revision of the Prayer Book is receiving consideration, I should like to
suggest with great respect an addition made to the objects of marriage
in the Marriage Service, in these terms, 'The complete realization of
the love of this man and this woman, the one for the other.'"
Turning to the specific problem of Birth Control, Lord Dawson declared,
"that Birth Control is here to stay. It is an established fact, and for
good or evil has to be accepted. Although the extent of its application
can be and is being modified, no denunciations will abolish it. Despite
the influence and condemnations of the Church, it has been practised
in France for well over half a century, and in Belgium and other Roman
Catholic countries is extending. And if the Roman Catholic Church, with
its compact organization, its power of authority, and its disciplines,
cannot check this procedure, it is not likely that Protestant Churches
will be able to do so, for Protestant religions depend for their
strength on the conviction and esteem they establish in the heads and
hearts of their people. The reasons which lead parents to limit their
offspring are sometimes selfish, but more often honorable and cogent."
A report of the Fabian Society (5) on the morality of Birth Control,
based upon a census conducted under the chairmanship of Sidney Webb,
concludes: "These facts--which we are bound to face whether we like them
or not--will appear in different lights to different people. In
some quarters it seems to be sufficient to dismiss them with moral
indignation, real or simulated. Such a judgment appears both irrelevant
and futile.... If a course of conduct is habitually and deliberately
pursued by vast multitudes of otherwise well-conducted people, forming
probably a majority of the whole educated class of the nation, we must
assume that it does not conflict with their actual code of morality.
They may be intellectually mistaken, but they are not doing what they
feel to be wrong."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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