Vasectomy pt 2: Worms and Romans

Well, the can is open… worms are everywhere.  Ugh. Nasty  Worms… 🙂

I have my reasons for all my views, not just this issue of Vasectomy.  My views are based on intense study of scripture, and a lot have actually changed after delving in to scripture.  Am I always right?  No.  I can admit that.  But I also do not simply latch onto a view because it sounds good to me or someone told me it has to be this way.  I have to research it, I have to pray, I have to perform exegesis and study it.   For instance, when I professed my faith in the Maranatha CanRC in Surrey years ago, I was tested by the consistory (the elders) prior to the occasion.

I will never forget that day.  One of the questions was asked by Teresa’s late Opa Kuntz…”What do you believe concerning women holding office in the church?” Being me, even back then, I stated that I could not blindly accept as true something  the minister told me once in one sentence during a pre-confession class a few months ago. I grew up in a church that was not opposed to women in office and if the truth be known I did not know what I believed. I told them that I would delve into the topic and research it in its historical and biblical contexts and get back to them.  Opa Kuntz had a smile on his face (thankfully) and the rest of the consistory was looking at the minister with a kind of “what do we do” face, while the minister looked at me with a sort of amused smirk.  He certainly knew me very well. I was sweating bullets as I knew what they wanted to hear, but I would not simply say that without research. Anyway, I was granted the right to profess my faith even without presenting my findings!  So you can see where I am coming from.  Anything I post, I have researched…but I admit that I am not always right.

As far as this topic of vasectomy goes, there were a number of responses to what I wrote…well over 100.  There were those who completely agreed with me, those who were even more conservative and “archaic” than me with regard to birth control, and those who thought single men could have vasectomies…but most of you fell in the middle.

The funny thing here, and I find it funny because I intentionally did not mention it in the first post, is that out of all these responses, emails and private messages, only 2 people mentioned Romans 14.  And that was what I was looking for.   These topics set us off, because, well, they are hot button issues! Some people believe they are sins, others do not.  Much like the there is no absolute clear commandment regarding vasectomy.  I can make inferences and logical deductions and use scripture to support my view, and so can others to support their own views.  And that is why it is so hard to make a blanket statement concerning this issue of vasectomy.  Simply speaking of gray areas, or saying there is no difference between vasectomy and a condom, or that it is your choice, or we should prayerfully consider our birth control choices is fine, you can make those arguments…but in the end, as Christians we need to see scripture as the final authority in everything.  And that is where we really need to make our arguments from in a debate with another Christian.  We certainly need to consider Romans 14 in this debate.

Personally I believe that Christian men should only have a vasectomy in extreme cases where pregnancy or childbirth will be so detrimental that it would be best to prevent conception.  And when I said this, people got angry.  People got upset.  Why is that?  Why did you get so upset?  I am just a blogger for one thing, and for another I was simply giving my view of it.  What if I said Christians should not eat medium rare steaks?  That is how I eat them, but the Bible clearly states that people should not consume blood…and there is certainly blood in a medium rare steak.  Am I sinning?  No.  Not according to Romans 14.

Sadly we as emotional creatures get upset when we have a belief that is comfortably resting in its enclosure, and then along comes some guy who rattles the cage and shakes up that belief. In Romans 14 Paul tells us to be careful not to condemn other Christians who have the opposite views of us.  I have a view of vasectomy that many of you do not also hold, and some of you have condemned me for this view. But that is ok, I forgive you. 🙂 I also have to be careful not to condemn others who do not hold my view! The conclusion that we come too regarding vasectomy must be right with our conscience’s, done in fervent prayer, done according to Biblical reasoning. In everything we must seek God’s glory and the good of our neighbour. I have no right to condemn someone else for disagreeing with me on this issue and neither do you….no matter how much we think we are right.  And I am thinking that I am right 😉

I will poke the cage one more time if I may.  I do not need answers … Is fertility a gift of God?  If your answer is “yes,” then ask yourself, “How will I respond to Jesus when I face him and he asks me for an account of what I did with this gift fertility?” I would rather not say that I buried it in the dirt…but that is just me.

I am still doing research on the history of birth control in the church.  So stay tuned for that!

Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. ² One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. ³ The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. ⁴ Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.