According to the Richey Family, being tied down is the lord’s command. The author, Crystal, provides a few quotes outlining “Selfish(feminist) reasons women don’t want children” and I’m one of them! Of course her quote of my post is rather ambiguous and arguably out of context, so I imagine the others are too.
Crystal goes in to what I can only assume is a thorough review of the Bible’s coverage of offspring.
The first commandment in the Bible is “Be fruitful, and multiply” Genesis 1:28 and marriage was instituted by God as a stable environment in which to have and rear children. In our society, children are often considered a nuisance and a burden. They can be seen as standing in the way of people’s career paths, financial goals, or social freedom. (Crystal)
She’s damn right there, no arguments from me. I’m not sure how those views are particularly feminist ones though, they are consumerist and capitalist ones. The text she refers to is thousands of years old and doesn’t reflect the world in which we live today. By all means live your life by God’s word; be understanding, caring, supportive, don’t judge or covet thy neighbour’s wife, love all creatures, be they God’s or not. But hang on a second Crystal - aren’t you being a bit judgemental?
Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you (Matthew 7:12)
The Bible does say “Be fruitful, and multiply”, but this was written at a time when the world population was much lower that it is today. The world population was 1 billion in 1804, and rose to 6 billion by 1999. This planet can only support about 3 billion humans at their current use of natural resources - we surpassed that number in 1960. The likelihood of childhood deaths is much lower than that a few thousand years ago and the age of natural death is over twice that of a human living around 1AD. At the time of Christ, it was important to have as many children as possible. Some would die during birth, some from childhood diseases, and the rest would be dead before they reached 40. If God was asked today what would change in the next release of the Bible, I’m sure there’d be some changes to assist in lowering population. Perhaps abortion would be acceptable, but not resuscitation of those with certain medical condition.
Now, back to feminism. Wikipedia’s article on this states:
Feminism involves various movements theories and philosophies which are concerned with the issue of gender difference, that advocate equality for women, and that campaign for women’s rights and interests
Crystal, are you saying that humans not wanting children has come about because women want the right to not have them? Did they not have that right before feminism was given a name or a movement to promote those rights? What about the men that don’t want children, such as C’s husband, Geoff, Neil, Frank, Steve, Simon (who doesn’t want kids but his girlfriend does) and many more on my post: Why I Don’t Want Kids? Are they being persuaded by feminists to not want children? Are they feminists?
It is important that we view children in the way God does, not as society does. (Crystal)
You’re referring here to your opinion that people view kids as a nuisance and a burden. I do not concurr with this opinion, but rather believe that people don’t believe that the lifestyle they want matches the lifestyle of having kids. Personally I love kids. They have a great perspective on the world. Their innocent views and observations are enlightening and uplifting. I just prefer to be able to give them back to their parents at the end of the day. If I had the time, I’d like to comment on the quotes you have from the Bible on your site, but that would be mostly irrelevant to this post given they are supporting references to your argument as opposed to your direct opinion (other than by tenet).
Photo by huxleyesque.