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The Federal Council's committee divided on the question of how Birth Control should be practiced, whether by the use of contraceptives or by abstinence. On this subject, apart from the Catholic viewpoint, Christian opinion is not united. The "Scriptures and the ecumenical councils of the Christian Church are silent." Even the medical profession is not unanimous. "Guidance should be sought from the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life," said the Federal Councillors. But, "whatever the final conclusion may be," the Councillors were "strongly of the opinion that the Church should not seek to impose its point of view as to the use of contraceptives upon the public by legislation or any other form of coercion; and especially should not seek to prohibit physicians from imparting such information to those who in the judgment of the medical profession are entitled to receive it." While the majority held that abstinence in marriage cannot be relied upon, they also pointed out that there is an element of uncertainty in all contraceptive methods. They particularly warned the public against "advertised nostrums, which are beginning to appear in thinly disguised forms in reputable periodicals, and so-called 'bootlegged' devices at drug stores. . . ."
Twenty-two of the 28 members of the Federal Council's committee—including Mrs. John Davison Rockefeller Jr., Dr. John Abner Marquis, onetime (1916) Moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly, President Albert William Heaven of Colgate-Rochester Divinity School, and George Woodward Wickersham—approved the use of contraceptives.
Dr. Frederick Hermann Knubel, president of the United Lutheran Church in America, suspected the motives of those who had brought Birth Control up for discussion. He connected it with a period "notorious for looseness in sexual morality."
Same day as the U. S. Protestant report appeared, the Congregation of the Holy Office in Vatican City issued a decree condemning the tendency to instruct the youth of both sexes regarding the phenomenon of procreation.
*Composed of 27 Protestant denominations (representing between 22,000,000 and 23,000,000 Protestants) of which 25 hold full membership. The Protestant Episcopal Church has "cooperative" membership. The United Lutheran Church in America has "consultative" membership. Delegates of the former vote at annual meetings; the latter do not.