This may not be news to those who read the news, but it nevertheless seems shocking to me. A lot of people don’t care much about having kids anymore. Wow! Kids make life more enjoyable. I’ve got three and six grandkids. I’d feel pretty lonely without them. Try getting old and not having family loved ones. I’m glad I’m not there.
God Said “Be Fruitful” and “Multiply”
Having children is one of the first commands God gave to humans, recorded in the Bible multiple times. It’s a main reason he made us and put us here on planet earth. The Bible says, “God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it'” (Genesis 1.27-28 NRSV). And when God sent the flood, and Noah came out of the ark, we read of it, “God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” (9.1).
It Ain’t Happening
Nowadays, it ain’t happening so much. Birth rates are plummeting all around the world. In many parts of the world, people are not only not being “fruitful,” and thereby multiplying, they are not even replacing other people. The replacement birth rate is 2.1 children per woman, yet here are some birth rates: U.S. with 1.6 children per woman; Europe with 1.4-1.6 children per woman; Japan with 1.2 children per woman; and economically, fast-growing South Korea with 0.75 children per woman. Why is this? Low birth rates are causing demographic crises in some parts of the world, in which young people are unfairly supporting elderly people with increased social security, etc.
Why Low Birth Rates?
The typical reasons given for fertility rates declining in especially advanced, wealthy societies are (1) high cost of living, and (2) waiting to have children later in life. The latter is due to people thinking it is difficult to work and raise a family so they put it off for later. But when they say they want three kids, they wind up having two. Yet both of these reasons given are negated in poorer civilizations where birth rates are higher.
Anthropologist Paula Sheppard says in her new book, The Reasons Birth Rates Are Declining Worldwide, that these are not the main reasons birth rates are declining. This Oxford professor has been studying this subject from better angles, that is, socially. She says it’s mostly because (1) women are struggling to find a committed partner who contributes to involvement with children, and (2) women are struggling to find community that provides social support for children. Sounds right to me. That has always been a main purpose of church life—ministry to children. What do you think?
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