Monday, April 12, 2010

Be Fruitful and Multiply and Replenish the Earth















I was listening to Michael Savage today, and he was talking about the current birth rate in the United States. He said it is about 1.6 per family. He questioned what is to become of our country, as well as most of the European countries that have the same problem. Then he brought up China, and said that China will have (or already does have) 30 million single men. What is to become of them? I know they have questioned who will take care of the aging generation.

Michael asked the listeners to call in and tell him why they think people in the United States aren't getting married and having children. One caller called in and gave his opinion, and I can't get it out of my head. He said that he and a Muslim friend were discussing this issue, and they both agreed that the problem is that our culture glorifies the "hot sexy wild" woman. But men don't want that kind of woman to be the mother of their children. Basically, our culture has shot itself in the foot. We have over glorified sex, and lost the "mother" component. In addition, because women are taught to be sexy and promiscuous, men don't have to mate up. They can have sex without the commitment.

I have to say that I also think that there is a lot of selfishness among many people today. They don't want to sacrifice their lives to raise a child. And men don't want to have to support a wife and children with their hard earned money. In LDS scripture, we read this prophesy about the latter days: "And the love of men shall wax cold, and iniquity shall abound." (Doctrine and Covenants 45:27) I think in some cases, this has already come to pass. People are losing role models that teach them how to love a spouse and children.

Another point, that I brought up in my talk on Sunday, is that because so many parents both work outside the home, children are not having modeled for them how to parent. I grew up in a home where I saw my mother breastfeeding. I saw her discipline. I saw her nurture her children. But many children today are missing out on those role models, so a missing link occurs.

I have to also blame science. People have been so indoctrinated to believe that we have overpopulated the earth, that they have completely shut down procreation. And now science is bashing religion. With religion being the only voice that still tells people to "multiply and replenish the earth", if it is silenced, birth rates will decrease even more.

I feel sorry for those who will not enjoy the love and unity of a family because they chose another path. I feel sorry for those men in China who may not find wives. I fear for the future of the family in our world.

7 comments:

Nene said...

I agree with what President Hinckley said one time, and he quoted a scripture: The earth has enough and to spare.

Also, my husband and I were talking about this and we came to the conclusion that the countries like the US where people are restricting their children will one day have other countries, where people do not restrict overrun them. The people who restrict having children will die out and their nationality will cease to exist. This was a very scary thought to both of us.

Looney said...

Certainly I feel sad for the mess in China.

This does remind me of Singapore long ago. The Prime Minister said, "Women should only have one child", so all my wife's friends got married and had one child. Then the ratio of Chinese in the population started dropping, so the Prime Minister proclaimed: "All you educated Chinese women should have more babied", so my wife's friends started having second and third children. So obedient!

Amber said...

Being a person who doesn't have any children, I have to say that I agree with the reasons you listed, it just seems so much HARDER to have children these days, why would a woman want to work full time and then go home and take care of a family when she's already exhausted. I think society has made it this way, sometimes (and this is just my opinion) I wonder if it was such a good thing when women started working in the work force in the fifties, I think it was all down hill for families since then.

Dee Ice Hole said...

When the birth rate drops bel;ow two per couple then the numbers start to go backwards. The groups that have bigger families will be the ones that control things down the road.

Lindsay Logic said...

Amber- that's interesting that you say that, because I think the same thing.

Delirious- I've seen a trend in this generation (locally at least) to have more babies than their parents. I feel like a lot of girls are going back to wanting to be stay-at-home Moms. Just my two cents. :)

Delirious said...

That makes me happy to hear because where I live, people aren't having many children.

Ramana Rajgopaul said...

Delirious, we have a similar problem in India, at least in the urban areas where DINKs (Double Income No Kids) and SINKS (Single instead of Double) and when asked most will say that they do not want the, hold your breath, responsibility. Bringing up children is getting increasingly hard with fierce competition for admission to educational institutions, keeping u with the Joneses etc. My 39 year old son and his ex wife are from this group of people who simply do not want the responsibility of the family or children. I think that somewhere along the development path, we seem to have gone off track on family and all that it entails.

Dee Ice Hole does not state the uncomfortable truth. Demographic projections clearly indicate that Islam will over take all other religions of the world. Perhaps there is something in what Michael Savage found out.