As I mentioned in the introduction, Religion Saves + And Nine Other Misconceptions addresses the top nine questions submitted and voted on by people around the country.

Each chapter is dedicated to a question and pastor Mark’s answer, and they go in backwards order.

So, chapter one addresses the ninth most popular question:

There’s no doubt the Bible says children are a blessing, but the Bible doesn’t seem to address the specific topic of birth control. Is this a black-and-white topic, or does it fall under liberties?

Last week, I asked you all to share your thoughts on this comment, and boy did you come through!

I had a great time reading up on your thoughts and opinions, and I was looking forward this weekend to writing a lengthy exposition on the topic and how pastor Mark handles it in the book.

Unfortunately, things have not gone according to plan! Our internet at home was down for most of the weekend, work has been kicked up two notches, I had 2 computers dropped off that needed urgent attention, and we’ve been scrambling to get everything lined up so that we can leave for our first vacation in a while tomorrow!

And on top of all that, I actually got up extra early Monday morning and sat down and wrote most of the post anyways, and the infallible Firefox failed on me and I lost it!

So, rather than let this post dangle any longer, I want to point you at some great resources that you can check out for yourself, and maybe I’ll get a chance to come back to this at some point this weekend!

• First of all, I’m glad to announce that the official website for the book was launched on Monday! I love how creative those Re:Lit guys are!
• Secondly, you can download the video and/or audio of the sermon upon which this chapter is based here (and yes it’s free!)
• Here’s an interview with Mark Driscoll about the book that I came across today. Notably, he says that this was the hardest chapter to write because it’s such a weighty topic.
• Randy Alcorn’s writings on the topic of birth control are heavily noted in the chapter, and you can get your hands on all of those for free here (I think this article is the most succinct)
• Desiring God has a great article (Does the Bible Permit Birth Control) and sermon (Is It Wrong To Use Birth Control) on the topic

Finally, if you have any specific questions or opinions that you’d like to bounce off me, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment, or if you’d rather keep it private, you can email me at zack_at_therieslands.com

According to NPR, at the preview of the movie recently, people began to yell when that line was spoken in the movie, and there were protesters outside. It looks like there’s going to be a lot of talk about the issue while the movie is popular.

I’m actually really excited about that. When I got married, Steph made me study up on birth control, and the differences in how they work. I learned that planned parenthood actually changed their definition of conception several years ago to make their agenda work. It was discovered that many forms of birth control affect the lining of the uterus and make it difficult for a fetus to attach to it and grow, so they changed the definition of conception to be the moment when a fetus attaches to the uterus, rather than the moment when an egg is fertilized to be come a fetus.  So Horton’s line, “A person’s a person, no matter how small” is pretty powerful.

I’m excited. This should make for some interesting dialog!

As a sidenote: I’ve had several conversations about this topic with friends at work recently, and it seems like many people are interested in this topic and are afraid to ask about it/talk about it. If you fall into that group, there’s a fantastic teaching about birth control by Mark Driscoll that you can download for free from iTunes here. You can also watch the video for free at MarsHillChurch.org. Click on the link for “Religion Saves, and 9 other misconceptions.”