Brenda,

You say, Women need to have careers not a bunch of babies.

• Can you elaborate on this?
• Which is more important in the scheme of eternity — being a mother of a precious immortal human soul, or a career that lasts maybe forty years at best?
• Don't you think you're being a bit misanthropic or anti-child?

I don't personally think there is a greater vocation than that of being a mother. All careers pale in comparison. Ten thousand years from now, your children will still be around, but your career will be long forgotten.

Overpopulation is not a thing. Even China is realizing that. In fact, we are facing a demographic winter, a population implosion that will have dire effects on the economies of the West. Already, most of the Western countries have birth rates far below the replacement rate of 2.1 children per family — some of which, like Japan will never recover and will end up extinct as a result.

• How is this overpopulation?
• Who is going to work and run the economy when all the older people retire if there is no one to replace them?
• Who is going to pay your social security?

Certain countries are already paying large bonuses to couples in order to entice them to have children, because they understand that it is children, that is, human beings, not careers, who are our future.

Just because you and your siblings have issues is not proof that having many children is intrinsically bad. Everyone's family is dysfunctional. The grass is always greener.

NFP is not good because it is natural — it is good because it remains open to life and does not frustrate or impede the purposes of human sexuality.

Imagine if I enjoyed eating so much that I forced myself to vomit just so I could eat more. You'd think, if I did that, that I'd be a bit off. Contraception is the same thing. You're trying to use the body's reproductive system, which is, hello, designed for reproduction — for pleasure (apart from reproduction). You're abusing your body.

I am not sure if you've heard this, but you may want to give a listen to:

• Contraception: Why Not? by Janet Smith PhD.
  [Text][Video][MP3 Sound — 45 minutes but worth it.]

It's a free talk. It may cover some ground you've heard already but give it a chance, you may hear something new, too.

Eric
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