countercultural approach means sometimes choosing methods that require more effort or planning but better protect the sanctity of human life.
Whether you're newly married, reconsidering your approach to family planning, or simply wanting to understand these issues from a faith perspective, this episode offers compassionate, scientifically-informed guidance without judgment. The hosts acknowledge that many Christians use hormonal methods without understanding the potential risks to conceived life, emphasizing that new knowledge should inform future choices.
Have you considered how your birth control choices align with your beliefs about when life begins? Join us for this thoughtful exploration of how faith shapes even our most private decisions.
Would you like to learn more about different birth control methods? You can purchase a copy of our book, "The Christian and Birth Control" here: https://christianliferesources.com/product/the-christian-and-birth-control-book-second-edition/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Christa Potratz (00:01):
on today's episode.
Bob Fleischmann (00:02):
Everything in our society is constantly
fighting with you to only thinkabout the here and now.
It just is.
It's just everything Watchtelevision and nothing's gearing
you towards eternity andglorifying God and so forth.
Why do you think?
Sometimes you get frustratedwhen you go to church and you
feel that the pastor was beingso unrealistic.
(00:22):
Maybe he's the realistic oneand everything else around you
is being unrealistic.
Paul Snamiska (00:29):
Welcome to the Life Challenges podcast from
Christian Life Resources.
People today face manyopportunities and struggles when
it comes to issues of life anddeath, marriage and family,
health and science.
We're here to bring a freshbiblical perspective to these
issues and more.
Join us now for Life Challenges.
Christa Potratz (00:56):
Hi and welcome back.
I'm Krista Potratz and I'm heretoday with Pastors Bob
Fleischman and Jeff Samuelson,and today we're going to be
talking about birth controlmethods.
On our last episode we hadtalked about birth control
motives and so we wanted tofollow that up talking about
(01:17):
different methods today.
But first we wanted to talkabout maybe why we talk about
motives before methods and justthe importance of really laying
that groundwork before we talkabout the different types of
methods.
Bob Fleischmann (01:35):
We tend, in our culture especially, we tend to
be very focused on just whatworks Can I be sexually active
and avoid a pregnancy?
And we're not even going totalk about our reasons for
avoiding it and so forth rightthis moment.
But what we do need to keepthinking about is motive, is the
challenging questions you askyourself as to why I want to use
(02:01):
birth control, and motivereally comes up in all facets of
life.
We got to be talking motive.
Why do I drive the speed limit?
Why do I not steal?
Why do I not gossip?
Why do I?
What drives you to do it?
And everything about our cultureseems to drive us to basically
always look for just what works.
Will it prevent a pregnancy?
(02:22):
Will it keep me out of trouble?
Will I be able to keep peace inthe family?
Those kinds of things.
At its heart, the motive standson faith Hebrews 11.1,.
Faith is being sure of what ishoped for, certain of what is
not seen.
It's that supernatural activityin your life that just
basically drives you to say myfocus is first towards how do I
(02:45):
adore God, how do I glorify Godin what I say and what I do, and
when you start from that.
That's where motive is, andthen with a presumption that our
motive is correct in otherwords, we feel we have a reason,
a justifiable reason, which iswhat we talked about in the last
episode, a justifiable reasonthat we might need to practice
birth control.
(03:05):
Then we have to look at what dowe do, because they're not all
the same.
Jeff Samelson (03:10):
They may all prevent a birth, but it's how
they prevent a birth that raisesthe questions, yeah, and what
Bob was saying about, we tend tolook at things in terms of what
works.
It's illustrated a bit by thehistory of this.
When birth control first becamea real big thing, it was argued
(03:32):
for on the basis of marriedcouples should have the right to
decide, you know, whetherthey're going to have children
and when and such, and it wasalways talked about in terms of
helping married couples plantheir families.
I think if you were to justsurvey people today, most of the
talk about birth control it'sgoing to be well, what's going
(03:54):
to work to keep unmarried peoplefrom conceiving children, and
it's not much about the marriedpeople at all.
I mean, yeah, married peoplestill use it a lot, but the
focus has changed because it wasall about, well, what works,
we're doing this thing, so whatcan we do to prevent the other
thing from happening as a resultof that?
(04:15):
And just looking at that shiftsays there is something wrong
here in terms of what wasmotivating people to use birth
control in the first place,which is why we had to go back
first and discuss okay, why arewe going to use this?
What's the reason for thisgoing to be, before we start
(04:35):
talking about okay, what worksand what's appropriate.
Christa Potratz (04:38):
Yeah, I think that's really interesting
because, especially to like withus sitting here and talking
about birth control for ourlisteners, I mean the hope is
right, people are married.
I mean, you know, we're notreally trying to give advice to
people that aren't married or,you know, going out of God's
design for this, and so you know, I mean that's just really a
(05:03):
good point too.
Bob Fleischmann (05:04):
Well, and what Jeff was saying is really
accented by the fact that thegovernment there's a federal
mandate that counties have toprovide birth control services
for indigent women.
I mean, it's yeah, they have toprovide it.
And I remember 40 years agotrying to get Planned Parenthood
(05:24):
defunded in the county where Iwas serving a congregation and
the problem we had is that wedidn't have an alternative If
the county pulled PlannedParenthood from their selection
list to provide these servicesfor the county, they had nobody
to do it.
There was no nurses associationor anything like that, and I
realized I was arguing withoutproviding the county an
(05:47):
alternative.
And those services are verymuch geared towards unmarried
people.
We had a great conversationabout this on the National Board
of CLR many years ago in whichour board chairman at the time
said essentially, when know,when you counsel unmarried
people on this topic, you'recounseling them on safe sinning.
(06:10):
In other words, how can youavoid venereal disease, how you
can avoid pregnancy and so forthand at the same time be
sexually active outside ofmarriage?
And that's a topic all of itsown.
But I mean it gets twisted andone of the things I was just
talking with somebody thismorning I had just said to them.
(06:30):
You know, one of the firstthings you realize when you
connect with CLR is, if youwalked into any conversation in
any of our podcasts, includingthis one, and you think it's a
simple topic, you're just notlistening, you're not paying
attention, because sin has anincredible way of having this
really peculiar way of forming aweb so that cutting one string
(06:54):
creates a problem in anotherarea and so forth, and so it
does here.
So when we get out of motive,we're presuming your motive is
correct.
You've got a reason that wetalked about earlier.
Now we have to talk aboutmethods.
Christa Potratz (07:09):
Yeah, so what is the important life issue,
though, that needs to beaddressed with birth control
methods, regardless of motives?
Jeff Samelson (07:18):
Surprisingly for a podcast like this.
It's about life.
Is human life respected andprotected with the method that
you're using, or is it not?
This is primary importance.
Some of the most effectivemethods of birth control don't
distinguish between preventingconception and preventing an
(07:40):
already conceived child, whichis a living human being, from
successfully implanting in themother's womb.
We're talking about abortion,and so we need to have that
distinction made, because themost important issue is life at
this point.
Bob Fleischmann (07:58):
And that's a critical point because a lot of
times when I have presented onthis topic on the road or people
have written me about it, it'samazing how many people will say
I don't believe that.
I mean it's like how can a blobof cells be life or something?
You have to understand thatbecause your motive is rooted or
(08:21):
built on the foundation offaith.
Faith is the ability to believeall sorts of things that you
know your sinful nature wants tochallenge all the time.
And it even says you know it'sby faith, we believe that things
were created.
Ultimately it's by faith.
You know we've even had anepisode on the science behind
creation and so forth, butreally in the end you believe it
(08:45):
because God says it.
So when Psalm 51.5 says I wassinful from birth, sinful from
the time my mother conceived me,just understand.
They understood what conceptionwas back then.
In fact, it's interesting whenyou read the writings of Plato
and Aristotle.
They used to debate over howlong after conception they
wanted to consider it to be ahuman life.
(09:06):
And I remember the Aristotelianapproach was someplace between
50 and 70 days.
And if you want to be offended,you know Aristotle thought it
was 50 days for a male embryo,but it was 70 days for a female
embryo, but I mean that was— andhow were they?
supposed to tell the difference?
Well, that's—yeah.
I mean that's really kind of apredicament they would have had.
(09:28):
But I mean they talked aboutthis stuff, they understood it.
Serenus of Ephesus gaveinstructions for women on how to
not carry a pregnancy through.
You know how to abort a childand why?
Because they understood lifehas begun, and so it's important
for those of you who arelistening to this podcast
wanting to understand is itreally a big deal about method?
(09:51):
The real question is, is it abig deal about faith?
Do I accept God at his word?
Do I accept that the Hebrewunderstood what conception was?
And if you go on the CLRwebsite, you know we've got a
document there where we talkabout what does the Hebrew
understand about conception?
And we talked about it in aprevious podcast, about why
(10:15):
conception.
Is conception?
The point of fertilization?
Christa Potratz (10:19):
We hear different terms too.
When we're talking about birthcontrol methods, we hear
sometimes like when we'retalking about birth control
methods, we hear sometimes likerisky and safe.
What does that really mean,when we're differentiating
between safe and risky methods?
Jeff Samelson (10:34):
Well, safe are basically all those methods that
do not put already conceivedchildren in a position where
their lives and their chances atsurvival are in danger, whether
those are embryos that formedbefore the birth control method
was used, or whether it wasbecause the birth control method
(10:56):
was not effective and theconception happened anyway.
Risky are basically theopposite.
Risky are the methods that doput those children who are
conceived in danger, and thereare those even like what's
called Plan B.
That's actually a feature, nota bug, that even if you already
have conceived, this will takecare of that as well.
(11:19):
Yeah, you know, if you alreadyhave a child within you, this
method might remove that.
You might abort it.
The safe ones are the ones thatare not going to have that risk
.
Bob Fleischmann (11:33):
Plus, they also do talk about risky and safe
with regard to the mother, andso it can be a little bit tricky
when you're listening to.
What do they mean?
Who are you talking about?
Anything that stands the riskof destroying an unborn child,
in our view, is risky.
Why?
Because a life can be lost.
(11:55):
Sometimes people in the heat ofdebate on this topic will talk
about well, there's risk to themother.
You've got to understand that.
The FDA does not generallyallow you to distribute birth
control that is risky forsomeone.
I mean it's just so somebodymight be splitting hairs talking
about a percentage of apercentage point difference
(12:18):
between one form or another asto whether it be harmful.
Christa Potratz (12:22):
Can we expand a little bit on what we mean by
safe birth control?
Bob Fleischmann (12:27):
Well, safe would be anything that prevents
if we're talking about effective, safe, effective birth control,
anything that preventsfertilization, so what we would
genuinely call contraception.
You know it prevents conception.
The real, obvious one would bea barrier method.
Barrier methods, diaphragm,condom those kinds of methods
(12:51):
are considered to be safe for anunborn child.
There are, there are someexploratory things being done,
primarily and I don't want toget too far ahead but
experimental methods that aredown the road, that claim to
shut down ovulation completelyor shut down sperm production
completely.
(13:11):
Then, hypothetically, anythingthat would prevent the meeting
of a sperm and an egg is what wewould call safe.
Now, is it safe for the motheror safe in other ways?
You know that stuff thatthey're still trying to sort out
.
Jeff Samelson (13:27):
And of course what you would call natural
family planning, whichtechnically is not birth control
in the same sense.
But that's basically timingthings so that you know, in
theory at least, the conceptionis not possible.
So that you know, in theory atleast, the conception is not
possible.
That you know.
We do also consider safe,because it's not.
You know, there's nothinginterfering there in the normal
(13:49):
process.
It's just a matter of timing.
Bob Fleischmann (13:52):
Yeah, the statistics on NFP natural family
planning are remarkable fortheir effectiveness.
You know, when people take itseriously nowadays with the apps
that monitor a woman's you knowcycle and so forth, they I mean
they boast like right near thetop.
Christa Potratz (14:14):
Yeah, and yeah, just like what you were saying,
bob.
I mean the numbers really overthe years have really improved
and what they're able to do now,and you can go to specific
doctors too that really knowtheir stuff and know there's no
different things about the cycleI mean, even if you're trying
to get pregnant too like theycould really help people that
maybe are having difficulties indoing things outside of
(14:34):
chemicals and things too.
What would just throwing it outthere but sterilization?
What would just throwing it outthere but sterilization?
Is that risky or not?
Jeff Samelson (14:45):
The risk there is , it's going to be to the man or
the woman undergoing theprocedure.
I don't know the statisticsquite so well, but anything that
is more about, shall we say,surgical, they have pretty much
experience with that.
So, just like any kind ofsurgical procedure, sometimes
things go wrong, but most of thetime it doesn't.
(15:06):
So that sense it's not going toput much of a risk to the
health, or I should say to thephysical health, of the man or
the woman.
It's a bit more involved withwomen, so I'd say there's
probably a greater chance ofsomething going wrong with that.
When you're talking aboutchemical sterilization, that's
an entirely different thing,because that's changing your
(15:29):
body chemistry, that'sattempting to do damage with
some kind of medical chemicalprocedure, and there are always
risks involved with that becausenot everybody is going to
respond to things in the sameway.
Bob Fleischmann (15:43):
I remember making a mistake early in my
ministry.
I happened to be calling on twopatients, members of mine, and
one was a young man who was in areally horrible motorcycle
accident and just had a crushedleg and the whole bit.
And then the other one was afellow who was having hernia
(16:06):
surgery.
And I made the mistake ofsaying because I just visited
the young man and I said to theguy with the hernia surgery oh
well, that's relatively minorsurgery and he said minor
surgery is what other peoplehave and I thought, well, touche
.
I deserve that, but what Jeff'ssaying is true is that it is
possible and they tell you that.
(16:28):
Why do you think you get allthose phone calls and everything
prior to even an outpatientsurgery about?
There's always risk, if there'sanesthesia involved or not
involved, that there's otherthings.
There is a risk.
Ironically, there are accountsof surgical sterilization being
reversed, where they've untiedthe tubes if you know what I
(16:49):
mean or stitched together againthe tubing so that they could be
fertile again.
So you don't walk into it.
You walk into sterilizationlike this is it and we're not
going to have more.
I think there's other issuesthat come into play with
sterilization that a lot ofpeople don't talk about.
They're more social issues.
I mean, we have a decliningpopulation now they're
(17:10):
projecting population implosionhere coming and I probably feel
differently.
I grew up during the time whenthe whole world was crying in
fear that we were going tooutlive our food sources and
everything, and now you know allthe data is showing that
there's been a pendulum swingtoo far now and we're going to
start losing countries andeverything from low population.
(17:31):
I think I would I thinkdifferently about it, but in and
of itself, the risk is eventhough I'm talking about other
people having it.
The risk is minor, but there isalways a risk.
Jeff Samelson (17:47):
With my answer previously, I was speaking
mainly of the medical risk andphysical things, but we should
also address the fact that thereis an emotional and
particularly a spiritual aspectto the choice of sterilization
as well.
You know, the same issue is withother things, with birth
control.
Why are you doing it?
And we should always, you know,just as with you know, like
(18:10):
transgender surgery, type ofthings like that when you are
deliberately choosing to dopermanent damage to your body so
that it no longer does thething that God designed it to do
, that's a big deal.
You need to think long and hardabout the reasons why you're
(18:32):
doing that, whether you're goingto be okay with it long-term or
whether you're just looking atit as a short-term solution to a
situation you're facing rightnow to deliberately change your
body in such a way.
I mean, we're not talking abouta tattoo.
We're talking about somethingmuch more serious that goes
(18:54):
really right to the source of alot of your identity as a woman
or as a man.
It's something to think longand hard about and I certainly
would never advise that anyChristian go ahead with
something like that without agood long talk with his or her
pastor.
Christa Potratz (19:10):
Well, I want to make sure too, we do talk about
the topic of chemical orhormonal birth control.
Bob Fleischmann (19:34):
Do we put that in the risky category and if so,
why?
Absolutely right, absolutelywrong, absolutely dangerous,
absolutely not dangerous.
Risk is risk, which meansthere's a potential there that
probably isn't there with otherthings.
For example, hormonal birthcontrol works with three
(19:55):
mechanisms.
Primarily, mechanism number oneis it's supposed to interrupt
the ovulation.
It's supposed to literally, andit's hard to explain in a
broadcast like this, but itliterally.
It just basically stops awoman's menstrual cycle from
creating aches in the ovaries.
(20:17):
It slows them, they're notreleased, and that's how it's
supposed to work.
They call that the ovaries.
It slows them, they're notreleased, and that's how it's
supposed to work.
They call that the primarymechanism.
Secondary mechanism is to slowmobility or inhibit mobility of
sperm to be able to enterthrough the cervix and then up
the fallopian tubes.
And what it primarily does isit creates a thickened amount of
(20:38):
mucus around a woman's cervix.
Because when we talk hormonalbirth control right now, in this
context, we're talking aboutsomething that the woman takes,
and so it thickens the mucusaround the cervix that's
supposed to impede or preventpassage of the sperm.
Now, if both of those methodswork, are operative, we don't
(21:00):
have a problem, you know,because we don't have a problem
with that, with it functioningas a birth control because it
doesn't destroy a developinghuman life.
But it's the third mechanismthat, no matter how many times
you get into arguments withpeople about birth control, you
know the FDA is refusing toremove it from the warning list.
(21:21):
It still remains on all thepharmaceutical guides for
hormonal birth control.
And that is the third mechanismis that it changes the lining
of the endometrium wall to makeit more difficult for a
developing embryo to implant and, depending on dosage and so
forth, it could also work insuch a way that it would loosen
(21:43):
a developing embryo that isalready implanted so that it
would spontaneously abort.
So the idea is that it createsan unfriendly environment for
developing human life and ofcourse that is where we have the
problem.
Now people get all worked upover how often is that a problem
?
Can you give me statistics andso forth?
(22:04):
And it's interesting becausewhen we have talked about this
stuff at the national boardlevel, where I have medical
professionals that have sat andare sitting on the national
board, you get into kind ofalmost a game like well, how
safe is it for me to drive mycar?
How safe?
Is it for me to walk along asidewalk?
(22:27):
A car could jump the curve andhit me.
There's a chance for that,which is why I want to go back
to what I said originally, andthat is remember, we're talking
about a risk.
Now I want to frame it a littlebit different and think about it
this way the whole arena ofbirth control birth control or
(22:49):
contraception, birth controlthat whole arena provides
choices.
You can go with natural familyplanning.
There is sterilization, andthose right there do not present
a risk to a developing child.
But then you get into hormonalbirth control.
That does develop a risk.
(23:09):
Does it mean, if you've beenusing hormonal birth control all
of your life, that you have infact aborted a child?
Maybe, maybe not, we don't know.
And, of course, the companiesthat make hormonal birth control
have no incentive for exploringhow often it works that way.
Why?
(23:29):
Because they already have FDAapproval.
Why open up a Pandora's box?
Society generally is acceptingof the fact that we can abort
children.
We can terminate the lives ofunborn children.
So why is that a big deal?
So you're not going to get themto explore it, and research
dollars are quite honestly beingsteered towards cancer
(23:50):
treatments and so forth.
And so a Christian then has towrestle with how far am I
willing to take a risk when Ihave other alternatives?
Jeff Samelson (24:01):
And I would just add to Bob's comments there you
know, when you're talking aboutrisk, if you're comparing, okay,
well, when I'm walking down thestreet, the car might jump the
curb and hit me, or every time Iget behind the wheel and drive
or get in a plane, I'm taking arisk.
Well, an important, importantdifference there is that that's
a risk you're choosing to takefor yourself.
When you're talking about therisk of an unborn child in the
(24:30):
womb, that's somebody else'slife you're risking or you're
talking about in terms of risk.
It's an entirely differentmoral calculation and we need to
keep that straight.
Bob Fleischmann (24:38):
Well, in Philippians, when you're told to
think more of others or thinkof others ahead of yourself,
that comes into play.
And it's funny because that's avery conflicting thought in our
culture.
Because in our culture, why arepeople looking at this?
You know, like Jeff outlined atthe beginning, you know we just
don't want a birth, we don'twant a baby, and if you're
(24:59):
single you don't want to be tieddown with that kind of
commitment.
You didn't even want to becommitted to being married.
So you're trying to avoid allthose things and that's the way
society is thinking.
But a Christian thinksdifferent, because they're
motivated by a supernaturalpower called faith chemical
birth control is.
Christa Potratz (25:20):
I mean, it's relatively easy to use and it
does just seem like, okay, Imean I'll just take this pill,
and you know every I don't knowthe different days you have to,
and stuff too.
And then I think, you know,it's just very accepted in our
society too.
Right, like this is just whatyou do.
And I would say too, it'spretty seems pretty accepted in
(25:42):
our society too.
Right, like this is just whatyou do.
And I would say too, it'spretty seems pretty accepted in
our Christian culture as well.
And so I think, like for me,you know, when I got married, it
was just like, oh yeah, we'renot, you know, maybe thinking
kids right now we're still inschool, yada, yada, this is just
like what you do.
(26:03):
But my husband and I both havescience backgrounds and we
really like, I mean and it'skind of sad to say, we didn't
really look at it too much indetail before we started, but
then we really started lookingat it and maybe a year or two
into our marriage, we just bothfelt like we weren't comfortable
(26:25):
with that risk, like this isn'tsomething we want to do, and
that is.
It seemed like harder too andit also seemed, you know, I mean
I'll just say like personallyit seemed like kind of one of
those like ignorance is blisstype of things.
You know all the other peoplethat seemed to be okay with it.
(26:45):
It just seemed like maybehadn't looked at all the details
that we had looked at.
And I mean, again, you know,kind of like what Bob said too,
I mean everybody does kind ofhave to make choices and look at
things and stuff too.
But I am just kind of sharingwhat we did just to really I
(27:06):
mean I do really think it isimportant when you're talking
about matters of life to reallydo the research and look into it
.
And, like you know Jeff wassaying too before, there is a
lot more information out therewith natural family planning
methods and there's a lot moreresearch too on just the
(27:28):
chemical effects of what birthcontrol does to the woman too,
because you are messing withhormones and especially in our
age now of everybody's organicor you know, no one is wanting
to put gluten in their bodies orjust you know, just all these
different things I mean to beusing chemical, hormonal birth
(27:49):
control is something that evenjust from kind of like that
natural side is something thatyou know is being explored more
and stuff too, and so I meanjust to kind of throw out that
really doing the research is animportant part with when we're
talking about birth control andwe're talking about life.
Jeff Samelson (28:10):
Yeah, just to accent one of the points you
just made about hormonal birthcontrol it's changing your body
chemistry.
You know it's an artificial wayof doing that and if it changes
your body chemistry it'schanging your body, which means
it's changing you.
(28:31):
And I don't think I'm steppinginto dangerous ground by saying
most people are aware thathormones can affect your
personality, both male andfemale, but we tend to notice it
more with the females.
But we're talking aboutrelatively well, not necessarily
permanent but lastingsignificant changes here.
And just as a point ofreference, think about it People
(28:53):
who decide that they're goingto have a sex change what do
they do?
They go on hormone therapy.
They're changing the hormonalmakeup of their bodies
deliberately in order to makebig changes.
It's a different degree, butit's still the same kind of
thing.
And again, this is not sayingabsolute blanket.
(29:15):
You should never do this as aChristian.
But it is another thing tothink about that you can't have
this just relaxed whileeverybody's doing it kind of
attitude that you weredescribing, krista.
But you realize that this issomething really significant
that I am choosing to do to mybody and even probably to my
personality.
And as I was thinking aboutthis earlier.
(29:35):
I was just wondering, I wonder,if our society had never
adopted hormonal birth controlto the extent that it had.
Our society had never adoptedhormonal birth control to the
extent that it had no-transcript, but it was an interesting
(30:06):
thought experiment.
Christa Potratz (30:07):
And there's a lot we could talk about with
hormonal birth control too and,you know, maybe for kind of a
future episode as well.
We're kind of wrapping up hereon time Any just maybe final
thoughts, just from a Christianperspective, when we are
thinking about birth control andmethods.
Bob Fleischmann (30:29):
Well, whenever I've sat down with a couple
looking to get married and Iwould devote part of the
pre-marriage counseling totalking about contraception and
birth control when I get intothe hormonal methods and so
forth, oftentimes it's a littlebit like watching a flower wilt,
because society is so orientedtowards instant gratification
(30:50):
and everything.
The number one advantage ofhormonal birth control is you
take a shot or you take a pilland you can have sexual
relations whenever you want andit's going to work.
That's the hope or the dream,or the marketing of it and kind
of like so many other things inlife, you do take a moment to
(31:11):
think about it, take a moment toexplore and, as Christians,
your attention.
Everything in our society isconstantly fighting with you to
only think about the here andnow.
It just is.
It's just everything Watchtelevision and nothing's gearing
you towards eternity andglorifying God and so forth.
(31:34):
Why do you think?
Sometimes you get frustratedwhen you go to church and you
feel that the pastor was beingso unrealistic.
Maybe he's the realistic oneand everything else around you
is being unrealistic.
Well, everything that you'reseeing and hearing nowadays
about birth control methods verymuch buys into the.
You're living for the here andnow, living for the moment, and
(31:56):
Christians don't.
You're living for eternity, andso you take the time, you do
the research.
And if you're listening to thisand you've been on hormonal
birth control and you're sayingto yourself I never knew this or
anything like that, I can tellyou already, depending on where
your doctor is, on how he feelsabout unborn life, you're going
(32:16):
to get different flavors of this.
But Scripture teaches lifeexists at conception.
It starts at fertilization.
Biologically it works that way.
And if we get into longdiscussion in another episode on
hormonal birth control, if youstudy the history of the
development of hormonal birthcontrol, you'll know how that
(32:37):
does mess with the body it does.
But the point is is that all oflife is trying to discover the
will of God and many times allof us will trip over it and all
of a sudden realize I've beendoing it wrong up until now.
Well, now you know.
So now what do you do?
Christa Potratz (32:58):
Well, thank you both for this discussion today
on birth control methods, and wethank all of our listeners for
joining us today too.
And if you like this podcastepisode, please share it with
people.
We're encouraging people tosubscribe to this podcast.
We are thankful that thispodcast has grown to be what it
(33:21):
is and it continues to grow, andthe more that we can share this
, the more that we can continueto reach people with this
information.
So thank you for listening andwe'll see you back next time.
Bye.
Paul Snamiska (33:36):
Thank you for joining us for this episode of
the Life Challenges podcast fromChristian Life Resources.
Please consider subscribing tothis podcast, giving us a review
wherever you access it andsharing it with friends.
We're sure you have questionson today's topic or other life
issues.
Our goal is to help you throughthese tough topics and we want
(33:56):
you to know we're here to help.
You can submit your questions,as well as comments or
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In addition to the podcasts, weinclude other valuable
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(34:19):
For more about our parentorganization, please visit
ChristianLifeResourcescom.
May God give you wisdom, love,strength and peace in Christ for
every life challenge.
on today's episode.
Bob Fleischmann (00:02):
Everything in our society is constantly
fighting with you to only thinkabout the here and now.
It just is.
It's just everything Watchtelevision and nothing's gearing
you towards eternity andglorifying God and so forth.
Why do you think?
Sometimes you get frustratedwhen you go to church and you
feel that the pastor was beingso unrealistic.
(00:22):
Maybe he's the realistic oneand everything else around you
is being unrealistic.
Paul Snamiska (00:29):
Welcome to the Life Challenges podcast from
Christian Life Resources.
People today face manyopportunities and struggles when
it comes to issues of life anddeath, marriage and family,
health and science.
We're here to bring a freshbiblical perspective to these
issues and more.
Join us now for Life Challenges.
Christa Potratz (00:56):
Hi and welcome back.
I'm Krista Potratz and I'm heretoday with Pastors Bob
Fleischman and Jeff Samuelson,and today we're going to be
talking about birth controlmethods.
On our last episode we hadtalked about birth control
motives and so we wanted tofollow that up talking about
(01:17):
different methods today.
But first we wanted to talkabout maybe why we talk about
motives before methods and justthe importance of really laying
that groundwork before we talkabout the different types of
methods.
Bob Fleischmann (01:35):
We tend, in our culture especially, we tend to
be very focused on just whatworks Can I be sexually active
and avoid a pregnancy?
And we're not even going totalk about our reasons for
avoiding it and so forth rightthis moment.
But what we do need to keepthinking about is motive, is the
challenging questions you askyourself as to why I want to use
(02:01):
birth control, and motivereally comes up in all facets of
life.
We got to be talking motive.
Why do I drive the speed limit?
Why do I not steal?
Why do I not gossip?
Why do I?
What drives you to do it?
And everything about our cultureseems to drive us to basically
always look for just what works.
Will it prevent a pregnancy?
(02:22):
Will it keep me out of trouble?
Will I be able to keep peace inthe family?
Those kinds of things.
At its heart, the motive standson faith Hebrews 11.1,.
Faith is being sure of what ishoped for, certain of what is
not seen.
It's that supernatural activityin your life that just
basically drives you to say myfocus is first towards how do I
(02:45):
adore God, how do I glorify Godin what I say and what I do, and
when you start from that.
That's where motive is, andthen with a presumption that our
motive is correct in otherwords, we feel we have a reason,
a justifiable reason, which iswhat we talked about in the last
episode, a justifiable reasonthat we might need to practice
birth control.
(03:05):
Then we have to look at what dowe do, because they're not all
the same.
Jeff Samelson (03:10):
They may all prevent a birth, but it's how
they prevent a birth that raisesthe questions, yeah, and what
Bob was saying about, we tend tolook at things in terms of what
works.
It's illustrated a bit by thehistory of this.
When birth control first becamea real big thing, it was argued
(03:32):
for on the basis of marriedcouples should have the right to
decide, you know, whetherthey're going to have children
and when and such, and it wasalways talked about in terms of
helping married couples plantheir families.
I think if you were to justsurvey people today, most of the
talk about birth control it'sgoing to be well, what's going
(03:54):
to work to keep unmarried peoplefrom conceiving children, and
it's not much about the marriedpeople at all.
I mean, yeah, married peoplestill use it a lot, but the
focus has changed because it wasall about, well, what works,
we're doing this thing, so whatcan we do to prevent the other
thing from happening as a resultof that?
(04:15):
And just looking at that shiftsays there is something wrong
here in terms of what wasmotivating people to use birth
control in the first place,which is why we had to go back
first and discuss okay, why arewe going to use this?
What's the reason for thisgoing to be, before we start
(04:35):
talking about okay, what worksand what's appropriate.
Christa Potratz (04:38):
Yeah, I think that's really interesting
because, especially to like withus sitting here and talking
about birth control for ourlisteners, I mean the hope is
right, people are married.
I mean, you know, we're notreally trying to give advice to
people that aren't married or,you know, going out of God's
design for this, and so you know, I mean that's just really a
(05:03):
good point too.
Bob Fleischmann (05:04):
Well, and what Jeff was saying is really
accented by the fact that thegovernment there's a federal
mandate that counties have toprovide birth control services
for indigent women.
I mean, it's yeah, they have toprovide it.
And I remember 40 years agotrying to get Planned Parenthood
(05:24):
defunded in the county where Iwas serving a congregation and
the problem we had is that wedidn't have an alternative If
the county pulled PlannedParenthood from their selection
list to provide these servicesfor the county, they had nobody
to do it.
There was no nurses associationor anything like that, and I
realized I was arguing withoutproviding the county an
(05:47):
alternative.
And those services are verymuch geared towards unmarried
people.
We had a great conversationabout this on the National Board
of CLR many years ago in whichour board chairman at the time
said essentially, when know,when you counsel unmarried
people on this topic, you'recounseling them on safe sinning.
(06:10):
In other words, how can youavoid venereal disease, how you
can avoid pregnancy and so forthand at the same time be
sexually active outside ofmarriage?
And that's a topic all of itsown.
But I mean it gets twisted andone of the things I was just
talking with somebody thismorning I had just said to them.
(06:30):
You know, one of the firstthings you realize when you
connect with CLR is, if youwalked into any conversation in
any of our podcasts, includingthis one, and you think it's a
simple topic, you're just notlistening, you're not paying
attention, because sin has anincredible way of having this
really peculiar way of forming aweb so that cutting one string
(06:54):
creates a problem in anotherarea and so forth, and so it
does here.
So when we get out of motive,we're presuming your motive is
correct.
You've got a reason that wetalked about earlier.
Now we have to talk aboutmethods.
Christa Potratz (07:09):
Yeah, so what is the important life issue,
though, that needs to beaddressed with birth control
methods, regardless of motives?
Jeff Samelson (07:18):
Surprisingly for a podcast like this.
It's about life.
Is human life respected andprotected with the method that
you're using, or is it not?
This is primary importance.
Some of the most effectivemethods of birth control don't
distinguish between preventingconception and preventing an
(07:40):
already conceived child, whichis a living human being, from
successfully implanting in themother's womb.
We're talking about abortion,and so we need to have that
distinction made, because themost important issue is life at
this point.
Bob Fleischmann (07:58):
And that's a critical point because a lot of
times when I have presented onthis topic on the road or people
have written me about it, it'samazing how many people will say
I don't believe that.
I mean it's like how can a blobof cells be life or something?
You have to understand thatbecause your motive is rooted or
(08:21):
built on the foundation offaith.
Faith is the ability to believeall sorts of things that you
know your sinful nature wants tochallenge all the time.
And it even says you know it'sby faith, we believe that things
were created.
Ultimately it's by faith.
You know we've even had anepisode on the science behind
creation and so forth, butreally in the end you believe it
(08:45):
because God says it.
So when Psalm 51.5 says I wassinful from birth, sinful from
the time my mother conceived me,just understand.
They understood what conceptionwas back then.
In fact, it's interesting whenyou read the writings of Plato
and Aristotle.
They used to debate over howlong after conception they
wanted to consider it to be ahuman life.
(09:06):
And I remember the Aristotelianapproach was someplace between
50 and 70 days.
And if you want to be offended,you know Aristotle thought it
was 50 days for a male embryo,but it was 70 days for a female
embryo, but I mean that was— andhow were they?
supposed to tell the difference?
Well, that's—yeah.
I mean that's really kind of apredicament they would have had.
(09:28):
But I mean they talked aboutthis stuff, they understood it.
Serenus of Ephesus gaveinstructions for women on how to
not carry a pregnancy through.
You know how to abort a childand why?
Because they understood lifehas begun, and so it's important
for those of you who arelistening to this podcast
wanting to understand is itreally a big deal about method?
(09:51):
The real question is, is it abig deal about faith?
Do I accept God at his word?
Do I accept that the Hebrewunderstood what conception was?
And if you go on the CLRwebsite, you know we've got a
document there where we talkabout what does the Hebrew
understand about conception?
And we talked about it in aprevious podcast, about why
(10:15):
conception.
Is conception?
The point of fertilization?
Christa Potratz (10:19):
We hear different terms too.
When we're talking about birthcontrol methods, we hear
sometimes like when we'retalking about birth control
methods, we hear sometimes likerisky and safe.
What does that really mean,when we're differentiating
between safe and risky methods?
Jeff Samelson (10:34):
Well, safe are basically all those methods that
do not put already conceivedchildren in a position where
their lives and their chances atsurvival are in danger, whether
those are embryos that formedbefore the birth control method
was used, or whether it wasbecause the birth control method
(10:56):
was not effective and theconception happened anyway.
Risky are basically theopposite.
Risky are the methods that doput those children who are
conceived in danger, and thereare those even like what's
called Plan B.
That's actually a feature, nota bug, that even if you already
have conceived, this will takecare of that as well.
(11:19):
Yeah, you know, if you alreadyhave a child within you, this
method might remove that.
You might abort it.
The safe ones are the ones thatare not going to have that risk
.
Bob Fleischmann (11:33):
Plus, they also do talk about risky and safe
with regard to the mother, andso it can be a little bit tricky
when you're listening to.
What do they mean?
Who are you talking about?
Anything that stands the riskof destroying an unborn child,
in our view, is risky.
Why?
Because a life can be lost.
(11:55):
Sometimes people in the heat ofdebate on this topic will talk
about well, there's risk to themother.
You've got to understand that.
The FDA does not generallyallow you to distribute birth
control that is risky forsomeone.
I mean it's just so somebodymight be splitting hairs talking
about a percentage of apercentage point difference
(12:18):
between one form or another asto whether it be harmful.
Christa Potratz (12:22):
Can we expand a little bit on what we mean by
safe birth control?
Bob Fleischmann (12:27):
Well, safe would be anything that prevents
if we're talking about effective, safe, effective birth control,
anything that preventsfertilization, so what we would
genuinely call contraception.
You know it prevents conception.
The real, obvious one would bea barrier method.
Barrier methods, diaphragm,condom those kinds of methods
(12:51):
are considered to be safe for anunborn child.
There are, there are someexploratory things being done,
primarily and I don't want toget too far ahead but
experimental methods that aredown the road, that claim to
shut down ovulation completelyor shut down sperm production
completely.
(13:11):
Then, hypothetically, anythingthat would prevent the meeting
of a sperm and an egg is what wewould call safe.
Now, is it safe for the motheror safe in other ways?
You know that stuff thatthey're still trying to sort out
.
Jeff Samelson (13:27):
And of course what you would call natural
family planning, whichtechnically is not birth control
in the same sense.
But that's basically timingthings so that you know, in
theory at least, the conceptionis not possible.
So that you know, in theory atleast, the conception is not
possible.
That you know.
We do also consider safe,because it's not.
You know, there's nothinginterfering there in the normal
(13:49):
process.
It's just a matter of timing.
Bob Fleischmann (13:52):
Yeah, the statistics on NFP natural family
planning are remarkable fortheir effectiveness.
You know, when people take itseriously nowadays with the apps
that monitor a woman's you knowcycle and so forth, they I mean
they boast like right near thetop.
Christa Potratz (14:14):
Yeah, and yeah, just like what you were saying,
bob.
I mean the numbers really overthe years have really improved
and what they're able to do now,and you can go to specific
doctors too that really knowtheir stuff and know there's no
different things about the cycleI mean, even if you're trying
to get pregnant too like theycould really help people that
maybe are having difficulties indoing things outside of
(14:34):
chemicals and things too.
What would just throwing it outthere but sterilization?
What would just throwing it outthere but sterilization?
Is that risky or not?
Jeff Samelson (14:45):
The risk there is , it's going to be to the man or
the woman undergoing theprocedure.
I don't know the statisticsquite so well, but anything that
is more about, shall we say,surgical, they have pretty much
experience with that.
So, just like any kind ofsurgical procedure, sometimes
things go wrong, but most of thetime it doesn't.
(15:06):
So that sense it's not going toput much of a risk to the
health, or I should say to thephysical health, of the man or
the woman.
It's a bit more involved withwomen, so I'd say there's
probably a greater chance ofsomething going wrong with that.
When you're talking aboutchemical sterilization, that's
an entirely different thing,because that's changing your
(15:29):
body chemistry, that'sattempting to do damage with
some kind of medical chemicalprocedure, and there are always
risks involved with that becausenot everybody is going to
respond to things in the sameway.
Bob Fleischmann (15:43):
I remember making a mistake early in my
ministry.
I happened to be calling on twopatients, members of mine, and
one was a young man who was in areally horrible motorcycle
accident and just had a crushedleg and the whole bit.
And then the other one was afellow who was having hernia
(16:06):
surgery.
And I made the mistake ofsaying because I just visited
the young man and I said to theguy with the hernia surgery oh
well, that's relatively minorsurgery and he said minor
surgery is what other peoplehave and I thought, well, touche
.
I deserve that, but what Jeff'ssaying is true is that it is
possible and they tell you that.
(16:28):
Why do you think you get allthose phone calls and everything
prior to even an outpatientsurgery about?
There's always risk, if there'sanesthesia involved or not
involved, that there's otherthings.
There is a risk.
Ironically, there are accountsof surgical sterilization being
reversed, where they've untiedthe tubes if you know what I
(16:49):
mean or stitched together againthe tubing so that they could be
fertile again.
So you don't walk into it.
You walk into sterilizationlike this is it and we're not
going to have more.
I think there's other issuesthat come into play with
sterilization that a lot ofpeople don't talk about.
They're more social issues.
I mean, we have a decliningpopulation now they're
(17:10):
projecting population implosionhere coming and I probably feel
differently.
I grew up during the time whenthe whole world was crying in
fear that we were going tooutlive our food sources and
everything, and now you know allthe data is showing that
there's been a pendulum swingtoo far now and we're going to
start losing countries andeverything from low population.
(17:31):
I think I would I thinkdifferently about it, but in and
of itself, the risk is eventhough I'm talking about other
people having it.
The risk is minor, but there isalways a risk.
Jeff Samelson (17:47):
With my answer previously, I was speaking
mainly of the medical risk andphysical things, but we should
also address the fact that thereis an emotional and
particularly a spiritual aspectto the choice of sterilization
as well.
You know, the same issue is withother things, with birth
control.
Why are you doing it?
And we should always, you know,just as with you know, like
(18:10):
transgender surgery, type ofthings like that when you are
deliberately choosing to dopermanent damage to your body so
that it no longer does thething that God designed it to do
, that's a big deal.
You need to think long and hardabout the reasons why you're
(18:32):
doing that, whether you're goingto be okay with it long-term or
whether you're just looking atit as a short-term solution to a
situation you're facing rightnow to deliberately change your
body in such a way.
I mean, we're not talking abouta tattoo.
We're talking about somethingmuch more serious that goes
(18:54):
really right to the source of alot of your identity as a woman
or as a man.
It's something to think longand hard about and I certainly
would never advise that anyChristian go ahead with
something like that without agood long talk with his or her
pastor.
Christa Potratz (19:10):
Well, I want to make sure too, we do talk about
the topic of chemical orhormonal birth control.
Bob Fleischmann (19:34):
Do we put that in the risky category and if so,
why?
Absolutely right, absolutelywrong, absolutely dangerous,
absolutely not dangerous.
Risk is risk, which meansthere's a potential there that
probably isn't there with otherthings.
For example, hormonal birthcontrol works with three
(19:55):
mechanisms.
Primarily, mechanism number oneis it's supposed to interrupt
the ovulation.
It's supposed to literally, andit's hard to explain in a
broadcast like this, but itliterally.
It just basically stops awoman's menstrual cycle from
creating aches in the ovaries.
(20:17):
It slows them, they're notreleased, and that's how it's
supposed to work.
They call that the ovaries.
It slows them, they're notreleased, and that's how it's
supposed to work.
They call that the primarymechanism.
Secondary mechanism is to slowmobility or inhibit mobility of
sperm to be able to enterthrough the cervix and then up
the fallopian tubes.
And what it primarily does isit creates a thickened amount of
(20:38):
mucus around a woman's cervix.
Because when we talk hormonalbirth control right now, in this
context, we're talking aboutsomething that the woman takes,
and so it thickens the mucusaround the cervix that's
supposed to impede or preventpassage of the sperm.
Now, if both of those methodswork, are operative, we don't
(21:00):
have a problem, you know,because we don't have a problem
with that, with it functioningas a birth control because it
doesn't destroy a developinghuman life.
But it's the third mechanismthat, no matter how many times
you get into arguments withpeople about birth control, you
know the FDA is refusing toremove it from the warning list.
(21:21):
It still remains on all thepharmaceutical guides for
hormonal birth control.
And that is the third mechanismis that it changes the lining
of the endometrium wall to makeit more difficult for a
developing embryo to implant and, depending on dosage and so
forth, it could also work insuch a way that it would loosen
(21:43):
a developing embryo that isalready implanted so that it
would spontaneously abort.
So the idea is that it createsan unfriendly environment for
developing human life and ofcourse that is where we have the
problem.
Now people get all worked upover how often is that a problem
?
Can you give me statistics andso forth?
(22:04):
And it's interesting becausewhen we have talked about this
stuff at the national boardlevel, where I have medical
professionals that have sat andare sitting on the national
board, you get into kind ofalmost a game like well, how
safe is it for me to drive mycar?
How safe?
Is it for me to walk along asidewalk?
(22:27):
A car could jump the curve andhit me.
There's a chance for that,which is why I want to go back
to what I said originally, andthat is remember, we're talking
about a risk.
Now I want to frame it a littlebit different and think about it
this way the whole arena ofbirth control birth control or
(22:49):
contraception, birth controlthat whole arena provides
choices.
You can go with natural familyplanning.
There is sterilization, andthose right there do not present
a risk to a developing child.
But then you get into hormonalbirth control.
That does develop a risk.
(23:09):
Does it mean, if you've beenusing hormonal birth control all
of your life, that you have infact aborted a child?
Maybe, maybe not, we don't know.
And, of course, the companiesthat make hormonal birth control
have no incentive for exploringhow often it works that way.
Why?
(23:29):
Because they already have FDAapproval.
Why open up a Pandora's box?
Society generally is acceptingof the fact that we can abort
children.
We can terminate the lives ofunborn children.
So why is that a big deal?
So you're not going to get themto explore it, and research
dollars are quite honestly beingsteered towards cancer
(23:50):
treatments and so forth.
And so a Christian then has towrestle with how far am I
willing to take a risk when Ihave other alternatives?
Jeff Samelson (24:01):
And I would just add to Bob's comments there you
know, when you're talking aboutrisk, if you're comparing, okay,
well, when I'm walking down thestreet, the car might jump the
curb and hit me, or every time Iget behind the wheel and drive
or get in a plane, I'm taking arisk.
Well, an important, importantdifference there is that that's
a risk you're choosing to takefor yourself.
When you're talking about therisk of an unborn child in the
(24:30):
womb, that's somebody else'slife you're risking or you're
talking about in terms of risk.
It's an entirely differentmoral calculation and we need to
keep that straight.
Bob Fleischmann (24:38):
Well, in Philippians, when you're told to
think more of others or thinkof others ahead of yourself,
that comes into play.
And it's funny because that's avery conflicting thought in our
culture.
Because in our culture, why arepeople looking at this?
You know, like Jeff outlined atthe beginning, you know we just
don't want a birth, we don'twant a baby, and if you're
(24:59):
single you don't want to be tieddown with that kind of
commitment.
You didn't even want to becommitted to being married.
So you're trying to avoid allthose things and that's the way
society is thinking.
But a Christian thinksdifferent, because they're
motivated by a supernaturalpower called faith chemical
birth control is.
Christa Potratz (25:20):
I mean, it's relatively easy to use and it
does just seem like, okay, Imean I'll just take this pill,
and you know every I don't knowthe different days you have to,
and stuff too.
And then I think, you know,it's just very accepted in our
society too.
Right, like this is just whatyou do.
And I would say too, it'spretty seems pretty accepted in
(25:42):
our society too.
Right, like this is just whatyou do.
And I would say too, it'spretty seems pretty accepted in
our Christian culture as well.
And so I think, like for me,you know, when I got married, it
was just like, oh yeah, we'renot, you know, maybe thinking
kids right now we're still inschool, yada, yada, this is just
like what you do.
(26:03):
But my husband and I both havescience backgrounds and we
really like, I mean and it'skind of sad to say, we didn't
really look at it too much indetail before we started, but
then we really started lookingat it and maybe a year or two
into our marriage, we just bothfelt like we weren't comfortable
(26:25):
with that risk, like this isn'tsomething we want to do, and
that is.
It seemed like harder too andit also seemed, you know, I mean
I'll just say like personallyit seemed like kind of one of
those like ignorance is blisstype of things.
You know all the other peoplethat seemed to be okay with it.
(26:45):
It just seemed like maybehadn't looked at all the details
that we had looked at.
And I mean, again, you know,kind of like what Bob said too,
I mean everybody does kind ofhave to make choices and look at
things and stuff too.
But I am just kind of sharingwhat we did just to really I
(27:06):
mean I do really think it isimportant when you're talking
about matters of life to reallydo the research and look into it
.
And, like you know Jeff wassaying too before, there is a
lot more information out therewith natural family planning
methods and there's a lot moreresearch too on just the
(27:28):
chemical effects of what birthcontrol does to the woman too,
because you are messing withhormones and especially in our
age now of everybody's organicor you know, no one is wanting
to put gluten in their bodies orjust you know, just all these
different things I mean to beusing chemical, hormonal birth
(27:49):
control is something that evenjust from kind of like that
natural side is something thatyou know is being explored more
and stuff too, and so I meanjust to kind of throw out that
really doing the research is animportant part with when we're
talking about birth control andwe're talking about life.
Jeff Samelson (28:10):
Yeah, just to accent one of the points you
just made about hormonal birthcontrol it's changing your body
chemistry.
You know it's an artificial wayof doing that and if it changes
your body chemistry it'schanging your body, which means
it's changing you.
(28:31):
And I don't think I'm steppinginto dangerous ground by saying
most people are aware thathormones can affect your
personality, both male andfemale, but we tend to notice it
more with the females.
But we're talking aboutrelatively well, not necessarily
permanent but lastingsignificant changes here.
And just as a point ofreference, think about it People
(28:53):
who decide that they're goingto have a sex change what do
they do?
They go on hormone therapy.
They're changing the hormonalmakeup of their bodies
deliberately in order to makebig changes.
It's a different degree, butit's still the same kind of
thing.
And again, this is not sayingabsolute blanket.
(29:15):
You should never do this as aChristian.
But it is another thing tothink about that you can't have
this just relaxed whileeverybody's doing it kind of
attitude that you weredescribing, krista.
But you realize that this issomething really significant
that I am choosing to do to mybody and even probably to my
personality.
And as I was thinking aboutthis earlier.
(29:35):
I was just wondering, I wonder,if our society had never
adopted hormonal birth controlto the extent that it had.
Our society had never adoptedhormonal birth control to the
extent that it had no-transcript, but it was an interesting
(30:06):
thought experiment.
Christa Potratz (30:07):
And there's a lot we could talk about with
hormonal birth control too and,you know, maybe for kind of a
future episode as well.
We're kind of wrapping up hereon time Any just maybe final
thoughts, just from a Christianperspective, when we are
thinking about birth control andmethods.
Bob Fleischmann (30:29):
Well, whenever I've sat down with a couple
looking to get married and Iwould devote part of the
pre-marriage counseling totalking about contraception and
birth control when I get intothe hormonal methods and so
forth, oftentimes it's a littlebit like watching a flower wilt,
because society is so orientedtowards instant gratification
(30:50):
and everything.
The number one advantage ofhormonal birth control is you
take a shot or you take a pilland you can have sexual
relations whenever you want andit's going to work.
That's the hope or the dream,or the marketing of it and kind
of like so many other things inlife, you do take a moment to
(31:11):
think about it, take a moment toexplore and, as Christians,
your attention.
Everything in our society isconstantly fighting with you to
only think about the here andnow.
It just is.
It's just everything Watchtelevision and nothing's gearing
you towards eternity andglorifying God and so forth.
(31:34):
Why do you think?
Sometimes you get frustratedwhen you go to church and you
feel that the pastor was beingso unrealistic.
Maybe he's the realistic oneand everything else around you
is being unrealistic.
Well, everything that you'reseeing and hearing nowadays
about birth control methods verymuch buys into the.
You're living for the here andnow, living for the moment, and
(31:56):
Christians don't.
You're living for eternity, andso you take the time, you do
the research.
And if you're listening to thisand you've been on hormonal
birth control and you're sayingto yourself I never knew this or
anything like that, I can tellyou already, depending on where
your doctor is, on how he feelsabout unborn life, you're going
(32:16):
to get different flavors of this.
But Scripture teaches lifeexists at conception.
It starts at fertilization.
Biologically it works that way.
And if we get into longdiscussion in another episode on
hormonal birth control, if youstudy the history of the
development of hormonal birthcontrol, you'll know how that
(32:37):
does mess with the body it does.
But the point is is that all oflife is trying to discover the
will of God and many times allof us will trip over it and all
of a sudden realize I've beendoing it wrong up until now.
Well, now you know.
So now what do you do?
Christa Potratz (32:58):
Well, thank you both for this discussion today
on birth control methods, and wethank all of our listeners for
joining us today too.
And if you like this podcastepisode, please share it with
people.
We're encouraging people tosubscribe to this podcast.
We are thankful that thispodcast has grown to be what it
(33:21):
is and it continues to grow, andthe more that we can share this
, the more that we can continueto reach people with this
information.
So thank you for listening andwe'll see you back next time.
Bye.
Paul Snamiska (33:36):
Thank you for joining us for this episode of
the Life Challenges podcast fromChristian Life Resources.
Please consider subscribing tothis podcast, giving us a review
wherever you access it andsharing it with friends.
We're sure you have questionson today's topic or other life
issues.
Our goal is to help you throughthese tough topics and we want
(33:56):
you to know we're here to help.
You can submit your questions,as well as comments or
suggestions for future episodes,at lifechallengesus or email us
at podcast atchristianliferesourcescom.
In addition to the podcasts, weinclude other valuable
information at lifechallengesus,so be sure to check it out.
(34:19):
For more about our parentorganization, please visit
ChristianLifeResourcescom.
May God give you wisdom, love,strength and peace in Christ for
every life challenge.
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