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patent
Posted on 12/05/2001 7:02:22 PM PST by Antoninus
The following was excerpted from the 'From the Mail' column of The Wanderer, a weekly Catholic newspaper. It in turn excerpted it from the 2001 issue of a periodical called The Family in America. Enjoy!
On motherhood as the true source of progress, Teddy Roosevelt said:
"A more supreme instance of unselfishness than is afforded by motherhood cannot be imagined."
Before an audience of liberal Christian theologians in 1911, he said:
"If you do not believe in your own stock enough to see the stock kept up, then you are not good Americans, you are not patriots, and ... I for one shall not mourn your extinction; and in such event I shall welcome the advent of a new race that will take your place, because you wil have shown that you are not fit to cumber the ground."
On the centrality of the child-rich family to the very existence of the American nation:
"It is in the life of the family, upon which in the last analysis the whole welfare of the nation rests....The nation is nothing but the aggregate of the families within its borders."
On parenthood:
"No other success in life, not being President, or being wealthy, or going to college, or anything else, comes up to the success of the man and woman who can feel that they have done their duty and that their children and grandchildren rise up to call them blessed."
On out-of-wedlock birth versus practiced sterility:
"After all, such a vice may be compatible with a nation's continuing to live, and while there is life, even a life marred by wrong practices, there is a chance of reform.
In another place, on the same subject:
"...[W]hile there is life, there is hope, whereas nothing can be done with the dead."
On the behavior of 90% of those who practice birth control:
"[It is derived] from viciousness, coldness, shallow-heartedness, self-indulgence, or mere failure to appreciate aright the difference between the all-important and the unimportant."
On the "pitiable" child-rearing record of graduates of women's colleges like Vassar and Smith who bore only 0.86 of a child each during their lifetimes:
"Do these colleges teach 'domestic science'?... There is something radically wrong with the home training and school training that produces such results."
These are just the tidbits. There's a lot more in this article. If others are interested and I get the chance, I'll transcribe the whole thing.
Of course, that would've happened AFTER they had duked it out.
"[It is derived] from viciousness, coldness, shallow-heartedness, self-indulgence, or mere failure to appreciate aright the difference between the all-important and the unimportant."
This is an interesting quote, but in case you haven't noticed, the country and the world have changed a little in the 100 years since Mr. Roosevelt was President. Our national security does not rest on our ability or inability to outbreed other nations. While I don't believe in killing the innocent unborn to solve overpopulation problems, the notion among many pro-lifers that the entire population of the world could live in Texas is ludicrous.
I live in Texas, and we have more than enough people as it is. Traffic in Houston is already snarled beyond what is healthy, and extending the sprawl in every direction would only break what is already dangerously bent. Much of west Texas is a desert, and finding water for everyone would be impossible. Where water is abundant, we have flood problems. Entire neighborhoods flooded by Allison are being condemned so that we don't have to keep rescuing the same people after every tropical storm. I'm hoping to leave Houston next year to get away from all of these people.
We don't need big families today the way that we needed them 100 years ago. There is nothing wrong with using birth control to decide when to start having kids and when to stop.
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patent
There is nothing wrong with using birth control to decide when to start having kids and when to stop.Well that would be your view. In my view using birth control is using your reason to decide whether to have kids or not. However, no kid can be born without it being God’s will to grant that kid life. If God wills that I have a child, and I will that I not, which of us would be right? I go with God’s will over mine. Your mileage may vary.
patent +AMDG
I understand that some people believe that every instance of sexual intercourse should carry the highest possibility of producing children. If you want to believe that, go ahead, but nothing in the Bible says it directly. Interpretations that try to make this argument are a stretch at best. However, I concede your right to live by your interpretation of the Bible or your church's teaching even if I see it as foolish.
I think it's blind fear/worry as much as anything else.
Who doesn't know a couple who have limited their family size because they don't believe that they can afford college educations for more than two children? I think this falls in the category of not being able to distinguish between what's important and what's unimportant.
The devil can work very subtly. God wants our children to go to heaven, not Harvard.
He is fast becoming one of my favorite historical figures.
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