{"id":29665,"date":"2022-08-09T22:53:14","date_gmt":"2022-08-09T22:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/?p=29665"},"modified":"2022-10-04T03:19:14","modified_gmt":"2022-10-04T03:19:14","slug":"how-our-culture-teaches-us-to-hate-our-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/2022\/08\/09\/how-our-culture-teaches-us-to-hate-our-kids\/","title":{"rendered":"How our culture teaches us to hate our kids"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The world’s fertility rates are absolutely falling off a cliff<\/a>. That should be a pretty big deal, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet, for some reason, it’s not. Nobody really seems to care to discuss it – much less advocate for something to be done about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even worse, few prominent voices (aside from the world’s richest man<\/a>, oddly enough) are expressing any dismay at these statistics, or any desire to reverse them. A quick Google search<\/a> shows quite the opposite: most are happy with this outcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As people who understand that mankind was (twice!) given the mandate to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth (Genesis 1:28, 9:7), and as people who believe God when He says children are a gift from the Lord (or heritage – Psalm 127:3), we shouldn’t be those joining in the cheers of the declining birthrates. We should view that as a problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, the practical application of this issue goes much further than simply the production of children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our society-wide distaste for producing children spills over into how we feel about the ones we do have. If we’re not careful, the world will disciple us into developing an unhealthy, unbiblical view of children. They may even teach us to hate our kids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider a few litmus tests. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How we value them<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The world views children as a resource drag on both a global and individual scale. Globally, more kids means more consumers of food and resources in a planet that’s supposedly dying any year now. Individually more kids means fewer vacations. Maybe you can’t get that boat anymore. More clothes to buy, more mouths to feed, more diapers to change, another college fund to set up… boy, kids sure ruin everything, huh? Besides, why marry and have kids when you can just be a dog mom<\/a>? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though there are sadly many Christians who view kids one of those two ways (or both), most would likely say they don’t feel that way. But just about every Christian family with more than 3 kids has been asked the classic question by some nosy church lady: “Don’t you know what causes that?” Yep. And I know what causes that kind of question, too – a culture that views kids as having incredibly little value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How we speak of them<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Consider memes like these:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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