I’m stewing right now over a blog post I read at Natural Family Planning International, but I can’t fully comment on it right now because I have three really busy days ahead of me, and this reply will require charity and time. So, I will make a few comments, post the link, and we’ll commence discussion.

Full disclosure: I’m a Creighton fan, but I am not above a healthy discussion about its weak points, or the weak points of any NFP model.What bothers me about this post isn’t it’s critical approach–sharply critical, in fact–it is the way and tone in which it is done. This is in-fighting, which ticks me off because the NFP world has enough division and misunderstanding without things like this (See step 3 in Highly Effective Habits of NFP Promoters).

Words and ways NOT helpful to a charitable discussion to build unity in an underserved NFP community: biting sarcasm, the word “propaganda” when referring to another model, and dismissing people’s comments as “propaganda.” (As I’ve addressed elsewhere, there’s nothing wrong with deleting or editing comments, particularly if they’re not in line with your explicitly posted comments policy, but it seems that the blogger here is simply not posting comments that are directly related to the post because she doesn’t like them. I’ve never not posted a comment simply because I disagreed or didn’t like a perfectly relevant comment.)

Heather, a commenter, brings up a good point:

[H]ow does an ongoing ‘competition’ between methods that have all been proved to be beneficial, reliable and morally acceptable helping to promote a ‘Culture of Life’ and promoting the truth about NFP?  Is not the previous quotation about the CrM surpassing the other methods a competitive statement?

Mr. Kippley side steps the question: “Again the research shows that the cross-checking systems are more effective than the mucus-only methods.”

That wasn’t the question, Mr. K. The question wasn’t “Why do you think your method is the best?” Everyone thinks their method is the best. The question was: By the tone of your post, it seems like you’re picking a fight, while not footnoting your own claims, so why are you picking a fight rather than promoting dialogue when we have enough enemies on the outside?

Before I go, I want to say that I’m not calling on CrMS (Creighton) fans to lambast her with facts, anecdotes and quotes. This is clearly a one sided conversation, and I don’t think CrMS fans (or even a direct call from Hilgers or Notare) would soften their hearts. Please pray for unity and conversion in the NFP movement, and make some resolutions on how you can foster a spirit of dialogue and unity between methods in your own sphere of influence.

One More Soul's New Logo

Number five in the 7 Habits of Highly Effective NFP Promoters is Creative Presence, which includes an updated and effective web site that utilizes pictures and other media well. Here are a couple of my favorite web sites, including One More Soul’s newly updated web site, a priority of new Exec Director, Jenn Giroux (interview forthcoming). They’ve got a new logo, a slide show of their featured posts, persons and events, and an overall new setup.

One of those fertility-friendly web sites that’s gone through a redux is FertilityCare Centers of America. Well done, FertilityCare Centers!

They’ve harnessed the power of video and YouTube. They’ve kept the text simple, bulleted and readable (as opposed to their sister site of the Pope Paul VI Institute which is text heavy–8 point Times New Roman is not recommended–and virtually image and click-through free). Their color palette is cool, which is relaxing and lends itself I think to a medical feel, affirming their clinical setting. They offered simple and persuasive testimonials, links and very practical information on the p in obtaining insurance codes for natural family planning and fertility treatment through natural family planning.

The only thing I think they could add is a Facebook fan page (there are some hard-core FC fans out there!), an Amazon.com or One More Soul link to purchase their amazing testimonial book “Women Healed.” But it’s a great step in the right direction!

One of my other favorites is New Jersey NFP Association (NJNFP), founded by Damon & Melanie Owens. It’s clean, simple, uses effective and modern NFP terminology, and is organized well. They only thing that they could use is perhaps some embedded video promoting NFP. Damon’s a well known Theology of the Body speaker, so I imagine he’s got some video coverage somewhere! Keep it up Owens’!

From a Catholic Diocesan office point of view, Chicago’s NFP Office got one of the best–if not THE best–NFP sites out there. It’s got a similar color pallette as NJNFP, which gives it a warm glow and comfortable feel. They have a simple but good use of Flash in their header and left sidebar.  My only criticism might be that NFP is generally listed in the engaged area, which sort of makes the assumption that there’s not pastoral need to promote NFP to married couples. Since 90% of Catholic married couples are contracepting, I might make NFP more prominent in their “Marriage Resources” page. Overall, they just have a lot going on over in Chicago, so there’s plenty of coverage of their programs.