say something

i found an article on what is called natalism this summer and was so happy to discover that there is a subculture of people who are making their home and family their priority. then yesterday i put the word into google to research this topic a little more, and what did i find? nothing but negative reviews about how natalism means the belief that  a persons purpose in life is to reproduce, and they are only selfishly contributing to the overpopulation of the planet. i was really upset by this.

first of all, the purpose of natalism is not to reproduce but as diognetus would put it; to not destroy one’s offspring. natalists aren’t the only people having children, and they aren’t doing it just for the sake of reproduction. natalists are those who choose to care for their children, and actually raise them instead of asking the school system or youth group to do so. a lot of people are having families, the difference is who makes them a priority.

secondly, the problem of overpopulation of the globe is that we are not producing enough resources to meet everyone’s needs. the cause of this is not the amount of people as much as our wasteful, unsustainable, and consumeristic lifestyles. if you want to control population growth get the catholic church to quit putting contracts out on people’s lives for passing out condoms to homeless families in third world countries, and teach high school kids to keep their pants on. the problem is not people who want children having them, its people who dont want children but have them anyways.

if you’re not going to raise your kids, don’t get pregnant, and quit complaining about people who are raising productive members of society.

 -josephine