Darrow Miller and Friends

Why 20 Percent of Women in the US Never Have Children

children the fruit of marriageImagine a world where children are considered a competition to personal pleasure. Where couples marry but choose not to have children because they want to play.

Actually, that world is already here. We’ve written about this troubling trend before:

Which brings me to Kathleen Parker, a writer whose “columns are syndicated nationally by The Washington Post, and appear in more than 400 media outlets, both online and in print.” (Wikipedia)

Last year Ms. Parker wrote a post entitled “Of pleasure and parenthood” that highlights the above concern about married couples and the children they are not having.

To bear children or not — that is the only question left to those with first-world problems.

The scene: A tidy beach where a young couple is basking, carefree. How lovely. No little ones to intrude upon the perfect union of two selves entwined in rapturous indulgence.

This was the cover of a recent Time magazine featuring a story titled “The Childfree Life: When having it all means not having children.” The story explored a startling statistic: One in five American women ends her childbearing years without maternity.

As Marilyn Miller (Darrow’s “bride”) provocatively observes “The only modern-day sexual sin is procreation.”

Go here to read Ms. Parker’s excellent observations on this important subject.

– Gary Brumbelow

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Gary is the Disciple Nations Alliance editorial manager. He manages Darrow Miller and Friends and serves as editor and co-writer on various book projects. For eight years Gary served as a cross-cultural church planting missionary among First Nations people of Canada. His career also includes 14 years as executive director of InterAct Ministries, an Oregon-based church-planting organization in Canada, Alaska, and Siberia. Gary is a graduate of Grace University, earned an MA from Wheaton College and a Graduate Studies Diploma from Western Seminary. He lives near Portland, Oregon with his wife, Valerie. They have two married sons and twelve grandchildren. In addition to his work with the DNA, Gary serves as the pastor of Troutdale Community Church.
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