Friday, March 20, 2009

No Crowd Control!

"The Church's stand on birth control is the most absolutely spiritual of all her stands and with all of us being materialists at heart, there is little wonder that it causes unease. I wish various fathers would quit trying to defend it by saying that the world can support 40 billion. I will rejoice in the day when they say: This is right, whether we all rot on top of each other or not, dear children, as we certainly may. Either practice restraint or prepare for crowding."
The Habit of Being (This is from a personal letter written by Flannery O'Connor)
pg. 328

8 comments:

BlackBooker said...
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BlackBooker said...

If I'm understanding it right, I would have to disagree with the very last sentence. I would contend that to "practice restraint" would effectively deny God's sovereignty.

JM2C,
--David

Micah David said...

That took me a while to wrap my head around, but I think I've got it, and I like it.

Clayton Pearlstein said...

I think that she means marriage.

Clayton Pearlstein said...
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Talmid said...

"prepare for crowding" a man after my own heart....

James said...

I'm a little puzzled by the language *most absolutely spiritual* I suppose she means that is more easily defensible than her other stands, to which I would agree.

Clayton Pearlstein said...

I am not exactly sure what she means by that either but I still enjoy the quote. I think that it something worth thinking about.

I also tried to think of what "absolutely spiritual" might have to do with the children of the covenant and how children are how the Kingdom is built.

Whatever she meant I love that last line.