Thursday, May 14, 2009

Committing A National Suicide

The secular left has a myriad of beliefs on abortion that are just as diverse as the religious right’s. On any given University campus where the Justice For All exhibit is being presented I will converse with 5-80 students throughout the week. It is a spigot of randomness with the valve broken off. For this reason it is always important to ask clarifying questions, especially when discussing abortion. One thing, however, that the secular left is completely unified on in a resounding voice is the promotion of birth control and contraception.

The divorce of sex and procreation in marriage and liberating sex from marriage altogether is the core of the left’s modern liberation movement towards their vision of equality for women’s sexual autonomy. Pregnancy (Parenthood if one does not choose adoption) narrows one’s life choices and pursuits which is why abortion on demand is justified, to “remove” the problem of unwanted pregnancy.

Ultimately it is argued that men and women in our acceptance of birth control are more free to enjoy life to it’s fullness by being able to have sex without commitments and avoid all the burdens of children, unless they desire to have a child at their choosing. Sadly, this is incredibly misguided as most any parent will attest that some of their greatest joys are their children, but the results of the contraceptive/abortion movement may also be responsible for our current economic crisis and may irrevocably alter our world as we know it by the end of our lifetime.

There are two points I want to briefly comment on and encourage you, as always, to read further on.

1.
David Goldman is a brilliant researcher and writer and has published a fascinating article in the April edition of First Things which can be read here.

Goldman argues that the housing crash is the fulcrum of the credit necrosis. He also convincingly argues that two-parent households are much more likely to be able to assist their offspring in purchasing and keeping their own house due to the economic advantage they’ll typically have. So how does this connect with contraception and abortion?
Goldman writes:

“America’s population has risen from 200 million to 300 million since 1970, while the total number of two-parent families with children is the same today as it was when Richard Nixon took office, at 25 million. In 1973, the United States had 36 million housing units with three or more bedrooms, not many more than the number of two-parent families with children—which means that the supply of family homes was roughly in line with the number of families. By 2005, the number of housing units with three or more bedrooms had doubled to 72 million, though America had the same number of two-parent families with children."

In addition, the dependent elderly doubled from 1960 which coupled with a lack of new children to fill in jobs and demands will mean one thing. We will get poorer.


Goldman continues to offer compelling evidence but the last line may or may not haunt you. "We will get poorer". Perhaps we need to get poorer as many Christian leaders have warned for years that we are a culture obsessed with material goods and comforts and our obsession has blinded us to the plights and sufferings of the real world. Even if needed, it will be unfortunate for those caught in the middle.

2.
What may be most alarming is the effect that contraception and abortion is having on our birth rates. Our country and most of Europe is literally committing suicide because of it's individual citizens desires to pursue their own goals on their own time at their own expense without the proclaimed burden of children. I humbly submit that this is the definition of selfishness.

There is one group of people, however, that is not killing themselves off. Click on this Youtube video to see which group it is.

Ultimately we must ask ourselves what is a greater priority. The permanent memories and experiences that we earn in the privilege of parenting which is the proper formation of anothers soul towards virtue, or the pleasures of moments which never completely satisfy and always leave a hunger for more.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks Matt, that was a great read.


~Jeremy

Anonymous said...

Well all developed nations have had declining birth rates for years. The "problem" if you will, is that it is not a patriarchal society anymore and woman actually have a choice to do what they want with their lives. Now woman have a choice between establishing a career or having children, and it is rare that they are able to do both. On the abortion side I don't have a strong enough opinion either way to argue, that is something that I must think about. But don't go around saying we are committing suicide on ourselves, blame equality of woman on this. I am for the ability of a woman to choose not to become a housewife if that isn't what she wants to be.