BaptistLife.Com Forums.

Stephen, if "SBC" is in the title, maybe the SBC Forum is the proper spot for it.

The quiver full crowd is present in the SBC (and has been for decades, I knew some QF folks in the 1980s) and it has tentacles among some Calvinists but overall is not widespread and I don't see much to worry about here. I'm not impressed with the PhD candidate who wrote this piece or his speculations. I grant that ABP likes this sort of stuff occasionally.

Low birth rates are a problem and a legitimate subject for examination. Procreation is a thoroughly Biblical concept, duh, and there should be some consideration and evaluation of contemporary lifestyles that exclude children.

As a young person, I'd like to share that my personal experience is that Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body is catching on among younger conservative Christians (including non-Catholics), but I've never met anyone that has bought into the Quiverfull movement. I've had many married friends decide that if they were going to use any birth control they'd only use Natural Family Planning.

Ed; ET, When you say "Things like social security here and in other parts of the world depend on a high payer-to-consumer ratio....we've gone from 14-to-1 to 2.5 or 3-to-1 in the last 70s years. What does the (1) represent. and where are you getting you figures?

But moving on, what biblical mandates for large families do you find other than be fruitful and multiply? Of course that one was given when there where only two people on the face of the earth.

ET writes in part " Al Mohler had a good "food for thought" commentary some time back on the issue. I'll see if I can dig that up."

Ed: So why do Al and Mary not practice what he preaches, I'm sure Kati and Mathew would have welcomed a few more siblings.

Something my Dad used to say--and it applied to livestock as well as children "If you can't feed them, don't breed them."

The simple answer is to double the cap on the payroll tax, but get a Congressman to even talk about it--NO WAY.

This becomes a sensitive subject for many of us. Personally, my wife and I wish it had been possible to have more children, but our son was, as one doctor said, a "biological improbability." We are thankful to have him. The danger here is that involuntarily childless couples or those who after genetic counseling are told they should not reproduce who come to church and get a dose of guilt. Check and see how many childless couples are missing from your churches on Mother's Day and Father's Day because they can't take the inherent message of the day that there is something wrong with them.

Like most issues, this one is going to have varied opinions among Christians, including Southern Baptists. I don't think the SBC is trying to do what Stephen wants to accuse them of doing, and in fact, if Mohler can be considered a source, it looks like they leave the issue up to individuals and churches. Gee, that sounds characteristically like something a bunch of Baptists would do. Imagine that.

The real issue here is that Baptists, like many other groups, are not having enough babies to fill the nurseries and children's departments nor to keep the waters of the baptisteries stirred on a regular basis. Baptist growth, at its highest point, was in part the result of the post World War II baby boom. Part of the decline is simply that there are not babies rushing through these days.

Ed: And around and around we go! We had essentially the same discussion from April through
Mid July of 2010. Aaron Weaver and D. Flick where also involved in that one.