Babies Are Great!

The leadership of the Chinese Communist Party is learning in real time the truth of the old saying that a country needs to “get rich before it gets old.” For decades the Chinese government harshly enforced a “one child” policy which sought to limit families to one child to control population growth in China. The policy was indeed successful in limiting population growth. It also created a cruel culture of sterilization, abortion, infanticide, and abandonment of new-born girls. China is now faced with the new challenge of a below replacement fertility rate because the average number of children born per woman is less than what is needed to keep the population size stable over time, without immigration. China is now attempting to address this imbalance by encouraging couples to have more children by providing financial incentives to do so, but it is finding it difficult to “flip the switch” after decades of enforcing a one child policy.

Even countries without China’s one child policy (including the United States) are finding it difficult to maintain the replacement level fertility rate of 2.1 children per woman. This failure has important social and economic implications. In Japan, robots are being utilized to assist in caring for the elderly in skilled nursing facilities because of a shortage of caregivers. In the United States, there is concern that the declining birth rate will exacerbate the underfunding of the social security trust fund because of fewer individuals working and making funding contributions.

What is the cause of the low fertility rate in in the Unites States and many of the developed countries in Western Europe? There are surely many reasons for this decline in the birth rate including couples marrying later in life, economic concerns for couples, and a prevailing culture which does not seem to value or encourage having children. To be sure, the prevailing cultural view is at odds with God’s word in Genesis 1:28 where he commanded “to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

In my view, it is clear from Scripture that God values and encourages procreation with husbands and their wives having children. I believe this is especially true for Christian couples. It is my experience that the vast majority of Christian couples take Genesis 1:28 to heart as God’s will and plan for couples, and they desire to have children and will go to great lengths to have biological children or children through adoption. This is indeed appropriate. But at this point I do wish to add a word of caution for the Evangelical Christian community of which my wife Cathy and I are a part. We should guard against any tendency to exert direct or even subtle pressure on Christian couples to have children who have not yet had children. It may be that there are physiological reasons for not having children. And there may be other important reasons as well. We cannot presume to know and understand each couple’s situation. When Cathy and I were married, we soon discovered that we needed to better understand and address several issues from our families of origin which took considerable time and effort. This delayed our start of a family. While this delay may have been a surprise for many of our family members and friends, the delay was necessary and appropriate. Had we started a family soon after we were married, our marriage and child rearing would have most definitely suffered greatly. We are surely not the only couple in that type of situation. In God’s perfect timing, He richly blessed us with a biological son and an adopted daughter from China. We consider our children God’s greatest gift in our marriage.

So, what is healthy Biblical guidance for newly married couples? I believe our pastor handles it best from the pulpit by congratulating newly married couples and praying for them that in God’s good timing He would grant them the opportunity to have children. God bless him for doing this.

God bless you and thank you for the privilege of your time in reading my blog.