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→Dissenting position #1
:According to position #1, procreation itself is not necessary for marriage to be “valid” or “good”, but a desire for procreation and an appropriate engagement in marital relations are! Each of these biblical and Traditonal witnesses involves couples who want children but cannot have them! They do not involve couples consciously evading children, or happy about their infertility. It is not the children themselves that are necessary for a Christian marriage, but the intention for children, and not trying to frustrate sex’s natural tendency to result in children.
:I have argued above that it is the only recognisably Orthodox view when one looks holistically at the Fathers who’ve commented on sex and contraception, but if you do not, then I’m not sure I can stop you from removing it. No synods or Orthodox theologians that I know of have expressed it in this manner, to their discredit.--[[User:Gmharvey|Gmharvey]] ([[User talk:Gmharvey|talk]]) 11:37, June 29, 2018 (UTC)
You say that #1 is different from #2 because #1 involves abstinence only, whereas #2 involves NFP. Since NFP uses only abstinence, it would seem that you need to define the abstinence in #1 more clearly. The content of the action (or rather, inaction) is exactly the same. So if the only salient difference is the intention behind the non-action, don't you need to say more than simply that the intent cannot properly be to plan the timing or number of children conceived? What precise intentions would make it okay? What about a married woman who is told by her doctor that another pregnancy would likely kill her? #1 would mean no sex with her husband, at least until after menopause, perhaps decades away? And do you restrict this to only married individuals having sex together? While the Church clearly teaches that sex belongs only within marriage, does the belief that every act of sexual intercourse must be open to procreation trump all other moral values? Should a person who, while sinning by having sex outside of marriage, never use contraception to avoid pregnancy or disease because the procreation is always more important than mitigating the potential consequences? And what of a husband who, perhaps through a blog transfusion, has contracted HIV. Are he and his wife doomed to abstinence only and, even then, only if they are morally certain that no thoughts of contraception enter their heads? --[[User:Fr Lev|Fr Lev]] ([[User talk:Fr Lev|talk]]) 11:48, June 29, 2018 (UTC)
