Childlessness A Sin, Southern Baptist Leader Says

KWTX ^ | 1-17-06

[WKB]

Rev. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, says it's "an absolute revolt against God's design" if husbands and wives purposely avoid bearing children.

On his Web site and other articles and interviews, Mohler argues that "marriage, sex and children are part of one package" and that "to deny any part of this wholeness is to reject God's intention in creation and his mandate revealed in the Bible."

In a CNN interview, the Baptist leader added, “We grow up by having children. Without that responsibility, we have a generation of perpetual adolescents just growing old."

[BibChr]

<< Pot, kettle, black. You're guilty of this all the time regarding Catholicism. >>

Baseless assertions:

Cost = $00.00
Value = Ditto

Dan

[Coldwater Creek]

Obviously you are in the clear. Your age would not be a factor, but the vasectomy would.

[Xenalyte]

I done got married back in September, and at this very moment I'm in a tasteful sea-green three-piece pantsuit with gorgeous CBGB pumps.

[don-o]

Last time I checked, bringing a newborn to adulthood costs about $1 Million. Each.

Hooey. Source, please.

[AmericanDave]

"I guess according to the reverend, Condi Rice is an immature child."

What the Reverend was saying was IN MARIAGE, no children is a sin. He certainly isn't preaching for more children out of wedlock! Condi Rice is NOT married, that is proper as is celibacy. Look to Hollywood or the projects for children out of wedlock.

[Sonny M]

Also there are people who HAVE kids who are mean and bitter.

I call some of them neighbors.

[gotribe]

How about adding a "Hillbilly Preacher" alert to that headline?

[linda_22003]

I thought it was because you loved someone and wanted to spend the rest of your life with him. :)

[TruthSetsUFree]

"When you are 75 years old, sitting and looking out into the backyard with no grandkids to watch play, make cookies for or spoil... then you might just regret not having children..."

Your world view is way too narrow and you must not know enough people. I know many people who have not had children and who in their old age have many children in their lives. We can invest ourselves in others without having children, and in return reap the rewards of that investment.

And on the other hand I know of many parents and grandparents sitting in nursing homes with absolutely no visitors, including their own family.

If you have children just to be sure you won't be alone when you're old you just very well may be disappointed someday.

[Rte66]

Amen!

[WKB]

It is? When did God hire him to speak for Him?




Read the Bible, sir.
God has been calling men to preach
for several thousand years now.

[linda_22003]

She's also fifty years old, so I wouldn't hold my breath about offspring for her even if she finds Mr. Right tonight.

[darkangel82]

Of course, I'm only 23 right now. So I guess it makes some sense that I don't want kids.

I'm your age, have no kids and no plans for any now or future, there's a good reason for that though.

[linda_22003]

I don't want to be on any "side" of an issue. I want to be left alone with the most personal of all possible decisions. If I were living in childless sin with my husband, I'm pretty sure MY minister would have mentioned it to me. I do not need to worry about the opinions of a minister I've never met, from a denomination to which I don't belong.

[RobbyS]

Blame the monks. In his "The Victory of Reason," Rodney Stark of Baylor reminds us that the Benedictines established thousands of monasteries which provided "business models" that were copied by the business establishments if the middle ages. His argument is that capitalism grew out of their endeavors. because work was an integral part of the monastic disciple, they began by farming and small scale production (e.g. vineyards) and ended with the employment of tens of thousands of hands.

[CWOJackson]

"Read the Bible, sir."

I do, that's why I have no need for some self righteous preacher to tell me the word of God. I will say again, it is none of his business whether my wife and I decide to have children or not. It is between us and our Maker, not him.

[SauronOfMordor]

Fear not. The Muslims evidently do obey this commandment, therefore they are apparently more godly than we, therefore they are favored by God. By letting the Muslims win, we therefore will have satisfied the will of God. QED.

You've got the situation. A group which does not generate children at replacement rate (or better) will eventually disappear, and be replaced by a group with a higher reproduction rate

You see it happen in Europe. The non-Muslim Europeans are not having children at anywhere close to replacement rate. The European Muslim population is growing rapidly, with Muslim women having many kids. Eventually, they will achieve political dominance.

It looks like a culture which allows women to enter the workplace (and choose not to have children) will over the long-run be overrun by a culture which mandates that its women produce babies, and does not give the women any choice in the matter

[JamesP81]

God must be most pleased with India and China.

Uhh, yeah, if you ignore that whole putting Christians into prison thing in China.

[kaylar]

Most people I've known who criticize the childfree/childless do NOT draw a distinction, though-ANYONE without offspring is automatically immature.