Dear Catholic Exchange:
I was wondering if it states specifically in the Bible that contraception is wrong? One more question that I am hoping you can help me with is what is the Catholic Church's view on channeling?
Thank you,
Denise
Dear Denise,
Peace in Christ!
We have a tract on contraception that gives Biblical support for the constant teaching of the Church. While you will not find a “Thou shalt not go on the pill or use a latex condom,” the Bible does give us a general understanding of the holiness and purpose of marital intercourse. Remember that “Bible-believing” Christian denominations condemned contraception until 1930, when the Church of England repudiated Christian tradition and allowed it. See our Faith Fact, Choose Life, That You and Your Children May Live: The Truth About Birth Control.
Channeling is a practice in which one relinquishes his free will so that a deceased person or angelic spirit may communicate through him to himself and others. A recent document from the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, Jesus Christ, the Bearer of the Water of Life: a Christian Reflection on the New Age (2003), discusses the phenomenon of channeling:
One of the most common elements in New Age “spirituality” is a fascination with extraordinary manifestations, and in particular with paranormal entities. People recognised as “mediums” claim that their personality is taken over by another entity during trances in a New Age phenomenon known as “channeling,” during which the medium may lose control over his or her body and faculties. Some people who have witnessed these events would willingly acknowledge that the manifestations are indeed spiritual, but are not from God, despite the language of love and light which is almost always used…. It is probably more correct to refer to this as a contemporary form of spiritualism, rather than spirituality in a strict sense. Other friends and counsellors from the spirit world are angels (which have become the center of a new industry of books and paintings). Those who refer to angels in the New Age do so in an unsystematic way; in fact, distinctions in this area are sometimes described as unhelpful if they are too precise, since “there are many levels of guides, entities, energies, and beings in every octave of the universe… They are all there to pick and choose from in relation to your own attraction/repulsion mechanisms.” These spiritual entities are often invoked ‘non-religiously’ to help in relaxation aimed at better decision-making and control of one's life and career” (2.2.1, citations omitted).
Channeling is wrong not only because it violates one’s free will (Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 1738-40), but because it is a form of divination:
“All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to 'unveil' the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect and loving fear that we owe to God alone” (Catechism, no. 2116, emphasis original; cf. no. 2115).
“All practices of magic, or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one’s service and have a supernatural power over others — even if this were for the sake of restoring their health — are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion. These practices are even more to be condemned when accompanied by the intention of harming someone, or when they have recourse to the intervention of demons. Wearing charms is also reprehensible. Spiritism often implies divination or magical practices; the Church for her part warns the faithful against it. Recourse to so-called traditional cures does not justify either the invocation of powers or the exploitation of another’s credulity” (Ibid., no. 2117; emphasis original).
For a better understanding you might be interested in reading Jesus Christ, the Bearer of the Water of Life: a Christian Reflection on the New Age available on the Vatican website.
You can also see our Faith Fact: The New Age Movement.
United in the Faith,
Eric Stoutz
Information Specialist
Catholics United for the Faith
827 North Fourth Street
Steubenville, OH 43952
800-MY-FAITH (800-693-2484)
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