Posted in Large Families

Economic times being what they are, many people are looking for creative ways to save money and resources.  Our "friends" in Washington, folks like Nancy Pelosi, President Obama, and like-minded politicians on both sides of the isle, seem to think a good way to "stimulate" the economy is to prevent babies from being born.  The belief that children are a burdensome drain on society and must be limited or even eliminated is ultimately rooted in Darwinian evolutionary thinking, as this article  on the Christianity Today website vividly points out.  The article includes a number of quotes by early proponents of eugenics, quotes which sound eerily similar to much of what is being said today by advocates of limiting family size for the sake of the environment or the economy.  The author of the article points out that this kind of thiinking really isn't all that new:

Those who are biblically-literate will know that an Egyptian Pharaoh of 3,500 years ago and a Jewish King of 2000 years ago share at least one thing in common. They both sought to put to death a generation of innocents. Pharaoh ordered the death of all male babies (Exodus 1:16), while King Herod ordered the death of all male children under two years of age (Matt. 2:16).

Both were early examples of eugenicists and population controllers. We look back in horror at their genocidal plans, but things are not all that different today. There are still plenty of folk pushing radical population control and eugenics policies.

. . . .

History is replete with examples of rulers and elites engaging in eugenics and human population culls. It seems the lessons of history have not been learnt. Our “humanitarian” human-haters continue to promote their culture of death. The packaging may have been tidied up a bit, but the same hatred of humanity remains.

But what happens to a society which attempts to limit it's population growth?  Japan is finding out the hard way:

“Japan is in the midst of an unprecedented recession, so corporations are being asked to work toward fixing another major problem: the country’s low birthrate.”

After decades of social pressure to drastically limit family size, the Japanese economy is on the verge of implosion. With a birthrate of 1.34, they are an aging population without the labor force to maintain their own economy.

In fact, much of civilization as a whole is facing what can be termed as a Demographic Winter.  As Doug Phillips so aptly explains in his article "The Blessing of Children":

This first issue goes right to the heart of the present culture war: Will we be a self-indulgent nation with little regard for the sanctity of life, or will we recognize the God-ordained blessing of the biblical institution of the family with its emphasis on fruitfulness and the blessing of children?

As a nation, we have chosen the former. Now the question is this: What are the practical implications of our selfishness and disobedience? What happens to a country when the Malthusian dream is realized, and women have fewer and fewer babies?

The ultimate result is a culture-eradicating phenomenon and economic catastrophe called “Demographic Winter” — where the selfishness of a generation of families who refused God’s gift of children leads to a national birthrate that is insufficient to replace its aging population.

So what can we do, especially those of us who are Christians and believe God when He says that children are blessings?  We can start by being consistent in living out this belief in our own families.  Do we really love and value children and see them as blessings and gifts from God, or do we refuse them for reasons not much different than the population control gurus use?  Are we aware of how the choices we make really affect those children yet to be born?  Taking the thought-process of "we-want-to-be-responsible-with-what-God-gave-us-and-after-all-He-gave-us-brains-didn't-He-and-I-can't-handle-more-than-the-two-I-have" to it's logical end is really saying that God doesn't know what He is doing in this area.

Trusting God to control the size of our family, and even crying out to Him for the blessing of children is Biblical.  Families like the Duggars are dynamic examples of this being lived out in a winsome and delightful way.  I am inspired by the large families I know who show that this is a wonderful (and very workable) way of life.  My husband and I (and these other families) are doing our part to see that Western Civilization does not become completely extinct.

For a much more thorough treatment of this subject, I heartily recommend The Blessing of Children Collection from Vision Forum, which includes some wonderful resources that have been especially instructive and encouraging to my husband and me.

Also, see Doug Phillips series of blog posts on children as blessings to society:

Our Coming Demographic Winter, Part 1
Children as Blessing or Burden and the Encouragement of the Duggar family
What the Coming Demographic Winter Means for Japan
Mr. Phillips: Stop Having Children

And be sure to follow the link to the first article I mentioned--it is very enlightening. 

Watch the trailer for Demographic Winter.  Eye-opening, to be sure.

Children, blessings or burdens--and who gets to decide?