{"id":21,"date":"2010-05-06T08:20:00","date_gmt":"2010-05-06T08:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2010\/05\/perplexed-by-the-pill.html"},"modified":"2010-05-06T08:20:00","modified_gmt":"2010-05-06T08:20:00","slug":"perplexed-by-the-pill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/05\/perplexed-by-the-pill.html","title":{"rendered":"Perplexed by the Pill"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have a new post on her.meneutics about the ethical and theological concerns raised by the Pill. It begins: <\/p>\n

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The Pill turned 50 this year, and Time<\/em> magazine commemorated the anniversary last week with Nancy Gibbs\u2019s cover story, \u201cLove, Sex, Freedom and the Paradox of the Pill<\/a>.” Gibbs thoroughly and thoughtfully provides a scientific and sociological history of birth control, while addressing some of the ethical questions raised by the little tablet, swallowed by more than 100 million women worldwide every day. Gibbs sets up a strong contrast in how people respond to the Pill: \u201cIts supporters hoped it would strengthen marriage by easing the strain of unwanted children; its critics still charge that the Pill gave rise to promiscuity, adultery, and the breakdown of the family.\u201d<\/p>\n

<img src="http:\/\/blog.christianitytoday.com\/women\/upload\/2010\/05\/2713580189_ff89c28b44-thumb.jpg" width="367" height="245" alt="2713580189_ff89c28b44.jpg" title="Courtesy of nateOne, flickr.com, <\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/nateone\/<\/a> \/ CC BY 2.0<\/a><\/div>\n

” style=”border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(197, 197, 197); border-right-color: rgb(197, 197, 197); border-bottom-color: rgb(197, 197, 197); border-left-color: rgb(197, 197, 197); float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; ” \/><\/a><\/div>\n

As a Christian who has taken the Pill intermittently for over a decade, I find myself on both sides of the divide, caught between an ethic of hospitality and of stewardship, between individual responsibility and collective consciousness, between traditional family values and feminist theory. Reading Gibbs’s article didn\u2019t answer all my questions, but it forced me to admit that the questions needed asking.<\/p>\n

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To read more, click here<\/a>…<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have a new post on her.meneutics about the ethical and theological concerns raised by the Pill. It begins: The Pill turned 50 this year, and Time magazine commemorated the anniversary last week with Nancy Gibbs\u2019s cover story, \u201cLove, Sex, Freedom and the Paradox of the Pill.” Gibbs thoroughly and thoughtfully provides a scientific and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-down-syndrome"],"yoast_head":"\nPerplexed by the Pill - Thin Places<\/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\/thinplaces\/2010\/05\/perplexed-by-the-pill.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Perplexed by the Pill - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I have a new post on her.meneutics about the ethical and theological concerns raised by the Pill. 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Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}