The mission of Issues in Perspective is to provide thoughtful, historical and biblically-centered perspectives on current ethical and cultural issues.

Evangelicals and Catholics Together (ECT) is an ecumenical group founded in 1994 by Richard John Neuhaus and Chuck Colson. This organization periodically publishes papers and hosts conferences dealing with important biblical issues as they relate to culture and the Christian faith.  Prominent scholars and church leaders are a part of this movement.  Recently, I came across a paper published by ECT in 2009 on children as gifts from God.  In addition to the postmodern pursuit of personal autonomy, modern birth control methods and abortion have made it easier for women to avoid having children.  The result is the diminishing importance of children in terms of personal fulfillment and the additional consequence of the diminishing importance of the family as a viable and robust institution of Western Civilization.  For that reason, I have found the ECT paper a refreshing overview of how God views children and their importance to human flourishing and fulfillment.  In this Perspective I want to summarize and extensively quote from this valuable paper.

“Children are gifts. In them, we respond to Moses’s urgent imperative: Choose life! (Deut. 30:19) Men and women have always brought children into the world. To be a parent is the most natural of things. It is fundamental to what it means to be human. Yet the birth of a child is also an extraordinary moment for parents, charged with transcendent meaning. In our children, we venture something beyond our control. Even for those who do not believe in God, having a child is an act of faith. As we welcome a child into the world, we project something of ourselves into an unknown future. Even in dire times—war, disease, famine—new life manifests hope.”

Our creation as male and female allows us to participate in the life-giving power of God’s creation. “A man leaves his father and mother and cleaves to his wife and they become one flesh” (Gen. 2:24). This one-flesh union has an intrinsic potential for new life. The central role of sexual union in the biblical account of our creation as male and female shows that our nature is pro-creative—not just in the biological sense of reproducing the species, but in a spiritual sense. Biblical humanism begins in fatherhood and motherhood. In committing ourselves to renewing and caring for the forward-flowing stream of life, we become more fully human. To have a child is to affirm that God’s creation is good. Like the stars above, “the mouths of babes and infants” chant the glory of God (Ps. 8:2).

“Children compel us to serve a future we cannot control. They are free beings, independent agents who eventually will supersede us, living their own lives, not echoing ours. Having children thus involves a profound surrender, and children are often cause for anxiety. Parents want to educate their children and save up an inheritance, provisioning their progeny for the uncertainties of life. Of course, a wise person knows these efforts can come to naught: The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Welcoming the gift of children requires trust in divine providence: ‘Let it be done unto me according to your word’ (Luke 1:38).”

Part 1:  The Threats of Modern Technology

• “One of the most shocking features of our time is the rise of intentional childlessness, backstopped by the evil of abortion. Fertility has declined sharply in developed countries. The replacement rate in advanced societies is 2.1 children per woman, which means that women need to bear, on average, slightly more than two children for a society to maintain a steady overall population. In Taiwan, the fertility rate is 1.13 per woman. In Japan, it is 1.42. In Thailand, it is 1.52. Most European countries fall well below the replacement rate of 2.1, as does the United States, which reached a new low of 1.7 in 2018.  Many factors contribute to this decline. Thanks in part to improvements in healthcare, leading to a decline in infant mortality, couples today need to bear fewer children in order to attain desired family sizes. Contraceptive technologies play a role, perhaps the largest, in the turn away from children. Their use reflects deliberate decisions to prevent fertility.”

“Contraceptive technologies can become tools for social engineering. This has happened in China in blatant ways. But it has also been encouraged throughout the developing world by Western governments and powerful NGOs. Since the rise of social Darwinist thought in the late nineteenth century, a eugenicist mindset has seized on contraceptives as a way to limit the growth of “undesirable” populations. In the first half of the twentieth century, “unfit” populations were sterilized. Discredited by Nazism, the eugenic imperative now operates under the sign of choice. Today, some urge the provision of free long-acting contraceptive implants for high-school-age girls as a “solution” to intergenerational poverty. Those with concerns about global warming and other ecological problems often call for what amounts to population-wide, long-term sterilization. As Evangelicals and Catholics, we agree that a society in which nearly all fertile women are, in one form or another, rendered infertile by contraceptive technologies, whether by their own choice or as a result of social pressure, reflects a profoundly disordered view of sex, children, human nature, and environmental responsibility. The gift of children does not run counter to our stewardship of the created order. Population control is not a legitimate means of care for creation.”

• “We agree, as well, that abortion is an unmitigated evil. It destroys a human life and violates human dignity. Procedures that end the life of a child in the womb in the process of saving the life of the mother are permissible. Despite the claims of the abortion industry and Roe v. Wade, however, there are no situations in which the death of the child in the womb may be the sole purpose and direct intention. Abortion undertaken for the purpose of killing physically imperfect or potentially disabled children or children of the undesired sex is especially repugnant. We applaud the efforts of legislators to protect the unborn and support pregnant women and new mothers.”
• “We agree that the gift of children is intrinsic to the good of marriage. But children are not the sole good of marriage. As St. Augustine recognized, the marital bond promotes the good of companionship and mutual love between a man and a woman. There is a war between the sexes, as it were (see Gen. 3:15), and the domestic society of marriage establishes peace and promotes concord between men and women. Thus, the Apostle Paul sees marriage as a sign of the great mystery of God’s offer of peace in Christ to his wayward, rebellious creatures. Because the gift of children is integral to the good of marriage, a couple cannot enter into marriage if they share a firm intention not to have children. Priests and pastors should not officiate at weddings of couples who express this intention. This does not mean that infertile individuals or women beyond the age of child-bearing cannot marry. The inability to have children is not the same as taking active measures to prevent their conception. The former is a physical condition; the latter is a moral choice.”
• “The contraceptive mentality arises from an all-too-human desire for complete control over our lives. But our plans are not trustworthy guides to the fullness of life in Christ, for they are formulated by us, not by God. A child is not something we fabricate or produce. New life is not at our beck and call. Children are always gifts, even if the circumstances are difficult, even if the mother must endure the pain of giving her child up for adoption. Newborns suffering from birth defects are no less precious than those with bright prospects. Even the most genetically compromised child is a gift, which is why parents anguish over their newborn’s hard road in what may be a painful and short life. The bitterest tears are shed over the loss of the most precious gifts. It is a particular sign of the wickedness of our era that we kill the defective unborn in the womb, in a literal refusal of Jesus’s words: “Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me” (Matt. 19:14).”

Part 2:  The Care for Children

• “We have a duty to care for children, who are made in the image and likeness of God. They are vulnerable and need our protection, a protection that has often been lacking. As Catholics and Evangelicals, we grieve over the wrongs done to children, especially the sexual crimes perpetrated by church leaders. We regret our failures to sustain a culture that welcomes children as gifts. We repent of our blindness to the suffering of children. We feel the words of Jesus as a judgment: “It would be better for a man if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea, than that he would cause one of these little ones to stumble” (Luke 17:2).  Children need more than protecting; they also require education—not just intellectual and professional training, but moral instruction and spiritual discipline. Children often experience wonder, reflecting a natural religious sense. This needs to be encouraged and directed toward revealed truths. We fail our children if we do not introduce them to regular worship of God in the beauty of holiness and proclaim to them the Good News of Jesus Christ.  The duties of care, education, and religious formation fall upon a child’s parents first and foremost. As John Calvin observes, “Unless men regard their children as the gift of God, they are careless and reluctant in providing their support, just as on the other hand this knowledge contributes in a very eminent degree to encourage them in bringing up their offspring.” The relationship of parents to children is fundamental. The commandment to honor your father and mother establishes parents as God’s viceroys: ‘Children obey your parents in the Lord’ (Eph. 6:1). In this role parents have a duty to care for and nurture their children: ‘Do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord’ (Eph. 6:4).”
• “Throughout the modern era, the secular state has coveted control of children. Society properly intervenes in cases of physical neglect and abuse. We must resist, however, when the secular state claims to serve the emotional and moral interests of children at the expense of parental wishes. We have a duty to protect the rights of parents to discharge their responsibilities in ways they believe accord with the moral and spiritual needs of their children. Parental rights belong to everyone, not just our fellow Christians.  The churches must have the liberty to educate and catechize. We insist that children belong to God, as gifts held in trust by their parents. They are not state property. The secular state has a legitimate interest in the schooling of children. But the churches alone have the authority to establish theological standards for the household of God, and these standards include moral principles. Christianity is a way of life, not a set of abstract doctrines. The state’s expectations for the education of children must respect the churches’ higher loyalty, making reasonable accommodations when the religious and moral education of children clashes with the state’s efforts to form the rising generation. We are committed to forming children as faithful citizens—but “faithful” first, and “citizens” second.”
• “Marriage, the union of a man and a woman, is essential for the good of children. Marriage promotes the good of companionship between the sexes, and thereby trains children to relate to the opposite sex in cooperative, loving ways. In the domestic household, children learn what it means to promote a common good rather than merely a private, personal good. In the context of marriage, children see what it means to care and be cared for. They learn the virtue of fidelity. The stable family rooted in the companionship of a father and mother is the school of virtue.
• “The political community has an obligation to assist parents in their duty to care for their children. In so doing, it must act in accord with the principle of subsidiarity, not usurping the proper roles of parents, churches, and communities, and when necessary, providing encouragement and resources so that those bodies’ responsibilities may be discharged. We call for due consideration of charter schools, scholarships, tax-credit schemes, and other policies to empower parents to educate their children in accordance with their convictions. We urge legislation to restore the public moral foundations for stable and healthy family life.”

How a society treats children is a vital sign of its health. Do we desire them? Welcome them? Do we honor parents and champion their vocations as the primary caregivers, teachers, and mentors of children? Are the basic institutions of our society, including corporations and other places of employment, properly attentive to the care of children and the flourishing of family life? Are government policies oriented to the wellbeing of children? Do our churches support marriage? Are we clear and persistent in our proclamation of the Bible’s sexual norms affirming the fruitfulness of the conjugal union and the joy and responsibilities of family life?

“For Evangelicals and Catholics, these questions are near to our hearts. We pray that our churches and societies will see children as the gifts they are, without which we have no future.”

See “The Gift of Children” a Statement by Evangelicals and Catholics Together (November 2029) printed in First Things, ft@firstthings.com (23 April 2023).