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To gain my Master's degree in Theology from seminary I'm required to do what's known as a Course Embedded Research Project (CERP) which is basically a mini-thesis. This is an in-depth research paper on a topic of my choosing related to a course that I'm taking.

I've finally decided that I will be writing this paper in my Sexuality & Marriage class on the topic of birth control and family planning. This is a topic that hits close to home as my wife and I are expecting our first child in April and we have many other friends our age that have just recently been married and are making personal decisions on birth control.

My goal in the paper is two-fold. First I want to analyze whether or not family planning of any kind is biblical. We always hear of people who think it's wrong to use any form of birth control or even decide when to have children. I want to make an honest and objective attempt to see what the Bible has to say about the issue and if indeed we can make a case one way or the other. Second I want to analyze each popular form of birth control to see if there would be ethical concerns as to the science behind their performance - particularly in regards to abortion.

I feel I'm in a very interesting position to go through this study at this stage in my life because I honestly don't feel I'm predisposed to desire the outcomes of my study to be one way or the other - and this leads to the main point I want to get across in this post.

It is a sad reality but many times when we study the Bible for an answer to a particular question we come into our study already desiring one outcome over another. For example an extreme animal rights activist (notice I said 'extreme'... I don't think being an animal rights activist is a bad thing) might interpret the creation story in a way that equates human beings with animals in God's created order because they don't want to give any grounds to those who would mistreat animals in any way.

These preconceived ideas and existent desires often cause us to commit the error of eisogesis - reading your preconceived beliefs into the Bible rather than objectively pulling the existent truth out of the passage you're reading (exegesis). The best Bible interpreters are the ones who minimize eisogesis and consistently practice disciplined exegesis.

Here are some practical tips to keep yourself from committing the error of eisogesis:

BTW... sorry but I'm not giving a committed stance on birth control or family planning in this post. I do however plan to share my findings at the end of the semester after I've done the research for my CERP paper. So keep your eyes open if you're interested... and remind me if I forget!