There are two tasks that I would like to address now. The first is the myth of overpopulation. My second task is to define children as assets and not deficits within our modern family system and especially the church. In a church that increasing preaches that God prospers in all things it is clear we have more faith to believe for a Cadillac in the driveway than we do for a potato in the soup, a chicken in the pot, or college education for the kids.
Let us consider the follow quotes from the Freeman Ideas on Liberty.
“As any population graph clearly shows, the world has and is experiencing a population explosion that began in the eighteenth century. Population rose six-fold in the next 200 years. But this explosion was accompanied, and in large part made possible, by a productivity explosion, a resource explosion, a food explosion, an information explosion, a communications explosion, a science explosion, and a medical explosion.
The result was that the six-fold increase in world population was dwarfed by the eighty-fold increase in world output. As real incomes rose, people were able to live healthier lives. Infant mortality rates plummeted and life expectancies soared.”
All the above is true because God wants children born to people groups that have redemptive gifts that can contribute to the betterment of mankind. The author of this article Dr. Osterfeld is Professor of Political Science at Saint Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, Indiana. He further states.
“Our knowledge is even more important than the physical substance itself, and this has significant ramifications: More people mean more ideas. There is no reason, therefore, that a growing population must mean declining resource availability. Historically, the opposite has been true. Rapidly growing populations have been accompanied by rapidly declining resource prices as people have discovered new ways to use existing resources as well as uses for previously unused materials.”
Does the command to, “be fruitful and multiple and replenish the Earth,” Genesis 1:28 still apply to the church? If the church is going to have a legitimates voice against the evils of abortion, and birth outside the context of marriage we have to communicate that children are a blessing, lots of children. Most people believe that money is a blessing. They do not set a limit on how much they can be blessed with. However that is not the churches practice around children. Two are a blessing for sure, and three maybe, but five or seven or twelve. “You are out of your mind,” most saints would say. It is because we don’t understand the value of life and the redemptive gift of children. When writing on this topic to modern generation I am reminded of the words of Jesus. “This is a hard saying who can accept it.” John 6:60. However, these are important Biblical precepts that relate to God’s purposes for “teaching the nations” Matthew 28:19. We are called to teach the Nations to be Biblical not American.
Our culture is being lead by its emotions and not by biblical precepts; we are walking by sight and not by faith. We have a one generational mindset. We can no longer see that we have a lineage that we are to honor and a family legacy for which we must pray and train and teach. We have lost sight of the idea that children are and inheritance for each family and each community at large. My position may seem radical to the modern believer however it was the stated position of every Christian denomination until 1930.
The most common reason that families sight for not having children is that they can not afford them. However consider these statistics related to pets. The American Pet Product Manufacturers Association recently released its 2007-08 National Pet Owners Survey, It found that expenditures on pets in this country will top an estimated $40 billion in 2007. This is almost double the $23 billion spent a decade ago. Sixty-three percent of American homes include a pet. The following statistics were compiled from the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association 2009-2010 National Pet Owners Survey. Statistics for dogs are that, there are approximately 77.5 million owned dogs in the United States, Thirty-nine percent of U.S. households own at least one dog, On average, owners have almost two dogs (1.7), and they spent on average $225 on veterinary visits (vaccine, well visits) annually. Statistics are similar for cats.
I would argue that we are well able to afford children. I would further state that our desire for pets in just a substitution for a God given desire to care for and love children. The average life expectancy of dogs is 12 years but some breeds live 16-20 years. Indoor cats live 12-18 years. Just about the span of childhood. Might our love affair with pets be a cheap replacement for the love we are conditioned to have for children?
Our culture has minimized the value to children because we have been convinced that children will cost us more than they will bless us. This is a lie for the pit of hell. It is clearly an unbiblical precept. What would happen if Christian families began to believe God for the blessing of children? Our families would be larger on average, they would be more visible in the community, and likely our influence on the culture would grow. It seems to me that our outrage at abortion would be more legitimate before a watching world if we were raising healthy and Godly families larger above the 2.5 children norm of the world.
http://www.thefreemanonline.org/columns/overpopulation-the-perennial-myth/
http://www.thefreemanonline.org/columns/overpopulation-the-perennial-myth/
O’ Grady, Kathleen, ”Contraception and Religion, A Short History.” Copyright Kathleen O’ Grady, 1999. http://www.mum.org/contrace.htm
http://articles.sfgate.com/2007-10-10/news/17264234_1_pet-owners-bob-vetere-cat-owners
http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/pet_overpopulation/facts/pet_ownership_statistics.html
http://pets.webmd.com/dogs/features/dogs-and-life-span-which-breeds-live-longest
http://www.petplace.com/cats/life-expectancy-in-cats/page1.aspx
No comments:
Post a Comment