While I AM Pro-Life . . . .

this bit of news strikes me as just wrong.

Procreation day delivers results

What this is all about is that in the Ulyanovsk region of Russia they declared 12 September 2007 as the Day of Conception. They are giving couples that day of so that they can procreate. According to The Washington Times "The hope is for a brood of babies exactly nine months later, on Russia's national day. Couples who "give birth to a patriot" during the June 12 festivities win money, cars, refrigerators and other prizes."

The whole purpose of this is to counteract the decline in population due to a high death & low birth rate in Russia. In fact it isn't just in this region that this is being done. "In his state of the nation address last year, President Vladimir Putin called the demographic crisis the most acute problem facing Russia and announced a broad effort to boost Russia's birthrate, including cash incentives to families to have more than one child."

I suppose some people would say that this sounds good. They would say that it is a positive thing to encourage pregnancy & birth among couples rather than supporting abortion. & if it was just that, I would have no problem.

What bothers me is this, that they are giving prizes to reward the parents to have the children. It is doing the right thing, for the wrong reason. While I am sure that most of the children will be loved how would you feel to know that you were conceived merely to enable your parents to get a refrigerator or a car, not because you were wanted as a child?

It bothers me that people see children being treated as a means to an end, not an end in & of themselves. This is actually another step in turning life into a comodity that only has value when it is utile. Life has intrinsic value that is being ignored.

It also strikes me as dealing with a symptom, not the root problem. Why has this decline in the birth rate occured? What are the root causes?

I don't have all the answers. Some of it goes back to the conditions created by over 75 yrs of communist rule. (I've talked about the Magadan Russian Mission & the good work they are doing to deal with the damage by bringing Jesus in through their living out of the Gospel.) Some of it is a general devaluing of life in most of the world. Some may be something else. But it all has a spiritual root that is a result of turning away from God & following their own way. & no amount of cash or prizes given by the government will change this. It will just feed the problem & increase it.

Groups like the above mentioned Mission who operate out of Christian faith & a desire to spread the faith will be the only ones who will not only deal with the symptoms. They will deal with the root causes. Only by turning to Christ & living as he wants will life be valued as it should.

Pray for God to raise up more groups & people to do what needs to be done to proclaim the Gospel. Ask God for guidance to know your role, to know what actions you need to take. It may be as simple as giving money. Or it may be laying down your life in serving those in need.