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Does God really hate birth control? (Part 1)
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Several recent editorials in the Gold Star Daily, a daily newspaper in Mindanao, Philippines, have stated emphatically that "God hates birth control." The most recent editorial was by Roy Cimagala who lambasted the Reproductive Health Bill now pending before the Congress of this Pacific Asian country. Cimagala cited Genesis 38:8-10 as the proof text for his position, which is also the official position of the Roman Catholic Church.
The New King James Version (NKJV) of the Bible renders the passage as follows:
8 And Judah said to Onan, "Go in to your brother's wife and marry her and raise up an heir to your brother.
9 But Onan knew that the heir would not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in to his brother's wife, that he emitted on the ground, lest he should give an heir to his brother.
10 And the thing which he did displeased the Lord; therefore He killed him also.
In verse seven, God kills Onan's brother, Er, for undisclosed "wickedness." These two instances are part of a trilogy of moments in the Bible where God directly kills someone. The third such instant is found in Acts 5:1-11 where God strikes down a married couple for cheating on their tithes. Does the killing of Onan mean that God hates birth control as Cimagala and the Catholic Church contend?
A persistent hermeneutical problem with understanding the Onan passage is that typically it is viewed from the perspective of Onan with little or no consideration being given to Tamar and the sufferings undergone by a childless woman in her culture as exemplified by the laments of Sarai (Genesis 16:2,5) and Hannah (1 Samuel 1:4-16). To understand fully the passage involving the slaying of Onan, one must consider the plight of Tamar and the injustice being done to her by Onan's act of emitting on the ground.
Tamar's plight is very similar to that of the nameless woman who is caught in the "very act" of adultery and who is about to be stoned to death but for the intervention of Jesus the Christ (John 8:1-11). If this woman was in fact caught in the very act of adultery, then how is it that she alone is about to be stoned since the law of Moses commands that both man and woman are to be put to death? The issue here is one of justice versus injustice and not punishment and forgiveness as so often is the reading given the story. If the man is not being stoned, it is because he has been forgiven by those who happened upon the crime. Why then is the woman not also forgiven?
Jesus balances the scales of justice that once tilted in favor of the man and against the woman. Likewise, part of the punishment inflicted upon Onan is to balance the scales of justice in favor of Tamar who would be forced to continue to bear the shame of being childless even as Onan went on about his business having given the appearance that he had fulfilled his obligation under the levirate marriage law. The blame would then fall on Tamar for not producing an heir.
God intervenes to veto such a cruel and unjust act against Tamar. Jesus follows God's example in saving the woman caught in the very act of adultery from being stoned. With Onan out of the way, Tamar is free to undertake a journey which will give her two sons and a place in the geneology of Jesus the Christ.
In part two, it will be shown how Onan's act also amounts to deceit and hypocrisy.
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