Picture yourself in the most indescribably beautiful setting you can imagine, a place that radiates abundant life. Gorgeous vistas, sky high mountains, and lush palm trees line your path, and the Caribbean and Atlantic Ocean encompass you. This is exactly where I found myself when I was serving on a mission trip in the small Caribbean country of Saint Lucia this past March. The island, which was created out of a volcano eruption, is the most breathtaking place I have ever been, full of natural beauty, every view reminding me of the abundant life that God gives to his people.
Several days after my arrival, however, my picture this island country, undisturbed by western capitalism and culture, was shocked. One day I had the opportunity to serve in a daycare with fifty bright eyed, sweet St. Lucian children; another vivid reminder of the abundant life that God gives us. On the same day, however, my team and I were walking through the town praying with locals when we took a brief stop in a health clinic to peruse the facility and take a break from the stifling heat. And then I saw it, right there on the wall of this unairconditioned, two room health clinic was a list of various contraceptives for sale. My heart sank. In this small island country there are no malls, not one college or university, hardly any cell phone reception, yet their health clinics sell and encourage contraceptives just like those in any Western Nation.
The reason that I paint these pictures of the verdant and flowing life that God generously gives to his people is to juxtapose the opposite experience which I also observed in Saint Lucia. In the same way that mega retailers and fast food companies make their ways into small, untouched countries, so have myths about human sexuality and the value of the body. Just like my mission team came to this country to spread the Good News of Jesus’ love, the Western world has slowly spread the fallacy of detachment of sex from love through the use of contraceptives. The dignity of the human person, both male and female is cheated by the Western ideals of contraception “family planning,” which reduce the person to a summation of anatomy and fail to recognize that love cannot be separated from sex. I share this story as a reminder that life is beautiful and precious in all stages. Having gone on this mission trip, I now know that lies surrounding the dignity of the human person have penetrated everywhere in the world. I share this, however, believing that there is nothing that God’s love cannot conquer, even misinformed health clinics in small island countries.
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