“Breastfeeding God’s Way”

In Nancy Campbell’s article “Breastfeeding God’s Way,” she describes how nursing is what the Bible refers to as “the natural use” of the woman’s body. She also asserts that when we abandon the “womanly functions” of pregnancy, childbirth, and nursing, we unwittingly invite other perversions into our society, such as homosexuality. I think she is correct. Here is how she puts it:

The most common word for women in the New Testament is gune which means “woman or wife.” However, one time a different Greek word is used, translated from the word “woman,” and it is very significant.
It is the word, thelus.
It comes from the Greek root word, thele which means
“the nipple of a woman’s breast, to suckle, to nurse.”
It is the true picture of a woman, created with a womb to nurture life and breasts to nourish that life.  Now where does God use this word?

This word is used in Romans 1:26-27, “For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women (thelus) did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another….”  In this scripture, God spells out the consequences of women who turn away from the way He has created us, including the biological function of breastfeeding. Now please don’t get me wrong. I know that some women have not been successful with breastfeeding because of lack of knowledge or even physical disabilities. But it is when we blatantly refuse to nurse that we go against nature and God’s plan for us as women. It goes on to say that when men saw women turn away from their God given function, they turned to unnatural lusts. The rejection in our hearts of our womanly functions of pregnancy, childbirth and nursing is a root of homosexuality. [emphasis mine]

She later adds:

I mentioned early the word thele, which means “to suckle at the breast.” The only other time this word is used in the New Testament is when Jesus was answering the Pharisees when they came to tempt him about divorce. His answer to them was, “Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female?” (Matthew 19:3-4). The word “female” is thele. In other words, Jesus called women “a suckling mother.” It may be hard to get your brain around it, but basically you are meant to be predominantly “a suckling mother” rather than predominantly “a menstruating mother!”

I strongly encourage you to read the whole article, which emphasizes other helpful and important aspects of breastfeeding not mentioned here. Nancy also has other helpful articles on her site about breastfeeding and giving control of family planning over to God. After you’ve read the article, please let me know what you think!