Question for the weekend...
The Population Research Institute says the Western world is facing a crisis as virtually every country has birth rates well below the replacement rate of 2.1 children per woman.
Hear This ReportA pro-family organization has done extensive research into birth rates around the world and has concluded that if the Western world wants to survive, it better start having more children. The Population Research Institute (PRI) says virtually every Western or Westernized nation on the planet is slowly dying off because birth rates have fallen below the 2.1-child-per-woman replacement level.
PRI spokesman Joseph D'Agostino says for the most part, only Muslims have high birth rates. "It's because Christians and Jews are refusing to have children, refusing to get married, [and] having such low birth rates that the Muslims are going to inherit the Earth," he explains. "It's not anything the Muslims are doing; it's what Christians and Jews are not doing. If you don't want the world to turn into Saudi Arabia, maybe people other than Muslims need to start having some kids at the rate the Muslims are having kids."
And now, the question: Why are Americans having so few kids? Something wrong with us?
Labels: Family
posted by Matt Friedeman at
5:41 PM
9 Comments:
Family life is old fashion. We have more fun living single and making money.
Anon:
Your comment reminded me of something.
I just tried to look it up and couldn't find it...but I am reminded of the lady in one of my many volumes who, bleary-eyed and wiped out from drugs and drinking looked up to her counselor and said "You mean, I don't have to do what I want to do?"
No, you don't. It likely won't, afterall, make you happy.
It's called being selfish! It's all about the money and spending it on 'us', (bigger house, car, boats etc.). It is amazing the rude comments I'm getting about being pregnant with baby #4. Some of the comments are from fellow church members!! My standard answer is we'll have as many children as God choses to bless us with. It makes me sad that children are seen as an inconvenience.
Nancy:
Have fun with the rude comments. Afterall, it is their loss, your "arrow in the quiver" gain.
When asked if "we knew what caused that" with every pregnancy (and always said as if they were the first ones to have come up with that bit of comedy) I started saying that, "Yes, we know what causes it and boy, do we like it."
There.
Matt
Why are Americans having so few children? Our culture is progressively becoming more self-centered and secular every day, and children are seen as interruptions and inconvinences in the lives of adults. This is a logical result in a culture where My convinence, My happiness, and My wants rule supreme. Within this un-Godly mindset, any disruption is a problem. I am a 29 year old father of three awesome gifts from God, and loving every minute of it. Rearing children is not easy and convenient, and they need love, attention, time, instruction, and self-sacrifice.
The idea that children cost too much is a lie that comes straight from the father of lies(Satan) and he has done a wonderful job in promoting and propigating it in various ways among Americans. My wife is a registered nurse with a bachelor's degree,yet she has not worked outside the home since my son was born over six years ago. I am a bi-vocational minister and I know that my wife works harder than I do every day of her life, and I have the utmost respect for her because she gives of herself so willingly. Money was not a consideration in determining how many children we have. My wife and I have made financial sacrifices, yet the Lord has provided in countless ways. Children are only a burden for those people who are weighed down with the worldly mindset of selfishness. If a person thinks that children are a problem, their problems are truly more severe than they know. They have a spiritual problem, a problem of a fleshly human heart in need of redemption.
Children in Islam are considered as a commodity for the future “Islamisation” of traditionally Judeo-Christian nations, a process which is currently underway in Europe. Islam simply does not have a concept of human liberty and dignity.
On the other hand, Westerners have substituted their ideal of liberty with utilitarianism, camouflaged as “human rights.” And here’s the twist and contradiction: while parents claim the have a “right” to conceive the number of children they want, conceived children have no rights under the law (abortion)! Unfortunately, many parents – even Christian – make the decision to have (or not to have) children by considering only their comfort, income, etc. Consequently, they use contraception.
But in truth “the child is not an object to which one has a right, nor can he be considered an object of ownership: rather, a child is a gift … of marriage, and a living testimony of the mutual giving of his parents” (quoted from the late Pope John Paul II).
Westerners have forgotten that children are the most natural expression of marital love… Muslims, however, have NOT forgotten the Koran’s commandment to convert all the “infidels.” Hence they have children high above the replacement rate, while Westerners can’t replace themselves and rely on immigrants from Muslim countries to preserve their population!
I will beat this drum again, but society has not turned on and failed Christians, it is the other way around. Christians have gotten caught up and abandoned the prime directives. We spend so much time finger pointing and trying to see what the other guy is doing that we do not take care of our own business. I am glad that I know how the story ends and who wins. The issue of Christians having fewer children is just part of how it all will happen. Similar to Christians participating in worldly things at the same rate as sinners. Christians often turn up their noses when suggestions are made that problems exist. One that I see is that instead of providing an example, we are emulating the rest of the world. Look how screwed our politics are, the party most identified with Christians(or that claims to be) is the party that is also mostly associated with aquisition of wealth, big business. The party less religiously driven is the party that is associated mostly with being concerned about issues concerning the poor and downtrodden. That seems skewed to me.
I think people in the west are SELFESS!
Not sure anyone would agree with me on this, but I had another thought.
What if we are having less children because of the medicalization of birth? Many women I talk to have had traumatic births, so many interventions starting with induction, epidurals, etc., that lead to cesareans. The cesarean rate is over 30% and climbing. I consider it pretty sad that women's choices in birth are being taken from them, just try to have a VBAC you'll be fighting every step of the pregnancy.
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