Topic: WorldNetDaily
America, we have a problem. We are killing our babies and our posterity through abortion, birth control and by intentionally limiting our family size to one or two children. I'd like to ask a tough question of those most incensed about the anchor babies.
God said to "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth" (Genesis 1:27).
What have you done to uphold or restore this God-given mandate?
The good news is that there is a recent trend back toward "large" families, although that definition is certainly different than in our grandparents' day. My great-great grandfather was one of 11 siblings, a story often heard about that era of mid 19th to early 20th century America. We now define a "large" family as three or more.
Please understand that I don't criticize childless couples or "small" families. Every married couple should seek God's plan for their family and then trust Him to direct the size. However, the reality is that most of us do not do so but decide we are going to play God. My wife and I did that in our early marriage.
After we were blessed with both a boy and a girl, we decided we could not afford more and weren't sure we still wanted the original four we had "planned." Thankfully, after a five-year "disobedience" period, we were challenged by Bill Gothard at an Advanced Seminar of Institute in Basic Life Principles to turn the reigns back over to a loving God.
Lisa Renee, Jennifer Michelle, Rebecca Leigh and Richard Douglas were added as blessings to our quiver, joining David Jr. and Stephanie Joy. We of course cannot imagine life without them, and only regret those five years in wondering who else God had planned to bless us with.I also remember the response of many in our conservative, evangelical church when we became pregnant with No. 3 and No. 6 in particular – both times it was essentially, "Oh, you are one of those families." Thanks to leaders like Bill Gothard, whose leadership birthed the homeschool movement, that paradigm has changed a little in the church.
As a nation, we have not changed and in other critical ways are continuing our destructive ways. Removing Hispanic births from the equation, we are below the replacement rate to sustain our nation.
-- Dave Welch, Aug. 15 WorldNetDaily column
