Thursday, June 26, 2008
The fundamentalist population bomb
From the RoundTable blog
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Daniel Malore
Malore, of Lexington, is a contractor and writer involved with the Quaker community.
A recent Roanoke Times article quotes from The Associated Press, "The world's population will reach 7 billion in 2012, even as the global community struggles to satisfy its appetite for natural resources, according to a new government projection" ("Population of world to hit 7 billion in 4 years," June 20).
Many of us are familiar with studies suggesting populations stabilize as economies modernize, producing education, better health and job opportunities. But the elephant in the room we often ignore is the rise of fundamentalist religions promoting the value of a large family as part of God's plan.
If God's plan is to have us well-armed and at each other's throats fighting for limited resources, or to drown in the human-generated waste and pollution that capitalism and consumerism demand, we need to challenge this outdated God and religious dogma.
Taking a cue from the Dalai Lama's reference to the Chinese as "my friends the enemy," I sometimes refer to "my friends the over-breeding Mormons." Not to single out the Mormon tradition, it just happens to be the religious community here in Lexington that seems to be growing. I know lots of the teens. They're sweet, innocent and good workers.
But it doesn't seem likely we will be flying off to populate other planets soon, so unchecked population growth will continue to cause friction in countries with limited resources, defined borders, ethnic identities and rigid religious beliefs. Expanding populations modernize, use more resources and do what they can to get access to resources.
I've begun to feel sadness for children and parents of my Mormon friends. Sadness for mothers raising children to do God's work possibly finding they are raising good children to be soldiers in tomorrow's army of men fighting for resources of a depleted world. Sadness for fathers pushed harder in a brutal economy to bring bread to the table of a family of too many children.
When we were victims of natural process and the brutality of a tribal warrior world of only a few hundred years ago, maybe it made sense for some women to produce as many children as possible, hoping a few would survive into adulthood and add some value to tribe or community. This is no longer the world many of us live in. How can we not work to change our social order, community and religious traditions to support new models of community not based solely on a large family model?
Many of us also believe sexuality can be an expression of intimacy between loving adults or just playful fun and nurturing touch without the idea that sex is only a means to produce children to do God's work.
The view that secular Western culture promotes an overemphasis on sexuality seems misleading when we see the number of children produced by fundamentalist communities such as the recent polygamist sect in Texas that made much news, or the Christian Quiverfull movement. Apparently men and women of these communities are having lots of sex and must be even more obsessed with sexuality and a rigid role for women than secular, gay or single individuals are imagined to be.
To those finding comfort in fundamentalist communities, I hope and pray the God of continuing revelation can get through to your community before your sons are enlisted to become the next generation of soldiers fighting for resources in foreign lands, or you are watching daughters get pregnant with no idea of the biology behind sexual reproduction.
As wonderful as biological motherhood can be, it shouldn't be the only role available to women in modern societies. Emotional needs can also be met in many ways besides parenting. There are many other children, people, things, ideas, values, animals and aspects of nature to mother and father, nurture and care for, besides your own children.
