Descent Into Barbarism Steadily Continues

LifeSiteNews.com reported two days ago that a new study on population trends in Canada explodes the myth that increasing immigration will solve the country’s looming demographic crisis.

What the study fails to address, however, is the elephant in Canada’s demographic living room – that Canadians do not have enough children and government policies have greatly contributed to that state of affairs.

The collapse of the Canadian birth rate corresponds closely to the double introduction of the chemical contraceptive and abortifacient pill and legalized abortion and with the explosion of the sexual revolution and the feminist movement that took mothers out of the home and into the work force.

Statistics Canada shows that the birth rate has dropped since 1940 from a high in 1960 of 4 children per woman, to an all time low of 1.2 by 2000. In 2004, Canada's birth rate – the number of live births for every 1,000 people in the population – hit another record low from 10.6 live births for every 1,000 population in 2003 to 10.5.

It’s truly past time for the Western world (formerly Christian societies) to acknowledge the truth and do serious repenting.

You might be asking: “Repent of what?”

Follow me for a few minutes.

Consider an editorial (no longer available online) that appeared in, of all places, the Washington Post on July 6, 2003. It was entitled “The Baby Bust,” and stated:

The U.S. birth rate has been dropping and is now just below replacement level. That it remains among the highest in the developed world is not much consolation: Most of the rich nations of Europe, as well as Japan, are facing a demographic crisis because of low birthrates . . . Countries with shrinking populations may stagnate economically, intellectually, and militarily. If future generations are to carry on the American vibrancy and dynamism, the country must be prepared to embrace more babies, and more adults from around the world.

Did you catch that? The country must embrace more babies. But I think they understated the case. It’s a lot WORSE than anyone seems to be saying, except for a rare and brave reporter here and there. Isn’t anyone noticing the crisis?

Speaking about growth i.e. having babies, etc., here’s how one wise guy sums it up:

Growth is not something that can be accepted or rejected without consequences. It is rather an inexorable law of life that applies to human populations as well as individual human beings. Growing is to be desired and accepted, not feared and rejected. Growing hurts. But not growing hurts even more. Wherever there are people, of course, there are problems. But this is a description of the human condition, not a prescription for population control. In a free society, people solve more problems than they make. And, in turn, it is precisely in solving these problems that a humane, just, and good culture is created, a culture of life in which all people exist as individual persons sharing in a more abundant life.

Here’s the whole article.

If you want more evidence, look at Japan. Or America. Or Germany.

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The moral is clear…Western civilization is in decline. We aren’t making enough babies. We don’t want babies. The population is shrinking in all the industrialized countries, and even with big immigration numbers, it’s still hard to get the population levels up to where they need to be to keep a country’s economic stability intact.

Why aren’t we making enough babies? Some would quickly say that abortion is the obvious answer. Who could argue with that? But it goes further than that. It’s about our attitudes towards God, towards children, towards family. And those attitudes show up inevitably in our sexual mores. Folks, we’re moving further and further away from God... it’s a move to control the outcome of our sexual behaviour, a move to control the consequences of the sexual act itself. We’ve been making this move big time since the 1960’s. We’ve been saying to God: Let’s have the fun but not the baby.

Now then, are you ready for this? The whole demography crisis is all about the results of contraception.

Yep, contraception. It’s that simple, but also that insidious.

It’s not abortion, even though abortion and contraception are two fruits from the same tree. (Don’t believe it? Here’s one short news story to get you thinking.)

Could it be that the decline of Western Christian society hinges on its practice of contraception? Its defiance of the first commandment found in the Bible? It’s here if you forgot the chapter and verse.

If you’re really ready for serious thought on contraception check this out. This is real good stuff for Protestants…but it’ll sting Catholics even more.

This is a huge subject. HUGE.

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Are you wondering these days why Islam is so much in the news? Why are some people saying that Muslims are now a threat? Is it simply because some Muslim extremists are blowing up buildings, other people and themselves?

Well, it’s true that they are. But why, at this point in history, are they now so emboldened to do so?

The answer? It’s very largely demographics and birth rate.

Today, the Muslim birth rate in Europe is three times higher than the non-Muslim one. If current trends continue, the Muslim population of Europe will nearly double by 2015, while the non-Muslim population will shrink by 3.5 percent. [Source]

Mark Steyn spells it out with style in his piece It's the Demography, Stupid

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But let’s stay focused here. I said we had to do some serious repenting.

We’ll need to see what the Pope has to say about the crisis.

The Pope tells Christians to have more babies!

Not long ago Pope Benedict XVI reminded Catholics (and the world) of a Christian truth held almost universally for the past 2000 years—having babies brings the blessing of God.

When is the last time you heard a homily, sermon, or statement from a Christian leader that we should be having more babies?

The Pope was only reminding Catholics of age old unchangeable Catholic teaching. (Catechism of the Catholic Church #2366-2372)

It’s pretty hard for Christians (clergy, pastors, etc.) to preach that message if they approve of and practice contraception. Yet it’s also true that the vast majority of Christians (disobedient Catholics are included) in North America do in fact approve of and practice contraception.

Ever since our predominantly Christian society in the early 1900’s began to shun the truth, as reiterated recently by the Pope, and embrace the contraceptive mentality, Christians have set themselves against God’s will and plan for mankind by disassociating the ‘unitive’ (pleasurable, intimate) aspect from the procreative (making babies) aspect of the sexual act. Out of this has sprung up the ‘new’ morality leading to rampant divorce and family breakdown, abortion, and yes, even homosexuality. Read more here and here.

Add to those evils the resulting alarming trends in declining population in Western societies and you’ve got a formula for societal collapse in the works, now unfolding before our very eyes.

I find it very sad and awful that in our own archdiocese of St. John’s, Newfoundland, a tremendous amount of effort has been put into the preparation of a document entitled A Challenge To Change.

This report was commissioned due to very serious problems being faced by the archdiocese because of shrinking population and shortage of priests.

A whole host of comments, suggestions and speculation was offered as to the causes and cures for this crisis, the major solution advanced being the clustering of parishes. The report clearly acknowledges that Newfoundland, a province where a high percentage of the population is Catholic, has the lowest birthrate in Canada. The report concludes with a summary of the “responses” and “other comments” offered by parties involved in the process, the very last comment stating in an eerie, prophetic sense, the following:

At best this is a stop-gap measure. With one new priest every 3-5 years the end is in sight. We need to be preparing for a non-clerical church.

But what’s the most surprising, even shocking, and obvious omission in this report? Nowhere does it even mention that Catholic failure to follow Church teaching regarding the evil of contraception is an inevitable cause of low birthrates and dwindling populations. And can there be any doubt that an apathetic and disobedient community of Catholics (as evidenced by this attitude) fails to inspire young men to the priesthood?

The Church is dying, and rather than allow the fresh breath of the Holy Spirit to speak new life by means of the Truth given to the Church, we prefer to discuss how we should dress the dead body and make final preparations for the funeral.

Will the bishops and priests of the Catholic Church repent of their past failures to call the people of God to authentic Christian and Catholic living and resolve to communicate strongly to their flock the recent message of Benedict XVI? God help them to do just that.

Here’s one bishop who is taking the crisis very seriously.

Pope Benedict XVI told Catholics to have more babies "for the good of society," saying that some countries were being sapped of energy because of low birth rates.

"Having children is a gift that brings life and well-being to society,"

He said the decline in the number of births "deprives some nations of freshness and energy and of hopes for the future incarnate in children."

The pope also spoke of "the security, the stability and the force of a numerous family."

Although the Vatican bans all forms of artificial contraception, this is widely ignored even in predominantly Catholic countries such as Italy and Spain, which have some of the lowest birth rates in the world.

The pontiff regretted that God is "unhappily often excluded or ignored" in many societies.

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Let’s acknowledge the truth, and repent of our failures. God helping us we may yet be able to recover from our current descent into barbarism.