I have
Posted on 10/15/2017 4:55:28 PM PDT by marshmallow
In 2007, Patriarch Ilia II of the Georgian Orthodox Church made a decision: facing a country with a declining population, low birth rates, and high abortion rates, the church leader announced that he would personally baptize and become godfather to any third-or-high Orthodox child born to a married couple in Georgia and formally registered with the government. Georgia is almost 90% Georgian Orthodox, Patriarch Ilia II is widely trusted and respected, and Georgians are the most likely of any Orthodox-majority country to say their religion is about personal faith. In other words, Georgia is an ideal test-case to see if national leaders can use social or cultural capital to effect targeted social changes. Since the first mass-baptisms in late 2007, Ilia has baptized over 30,000 babies, about 5.8% of the total births in Georgia over that time, or about 34.5% of the third-or-higher births, so his baptisms are of a demographically-significant scale.
Recently, I wrote about how using financial incentives to boost fertility may cost a lot more than policymakers expect. This could reasonably lead a reader to think that any boost to fertility will be very expensive. But that’s not necessarily the case. It is widely demonstrated, for example, that a woman’s fertility desires are closely associated with religious belief—with more religious people usually desiring more children—and yet religious belief has no direct fiscal cost for the government.
It stands to reason, then, that cultural or social changes might impact fertility as well. However, cultural and social changes are very hard to discuss because they are rarely tracked with sufficiently detailed data to allow rigorous analysis, and it’s often hard to show causality: is fertility impacting culture, or culture impacting fertility?
Fortunately, Georgia, a small former Soviet republic of just 3.4 million people wedged between......
(Excerpt) Read more at ifstudies.org ...
According to Wikipedia, Georgia’s 2015 fertility rate was 1.82, which is higher than most European countries. If they can affect birth choices now, before the population ages further, they might turn things around. I wish them the best!
I wonder what birthrates are like among Georgian expatriates. Many expats from places I wouldn’t want to live - including Russia, Poland, and Mexico - have significantly higher birthrates than those who remain in the Old Country.
In my neighborhood, the only family as big as ours are Ukrainian Evangelicals. They have ten children (not all at home any more) as well as both sets of grandparents. They bought two houses side-by-side! So did the Eritreans, who arrived with an extended family, but as they’ve prospered, adult children have moved to other areas.
Positive Change.
Christians and Jews became majorities in the Roman Empire because the pagans refused to replace themselves.
They used crude birth control, abortions, and extremely common, infanticide to reduce the number of children to care for.
We may see history repeating itself.
Unfortunately, in what was the heart of Christendom, Muslims are encouraged to replace the indigenous population.
I know a Georgian expat who has 2 children and just hit his 5th anniversary.
I had two children at that point, too. It’s what happens over the next 15 years that really affects your national demographics! Still, two is more than the Georgian average already.
I don’t think I have ever met a Georgian.
I have
I had two children at that point, too. It’s what happens over the next 15 years that really affects your national demographics
We’re getting more and more apparently muslim refugees in my area of Florida. It really is a surprise to go shopping and see a big family of 5+ kids seemingly all under like 8 years old. Not something you would see much before this, LOL.
What is that?
OOOPS! Wrong Georgia.
Cubans used to have children. So did American rednecks. Natives like the Seminoles.
If it’s only Moslems having large families, then that’s it. I know a priest from Jamaica, a few years older than I am (maybe 60), who is one of 12 children of his mother. He tells American mothers with large families, “Keep it up, keep it up! Don’t let the Moslems win!”
I’ve heard of the University of Georgia, USA, but what is *that*, exactly?
We need to have a Caucasian birth date here...(we have 6 kids and in the process of adopting 3.)
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