Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. For the Coulson Center, I'm Johnstone Street. In a recent column in the Wall Street Journal, Louise Perry described the death of her beloved grandmother in Australia. Unlike many tragic stories coming out of places like Canada, the Australian government did not treat her grandmother like dead weight on the healthcare system. Instead, the system provided coverage for treating her broken leg, though she did not have much time left.
Far more important, though, than the government support, Perry wrote. Was the family support? Here's how she put it: "Aging is a cruel process, particularly when you're forced to go through it alone." During the long hours I spent with my grandmother in the hospital, and especially in the emergency room, I noticed that the other patients were mostly elderly and often unaccompanied. My grandmother had three children, a grandchildren, four great-grandchildren so far, and two younger siblings, which meant that she was never without family help. The same could not be said for many other elderly people, including up to 40 percent of nursing home residents in Australia who receive no visitors.
When a culture that's facing a demographic winter, it's becoming more obvious that God's command to be fruitful and multiply comes with multi-generational blessings. And retort to an advice columnist who advised a young person to spend time with a forty-something with kids before choosing to have any, Perry wrote, and I quote: "My advice, in contrast, would be to spend some time with a childless eighty-something." And see how little fun their lives are. All the promises of living for the moment, rather than being stuck at home caring for kids, just ignores the reality that the moment we're in won't last, and death will still be inevitable. For years now, Japan has used robots to care for an aging population, amidst a shortage of younger care workers. Contrast that cold sterility with what Perry described: relatives surrounding a matriarch with simple acts of love, like.
Keeping her dry lips from chapping, as she wrote, "For those entering old age without children, the best-case scenario is that dramatic advancement and care robots ride to the rescue." The worst-case scenario is that there will be no one to wet their lips as they die, not even a robot. My grandmother's care might end up representing the high-water mark of what governments can do for their citizens. The key point here is that childlessness affects not only the childless. This is not complicated math. Fewer kids born today means fewer working adults tomorrow to financially provide for a larger number of non-working senior citizens.
Even worse, it'll mean fewer people around to provide the vital care that many need later in life. If history repeats itself, though, in a tragic irony, it'll be Christians providing care for those who champion their own freedom through childlessness and so-called death with dignity. And that's because ideas have consequences. Bad ideas have victims, and the victims of bad ideas are quite often those who champion them. One day the party's going to be over.
The lights will go out. On that day, it'll matter greatly to us if we're surrounded by people who love us, those whom we've poured our lives into, or if we will face that moment alone. And it will also matter greatly for the kind of society that we are. Our choices about having children today will very much shape both our personal and collective futures. Let us pray for the will to choose wisely.
For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint. Today's Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy Paget. If you're a fan of Breakpoint, please leave us a review wherever you download your podcast, and you can find more resources like this commentary. And also share this commentary with other people by going to Breakpoint.org.
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