FaithWorld

Recent reports of America’s sagging birthrate ‑ the lowest since the 1920s, by some measures ‑ have sparked a much-needed debate about the future of the American family. Unfortunately, this discussion, like so much else in our society, is devolving into yet another political squabble between conservatives and progressives.

Conservatives, including the Weekly Standard’s Jonathan Last, regularly cite declining birth and marriage rates as one result of expanding government ‑ and a threat to the right’s political survival. Progressives, meanwhile, have labeled attempts to commend a committed couple with children as inherently prejudicial and needlessly judgmental.

Yet family size is far more than just another political wedge issue. It is an existential one – essentially determining whether a society wants to replace itself or fall into oblivion, as my colleagues and I recently demonstrated in a report done in conjunction with Singapore’s Civil Service College. No nation has thrived when its birthrate falls below replacement level and stays there – the very level the United States are at now. Examples from history extend from the late Roman Empire to Venice and the Netherlands in the last millennium.

Falling birthrates and declining family formation clearly effect national economies. One major United States’  advantage has long been high birthrates, akin to a developing nation’s, as well as a vibrant family-oriented culture. This was largely because of immigrants and their children, striving first- and second-generation Americans. The United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, is expected to have a roughly 40 percent growth in its workforce in the first half of this century, largely thanks to immigration.

In contrast, the Census Bureau predicts that leading U.S. competitors, notably Japan, Europe and South Korea, will likely suffer a decline of 25 percent or more over that time. Even China, whose birthrate has dropped precipitously under its one-child policy and rapid urbanization, is expected to see a sharp drop in its labor force over the next decade.

(The sun sets over St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, 31 Dec 1999. REUTERS/Paul Hanna)

Ray Mouton was a successful young lawyer in Lafayette, Louisiana, respected in the community and blessed with a loving family, when he received a call from a vicar in the Roman Catholic diocese for a lunch meeting on a fateful day in 1984.

The diocese asked him to defend an errant priest, accused of abusing dozens of children in a rural community. Mouton reluctantly agreed to take on the task.

(Buddhist monks take part in a protest in support of demonstrators who were injured during a copper mine riot, in Yangon December 12, 2012. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun)

Pyinyananda was chanting with dozens of fellow Buddhist monks when an object landed in the folds of his orange robes and blew up.

The canister contained tear gas, the police later said, but the explosion flayed so much skin from his arms and legs that he remains in hospital weeks later.

Pakistan has been facing gun and bomb attacks for so long, it is tempting to think it will continue to muddle along, the situation never becoming so bad as to galvanise it into action. And maybe it will.

But a series of attacks in and around Peshawar this month should give serious pause for thought.

First came a raid on Peshawar airport in mid-December, for which the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility. Then political leader Bashir Ahmed Bilour - an outspoken critic of the Taliban and a senior minister in the provincial government of the Awami National Party (ANP) - was killed in a suicide bombing.

(An Iranian cargo plane on the tarmac during inspection at Baghdad’s airport October 2, 2012. REUTERS/Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority/Handout )

Iran’s parliament has banned airplanes from flying in the country during the Azan call to Islamic prayer, the semi-official Mehr news agency has reported.

“According to the new directive, airplanes are banned from flying during Azan, especially during the call to morning prayers,” Mehr quoted the spokesman for parliament’s cultural committee Ali Taheri as saying.

(Pope Benedict XVI baptizes a baby during a mass in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican January 10, 2010. REUTERS/Osservatore Romano )

Thousands of Dutch Catholics are researching how they can leave the church in protest at its opposition to gay marriage, according to the creator of a website aimed at helping them find the information.

Tom Roes, whose website allows people to download the documents needed to leave the Church, said traffic on ontdopen.nl – “de-baptize.nl” – had soared from about 10 visits a day to more than 10,000 after Pope Benedict’s latest denunciation of gay marriage this month.

(Pope Benedict XVI (R) leads a mass of Vespers at Mary Queen of the Apostles Basilica in Yaounde March 18, 2009. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi)

One of Cameroon’s most senior Christian leaders on Tuesday called same-sex marriages a “crime against humanity”, ramping up anti-gay rhetoric in the Central African state.

As in most African nations, homosexuality is illegal in Cameroon. But a number of incidents have highlighted the clash between a largely conservative culture backed by draconian law and youth for some of whom it is less of an issue.

(Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, addresses the theology think tank Theos in London October 1, 2012. REUTERS/Paul Hackett )

The leader of the Church of England on Tuesday said a vote last month that struck down proposals to allow women to become bishops had been “deeply painful”, but that Christianity was still relevant in Britain despite falling numbers of believers.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who leads the global 80-million-strong Anglican Communion, said in his Christmas day sermon that the answer to the question of whether Christianity had “had its day” was a “resounding no”.

(A woman holds a poster during a vigil in memory of Savita Halappanavar and in support of changes to abortion law in Dublin November 17, 2012. REUTERS/Cathal McNaughton )

The head of Ireland’s Catholic Church urged followers in his Christmas Day message to lobby against government plans to legalise abortion.

Ireland, the only EU member state that currently outlaws the procedure, is preparing legislation that would allow limited access to abortion after the European Court of Human Rights criticised the current regime.

Merry Christmas! Maybe it's because of some vestigial religious undertones to this holiday, or maybe it's because the end of the tax year is rapidly approaching, along with the urgency of maximizing your annual deductions. Either way, this is a particularly philanthropic time of year. And since I'm personally feeling very charitable right now, I've decided to do you all the favor of telling you that when it comes to philanthropy, you're doing it wrong.

Interestingly, philanthropy is one of those areas where the richer you are, the more likely you are to be doing it spectacularly wrong. So to make you feel better still, this is aimed mainly at the mega-philanthropists: the people who give away millions of dollars and feel fantastic for doing so. These are the people at the heart of the debate over capping the mortgage-interest tax deduction: they receive an outsized proportion of its costs, on the grounds, to quote Bob Shiller, that

charitable giving can substitute for a good part of the things that the government would otherwise be doing itself, a factor that is rarely introduced into budget calculations. Indeed, in many cases, individual philanthropy may be more effective than government expenditures.