New York Abortions, A Declining Population, and Public Schools
Two news stories (one from last year, and one from this year) gaining U.S. national attention provide us with yet another example of the cultural schizophrenia exhibited in our post-modern times.
The first is a story picked up by news outlets a few months ago. According to the latest data, the year 2017 provided the United States with the fewest babies born in thirty years, leaving us with a potential crisis that the Washington Post calls a "demographic time bomb."[1] According to recent data from the Center for Disease Control, the annual number of births in the United States is at a thirty-year record low, standing at 3,853,472 for 2017.[2] The general fertility rate a couple of years ago was tracked at approximately 60.2 births per 1000 women (aged 15-44), down from a previous record low of 62 births per 1000 women.[3] The U.S. is now officially an “aging nation.” Foreshadowing a dangerous decline in population similar to what Japan is experiencing, many are left wondering what factors are playing into this looming issue, an issue that will undoubtedly affect the economic prosperity, available work force, and social security benefits of the U.S. in years to come. Factors believed to have led to this include: low fertility rates among women, and fewer financially stable young men.
But the second news story, more recently developed, actually leads us to a better analysis of the first news story. In arguably one of the most sinister abortion laws enacted in U.S. history, the state of New York just passed a law allowing for the abortion of children at any time if the mother's health is at risk. Read that again, with a focus on the following two phrases: "at any time" and "mother's health." Abortion “at any time” should be enough to make us shudder in absolute horror and disgust, but as with most sin, the boundaries continue to be pushed. Not only has the state decided that babies can be murdered at any time in the womb, but the supposed rationale for such an action (though just as inexcusable) is based on the intentionally nebulous phrase "mother's health," a phrase which is flexible enough to include even emotional distress. Make no mistake about it: amidst a society of so-called “microaggressions,” abortion based on emotional health means that a greater number of children will die under this new law—and in all three trimesters.
Unimaginably Confused
When juxtaposed, these two news stories illustrate not only how debased our culture is, but how unimaginably confused it is as well. While sociologists and pollsters are attempting to figure out what is causing a declining population in the United States, the state of New York is doing all it can to maintain that declining rate. Of course, the secular worldview is anti-life through and through, so the average unbeliever really shouldn't be surprised that the population is dropping.
As a case in point, consider the following ways in which secularism contributes to the “demographic time bomb”:
Secularism promotes homosexuality, a debased activity that is unable to produce children.
Secularism promotes transgenderism, a rebellious act that often leads to infertility.
Secularism promotes feminism, a sinful worldview in which women set aside child-bearing for career.
Secularism promotes divorce, a fallen breakdown of the intended, long-term, child-producing relationship.
Secularism promotes environmentalism, a distorted view of creation that brings about anti-natalistic policies.
Secularism promotes atheism, a feigned denial of the Creator that cultivates nihilistic-based suicide.
Secularism promotes abortion, a murderous act which kills a child in his or her first nine months of life.
The Bible states that the "wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23), and secularism's anti-life principles put this truth on full display. The secular worldview avoids life, prevents life, delays life, undermines life, disregards life, and terminates life. Instead of giving birth to children and bringing forth life, secularism is helping people give birth to “sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death” (Jas. 1:15). It’s quite appropriate that this is often referred to as a “culture of death.” Why, then, would any secularist be alarmed or shocked at a declining population?
An Important Question
But this raises one more important question: if secularism is a worldview that is so contrary to human life, how does it continue to propogate? After all, the false religion of Islam, for example, recognizes that offspring are key to its eschatalogical goal of world submission and domination. At a worldwide birth rate of 2.9 children per woman (the next highest being 2.6 among Christians), Muslims spread by procreation just as much, if not more than, by proselytization[4]. Secularism, on the other hand, is unsustainable based on its own low view of human life. So where does it get its disciples to continue perpetuating its worldview? Shouldn’t secularism gradually self-destruct? Shouldn’t it be the cause of its own philosophical time bomb?
Naturally, it would. Except for the fact that it has an entire educational institution upholding it.
Public schools, inherently secular, are the engine that produces these like-minded disciples. Far from being morally or religiously “neutral” (an impossibility since everyone operates according to a particular standard), schools that do not acknowledge God as the Creator are actually falling into the sin of Romans 1:21: “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” And of course, the behavior produced by a secular education fits in exactly with the fallout described in the rest of Romans 1, and what is now seen in places like New York.
And where does a secular institution get many of its disciples? From those who don’t kill their children, but then give their children to the institution all the same.
Pastor Jeff Durbin of Apologia Church, states just as much:
We keep having all these children, and you ask the question, “Well these unbelievers—they're not having children, they're seeing children as a curse, they're killing all their children—so, how do we keep producing more and more of this in our culture around us?” And I think it's because we're giving all of our children to the world to be discipled. We're creating more disciples for the world because we give them to them.[5]
Secularists are happy to kill their own children, so long as they can continue discipling yours.
An Important Answer
Of course, make no mistake about it: there are indeed many Christian teachers standing on the front lines in the public school system, doing the best they can to influence students in a positive way. But it’s obvious that if Christian teachers were to speak openly and accurately about the nature of sin, the reality of coming judgment, and the exclusivity of Christ, they would be ousted from their classroom before the word "repent" could ever leave their mouths. They are part of a system that is inflexibly secular.
Whether it’s teaching math without crediting the Math-maker (Jesus Himself) or teaching science in willful rebellion to the creation account of Genesis 1, secular educational institutions that are not Christian are non-Christian—does that even need to be said? It does need to be said, but only because many are operating under the illusion that they are providing their children with a Christian upbringing, a belief which simply is not the case for those 14,000 hours of non-Christian discipleship throughout childhood.
With that in mind, let us consider the words of the late D. James Kennedy:
If you send them off to some public school, keep in mind that you are shooting dice with your child's eternal souls. It is a gamble that no Christian should be willing to make. Don't send an 8 year old out to take on a forty-year-old humanist...I have never seen any people more unhappy than fathers and mothers who have come to me and said, 'Where did we go wrong? We gave him everything, and now he's turned his back completely on everything we believe.' Yes, they gave him everything but a Christian education.[6]
As we contend against secularists murdering their own disciples, let us also make sure not to give them ours.
References:
[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/can-the-us-avoid-japans-demographic-disaster/2018/12/31/1f29ba66-0d3f-11e9-8938-5898adc28fa2_story.html
[2] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsrr/report004.pdf
[3] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/03/health/united-states-fertility-rate.html
[4] http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/04/06/why-muslims-are-the-worlds-fastest-growing-religious-group/
[5] http://apologiaradio.com/241-ireland-culture-death/
[6] http://newsweekly.com.au/article.php?id=5343