Body Shop and Natural Family Planning

You’re beautiful whatever your quirks… It’s about making the best of yourself without having to try to hard but sometimes you may need a helping hand… we unearth nature’s ingredients the secrets of timeless regimes and we bring your products bursting with effectiveness… we do this while respecting the planet, the communities who depend on it and standing up for causes that are important to the world we live in because we believe that is only one way to be beautiful, nature’s way.”
Nope this is not the latest commercial by the Couple to Couple League or the Australian Council of Natural Family Planning but by BodyShop the second largest cosmetic franchise in the world. Yet this text could have easily been transposed into an advertisement promoting Natural Family Planning. Indeed, if Dame Anita Roddick’s successors were to declare to the world that they have designed a product that is suitable for sophisticated first world women and poor third world women in whatever stage of their lives, and in whatever physical condition to understand and responsibly manage and monitor their reproductive health which is simultaneously natural, drug free, low cost, environmentally friendly, effective in both postponing and achieving pregnancy, helps in marital communication and a more enjoyable sex life , and actually acts as a protective factor against divorce, they might actually win a Nobel Peace Prize.
Considering the contemporary wave of enthusiasm for natural, organic and sustainable products, it would seem that the Church will do well to promote Natural Family Planning as an environmentally friendly lifestyle choice. After all, most people would react to a reminder to lead a healthy lifestyle with a grudging nod of the head. And on the other hand, most who promote healthy lifestyles do make allowance for an occasional indulgence in food dripping with trans-fat. Yet Church’s teaching has always been that the use of Natural Family Planning is not merely a healthier lifestyle choice, i.e. the difference between eating processed or natural foods, but the only morally legitimate choice for couples intending to space their families and that only for serious reasons. It considers the use of the contraceptive pill and any and all forms of contraceptives not simply as a physical evil akin to ingesting a high dosage of cholesterol into your body but a moral evil, which done with full knowledge and consent of the will constitutes mortal sin which can cut one of eternally from union with their Creator.

Can this teaching be rationally defended? I think so and in my next post, I will share how…