Commentaries
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 Soaps and Sterility Anti-Natalism for the MassesFertility rates in Western countries are dropping like a stone. Why? Brazil provides one clue. Listen Now | Download
The September issue of National Geographic — the same one praising the rescue of orphaned baby elephants — documents a growing distaste among Brazilians for raising children. Since 1960, the fertility rate for Brazilian women has dropped dramatically, from 6.3 births per women to 1.9 — which is below replacement level. While China’s fertility has also fallen drastically, it’s due to the government’s coercive one-child policy. But in Brazil, author Cynthia Gorney notes, “where the Roman Catholic Church dominates, abortion is illegal (except in rare cases) and no official government policy has ever promoted birth control.” So, the birth dearth there must be driven by something else. Like many Western countries, Brazil has seen a tectonic shift in culture since 1960. Radical individualism and secularism have led people to ignore the Church’s teachings about sex, contraception, and sterilization. Consumerism makes two or fewer children (who after all, are expensive to raise) more desirable. And then there’s the popular culture. For years, even poor Brazilians have owned televisions and have been watching Brazil’s wildly popular novelas. Novelas are evening soap operas similar to shows like Dallas, Dynasty, or Desperate Housewives. And they portray “a singular, vivid, aspirational image of the modern Brazilian family: affluent, light skinned, and small.” In fact, the article reports, “Ninety percent of female characters in the average novela have just one child or none, which may have influenced Brazilian women to desire smaller families.” And why not? Fewer children means greater freedom to pursue a career, make money, and purchase luxuries. One young working woman who was married four years told Gorney, “One [child], maybe two. To give them a proper education and a nice life, you can’t have more. Right now, I want money to finish building our house and to buy nice things.” Sounds familiar to American ears? It should. Brazil’s TV novelas are symptomatic of modern Western culture at large, which places the individual pursuit of pleasure and prosperity highest among all considerations — including marriage and the raising of children. I understand that there are good reasons for limiting the size of our families. But the attitude toward children that seems to have pervaded Brazilian culture — and ours as well — is hard and utilitarian. It is also — and I say this at the risk of getting angry emails and letters — selfish. And it won’t be easy to change. As Gorney writes, “When I asked [young Brazilian women] whether they ever felt nostalgia for the less materialistic life of their elders, two generations back — eight children here, ten there, with nobody expecting decorators to gussy up the sleeping quarters — I was able to make out, among the hooting, the word presa. Imprisoned.” What an impoverished view of life, of family, of children! For some time now you’ve heard me say, and you will hear me say many times again, that we Christians must show the world a better way — living out lives of love and self-giving. And in this case, we need to model in our own lives, and in our own families, the Christian view that children are indeed a gift of God. And we better do it before it’s too late.Further Reading and Information
Machisma Demographic Winter A Day without Mexicans The Fruits of Anti-Natalism Demographic Winter: The Decline of the Human Family (DVD), 2008 Fourth Child Furor |
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Comments:
But what would you trade for an "I love you Daddy." Or the statement from teachers; "I wish all my students were like your daughter." If it is a blessing with one child, can you imagine it times five. I can!
Would I trade a new car, bigger house, or exotic vacation for one less child? How about four less children? Never!
In a world desperately needing truth, I am only one man. As a father, my voice is amplified five times. What better way to change the culture, then to have more voices.
Dad of five, working on six.
Sufficient for what? Oh, sufficient for today's parents' needs as opposed to yester-years parents' needs on the farm and in their old age. Geo-Anne, you're looking at human history and human "progression" from the "hard and utilitarian" point of view Chuck Colson is speaking about.
Large families are no longer required to work the farms and fields and to keep the parents and grandparents in their old age. With a low survival rate of their children, parents had to have many to ensure that at least a few would make it to middle age.
Now, with child survival rates pretty much guranteed, one or two children are sufficient.
Finding ourselves in this situation for probably the first time in human history, we discover that we can have a more prosperous and enjoyable life for ourselves and for our children: more time to focus on individual children, more money for their education, health, and to explore the world.
And yes, we have more time to devote to our own interests, development, and enjoyment of our world.
I don't see smaller families as some kind of evil plot by "radical individualism and secularism," but a natural outcome of human progression.
As for the woman building her house and buying nice things - this could also be seen as preparing to bring her children into the best environment she can afford. Even the creator, according to the bible, prepared a garden for his children.