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Presbyterians and birth control - part 2
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The fruit of pastoral premarital counsel
As I stated in my last article - "Presbyterians and birth control" - contraception will be the marriage norm as the government indirectly enforces family-size limits by means of taxation, inflation and regulation. And as I alluded to in earlier articles, Presbyterians as well as millions of other Christians tend to absorb the hostility of the state by staking a stronger claim to the heavenly realm; by retreating from earthly endeavors. Among many areas, this is evident in the process of marriage counseling; at which time a starry-eyed couple sits through approximately six sessions comprised of sweet expositions of Ephesians 5 and 1 Corinthians 13, communication imperatives, conflict resolution, a crash course on the aim of Crown Financial Ministries, and a discreet session on conjugal endearment. This is a fine process and a great help to many couples, but it is good only as far as it goes. Typically, premarital counseling does not involve parents, and it does not speak authoritatively about birth control or family ambitions because these are matters defined as adiaphora – things indifferent.
The choice to have some children or no children is regarded as private, or worse yet, physical, and hence adiaphora. Not surprisingly, adiaphorism is a Greek philosophy that disregards the material order in favor of private, spiritual concerns, and it endures today as an enemy of the church. It is by adiaphorism that a jurisdiction is marked for adult, parent, pastor, and for God Himself. It is supposed that because the business of the physical life is indifferent, the church and all who hold authority go too far when they dare to speak of physical and earthly consequences; when they speak of the absolute claims of God’s law; when they exert their bestowed authority. It is true that each earthly sphere of authority is marked out by God, lest they become oppressive and usurp the divine order; but according to the prevailing popularity of adiaphorism, each earthly sphere of authority under God is stripped of value precisely because it is earthly and under God. Christians are only left to acquiesce to the secular state in all things material, and Satan becomes the defacto ruler of this world because God’s people have forfeited the earth to his tyranny.
Birth control is the companion of marital intimacy for Christians in Satan’s world because he desires to sterilize God’s seed, and he will receive little resistance in this area as long as Christians define this area as adiaphora. Parents are the first and necessary agents of marital counseling, and they must counter-attack Satan’s family schemes in word and thought. The pastor can reinforce this proper family-covenant theology by encouraging engaged couples in the church to structure their lives according to the aim of a large family. God’s word gives the same encouragement because it was meant to be lived and obeyed on the earth. God’s kingdom victory is a family affair.
R.J. Rushdoony, "Adiaphorism and Totalitarianism," The Roots of Reconstruction
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