DINKS and Dominion
While the Church awaits the celebration of the blessed incarnation, evangelicals continue to follow worldly patterns and refuse to obey the clear command of procreation.
We have grown accustomed to mediocrity within the Church. The idiocy pertains to more than mere charlatans pretending to be teachers (James 3:1). It also extends to the degradation of basic elements of ethical orthodoxy. At the very least, the simple call to “be fruitful and multiply” implies procreation (Gen. 1:28). John Calvin speaks very directly to this matter:
But here Moses would simply declare that Adam with his wife was formed for the production of offspring, in order that men might replenish the earth.
However, the American church continues to flourish in expressive individualism instead of submission to God’s word. Thus, the once exquisite legacy of the Church to produce offspring to continue its covenant stewardship is quickly dissipated from the scene.
So, allow me to state my premise unashamedly:
To be a young Christian married couple and assert that you do not want to have children while being perfectly capable of bearing children is the height of arrogance. It is the possession of the spirit of the age which must be appropriately exorcised. It is a distinct Christian blessing to procreate and bring forth a godly offspring for the glory of God.
DINKS
While the church has endured hardship through the centuries, she has always produced godly offspring to fight against tyrants. Nevertheless, we are a generation content with fewer children. We have stopped fighting because we have forgotten the basics of covenantal eschatology—outgrow the wicked in quality and quantity.
This is exemplified in the national average, which has declined from 2.1 children to 1.6 per woman. Americans are having fewer babies, and the Church has followed that downward trajectory:
Perry and Schleifer analyzed data from several decades of the General Social Survey (GSS) and found that, between 1972 and 2016, conservative Protestants went from having six percent more children than mainline Protestants to roughly the same number. Painted in broad strokes, what this means is that evangelicals now seem to be having about the same number of children as anybody else in America.
There are a host of reasons for this decline. Among them is a sudden movement of evangelicals towards more liberal politics. The chart below demonstrates this shift. There are usually five central characteristics that help determine political affiliation. They are care, fairness, loyalty, authority, and sanctity. The first two are generally attributed to leftist policies since they focus on equality governance models. The latter three are conservative ideals since they assume hierarchical structures in society. While they are all significant, an overemphasis on one to the exclusion of the others will tilt the political dynamic:
When evangelicals lean towards care and fairness, they are generally directed to environmental causes, feminist and sexual egalitarianism, or the defense of social causes, or what they view as institutional disadvantages towards minority groups. Due to their universal interest in university campuses and elitist institutions, these causes become all-consuming and full-time projects. They often take away the impetus to having children in order to dedicate time and labor to these matters.
What Does It Produce?
This mindset creates the DINK (dual-income-no-kids). There are also variations in this category. But the general definition indicates that aging without children is becoming much more common among Americans, even within the church. Surveys state that those who don’t begin to have children early on most likely will continue a pattern of childlessness later on. The reason for this life view is to afford more traveling and better amenities in housing.
TikTok is replete with these videos of youthful adults explaining the rationale for not having kids:
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After watching five of them, everything essentially boils down to the mediocrity of imagination, an insatiable desire to amuse themselves to death and fulfill dreams that quickly vanish, only to be replaced by what society deems as the next dream.
Even Elon Musk tweeted that there is an "awful morality to those who deliberately have no kids."
VICE magazine, known for its disdain of virtue, notes that the one common thread among these videos is the absence of any service to society. The author defines this idea as “hyper-consumerism;” everything from COSTCO purchases to wild rides has the self as its central theme.
The End of the Matter
DINK and other variations will continue threatening the Church’s vision to procreate and collect an army of arrows around the table (Psalms 127-128). These ideas will infiltrate the church and even find a home within certain supposed neutral perspectives in the evangelical framework.
The evangelical community needs to publicly address these issues from the pulpit and challenge the status quo of worldly paradigms by offering a fuller vision of family life: one that reflects the biblical rationale stated in Genesis 1, and that stirs the evangelical consciousness to an opposing posture towards the trends of this age.
Children are a blessing from the Lord, and to intentionally refuse such blessings is to disregard the Word of God and treat it as an optional guide instead of the final authority of God. Christians must keep their eyes on the things above and the principles of an alternative kingdom that is fruitful and multiplies in goodness, truth, and beauty through covenant offspring.
Notations
The pope seems to have given the green light to the blessing of same-sex couples. While not a full endorsement, a blessing is merely the starting point of a greater revolution within the Church. I address a few of these consequences here.
I also offer some additional notes on pastoral duties in our day in light of political enticements.
Nuntium
We are thrilled to have Mr. David Bahnsen with us in Pensacola in February to discuss his newest book. If you live in Northwest Florida, we would love to have you join us for that event.
Here are all my interviews with The Redeemer Broadcasting Network:
Challenging the Already-Not-Yet Paradigm (6/8/2019)
Adoption as Sons (12/14/2019)
A Response to Social Distancing (4/25/2020)
What Role Do Fathers Play in the Home (6/20/2020)
Why Children Should Worship With Their Parents (8/29/2020)
What 2020 Revealed to the Church (1/16/2021)
The Place of the Lord’s Day During Crisis (10/23/2021)
How the Coming of Christ Changed Everything (12/24/2022)
Advent Cheers,
Uriesou Brito
Uri, superb article. Thanks for articulating this biblical truth. The intention for married couples to refuse to produce children is simply contracreational sin. We must say this plainly and publicly. Thank you for saying it.
Thank you for writing this recent article. I appreciate you addressing this important topic. I fear so many of us in our 20s and 30s (really the majority of us) have bought into the lies of the age instead of the promises of God. We have taken full advantage of our present cultural, material , and societal freedoms, privileges, and financial opportunities.
In doing so, many of us have also rejected our responsibilities as young people with the potential to bless ourselves and the world through marriage, procreation, and raising our children within the micro church of the home. We want comfort, financial wealth, opportunities to travel, and be freedom from the responsibility of family and children.
We have abandoned the privilege of raising up children to the best of our ability for the Lord -- teaching them our values and beliefs and passing on our Christian faith to the next generation. God told Abraham that through him, the world would be blessed. He took this promise seriously and saw his progeny as his greatest joy and responsibility. It was through his faith in God and his dedication to the future generations that the world was eventually blessed in Christ.
I fear that we have lost sight of this in the present generation. We see the material blessings of the world as ours and are often unconcerned with how we might bless the world through our own progeny. We are unconcerned with passing on the Christian faith and are most concerned with our present and individual happiness and freedom.
I think, in the end this heresy of modern hyper individualism and self absorption will be self correcting. Those who neglect family and progeny will die alone with no one to pass on their legacy, their values, or their faith. We are already seeing this in many places in Europe who are a generation or two ahead of us in their modern hyper individualism. They are simply not producing babies to replace themselves.
However, those of us who cling to the promises of God and invest in the biblical command for marriage, procreation, adoption, and passing on our values and beliefs will inherit the world and the world to come.