Birth Control: A Statement of Christian Doctrine against the Neo-MalthusiansSutherland, Halliday
Religion
Birth Control: A Statement of Christian Doctrine against the Neo-Malthusians
Sutherland, Halliday
Birth control; Malthusianism
Having by a travesty of truth created a false theological bogey, bearing
little resemblance either to Catholic or to Anglican teaching, Lord Dawson
proceeds to demolish his own creation by a somewhat boisterous eulogy of
sex-love. Now sex-love is an instinct and involves no question of good
or evil apart from the circumstances in which it is either gratified or
denied; but, in view of the freedom with which Lord Dawson discussed this
topic, it is only right to note that it was left to the Rev. R.J. Campbell
to add to the gaiety of nations by his subsequent protest that the
_Marriage Service_ "contains expressions which are offensive to modern
delicacy of feeling."
That protest is also a first-rate example of the anarchical state of the
modern mind. The Rev. R.J. Campbell is a modern mind, so is Mr. George
Bernard Shaw; but the latter refers to "the sober decency, earnestness, and
authority" [119] of those very passages to which the former objects.
Lord Dawson's eulogy of sexual intercourse was but a prelude to his plea
for the use of contraceptives:
"I will next consider Artificial Control. The forces in modern life
which make for birth control are so strong that only convincing reasons
will make people desist from it. It is said to be unnatural and
intrinsically immoral. This word 'unnatural' perplexes me. Why?
Civilisation involves the chaining of natural forces and their
conversion to man's will and uses. Much of medicine and surgery
consists of means to overcome nature."
That paragraph illustrates precisely the confused use of the word
"natural," which I have already criticised (p. 124). Lord Dawson says he
is perplexed, and I agree with him. Civilisation, he says, involves the
conversion of natural forces to man's will. So does every crime. Is that
any defence of crime? Even if physical nature be described as non-moral,
that description cannot be applied to the inward nature of will and
conscience. That I will an act may show it is in accordance with nature
in a certain sense, but the fact of its being in accordance with physical
nature does not justify my act. Does Lord Dawson agree? Or does he think
that any action in accordance with the physical laws of nature, which means
any action whatsoever, is justified; and does he approve therefore of mere
moral anarchy? His confusion of thought concerning the use of the word
"natural" is followed by the inevitable sequence of false analogies:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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