Again, in re-reading the post and also my post to you in 21 I don't see why you have your hackles up. I don't see any contempt.
No one is looking down their nose at Reform Jews, their low birthrate mirrors that of many liberal (and conservative) Christians, agnostics and atheists.
What grabbed my interest personally in reading the article was Rabbi Wolpe's comment about attendance in Los Angeles; as most of my Jewish friends and business associates live in West LA and they are quite liberal and many even pretty much agnostic when it comes to religion. Being Jewish is more of a special club to them... someone here said it's more of an ethnicity than a religion to some.
Your statement to me is quite well written and I can agree with most all of your post, but I don't understand why you are upset. The article was highlighting Jewish attendance at services so naturally the discussion is centered on Jews. The same discussion can be turned toward liberal Christians and Catholics. As a Catholic I would not find it offensive. or contemptible. Liberal Catholics and white Catholics in general do not have children in requisite numbers to reproduce themselves, Catholics from Phillipines, Asia and Latin American countries, however do fill the pews at my church with 5 to 6 kids on Sunday.
Personally I like to factor in the fact we live with today, in that it takes both parents working to support a household, at least here in So Calif. I think that has severely limited the birthrate, as it is harder to raise 5 or more kids when both parents have to work. I don't know how the immigrant families do it, but I noticed that many live together with several generations in one house. Perhaps the fact they have Grandma and Grandpa under the same roof to help with the kids gives them the ability to sustain a larger family.
So you see, we are all reflecting on the issues brought up in this article. No one is looking down at anyone.
It was the don't worry they'll all be gone in 100 years bit that I took exception to..in post 5.
There are 900 reform synagogues in US today up from 0 in 1885. So someone was projecting the absurd, and implying Reform movement is a problem that is solving itself.
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Still there are keys to Jewish attendance issue that were addressed in this thread.. that you only find synagogues in cities so Jews in rural areas have to make due at home and that many ceremonies are performed at home.. sabbath observations and passover and almost every holiday can celebrated at home.. with family.. so folks go for things like study and weddings and bar mitzvahs ceremonies.
As I said before, low birthrates come from prosperity. This is a long recorded demographic trend. And Gramma and Grandpa certainly are the keys to having and maintaining large families that and farms and such. People trade material wealth and comforts for children when they can because kids are a pain no way around it. They are a blessing but anyone who has raised one knows how it ages you..
Frankly, life cannot be a race to see who can have the most kids because in the end.. we get outcomes that fall out of uncontrolled population explosion. What has tipped the scales has been feminism and abortion intervening to take women out of child production altogether.. (One could argue that there is nothing feminine at all about feminism anymore)