I blame the alleged identification of priests with Christ (the fact they must be male is the logical corollary of that identification) for mistakenly believing that it is not God, but priests, who forgive sins. Martin Luther was under the same erroneous impression when he rebelled over indulgences, or payment to the church (non-priests are not in possession of God's home address) of large sums of money for the forgiveness of sins and concomitant time in Purgatory.
Perhaps I was over-influenced by the teachings of the modern guru, Jordan Peterson, who thinks the right to offend is a basic right spin-off of free speech rights. Except I choose to offend only the powerful and not, as with him, the least politically powerful and greatly oppressed group of LGBTQ people.
Perhaps not all religions forbid the use of contraceptives but the Catholic church and other Christian sects do, and these hold sway in foreign countries where aid is tied to a ban on abortion and also contraceptives, considered by the Catholic church just another form of abortion. This initiative was one of Trump's first, and it wasn't the Muslim or other religious groups he was playing to. Westerners are not too swayed by this diktat but less developed countries are, unfortunately, and against their will.
In the past though, notably in Quebec, very large families were common, so Hank Peters' (Gazette, March 21) point is lost on me there. Perhaps he sincerely sees no connection between that and contraceptives ban. Catholics are free to voice opinions and do so with a powerful church as back-up. But others have an equal right, so far, to challenge them, especially insofar as third parties are affected.
Doris Wrench Eisler, St. Albert
