How Have Evangelicals' Views On Birth Control Changed?

Contact: Larry Jacobs, Managing Director, 815-222-2490, larry@profam.org; Judy Hodge, 815-964-5819, media@worldcongress.org; both with World Congress of Families

ROCKFORD, Ill., Jan. 10, 2012 /Christian Newswire/ -- Allan Carlson, President of The Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society and Founder and International Secretary of the World Congress of Families will speak about his newly published book, Godly Seed: American Evangelicals Confront Birth Control 1873-1973 on January 11th, 12 noon, at the University Club, 945 North Main Street, Rockford, Illinois.  The book examines how mid-twentieth-century evangelical leaders eventually followed the mainstream into a quiet embrace of contraception, complemented by a brief acceptance of abortion.  The presentation is open to the public.  To register, please contact Judy Hodge at The Howard Center, 1-815-964-5819, media@worldcongress.org.

Ironically, many American evangelicals are rethinking their acceptance of birth control, becoming part of the "Quiverfull" movement which rejects the use of birth control and "returns decisions regarding family size to God."  Raised within a religious movement that has almost uniformly condemned abortion, these young evangelicals have begun to ask whether abortion can be neatly isolated from the issue of contraception.  Read more about Carlson's latest book at: www.transactionpub.com/title/Godly-Seed-978-1-4128-4261-7.html.  Transaction publishers has released the book and it is also available at www.amazon.com. 

Praises for the book are already coming in:

"Opposition to birth control is widely perceived as a 'Catholic issue.' Historian Allan Carlson demonstrates that as a matter of historical fact, the Christian churches were united in their opposition to contraception until 1930. Carlson deftly shows how the change occurred, through a combination on 'divide and conquer' tactics by the population control lobby, intellectual exhaustion among the Mainline Protestants, and anti-Catholicism among the Evangelicals. Highly recommended." -- Jennifer Roback Morse, Ph.D., Founder and President of the Ruth Institute

"Evangelical Christians wanting self-esteem therapy should not read this book. This provocative volume, by one of the world's foremost family issues scholars, suggests that perhaps American Evangelicalism unwittingly traded the Blessed Virgin Mary for Margaret Sanger. The arguments are hard-hitting and unrelenting. Reading this book is like seeing an unwelcome reflection in a mirror. But it just might start a conversation that is well worth having." -- Russell D. Moore, Dean, School of Theology, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

Allan Carlson is the founder and president of the Howard Center for Family, Religion, and Society and has served as a distinguished fellow at the Family Research Council. He is the author of numerous books including Conjugal America, The Family in America, and Fractured Generations and is editor of Transaction's Marriage and Family Studies series.

For more information on Dr. Allan Carlson, The Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society and the World Congress of Families visit www.profam.org. To schedule an interview with Allan Carlson, contact Larry Jacobs at 815-222-2490, larry@worldcongress.org or Judy Hodge 815-964-5819, media@worldcongress.org.

The Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society (www.profam.org) located in Rockford, Illinois is an independent, non-profit research and education center that strives to be the leading source of fresh ideas and new strategies for affirmation and defense of the natural family, both nationally and globally. The Howard Center is also the organizer of the World Congress of Families project which is an international network of pro-family organizations, scholars, leaders and inter-faith people of goodwill from more than 60  countries that seek to restore the natural family as the fundamental social unit and the 'seedbed' of civil society (as found in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948).  The WCF was founded in 1997 by Allan Carlson and is a project of The Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society in Rockford, Illinois.  To date, there have been five World Congresses of Families - Prague (1997), Geneva (1999), Mexico City (2004), Warsaw, Poland (2007) and Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2009).  World Congress of Families VI will be held in Madrid, Spain in May 25-27, 2012.