{"id":4731,"date":"2009-04-03T12:49:49","date_gmt":"2009-04-03T12:49:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2009\/04\/friday-is-for-friends-jeremy-b-1.html"},"modified":"2009-04-03T12:49:49","modified_gmt":"2009-04-03T12:49:49","slug":"friday-is-for-friends-jeremy-b-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/04\/friday-is-for-friends-jeremy-b-1.html","title":{"rendered":"Friday is for Friends: Jeremy Berg and Birth Control"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a guest post from Jeremy Berg<\/a>.
\n\"Berg.jpg\"<\/span>
You have heard the Christian slogan: “Christ is Lord of all or not at all.”  Right?  <\/p>\n

National Public Radio had a featured story tonight on the Quiverfull<\/strong> movement.  If you’re unfamiliar with this movement, Wikipedia<\/a> defines Quiverfull as “a movement among conservative evangelical couples…Its viewpoint is to receive children eagerly as blessings from God,  <\/span>eschewing all forms of <\/span>birth control<\/span>, including <\/span>natural family planning<\/span> and <\/span>sterilization<\/span>.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Their own website<\/a> provides the following mission statement:  <\/p>\n

\n

“We exalt Jesus Christ as Lord, and acknowledge His
\nheadship in all areas of our lives, including fertility. We exist to
\nserve those believers who trust the Lord<\/strong> for family size, and to answer the questions of those seeking truth<\/strong> in this critical area of marriage.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n


\n<\/p>\n

What do we make of this movement?
\n Where do they fit into the broader evangelical movement?  To be honest
\nfor a moment, I have always been challenged in the area of sexual
\nethics by our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters.  There is a certain
\nconsistency in their faith at this point.  They refuse to bar God from
\nthe bedroom.  God is sovereign over every area of our lives, and sex
\nand childbearing are enormously important areas.  Catholics are
\npassionately pro life not to be politically subversive and
\ncountercultural but because they believe with all their heart that God
\nis pro life and they are being obedient to his will in protecting the
\nunborn. 
<\/span><\/p>\n

Likewise they are passionately against the use of
\ncontraceptives; not to be socially unpopular and to make life
\ndifficult.  Rather, they believe God alone is sovereign over when and
\nhow new life is born. We
\nevangelicals proudly wave the banner of God’s sovereignty and strive
\ntirelessly to influence so many areas of public morality with Biblical
\nteachings and values: Prayer in schools, Ten commandments in
\ncourthouses, same-sex marriage, abortion, etc. 
<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet I often wonder if
\ntheir is a huge blind spot when it comes to God’s sovereignty over our
\npersonal decisions regarding the details of family planning.  Is there
\na gaping inconsistency when it comes to giving God control over such
\nthings as when we have children, how many children we’ll have, how we
\nspace them out, which income bracket we need to reach before we start
\ntrying and so on?  Such decisions seem to be based more on practicality<\/em> than faithful obedience, prayer and God’s will.   <\/span><\/p>\n

Please don’t get me wrong.  I am
\nnot ready to “take sides” on this issue, throw out birth control and
\nbegin judging other couples’ decisions on how, when and how many.  But
\nI do want to at least give these folks a hearing, admire their devotion
\nand humbly admit that I find myself challenged, a bit convicted and
\ninspired by one core conviction of these Roman Catholics and
\nQuiverFulls: They are striving to give God lordship over this area
\nof life as well, and willing to go against the grain of the culture —
\neven the Christian subculture — in order to remain faithful.   <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

What are your thoughts on God’s lordship over family planning?  Are
\nevangelicals less consistent in this area of faith than Roman Catholics
\nand the QuiverFull movement?  Is there a middle ground on this issue?<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a guest post from Jeremy Berg. You have heard the Christian slogan: “Christ is Lord of all or not at all.”  Right?  National Public Radio had a featured story tonight on the Quiverfull movement.  If you’re unfamiliar with this movement, Wikipedia defines Quiverfull as “a movement among conservative evangelical couples…Its viewpoint is to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gospel"],"yoast_head":"\nFriday is for Friends: Jeremy Berg and Birth Control - Jesus Creed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/04\/friday-is-for-friends-jeremy-b-1.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Friday is for Friends: Jeremy Berg and Birth Control - Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is a guest post from Jeremy Berg. You have heard the Christian slogan: “Christ is Lord of all or not at all.”  Right?  National Public Radio had a featured story tonight on the Quiverfull movement.  If you’re unfamiliar with this movement, Wikipedia defines Quiverfull as “a movement among conservative evangelical couples…Its viewpoint is to…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/04\/friday-is-for-friends-jeremy-b-1.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-04-03T12:49:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/files\/import\/imgs\/Berg.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Friday is for Friends: Jeremy Berg and Birth Control - Jesus Creed","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/04\/friday-is-for-friends-jeremy-b-1.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Friday is for Friends: Jeremy Berg and Birth Control - Jesus Creed","og_description":"This is a guest post from Jeremy Berg. 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