Birthrates and Procreation: State or Church Issues?

John Ibbitson of the Canadian The Globe and Mail: asks the following question:

Does the state have a role in promoting married family life? 

. . . two facts remain: First, our underfunded pension schemes and skyrocketing health-care costs stem in part from the simple fact that, sometime around 1970, Canadians stopped having the necessary 2.1 children per woman needed to sustain the population.

Second, an increasing number of children are raised in single-parent environments, which places them at greater risk of poverty, poor nutrition and inadequate education. 

“Although there are always exceptions ... most scientists who study these questions would say that the stable two-parent family is better than the alternative,” Prof. Wilcox observes.

The same questions apply to the U.S. The U.S. birth rate is down to its lowest in at least a century. A Huffington Post report indicates the 2010 birth rate fell to 13.5 for every 1,000. Compare that to 30 in 1909, the year after my mother was born. When I was born in the 1930s it dipped below 20 per 1,000 and did not rise above that level until the early 1940s.

An October, 2011 NY Times report suggests that women are putting off having babies while the economy is weak.

The link between financial distress and lower rates of childbirth surfaced clearly in the regional data. North Dakota, with one of the lowest unemployment rates in 2008, about 3 percent, was one of two states to show a slight increase in its birth rate from 2008 to 2009. The other was Maine. 

In all other states, birth rates declined, said Gretchen Livingston, the lead author of the report. Arizona had the deepest decline in its birth rate, down by 7.2 percent.

All this raises yet again the issue of family planning and birth control. It is at this point that church and state inevitably tangle. This surfaces mainly when the state legislates the distribution of contraceptives, maternity care and family planning. In poor countries, like the Philippines where population is in runaway mode the Catholic Church views such laws as attacks on life and gateways to legalizing abortion.

If you are a Lutheran Christian you may wonder if all Lutherans agree that contraception is always a private matter and OK. Or do some Lutherans agree with the Catholic Church's view that all forms of contraception must be forbidden? Here's a website that discusses the issues from a confessional Lutheran perspective. It is called Lutherans and Procreation. One post on that site quotes Lutheran Church —Missouri Synod's president Matt Harrison discussing the Biblical encouragement to "be fruitful and multiply" (Genesis 1:22).

There are three things that are really hitting the Missouri Synod as much as anything. We're doing, I mean we're doing better than a lot of churches of course. But we've had a continuous slow decline over the last 50-40 years. I think 30 years ago was the last recorded yearly increase in our membership. Forty years ago, says Larry. That's all right, he'll, as he becomes president and becomes more and more of a fundraiser he'll become less and less of a historian. [Laughter] 

The biggest challenge we face is the birthrate. The birthrate of the Missouri Synod that is overwhelmingly white, descendent of European people in this synod - the birthrate of our church body has simply followed, mirrored, the broader birthrate of the United States among descendants of northern Europeans. That's a fact. There's hardly a single family out there that you're related to that has more children in the latest generation than it did in the previous generation. Now, do I expect any wholesale turnaround in this phenomenon? No, I don't. There are all kinds of intense pressures upon us. However, I think it's time for us to preach "Be fruitful and multiply." That's what the Bible says. And we ought to encourage young people and families who have the ability to have families. And encourage them. 

The church needs to be a place... It's no time to despise family ministries. It's no time to despise those kind of diakonic efforts in the church to care for marriages and families, etc. It's time to redouble our efforts in those areas and it's time to speak clearly that it's a good thing to have a large Lutheran orthodox family. If Muslims are having an average of 4.2 children a piece and we're having 2.1 children a piece, I would say God would be really happy if we'd bump it up to at least 4.2 per family. Don't quote me on that. [Laughter]

I'll take a look at his remarks and the issue of family planning in my next posts. You are always welcome to join in.