Teddy James

AFA Journal staff writer

August 2010 – Jesus once told His disciples, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” (Matthew 19:14 NIV). Scripture is clear in numerous places on how God sees value in children.

But do the people surrounding the White House subscribe to the idea that children are a blessing from the Lord? Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi looks at children as a burden to state economies. She said, “Family planning services reduce cost. The states are in terrible fiscal budget crises now and part of what we do for children’s health, education and some of those elements are to help the states meet their financial needs. The contraception will reduce costs to the states and the federal government.”

Not a presidential appointee, Pelosi was chosen by the people of California and tapped for leadership by her peers in Congress. Would President Barack Obama appoint someone who held the belief that children are a burden to our economy? Consider his appointment of John Holdren as his science czar.

In 1973, Holdren, a former Harvard professor, coauthored a textbook titled Human Ecology. It has been a source of controversy since.

In the book, he wrote, “The fetus, given the opportunity to develop properly before birth, and given the essential early socializing experiences and sufficient nourishing food during the crucial early years after birth, will ultimately develop into a human being.” How old the child must be before being considered a human is not disclosed.

The thrust of the book is that the human population will soon become too large for the planet to sustain. To that end, this textbook states, “There seems little doubt that the forced bearing of unwanted children has undesirable consequences not only for the children and their families, but for society as well, apart from the problems of overpopulation.”

In summary, the fetuses, if they do become human beings, are a problem for society. That seems to be the same idea Pelosi was suggesting. But there are people who long to be parents. What should we do with those people? Holdren has an answer for that as well.

The book states, “Indeed, it has been concluded that compulsory population-control laws, even including laws requiring compulsory abortion, could be sustained under the existing Constitution if the population crisis became sufficiently severe to endanger the society.”

For Holdren, the solution is to manipulate the Constitution written by the men who said in the Declaration of Independence, “All men are created equal,” and all are “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” to destroy human life.

Forcing people to have an abortion would be ugly and might cause people to step up and stop it. But what if the government could do something to keep women from getting pregnant in the first place?

“Adding a sterilant to drinking water or staple foods is a suggestion that seems to horrify people more than most proposals for involuntary fertility control,” the book states. “To be acceptable, such a substance would have to meet some rather stiff requirements: It must be uniformly effective, despite widely varying degrees of fertility and sensitivity among individuals; it must be free of dangerous or unpleasant side effects; and it must have no effect on members of the opposite sex, children, old people, pets or livestock.”

President Obama shares Holdren’s sentiments: “I’ve got two daughters, nine years old and six years old. I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby. I don’t want them punished with an STD at the age of 16.”

Whether it is because they are an economic burden, a planetary parasite consuming too many valuable resources, or a punishment, children simply are not seen with the value or love God has for them.

Are ideas dangerous? How many children have been killed because of the idea that they are a burden to society or a punishment to their mothers?