OPINION:
The health and vitality of the culture and our communities almost exclusively correlate with the integrity and cohesiveness of home life. To put it simply, as goes the family, so goes the society.
It’s that simple. Our problems are rooted in the dysfunction of the home.
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But there is a related crisis that few beyond niche circles are discussing. It’s the declining birthrate, a devastating development that’s an issue we must address – or ignore at our peril. Students of history will tell you that while societies have long worried about many things, they’ve often concerned themselves with the wrong issues, and this is no exception.
You’re likely to find far more articles and commentaries warning about climate change than the developing “baby bust” – even though the lack of children is far more consequential than variable temperatures and the regular ebb and flow of weather.
Case in point: The U.S. fertility rate now sits at a record low, falling last year to 1.62 births per woman, down 2% from 2022. In fact, we haven’t been near the “replacement rate” of 2.1 for more than a decade.
For perspective, the United States hit a high of 3.75 births per woman in the 1950s. After the so-called “Baby Boom,” the rate declined into the 1970s before recovering until the late 2000s.
Given the obvious hard data, it might be tempting to reduce this “birth dearth” crisis down to just a need for more children. Yet, separating childbearing from marriage is reaping devastating consequences on culture.
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For years, I’ve been warning about a war on children. It stems from a hostility and a determined effort to divorce sex from marriage, procreation, and parenting. There’s also been a multi-decades-long campaign to redefine marriage, as well as the reality of male and female. Polyamory, the practice of maintaining multiple romantic relationships at the same time, is now becoming enshrined into law in some liberal-leaning states.
Does anyone really think this is good for women and children, let alone society?
Bad policies may exacerbate bad times – but this rolling revolution is at the heart of our cultural and family crisis.
Children are too often seen as a burden and not the blessing they are. Nearly a million children are aborted each year in the United States. Now, two years following the much-welcomed reversal of Roe, abortion advocates are enthusiastically enshrining the right to kill children back into various state constitutions. Nearly a dozen more states may be voting to do so this November.
Perspective is a powerful and poignant thing. I recently read of an incident that is said to have occurred out on the West Coast during the California Gold Rush. With so many men and so few women in that culture, children became a rarity. But one night a woman with a baby decided to attend the theater and just as the orchestra began to play, her child started to cry.
“Stop those fiddles and let the baby cry,” hollered a man from the pit. “I haven’t heard such a sound in 10 years!”
According to the story, the audience roared its approval.
Indisputably, family breakdown is at the headwaters of so many ills of our culture. People of faith have long championed the value of children because more children will benefit everyone.
As Christians, we’re doing a great disservice to young people if we don’t encourage them to get married and then prayerfully consider having children. At every opportunity, we should be talking up the blessings of family. Marriage and children represent life’s greatest joys, and we’d be doing the rising generation a great disservice if we didn’t model a happy home and live in a way that inspires them to do their best to pursue a loving spouse and as many kids as they feel led to love and raise.
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Jim Daly is president of Focus on the Family and host of its daily radio broadcast, heard by more than 6 million listeners a week on nearly 2,000 radio stations across the U.S. He also hosts the podcast ReFocus with Jim Daly.
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