Question 10
Doesn't concern about the environment invariably lead to population control and support of abortion?
Answer:
This is a typical loaded question. It assumes that environmental problems created by widespread human misbehavior are resolved simply by reducing the number of people on the earth. That’s a false perception. Rarely is environmental degradation related to absolute numbers. Almost always human-induced environmental problems are caused by too many people in one place doing the wrong things—not simply by too many people.
One could address the problems created by population growth by eliminating some of the people or by moving some of the people or by changing the behavior of the people or by a combination of all three. Those who consider unborn children as merely "potential people" may think that the first choice is the best and quickest way to handle such problems: abort all children conceived after the first one or two. Followers of Jesus holding to biblical values, of course, would never consider such an option. They look to the other possible remedies. Most of the time it’s obvious that living patterns and behavior are the major problems—and those primarily being the result of our self-centered and careless materialistic living.
Christian farmer/philosopher Wendell Berry summarizes it this way:
The “population problem” initially should be examined as a problem not of quantity, but of pattern. Before we conclude that we have too many people, we must ask if we have people who are misused, people who are misplaced, or people who are abusing the places they have. The facts of most immediate importance may be not how many we are, but where we are and what we are doing.
Understanding this, we recognize that it’s critical for Christians to demonstrate that population problems can be solved better by a return to biblical living than by resorting to the evil of abortion, forced sterilization, or euthanasia. Had we been living in accord with all of God’s mandates, we would have been kept from such dilemmas. I am reminded in this of one of the sayings of the old "sawdust trail" evangelist Bob Jones: "One must never do wrong in order to get a chance to do right."
Dean Ohlman is the host of RBC Ministries website: "The Wonder of Creation." You can read more of Dean's writing at the RBC site: http://www.wonderofcreation.org/
Don Bosch says:
threefold Amen, bro.
Hanzel D. says:
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Dean Ohlman says:
Thank you, Hanzel