Christianity,  Politics

Are Humans the Problem?

More abortions. More birth-control. That’s how we can fix the “global warming” problem being discussed at the U.N.’s climate change conference in Copenhagen. At least that’s what Diane Francis argues in her column for Financial Post titled “The real inconvenient truth.” She writes,

‘The “inconvenient truth” overhanging the UN’s Copenhagen conference is not that the climate is warming or cooling, but that humans are overpopulating the world.

‘A planetary law, such as China’s one-child policy, is the only way to reverse the disastrous global birthrate currently, which is one million births every four days.

‘The world’s other species, vegetation, resources, oceans, arable land, water supplies and atmosphere are being destroyed and pushed out of existence as a result of humanity’s soaring reproduction rate.’

Anybody who knows anything about China’s “one-child” policy should shudder at this argument. Authorities estimate that China’s “one-child”policy has prevented 250 million births from its implementation in 1979 to 2000. This draconian policy has resulted in forced abortions, female infanticide, and a gender imbalance. Tragically, because so many female babies have been either aborted or killed, there are millions of male children who have now grown up and who have no prospects for marriage. There are simply not enough females for them to marry (Albert Mohler has written extensively about this here).

And now Diane Francis wants to foist this tragedy upon the entire world by way of new international laws. The sad thing is that she is not alone in this kind of thinking. If you’ve been paying attention to the radical wing of environmentalists for any amount of time, you will find that this policy flows right out of their playbook. Many of them regard humans as the problem in the world, not the solution. So it’s no surprise that their policy prescriptions often involve the elimination of humans from the environmental equation.

This kind of thinking grows out of a worldview that is radically opposed to a Christian worldview. While Christians agree with radical environmentalists that humans are the cause of great evils in the world, we do not agree with them about the remedy to the human condition. Radical environmentalists tend toward the elimination of humanity. Christians argue for the redemption of humanity. After all, the Christian hope is nothing less than a restoration of the paradise that was lost in the Garden of Eden. There God told Adam and Eve to rule over all of creation and to be fruitful and to multiply (Genesis 1:26-28). In the Edenic state, God commanded procreation and population growth, and He called it “good.”

I’m all for being a good steward of the creation, and that includes not wasting or irrevocably destroying the natural resources God has given us. That being said, we all need to be wary of radical environmentalists that turn the creation into an idol to be worshiped. When that happens, humans are no longer safe. Diane Francis’s article is a case in point.

7 Comments

  • Reader

    I’ve lived in China for two years, and so I was really shocked when I read the callous tone of the article.

    One story related to me by a friend–it took place in the early 80s when the OCP was still being implemented–still haunts my thoughts. A woman in the city where we live had just given birth to a healthy baby girl–her first. When she came to (almost all births here are C-section) she saw a group of doctors and nurses standing around her. Alarmed, she asked what was the problem. A doctor handed her a form and asked her to sign it. The form stated that she had given birth to twins–a girl and a boy.

    She soon learned that the baby boy actually belonged to the lady in the bed next to her. She hadn’t yet woken up. The problem is that this boy was her second. The hospital was not allowed to sign off on the live birth of a second child. They would have been fined or worse. So the doctors devised a plan to deceive.

    The mother of the girl was so exhausted and afraid that she refused to sign the form. She feared for her own child if she was to be found out.

    Several minutes later, she noticed that the lady next to her had woken up. One single nurse came in to tell her that her baby boy had died during the delivery. To this day, the mother does not know the horrible truth. The mother of the girl has been in and out of severe depression for nearly 30 years.

    No human should ever be put in such a position because of the injustice and evil of human ideology. Stories like this should make anyone shudder at the thought of such a policy being spread abroad.

  • Jordan

    Thank you for posting this, Dr. Burk. China’s one-child policy has been a tragedy for thirty years, and the fact that there are those who want it to become global saddens me. (It does not shock me, for it only illustrates the Biblical truth that things will go “from bad to worse.”) Such a policy is a terrible, immoral thing that must not go worldwide. Thanks for bringing it to your readers’ (and my) attention.

  • Heather Roach

    Let’s have babies, as many as we can, while we can! God welcomes and loves children. He has welcomed and loved us. Let’s not see them with the world’s eyes – as a burden rather than a tremendous blessing.

  • Barry

    I believe this is the same lady that was on The O’Reilly Factor last Friday, when Laura Ingraham was hosting. Ironic that Francis fancies herself a feminist (pardon the alliteration) since there could be nothing more opposed to feminism than China’s oppressive, totalitarian regime. What she’s not saying, also, is that China has a “girl problem” in that there simply aren’t enough girls to marry the boys. Too many have been aborted or abandoned. OCP is draconian in the worst way.

  • Cynthia

    This bears repeating: The birth control pill, Yaz, has been linked to a number of adverse reactions, including strokes and lawsuits are growing over these issues. Here is some good information…

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