The inherent procreative possibility of the act itself remains completely unaltered, but it is put into the context where conception is unlikely to occur. It's that you don't change the act or the people participating in the act, because the juncture of sex plus female fertility is the place where conception will occur. Sex remains the same, the partners aren't altering themselves or asking the other to be altered chemically or plumbing wise, but behaviorally they choose to only engage eachother sexually outside of the combination that will lead to children.
I feel like every time I have sex and am not already pregnant, it is a conscious choice to take my life in my hands and offer it to my husband. It is an incarnation of a lifelong choice for him, where love for him is worth accepting whatever (and whoever!) comes along because of that. I should not be pregnant right now, but I am. Like, charting wise this pregnancy doesn't quite make sense, and it's twins. I see that as direct God intervention, but I also have a husband I can trust to not hang me out to dry. We walked into sex knowing that it is the one activity that can lead to pregnancy. Rubbing noses together isn't going to get me pregnant.
From a Catholic perspective, NFP respects the design of the bodies of both spouses and sees that there is a greater meaning built into the body and human sexuality than simple mechanical function. We would argue that altering yourself or your partner, or altering the sexual act itself, creates a fragmented reality. There is no fragmentation when you say "we cannot do justice to what another child would require of us, and until that changes, we will put the highest physical expression of our love for eachother only in the context where pregnancy is unlikely to occur." Nothing gets changed from the original design of how things are supposed to work and what truths they are supposed to convey, but you take advantage of the remaining time that God *also* built into our bodies where conception is extremely unlikely to occur.
I'm rambling because I'm still down with flu, but how contraception, love and commerce are interrelated is an interest of mine. Hope this was vaguely coherent.
no subject
I feel like every time I have sex and am not already pregnant, it is a conscious choice to take my life in my hands and offer it to my husband. It is an incarnation of a lifelong choice for him, where love for him is worth accepting whatever (and whoever!) comes along because of that. I should not be pregnant right now, but I am. Like, charting wise this pregnancy doesn't quite make sense, and it's twins. I see that as direct God intervention, but I also have a husband I can trust to not hang me out to dry. We walked into sex knowing that it is the one activity that can lead to pregnancy. Rubbing noses together isn't going to get me pregnant.
From a Catholic perspective, NFP respects the design of the bodies of both spouses and sees that there is a greater meaning built into the body and human sexuality than simple mechanical function. We would argue that altering yourself or your partner, or altering the sexual act itself, creates a fragmented reality. There is no fragmentation when you say "we cannot do justice to what another child would require of us, and until that changes, we will put the highest physical expression of our love for eachother only in the context where pregnancy is unlikely to occur." Nothing gets changed from the original design of how things are supposed to work and what truths they are supposed to convey, but you take advantage of the remaining time that God *also* built into our bodies where conception is extremely unlikely to occur.
I'm rambling because I'm still down with flu, but how contraception, love and commerce are interrelated is an interest of mine. Hope this was vaguely coherent.