The continuing war on children has spread in a previously unmentioned direction. Instead of killing children in the womb through abortion, perverting them through homosexuality and transgenderism, or abusing them through pedophilia, now there are people simply saying they aren’t going to have children. While I think its certainly preferable not to be conceived than to endure the numerous evils that these children haters want to inflict on children, this new attitude is in direct opposition to the word of God. This article will examine this movement, highlighted by a recent article in the National Post.
Like many people in the eco-friendly movement, the writer of the National Post article views humanity almost as a blight on the planet. They argue that the earth is overpopulating and thus having lots of children or even having children at all is irresponsible and even dangerous to the rest of us on the planet. Actor Bill Nye, the pseudo-science guy, recently also got on that bandwagon, calling for people with large families to be punished in some way. The argument of these individuals is that the world’s climate is changing and soon will no longer be able to support the current population, let alone the predicted increase. One “charity” arguing for a smaller population has the motto “smaller families mean better lives for all”.
This idea that the world’s population needs to be reduced in some way is nothing new. It’s been around for decades in certain circles, with people like Jacques Cousteau and Ted Turner being some of the foremost advocates of reducing the population. Some proposals were draconian enough to suggest that the earth’s population be reduced to around 100,000 over the course of time. While most climate alarmists do not go that far with their proposals, the idea of reducing population is not new.
There are a number of issues with this stance. The first comes from science. Climate alarmists have been chanting about how the world will end soon for decades. Their ideas have, by and large, not come true. Further, many eminent scientists have openly spoken against the climate alarmism, and numerous famous environmental predictions, such as the infamous hockey stick graph, were faked.
Further, as Christians, we should look to the Bible and see what God says about these issues. The Bible could not be more different when compared to the environmental doom and gloom scenarios we are regularly bombarded with. Genesis 8:22 tells us “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. ” In other words, there will always be seasons, something that does not remotely match with the climate alarmists predictions.
Even worse, the Bible tells us that children are a blessing from God. Psalms 127:3 tells us “Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.” God views children as a special blessing from Him. While not having children is the couple’s choice, by choosing not to have kids, they rob themselves of God’s blessing by not having them. Obviously, some couples do not have the option. Infertility is a growing problem not often discussed which is often heartbreaking for the couple. This scenario is completely different than choosing not to have children and thus any comments I make regarding people who choose not to have children do not apply to those who cannot have children.
One further verse reinforces this point. Psalms 127:4-5 says “As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.” In other words, a family is blessed to have not just one, but many children. By choosing not to have children, these birth strikers are robbing themselves of blessing to the combat a non-existent problem.
The birth striker movement is just one more way that those who hate children are using to attack children. Like the other methods, this one ought to be rejected by Christians as it goes directly against what God says in His Word. Children are not a blight on the planet, they are a blessing from the Lord.
In His Image 