The most recent issue of The Journal for Biblical Manhood & Womanhood has just released. The lead article is from Albert Mohler, who takes a critical look at the “contraceptive mentality” that so much defines the spirit of the age. Mohler writes:
The effective separation of sex from procreation may be one of the most important defining marks of our age—and one of the most ominous. This awareness is spreading among American evangelicals, and it threatens to set loose a firestorm…
A growing number of evangelicals are rethinking the issue of birth control—and facing the hard questions posed by reproductive technologies. Several developments contributed to this reconsideration, but the most important of these is the abortion revolution. The early evangelical response to legalized abortion was woefully inadequate. Some of the largest evangelical denominations at first accepted at least some version of abortion on demand.
This issue also includes the print version of John Piper‘s “Clarifying Words on Wife Abuse.” Jeremy Pierre has an extremely helpful piece exhorting churches to use church discipline to protect women from predatory men. Also, don’t miss the inimitable Mark Coppenger and his review of Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen’s A Sword between the Sexes?. There are many other fine articles and reviews in the current issue that you will want to read. I will include the full table of contents below.
I should also mention one other important announcement. CBMW’s website was hacked about a year or so ago, and since then access to many of our online resources has been lost. Under Owen Strachan’s leadership, we have a new website up and running, and it is already being filled with really helpful new content. We are also working on restoring old resources that were lost. As of today, one of the big things that has been added back are the archives of previous issues of the Journal. You can now access issues of JBMW going back to the very beginning in 1995. I encourage you to check out our archives pages here.
- Editorial, pp. 2-3.
- Odds & Ends, pp. 4-6.
- R. Albert Mohler, “Can Christians Use Birth Control,” pp. 7-9.
- John Piper, “Clarifying Words on Wife Abuse,” pp. 10-11.
- Jeremy Pierre, “An Overlooked Help: Church Discipline and the Protection of Women,” pp. 12-15.
- Mitchell Chase, “God’s Judgment on His Blessing: How Genesis 1:28 Informs the Punishments on Adam and Eve,” pp. 16-21.
- Liz Lockwood, “A Review of Claire Smith, God’s Good Design: What the Bible Really Says about Men and Women,” pp. 22-23.
- Mark T. Coppenger, “A Review of Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen, A Sword between the Sexes? C.S> Lewis and the Gender Debates,” pp. 24-29.
- Todd Miles, “A Review of Ronald W. Pierce, Partners in Marriage and Ministry,” pp. 30-33.
- Courtney Reissig, “A Review of Jim Henderson, The Resignation of Eve: What if Adam’s Rib Is No Longer Willing to Be the Church’s Backbone?” pp.34-35.
- Heath Lambert, “A Review of William and Aida Spencer and Steve and Celestia Tracy, Marriage at the Crossroads: Couples in Conversation about Discipleschip, Gender Roles, Decisions Making and Intimacy,” pp. 36-38.
- Jeremy Pierre, “A Review of Paul David Tripp, What Did You Expect? Redeeming the Realities of Marriage,” pp. 39.
6 Comments
Ian Clary (@ianclary)
Dear Dr. Burk,
Dr. Mohler is interviewed about the birth control pill in this documentary, have you seen it?
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Lynn Burgess
Dr. Mohler writes, “some hormonal technologies” are abortifacients. What hormonal technology except “the pill” does not ALWAYS act as an abortifacient? I am now aware of any.
I once read an article by Dr. John Willke, of Right to Life fame (http://www.lifeissues.org/), that estimated average frequency of sexual relations, average frequency of conception, etc., and estimated that couples using the birth control pill abort a baby as often as once every two years.
Kamilla
Lynne, I’m a bit late to the discussion, but can you restate or explain this, “What hormonal technology except “the pill” does not ALWAYS act as an abortifacient?”
No hormonal form of birth control always acts as an abortifacient.
Denny,
Thanks for the link. I had missed this article.
Lynn Burgess
Kamilla: In response to your question, please see the below links.
http://www.epm.org/store/product/birth-control-pill-book/
http://www.epm.org/resources/2010/Feb/17/short-condensation-does-birth-control-pill-cause-a/
Kamilla Ludwig
Lynn,
That doesn’t answer my question. I was asking for you to restate or explain what you wrote above.
Paul Reed
Considering that birth control was considered evil by the Church at large until about 70 years ago, this is a conversation worth having.