Lutheran Support Of Contraception

The Lutheran position on the issue of contraception is quite direct, emphasizing no basic objections: 

". . .in the absence of Scriptural prohibition, there need be no objection to contraception within a marital union which is, as a whole, fruitful. Moreover, once we grant the appropriateness of contraception, we also recognize that sterilization may under some circumstances be an acceptable form of contraception. Because of its relatively permanent nature, sterilization is perhaps less desirable than less-far-reaching forms of contraception. However, there should be no moral objection to it, especially for couples who already have children and who now seek to devote themselves to the rearing of those children, for those who have been advised by a physician that the birth of another child would be hazardous to the health of the mother, or for those who for reasons of age, physical disability or illness are not able to care for additional children. Indeed, there may be special circumstances which would persuade a Christian husband and wife that it would be more responsible and helpful to all concerned, under God, not to have children" (Human Sexuality: A Theological Perspective, pp.19-20).

However that is not the final word, for there are other views among Christian moral theologians, most notably Roman Catholic. The Catholic Church is morally opposed to artificial contraception and orgasmic acts outside of the context of marital intercourse. This was basically affirmed by Pope Paul VI in his 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae (Of Human Life). The only form of contraception permitted is abstinence or Natural Family Planning (NFP). NFP limits sexual intercourse to naturally infertile periods, portions of the menstrual cycle, during pregnancy and after menopause. Other forms of artificial contraception are strictly forbidden.


The 1987 document Donum Vitae (Gift of Life - respect for the dignity of human procreation) also opposes in-vitro fertilization on grounds that it is harmful to embryos, since some are always destroyed. Later on the 2008 instruction Dignitas Personae (Dignity of A Person—from conception to death) denounces embryonic manipulations and new methods of contraception.


It is unwise to simply write off these documents because you are not Roman Catholic. There is much that any of us may learn from reading and pondering them. For instance, Dignitas Personae emphasizes that . . .

"The body of a human being, from the very first stages of its existence, can never be reduced merely to a group of cells. . . from the moment the zygote has formed, (it) demands the unconditional respect that is morally due to the human being in his bodily and spiritual totality."

This teaching is quite in line with millions of us Lutherans and conservative Protestants who oppose abortion.


The study also emphasizes the dignity of every human being: 

"At every stage of his existence, man, created in the image and likeness of God, reflects “the face of his Only-begotten Son… This boundless and almost incomprehensible love of God for the human being reveals the degree to which the human person deserves to be loved in himself, independently of any other consideration —intelligence, beauty, health, youth, integrity, and so forth. In short, human life is always a good, for it ‘is a manifestation of God in the world, a sign of his presence, a trace of his glory’ (Evangelium vitae, 34)”.

I can only commend these documents to your personal study. There is much you can learn from them, even though you may, along with myself and most Lutherans, have problems with the complete prohibition of in-vitro fertilization and all forms of contraception.


In these posts I do not intend to deal with these matters in great detail as I move through this abbreviated study of human sexuality and the purposes of marriage. In my next blog I'll discuss what is usually called the third purpose of marriage, a negative one, namely marriage as a restraint of sin.