I haven't finished readin all of this...plan to later, but wanted to comment before I have to go.

I'm not on birth control, not because I think that it is wrong for all Christians. I really have trouble putting laws where God did not. Jesus chastised the pharases for doing so. Not that that's necessarily what your doing...I do agree that everything that is not specifically spoken of in the Bible is free to us, but I also think we need to be very careful with blanket "that's wrong" statements where it isn't clear. You're making good points...but I think that where the points are leading to is not that birth control is "wrong" but that it is "not best." There are things that are "not best" that are still not sin. (Give me some time...I'll give some examples. I had some given to me by others, but can't think of them now.)

Now, personally, I'm not on birth controll. Both me and my husband, while we were still engaged, both separately came to the conclusion that God did not want us to do that. But, that was a personal leading of God for us...I don't feel he asks that of everyone.

But, I think this is an area that comes into the same territory as eating certain foods an celebrating certain days in the early Chuch. some people thought you should do one, some another. What Paul instructed was not to bother people who did differently than you in these areas if they felt it was right...some had differnet faith. Just try to avoid making a brother stumble. (This wasn't a blanket "everything goes as long as it feels right" but "in areas where it is disputed whether it is sinful, each one should judge his own heart in these matters.

On another matter...about sex and pleasure. I don't think pleasure was the purpouse of sex, but I think it was one of the purpouses. (In proverbs it says a man should take pleasure in the the breasts of the wife of his youth...this has nothing to do with procreation. Also, see Song of Solomon. Yes, it is a metaphore for the relationship between Christ and the Church, but it is also about a marriage relationship, and wouldall these be included all these pleasurable sexual images if one of the purpouses of marriage was not sexual pleasure?

On a side note...I think that the intamacy in sex goes beyond just pleasure...but to a connection that can be of body, spirit, and soul at the same time. And, I think God had the metaphore of Christ and the Church in mind when he created marriage (not the only thing, but that he already knew it) and so he gave us that pleasure and intamacy in it which is like no other human pleasure and intamacy except the pleasure and intamacy we have with God for the purpose of showing that. So, even if the pleasure is not THE purpose, it is part of the purpose of marriage.

Did that make any sense?