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Talk:Birth Control and Contraception

No change in size, 20:51, June 25, 2018
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St Jerome et al on coitus interruputs
The one local Church to condemn birth control that I know of was the Church of Greece in 1937. There is a story to that. In his book, ''Orthodoxy and the West'', [[Christos Yannaras]] attributes the decision to the influence of Seraphim Papakostas (1972-1954), writing that Papakostas's books are characterized by "legalistic moralism, spiritual self-interest centered on the individual, and a reliance on a guilt-ransom-justification scheme of salvation.... he wrote like a Protestant pietist. In his book ''The Question of Conception'', Papakostas faithfully follows Anglican and Roman Catholic opinions about contraception, presented as a quintessentially Orthodox view" [229-230). In footnote no. 386, he adds: "The misleading nature of Papakostas's book has been demonstrated by Stavropolous (1977). Papakostas's insidious influence even extended to the official publications of the hierarchy. A Church of Greece encyclical of October 1937 borrowed Papkostas's heterodox theses verbatim." The reference is to Alexandros Stavropolous, ''To provlima tis teknogonias kai i enkyklios tis Ekklisias tis Ellados'' [The Problem of Contraception and the Encyclical of the Church of Greece], Athens, 1977.
==St Jerome et al on ''coitus interruputsinterruptus''==
As I indicated above, the sin of Onan had to do with refusing his obligation to father a child with his brother's widow, and not the spilling of semen. St Epiphanius is the only Greek Father who, along with the Latin Father St Jerome, introduced the very unbiblical idea that Onan's sin was about spilt seed in itself. This was not considered a sin in the OT, and certainly not punishable by death. It was simply a matter of a ritual impurity requiring a ritual washing. Neither the Hebrew nor Greek of the verse (Gen 38.9) mention semen, simply saying that Onan "spilled on the ground." St Jerome adds the word "semen" to Vulgate
Moreover, St Jerome betrays another unbiblical (and unorthodox) agenda when he immediately adds "Does he imagine that we approve of any sexual intercourse except for the procreation of children?" And the other fathers mentioned, St Augustine and Clement of Alexandria, are known for their Greek and unbiblical views on marriage, such as the idea that sexual intercourse can only be justified between a married couple if they are attempting to procreate. Augustine is well known for his belief that even a married couple having intercourse for the express purpose of procreation would sin if they enjoyed it. Even the Roman Catholic Church, despite following Augustine on many errors, didn't follow him quite this far! --[[User:Fr Lev|Fr Lev]] ([[User talk:Fr Lev|talk]]) 19:29, June 25, 2018 (UTC)
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