that's prolly why we're "former" members, eh?

I'm missing the connection between why sex and church go togeather besides a few law suites here and there???

I'm not suprised. Since anything to do with sex is still a taboo in some places.

ill try to make this simple and avoid any religious philosphy added

-the church wants to promote family planning to the people
-the govt wants to promote the use to condoms and contrceptives for population control

the church is a very powerful influecial institution in the philippines. that is why it(the church) is opposing the govt in any that goes against family planning but they are just making all the things worse bec the church is not doing enough to do what they are suppose to do (to promote family planning to the rural community). rather they are using all thier resources to oppose the govt with sex education and condoms. 2cents

Bluntly, the only methods of family planning (aka contraception) approved by the Catholic church, AFAIK, are the rhythm method and abstinence. All of the other methods are prohibited by the church.

So the government educating people about condoms and the pill, among other things, flies in the face of church teaching. Then ensues a behind-the-scenes battle for control... and the people lose.

i think you and i have discussed the rythm method before. the catholic church supports NFP (natural family planning) which is more complicated thant he rythm method. in fact the catholic church preaches against the rythm method because (at least in the US) they do not want families pushed into poverty from too many kids. but it is true the church/pope have stated that any form of birth control other than NFP and abstinance is against God.

True. I just read something this weekend about the church's official position, and it is for NFP, not necessarily the rhythm method. Anything else, whether it be a device or a drug, is not permitted by the church.

Before we go any further with this, can the rhythm method be explained? (thought rhythm was part of sex anyway)

Its all about timing. There is only a certain number of days in which the egg can be fertilised after its released from the overies. If your sperm are looking for it too early then they'll die before they reach it, too late and the egg will have travelled too far to implant in the womb. IIRC (and that's a big if) its something like 5 - 15 days after ovulation.

The rhythm method is having sex outside this period. So contraception without artificial methods. There's always a risk of either irregularity or simply bad record-keeping so I wouldn't rely on it.

My own question: what on earth is Natural Family Planning?

[ 03-07-2005, 01:45 PM: Message edited by: shamrock_uk ]

Well... the reason why I am abstaining from sex is because I don't want babies... Man is this a joke? Do people really think that? Argh...