The Birth of Jesus, Part XV. The Journey to Bethlehem

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on 13 June 2013 2 Comments
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Question

The Episcopal Network for Science, Technology and Faith addresses food, climate change, biodiversity and water as important subjects for discussion, but "where's the beef?" Population explosions at the root of most of the problems humanity faces today. Is that topic too sensitive for thinking religious leaders to discuss publicly or are shrinking markets too horrendous to contemplate?

 

 

 

Answer

Dear Steve,

Just let me say first that it was a pleasure to meet and talk with you when I was recently in Milwaukee.

The question of population explosion is the central and critical issue that must be faced in any discussion of world hunger, genetically-mutated food supplies, climate change, biodiversity and water purity. To address population control, one must consider the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church as well as those leaders of business, who base all of their planning on the idea of ever-expanding markets and ever-growing bottom lines. That is a formidable set of foes. The objections of the Roman Catholic Church will be the easiest to overcome as most Roman Catholics, at least in the developed world, have long ago ceased to pay much attention to the pronouncements of their church on either birth control or abortion.

The profit motive and the need for expanding markets to keep the economy of the world functioning will be more difficult. It is the affected business enterprises that today fund most of the negativity toward environmental concerns and spread the incredibly false claim that global warming is merely a matter of the earth wobbling on its axis, which, they assert, is a regular and periodic deviation in the history of the earth’s climate and that it is not caused by the human use of fossil fuels over the last 150 years. All of the arguments that this point of view presents are dismissed as nonsense by the scientific world. That fact, however, does not stop corporations from hiring pseudo-scientists to muddy the waters with their pseudo-scientific propaganda.

The way the world economy works, the cost of polluting the universe will have to become more expensive than the cost of ending that polluting process. That day seems to be drawing near with a rapid rise in bizarre weather patterns that produce droughts, floods, tornadoes and killer hurricanes. When coastal America is under water, when the subways of New York City are flooded, when drought greatly reduces the corn crop or the wheat crop in America’s heartland and causes the price of food to go up around the world, perhaps the political will to address population explosion will be present.

How it is addressed will then be the issue. I am not sure the world could or should follow the Chinese model. I think we accomplish the task of population control, first, by educating women so that they can make better choices for the quality of their lives. Statistics reveal a high correlation between the educational level a woman receives and the number of babies she produces. Second, through the tax structures of the various nations, we ought to begin to offer financial incentives for fewer children. For example, we need to enact a law that prohibits tax deductions for offspring after two children or that provides more financial aid for the first two children of each family to get higher education and no assistance for children after number two. When all of the children after the second one become very expensive to raise and educate, then the population growth rate will begin to come down. When it becomes stable and sustainable, the economic engines of the human enterprise ought to be dedicated to the improvement of the quality of life for all.

There was a time when family planning and birth control were considered sinful. I think we have reached the time in history where the lack of family planning and the unwillingness to use birth control must be deemed to be both sinful and irresponsible.

John Shelby Spong

 

***IMPORTANT NOTE: The book by Helnut Thielicke, referenced in last week's q and a section, is not entitled Parables as I suggested, but is entitled The Waiting Father. Thanks to a number of my readers for pointing this out.

 

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