Not With a Bang...
Don Feder discusses the fertility decline in Europe:
For years, Western governments have created financial disincentives to child-rearing, so it's encouraging to see some leveling of the playing field. Still, the question remains: Can families be paid to have children?
Pope Benedict XVI doesn't think so. At a recent meeting of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, the pope blamed the "eclipse of love" and "materialistic visions of the universe, of life and human fulfillment" for falling birthrates.
Bluntly put, for decades, Western society -- under the sway of feminists, environmentalists, Zero Population Growth-types and other assorted utopians -- has inculcated an anti-family ethos.
Selfishness was celebrated. Marriage and children were downgraded to lifestyle options. Women who stayed at home to raise and nurture a family were derided. The importance of fathers was downplayed. Abortion was enshrined as a "human right." And contraception was ubiquitous.
Exacerbating the trend, in the postwar period, most industrialized nations rapidly secularized. In Western Europe, weekly church attendance has fallen to 5%, compared with 30-40% in the United States (which has a replacement-level birthrate of 2.1).
Faith is the strongest incentive for family formation and procreation. Mormon Utah has the highest birthrate in America. Worldwide, it's traditional Catholics, Orthodox Jews and evangelical Christians who are having large families.
He goes on to discuss the European Union`s response to the crisis, and the attempts by some to resurrect the family. A worthy read!
For years, Western governments have created financial disincentives to child-rearing, so it's encouraging to see some leveling of the playing field. Still, the question remains: Can families be paid to have children?
Pope Benedict XVI doesn't think so. At a recent meeting of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, the pope blamed the "eclipse of love" and "materialistic visions of the universe, of life and human fulfillment" for falling birthrates.
Bluntly put, for decades, Western society -- under the sway of feminists, environmentalists, Zero Population Growth-types and other assorted utopians -- has inculcated an anti-family ethos.
Selfishness was celebrated. Marriage and children were downgraded to lifestyle options. Women who stayed at home to raise and nurture a family were derided. The importance of fathers was downplayed. Abortion was enshrined as a "human right." And contraception was ubiquitous.
Exacerbating the trend, in the postwar period, most industrialized nations rapidly secularized. In Western Europe, weekly church attendance has fallen to 5%, compared with 30-40% in the United States (which has a replacement-level birthrate of 2.1).
Faith is the strongest incentive for family formation and procreation. Mormon Utah has the highest birthrate in America. Worldwide, it's traditional Catholics, Orthodox Jews and evangelical Christians who are having large families.
He goes on to discuss the European Union`s response to the crisis, and the attempts by some to resurrect the family. A worthy read!
posted by Timothy Birdnow | 5:05 AM
2 Comments:
Bluntly put, for decades, Western society -- under the sway of feminists, environmentalists, Zero Population Growth-types and other assorted utopians -- has inculcated an anti-family ethos.
I was exposed to all the above when I was in college. But I was well grounded enough by my parents not to buy into any of it. I wrote what I had to in order to pass the courses, then trashed the papers.
My situation might have been unusual, however. I was privately educated and had parents who took seriously their child-rearing responsibilities, including a Christian upbringing.
My good friend just announced that he and his wife were expecting #5. He confided in my after I heartily congratulated him that a lot of people treated the news with scorn. How very sad. This is how deep the leftist anti-life message has gone in our society.
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