Christian mommy bloggers pimping out of their children online for money is par for the course at this point and discussing that requires far more effort than I’m willing to put in today.

Karissa Collins of thecollinskids is one of the most egregious examples of exploiting thy children in Jesus’ name and not reading the Bible. However, calling abstinence within marriage a sin was simply too wild not to comment on.

Sadly, a number of Christians agree with her, which goes to show how Biblically illiterate they are. Karissa herself begins by claiming to have been reading the Bible, yet quotes nay a scripture anywhere so whatever inspired this line of thinking assuredly was not the Bible.

If God thought abstinence within marriage was a sin, He would’ve said that in the Bible. I don’t know why Christians are constantly adding sins into the Bible that God Almighty Himself didn’t feel the need to even mention.

1 Corinthians 7:5 says, “Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.” The implicit meaning here is there would indeed be times a couple might choose to not have sex by mutual consent for the purpose of focusing on God.

Furthermore the Bible say, “put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry,” and “[i]t is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable.” Now, I’m not saying Christians should regularly avoid having sex, quite the opposite. Sex is a wonderful gift to be enjoyed within marriage. However, this attitude is exactly how you end up with Josh Duggars, who despite being married to a perpetually “joyfully” available wife cheats and seeks out extreme material, such as the CSA material he was jailed for.

Dallas Willard in his Book The Spirit of the Disciplines talks about how Chastity helps us learn self-control, so that in moments of temptation we are able to resist it because we have already trained our body to not give into our flesh but rather to go to God. Yes, this applies within marriage too. Nowhere does the Bible say it’s okay to lust after your wife/husband, or to lack self-control in regards to your spouse. I’ve often heard this idea poised as going to your favorite restaurant and not ordering your favorite dish. Would I ever do this myself, personally? No lol. But choosing to not always gratify your desires, even if those desires aren’t necessarily bad, can help you foster discipline and self-control in various areas of one’s life so that you are already in the habit of not just giving into whatever you want, whenever you want (I highly recommend Willard’s book in general if you’re someone who’s always struggled with the whole “only the Holy Spirit changes us” vs. “faith without works is dead” stuff).

Finally Karissa’s reasoning for saying abstinence is a sin doesn’t even make sense. If God wanted to forbid birth control, He would’ve forbid it. Christian wives trying to out holy each other by pumping out children without regard for their children’s, or their own, well-being is stupid and “…[i]t is not good for a person to be without knowledge… he who hurries with his feet [acting impulsively and proceeding without caution or analyzing the consequences] sins (misses the mark)” Proverbs 19:2 AMP, or as the ESV version puts it “desire without knowledge is not good.”

Karissa claiming woman and men should lack self-control and wisdom, and have sex whenever with the sole goal of having as many children as possible regardless of their well-being is not prudent, nor is there even any guarantee these children will grow up to follow Christ.

The natural result of having unprotected sex is getting pregnant. You aren’t leaving anything up to God. That’s like drinking a gallon of water and saying, “I’m gonna leave it up to God as to whether I pee today or not.” Like if you drink water, you’ll pee because that’s what your body does. Similarly, if you have unprotected sex and all is working as it should be, you’ll likely get pregnant. Fundamental Christians like Karissa Collins popping out legions of kids and claiming to be leaving things up to God are simply trying to appear Godlier than everyone else by creating an army for the Lord. But again, there is no guarantee her children will grow up to be Christians and given how many she has, I doubt she or her husband are really able to devote much time with them anyway in nurturing their spiritual lives. In fact you can find a myriad of stories online from children who grew up in these environments and walked away from their faith entirely because of how their parents raised them.

It’s not a sin to realize your limitations as a parent and choose how many kids you want. Likewise, choosing to be abstinent for whatever reason is not a sin. In fact, the Bible expects married couples will abstain at times in order to fast, pray, and generally better focus on the Lord.

Karissa Collins needs to read her Bible and stop spreading lies.

Similarly, Christians need to read their Bibles and stop allowing people with large platforms to dictate their beliefs. The beauty of having a relationship with Jesus is that we can go directly to Him with our concerns. So, if you’re worried about whether or not you’re sinning, you don’t need rely on the opinion of some social media influencer. You can ask God Almighty Himself to convict you.

Or just read your Bible.