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Lord, You told us that Children are blessings, like arrows in a quiver. We pray that our nation would recognize this and once again come to value and prioritize children and childbirth.
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JD Vance has faces criticism for focusing on childlessness in America. Are his concerns truly unwarranted, or is the U.S. in danger?

From The Wall Street Journal. Sen. JD Vance sees Americans’ reluctance to have children as tied to risk aversion and a culture of social isolation that threatens to weigh on U.S. economic dynamism.

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Since becoming Donald Trump’s vice presidential nominee, the Ohio Republican has come under scrutiny for criticizing people who don’t have children. In 2021, he told Fox News that the U.S. is being run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.” …

After joining the Senate last year, Vance became one of the most outspoken lawmakers about the decline in U.S. fertility. The total fertility rate—a snapshot of how many children a woman is expected to bear over her lifetime—fell to 1.62 last year, provisional government figures show, the lowest on record, and well below the 2.1 replacement rate needed to keep population steady, absent immigration.

The issue has long been on Vance’s mind. In an interview in April with The Wall Street Journal, Vance described low fertility as having many causes, no simple remedy and negative consequences beyond simply a smaller workforce and less sustainable programs such as Social Security. …

In the interview, Vance listed several possible causes of lower birthrates. One, he said, is financial: “I do think there’s just something about the economies of having families that have really gotten out of whack,” Vance said, and aren’t fully captured by traditional economic metrics. …

He also linked lower birthrates to young Americans growing up more socially isolated. …

Vance said lower fertility might also be the result of less patriotism. In Israel, which has relatively high fertility, “there’s still a fundamental sense that they love their country, they want their country to keep going. America was always considered by our European friends to be kind of jingoistic back in the 1990s and 2000s. We had pretty healthy fertility rates back then. Now that we’re a little bit more like our European counterparts, much less sort of innately patriotic than we were 20, 30 years ago, our fertility rates have declined.”

Vance cited several negative consequences to low birthrates. “I think there are all these weird ways in which technological dynamism depends on having families and children,” he said, pointing, as evidence, to the 1950s and 1960s, during the baby boom, the associated social and workplace collaboration, and strong economic growth. …

While Vance has studied pronatalist policies in countries including South Korea, France, Hungary and Japan, he said hasn’t yet seen any clear solution to falling fertility. “I’m fascinated by Hungary…because they’re aggressively trying a lot of different things. And I think some of it’s working.” The U.S. should look at lowering income-tax rates on women who have multiple children as Hungary has done, he said. …

Lift up America’s falling fertility in the comments below.

(Excerpt from The Wall Street Journal. Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America – J. D. Vance, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=149633356)

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Susan S
August 5, 2024

I am sorry to disagree with you. What if the lady has fertility problems? What if the lady has had trauma, abuse, relationship or mental or spiritual problems? We all have brokenness and issues that only Jesus can fix. Jesus is the great physician and came for the sick not the healthy. We are all sick from sin issues and need his healing.

Geraldine Kaster
August 4, 2024

This gender issue would have to be a consideration. As it starts now in K . And genderless bathrooms in schools. ??? MINDLESS! BUT CAUSE ARE BEING PUSHED GODLESS. AND there is a real live active group to bring the population way down. And Muslims and groups having many wives and therefore many, many kids. +Political ie. Voters. Whole towns. God help us. We don’t kill people. Try to give them rights. THEY MURDER -GENOCIDE.

Karen
August 4, 2024

Our health care system is governed by greed which means more adults are caring for family. After Obama care and the total fraud of COVID, let’s get God back to govern g9vernment. Then our lives will have the assist needed for marriage and family instead of having to listen to that evil of 32 genders.
CELEBRATE JESUS

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bobhuseby
August 4, 2024

Math is math boys and girls !!!! Just look at the stats from Japan , they are going to other countries to find workers !! We must take this seriously as Christians as the influx of pagan religions are increasing. I’m constantly reminded of this when I go through a city and see the number of mosques where there were none in my childhood. Our Christian children are quickly becoming the minority at their schools. We need to have more babies raised in Christian homes !!!!!
Father our only hope is you. Please bring REVIVAL to our land as we intercede united against this plot of the devil to shrink our families!! Amen and Hallelujah !!!

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Patty DeGroot
August 4, 2024

I thank J.D. Vance for addressing this issue! Children add “joy” to the world & we need them! My complex where I live in Mesa, AZ has many young millenials living here. The young women have these big dogs for protection (I guess), but they also give their affection to these animals as opposed to having a child who has a “soul” that would be nurtured for God’s glory! Young couples who don’t have chilcren are depriving themselves of offspring that would complete their lives & bind them together as a family. Let’s rejoice over every baby that comes into the world! To God be the glory!

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Cynthia Lawrence
August 4, 2024

This is a concern because if more people lived by the Word of God there would be men and women who would get married before they have sex, there would be a huge decline in perverted ways of the sexual immorality, and our children would grow up with good moral values being taught the word of God. Yes, come out from among them and be ye separate says the Lord.

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