Protestant views on contraception

Protestant views on contraception are markedly more pluralistic than the doctrine expressed by the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church, due to historical divergences of theological thought that began during the Protestant Reformation, including the rejection of an infallible doctrinal authority other than Scripture. The doctrine of various forms of Protestantism as a whole from the Reformation until 1930 strongly condemned contraception as the Catholic Church does, but such opposition has since almost totally been dropped. Since the 1940 Seventh Lambeth Conference of the Anglican Communion, major mainline Protestant denominations shifted their doctrine to accepting contraception. In general, most liberal Protestants, such as the United Church of Christ, hold relatively settled views that accept the use of contraception, while conservative evangelicals denominations mostly also accept the use of contraception; however, some evangelicals are divided on the issue, with a small minority of denominations seeing natural family planning as the only permissible method.[1] Other traditions such as Laestadian Lutheran Churches, do not permit the use of birth control and may teach Quiverfull doctrine, which holds that Christians should have large families.[2][3]

  1. ^ O'Reilly, Andrea (6 April 2010). Encyclopedia of Motherhood. SAGE Publications. p. 1056. ISBN 9781452266299. The Roman Catholic church and some Protestant denominations have approved only "natural family planning" methods--including the rhythm method and periodic abstinence.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Kivisto2014 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Joyce, Kathryn (2009). Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement. Beacon Press. p. 174. ISBN 978-0-8070-1070-9.