Fr. Tom Bartolomeo
A discourse on normalcy
By Fr. Tom Bartolomeo
I have no fear that marriage between a man and a woman will disappear from our land and not remain the norm – unless, unless as a nation we continue to abandon life with fewer marriages and fewer children. And no matter how much same-sex marriage is accepted it will remain atypical, uncommon and abnormal in fact and in numbers, no matter how much smaller our population becomes.
We may in time as Russia today have smaller succeeding generations of births that the state may offer women who have only one child a bonus of $10,000 for having a second child. [1] The current birthrate in Russia is 1.7. In the United States our current birthrate of 1.86 which has been steadily decreasing since 2007. "In Japan, which has a birth rate of 1.41, the government allotted the equivalent of $29.3 million to set up programs that would encourage young singles to date and get married." [2] A birth rate of 2.1 is required to maintain a country's population and sustain its economy where younger generations are capable of supporting older generations. Obviously, same-sex marriages make no positive generational contributions in society. Ultimately, a society which has smaller succeeding generations can not support its older larger generations for their health care and retirement. In time such a society will collapse. Ironically, human extinction would then become our most important environmental concern surpassing our public concern for other living sub-species nearing extinction.
Some would contend that this concern in the United States is a few or several generations away. But do we have time to reverse this trend when each succeeding generation has fewer child-bearing marriages against an entrenched culture of contraception and abortion where sex is primarily a pleasurable human utility?
The acceptance of same-sex relationships can only diminish the outcomes of family – children. Reproduction is the norm of all living species including humankind. As long as a majority of Americans subscribe to sexual equality of males and females having and raising children then the power and influence of hereditary values diminish, the important values which shape a culture. Extended families shape future families, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters or fathers and daughters and mothers and sons in establishing a business or carrying on a family business as Henry Ford did and his son and grandson did. This dynamic has until recently been the foundation of many other enterprises in our land, family farms, family shops and stores, military families and all sorts of family enterprises in the arts and sciences down through the generations. Schools and universities until now follow these traditions.
Every sibling, boy and girl in a family learns first hand his or her relationship to the sex of a brother or sister or a cousin or an uncle or an aunt and in maturity he or she carries forward his or her understanding into the general population of men and women mutually enriching their society. In this normal process of children who identify first with their mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters and their extended families living and deceased they are fertile contributors to their culture. This is greatly weakened in single and two children families which has become the norm in modern society. This is not possible in same-sex sexual relations. Hereditary is the basis of all cultures and nations, history carried into the future. Without a basis in hereditary people cannot form families and nations.
Every family and nation's heredity shapes it identity from the past to its future. The best example of this are the progenitors of Christianity, from God's covenant with Adam and Eve to Jesus Christ to practicing Christians today. From the families and nation of Israel we have the genealogies of the birth and prescient view of the life of Jesus Christ in four Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John either in the beginning of their gospels or in the content of the "Good News" Jesus brought to world.
June 15, 2015
I have no fear that marriage between a man and a woman will disappear from our land and not remain the norm – unless, unless as a nation we continue to abandon life with fewer marriages and fewer children. And no matter how much same-sex marriage is accepted it will remain atypical, uncommon and abnormal in fact and in numbers, no matter how much smaller our population becomes.
We may in time as Russia today have smaller succeeding generations of births that the state may offer women who have only one child a bonus of $10,000 for having a second child. [1] The current birthrate in Russia is 1.7. In the United States our current birthrate of 1.86 which has been steadily decreasing since 2007. "In Japan, which has a birth rate of 1.41, the government allotted the equivalent of $29.3 million to set up programs that would encourage young singles to date and get married." [2] A birth rate of 2.1 is required to maintain a country's population and sustain its economy where younger generations are capable of supporting older generations. Obviously, same-sex marriages make no positive generational contributions in society. Ultimately, a society which has smaller succeeding generations can not support its older larger generations for their health care and retirement. In time such a society will collapse. Ironically, human extinction would then become our most important environmental concern surpassing our public concern for other living sub-species nearing extinction.
Some would contend that this concern in the United States is a few or several generations away. But do we have time to reverse this trend when each succeeding generation has fewer child-bearing marriages against an entrenched culture of contraception and abortion where sex is primarily a pleasurable human utility?
The acceptance of same-sex relationships can only diminish the outcomes of family – children. Reproduction is the norm of all living species including humankind. As long as a majority of Americans subscribe to sexual equality of males and females having and raising children then the power and influence of hereditary values diminish, the important values which shape a culture. Extended families shape future families, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters or fathers and daughters and mothers and sons in establishing a business or carrying on a family business as Henry Ford did and his son and grandson did. This dynamic has until recently been the foundation of many other enterprises in our land, family farms, family shops and stores, military families and all sorts of family enterprises in the arts and sciences down through the generations. Schools and universities until now follow these traditions.
Every sibling, boy and girl in a family learns first hand his or her relationship to the sex of a brother or sister or a cousin or an uncle or an aunt and in maturity he or she carries forward his or her understanding into the general population of men and women mutually enriching their society. In this normal process of children who identify first with their mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters and their extended families living and deceased they are fertile contributors to their culture. This is greatly weakened in single and two children families which has become the norm in modern society. This is not possible in same-sex sexual relations. Hereditary is the basis of all cultures and nations, history carried into the future. Without a basis in hereditary people cannot form families and nations.
Every family and nation's heredity shapes it identity from the past to its future. The best example of this are the progenitors of Christianity, from God's covenant with Adam and Eve to Jesus Christ to practicing Christians today. From the families and nation of Israel we have the genealogies of the birth and prescient view of the life of Jesus Christ in four Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John either in the beginning of their gospels or in the content of the "Good News" Jesus brought to world.
- http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/may/28/us-birthrate-plummets-to-record-low/?page=all
- http://national.deseretnews.com/article/1769/can-government-incentives-reverse-falling-birth-rates.html
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
