AmericanPapist Comments
I guess the enviro-nut celebrities will be the first to promote this....(high hopes right :)
Hmm... well, perhaps the environment argument will lead more young people to try NFP, and once they try it they'll understand the other benefits.
But even if that doesn't happen, it's nice to see a secular argument against the pill.
I see this kind of pollyannish nonsense a lot on the catholic internets. What bull.
Young people who are considering NFP need to understand, going in, that it is really a trial, and not a trivial one. Especially when you are starting your marriage, and many of us have grown up with contracepting parents or have an unconcious idea in our mind that the first couple years of marriage are a time for you to get to know just the two of you together, not be learning to be parents as well.
And let me add, both the pitches for NFP we heard in our Engaged Encounter and in the NFP talk at our parish were the same way. Our NFP "counselor" didn't even bother to mention that while nursing, there is no such thing as NFP--it's functionally abstinence for almost a year if you're trying to space births at those times.
It doesn't do any body any favors to talk about the environment and how much more natural it is and other goofy yoga-whole-body stuff. That won't last the first good temptation or unexpected pregnancy.
I agree Tom. The sheer ubiquitousness of contraceptives and the cultural assumption that they are a great good (to the point of being a talisman against evil in a manner of speaking), it's a miracle anyone goes for NFP at all. It really comes down to obedience to the Church rather than getting closed by an over-glowing sales pitch. To twist Chesterton: the Church teaching on the purpose of marriage and sex has not been tried and found wanting, it has been found difficult and therefore left untried.
To be fair, I don't know why the instructors left out nursing infertility because the book won't shut up about ecological breastfeeding and its effects.
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