Editor’s Note:  Richard Eyre’s 12-article series last year gave added perspective to the Gospel and the Plan of Salvation by viewing both through a familycentric lens.  (to see those earlier articles click here.)

The insightful series was so well received that we were all sorry to see it end.  And it turns out that it didn’t end—Starting with his article last week (read here), Richard is adding a half dozen additional family-focused essays, with another today and one each weekend for the next four weeks. Some are directly Gospel-related, and others point in cultural and political directions.  Together they will give us additional perspective as we begin the new year! 

Author’s Note: Since finishing that earlier series, I have been aware of some additional aspects of “The Family, the Church and the World” that ought to be viewed through the familycentric lens.  I’m grateful to Meridian for the chance to complete and round-off the series.

With regard to today’s article, it is often the pattern of authors to offer solutions and answers before readers have sufficiently considered the problems and questions.  I am trying to avoid that unfortunate sequence by beginning with questions-only on this vastly consequential topic.  Please ponder the questions I ask here for a week and if you wish, share any responses or thoughts privately with me by emailing my pen name Dr*******@***il.com. Then come back here next weekend for the follow up article which will have more periods and explanation points and fewer question marks.

The Babies and The Back Story

Our honeymoon was a cross-country drive to Boston to start graduate school.  I was one of the relatively few MBA students at Harvard who was married, and we had our first child on our first anniversary.  Being married made me rather unique, and being a father made me almost otherworldly among my classmates.  And when I happened to mention that Linda and I thought we wanted more than two or three children I got several sideways glances and one anonymous letter, slipped under out apartment door that questioned our intention to “use up more than our share of the earth’s resources.”

It was the 70s, and the criticisms that started in Boston got worse as we moved to Washington DC and had three more kids in the next five years.  Linda was stopped in grocery stores and asked where all those children came from—“did she run a school?”

The standard narrative was that everyone needed to fear the Population Bomb, and that all enlightened people subscribed to the Zero Population Growth mantra.

We were soon called to our Latter-day Saint Mission Presidency in London, and had two more children there—and if four kids stood out in Washington, having six kids in England was unheard of.  We were warned, even by fellow Church members, that we probably didn’t have enough money to raise and educate them, or enough love to give each one as much as they needed. All we knew is that we were approaching the question (each time—on whether to have a child) prayerfully, and we weren’t trying to apply any answers or impressions that we felt to anyone but ourselves.

Now, fast-forward 50 years,  and reflect on today’s world, where the current fear and the present narrative has flipped from Population Bomb to Demographic Winter, as all fifty states and every developed country in the world has slipped below a replacement level birth-rate, and where the future-worry is the shrinking workforce and the “inverted pyramid” where fewer and fewer working age people are unable to take care of more and more elderly.

In our latest rounds of speaking and travel, particularly in Asia and Europe, governments have moved 180 degrees from the old over-population worries, and are now panicked enough about declining workforces that they offer all kinds of campaigns and incentives to encourage couples to have children.  For example, in Singapore, new parents get a $10,000 to $15,000 cash “baby bonus,” and in Sweden parents receive ongoing monthly payments of about $130 per child and an additional large family supplement (with “large family” meaning more than one child.)

Of course, the personal questions of having children—if and when and how many—must be answered individually by each couple, but whether we are thinking about it personally or societally, we ought to ask ourselves the right questions. 

The Biggest Problem now, and the First Commandment then

Let us begin the New Year by thinking a little about what may be the most important (and most overlooked) problem facing humanity as we enter the second quarter of the 21st century.  No, I am not talking about climate change or political upheaval, or pollution of the planet’s water and air, or even war and poverty, although these are all obviously tremendous challenges.

The even larger problem, and the one that may overtake us most quickly, is the existential threat of what come call a Demographic Winter…the problem of population declines and shifts that are so severe that they could change the lives of everyone on the planet.

This is such a big issue that I can only dent it, and I want to try to do so in two parts, with a little feedback from you in between.  This first part is going to simply ask some questions. As you will see, some of the questions about birthrate, fertility and marriage decline are economic or political or cultural, but many are Spiritual questions about which Latter Day Saints should have particular concern. Some are broad, some are personal. Comment at the end of this article if you wish; or respond privately. (see Author’s note above.)

Next week in part two I will have some commentary on many of these questions—not answers perhaps—but commentary. I know this is wading into deep waters, and there are many, many things we can’t know or judge.

The Questions

What was the first commandment God gave to man?

When Heavenly Father said “multiply and replenish the earth” was he talking to Adam and Eve or to all of us? And what do those five words mean today?

Do you find it ironic that increasing population seems to have ravished and depleted rather than replenished the natural world? Do the words “multiply” and “replenish” complement or oppose each other?

Did the Zero Population Growth mantra of the Seventies, Eighties and Nineties make our world better or worse? More or less secure and enduring?

Are the recent birthrate declines in virtually all developed countries a solution to or an exacerbation of the world’s problems?

Theoretically, in what ways could fewer and fewer babies being born thwart or threaten God’s plan for the mortal experience of all His children?

Should President Oaks’ statement “Our theology begins with Heavenly Parents, and our greatest aspiration is to be like Them” have direct bearing on our desire to have children?

Are you alarmed that the fertility rate has fallen below replacement level in all 50 states, and in all of the wealthiest countries of the world?

What are the ramifications of declining, below-replacement birthrates in rich, developed countries and increasing, above-replacement birthrates in poor, developing countries??

What is the economic worry of ever-increasing lifespans coupled with ever-decreasing birthrates?  Does an inverted pyramid accurately diagram this dire economic situation?

How do fewer and fewer young people (workers) support and maintain (or even pay the Social Security and Medicare of) more and more (retired) seniors and elderly?

Will countries with declining fertility rates have to rely more and more on in-immigration to maintain their workforces? And will that be a good or bad thing

How much does having children affect and impact human capacity to love, to sacrifice, and to accept responsibility?

How important are the character lessons and love-capacities learned and brought about by parenthood?

Does the trend toward having fewer children later in life fit well with our human biology? With God’s plan? With the striving for a higher quality of parenting?

How much should our belief in a premortal existence influence our desire to have children, and how does that belief impact our perspective and influence how we view our eternal relationship with these spiritual siblings who become our children?

How much does God’s desire for us to become more like Him hinge on our becoming parents as He is a Parent?

Does the promise of the opportunity of parenthood and progeny in post-mortality apply to those who consciously choose not to have children here as well as those who want to but can’t?

How closely is the declining marriage rate connected to the declining birth rate?

How important is mortal procreation in the fulfillment of God’s plan and purpose—and in His work and glory?

Which is the primary motivator to those who decide against having children—”protecting the planet” or “individual freedom?”

To expand the previous question, which reasons for having “none,” or “less,” or “later” children do you think actually influence people most?  (pick your top three)

–avoid responsibility
–preserve options and freedom
–less depletion of the earth’s resources
–bad marriage or no marriage-“don’t have someone with whom I would want to have kids”
–too expensive, can’t afford
–better lifestyle for fewer people
–not a natural parent, wouldn’t be good at it
–unable to conceive
–don’t want to bring a child into this messed up world

Could there be any more direct way for the adversary to undermine God’s plan and purpose for mortality than to prevent spirits from getting into mortality at all, or to come to a place or circumstance where they are less likely to live in freedom or discover spiritual truth?

Should the “macro” of God’s plan of salvation factor into the “micro” of a Church couple’s decisions of whether and when to have children?

Final question:  Is the primal commandment to “Multiply and Replenish” still in effect today?

Next Week

Perhaps no one can fully answer most of these questions, and perhaps no two of us would answer them exactly the same.  But they deal with a challenge that will have a profound effect on our children and our grandchildren—and that will change the world in which they live, and work, and raise their own families.

So, thinking about it now, even if only to try to ask the right questions and acknowledge their relevance, is an important thing to do.

Do it with me—share your thoughts.  And I will attempt to share a few of mine next week.

Richard Eyre is a New York Times #1 Bestselling Author who lectures throughout the world on matters of family, life-balance, and the spirit.