I found this excerpt from a report entitled “Life without Children” recently (from The National Marriage Project, written in 2008). This was truly a “wake up call” in the sense of how a delay in parenting, a decline in births, and the de-valuing of parenthood is making America less open to children. Apart from God’s moving in our nation, the mythical land of “Vulgaria” in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang where children were shunned could become more and more a reality.
We are in the midst of a profound change in American life. Demographically, socially and culturally, the nation is shifting from a society of child-rearing families to a society of child-free adults. The percentage of households with children has declined from half of all households in 1960 to less than one-third today—the lowest percentage in the nation’s history. Indeed, if the twentieth century aspired to become the “century of the child,” the twenty-first may well become the century of the child-free . . . . It is hard enough to rear children in a society that is organized to support that essential social task. Consider how much more difficult it becomes when a society is indifferent at best, and hostile, at worst to those who are caring for the next generation.
What can you do to foster a love for children? May God help us all!
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