Word: christian
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...contraception is, in effect, an ironical move to weaken further a basic principle of the Christian faith: that every human life has worth. It has always been the tendency (whether sound or unsound) to value items in proportion to their multiplicity or scarcity-value increasing with the rarity of the object and decreasing with its abundance. Thus the explosion of the population has tended to cheapen human life in the eyes of many. It becomes increasingly difficult to say "thou" to a mass of flesh that bumps and pushes and encroaches more and more on free space, sacred privacy...
...control notably increased during the late 19th century, when such technological developments as vulcanized rubber made contraception cheap and easily available to the masses. With the growing acceptance of contraception in the secular world, the papal stance against birth control hardened, culminating in the 1930 encyclical Casti Connubii (On Christian Marriage). Reacting to the acceptance of birth control by the Anglicans' significant Lambeth Conference that year, Pope Pius XI declared, in accordance with the natural-law theory, that since the sexual act had a procreative intent, it was a violation of divine will to interfere with it. Paul...
...Paul treated sympathetically and at greater length in his 1966 encyclical Populorum Progressio-suggests that the biblical injunction to "increase and multiply" is no longer a useful guideline for all married couples. Both Protestants and Catholics see the latest encyclical as an unnecessary new obstacle to the realization of Christian unity...
Last week the first copy of a new papal encyclical on the subject became available. Its essence was contained in these uncompromising words: "Conforming to fundamental principles of the human and Christian vision of marriage, we must once again state that there must be excluded absolutely, as a licit way in which to regulate births, the direct interruption of the generative process...
...handled gently." Afterward the participants sat down and again gave their impressions of the experience. "A lot of people begin to own up to the fact that it is hard for them to give love, affection and support to others," McGaw said. "Others surprise themselves at how Christian and giving and risk-taking they...