If Russia’s sharply declining birth rate is any indication, depopulation, and not an overabundance of humans straining Earth’s resources, is the real threat humanity faces. The problem of depopulation is not merely Russia’s — the Western nations are facing declining populations. Canada’s National Post columnist Mark Steyn wrote that Italy’s population decline matches Russia’s.
“Because the state needs a birth rate of 2.1 children to maintain a stable population,” Steyn wrote. “In Italy, it’s now 1.2. Twenty years ago, a million babies were born there each year. Now it’s half a million. And the fewer babies you have today, the fewer babies are around to have babies in 20 years.
Once you’re as far down the death spiral as Italy is, it’s hard to reverse. Most European races are going to be out of business in a couple more generations.”
The most recent predictions indicate a decline in the Russian population of twenty million people in the next decade due to an excessively low birthrate of 1.2 children per family (well below replacement level) and a rise in the death rate because of widespread alcoholism and the spread of disease. The decade following the collapse of the Soviet Union saw a dramatic drop in Russia’s birth rate.
Much of the problem of depopulation is related to the breakdown of the traditional family. There is an emerging belief, virtually unchallenged in social science, that easy divorce is actually a desirable condition that must be protected. Another great cause of depopulation is abortion. The sad truth is that abortion, the most common form of birth control during Soviet times, remained a modern Russian woman’s first choice for birth control. A society who elevates a woman’s desire to choose above the desire to bear children is a society that will steadily decline. Today, we are the endangered species, not the spotted owl! We are the dwindling resource, not oil! An undeclared war is being conducted against any of us who say that the Bible teaches against abortion (Job 31:15; Psalm 139:13-16; Ecclesiastes 11:5; Isaiah 44:2, 24; 49:1, 5; Jeremiah 1:4; Luke 1:41-45).
Along with the collapse of the family is a social atmosphere that has produced an entire revision in cultural perspectives, and that has led to an level of stature given to homosexual behavior. Homosexuality, of course, is also condemned in the Bible (Romans 1:26-27; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10; Hebrews 13:4; Revelation 22:15).
As a result of all of this, if nothing dramatic occurs in Russia to encourage larger families, the retreat from childbearing will continue. As a consequence, Russia could become a nation of only one hundred million in thirty years (it is about 146 million today). Such conditions not only threaten the foundation of the family in a civilization, but human self-preservation itself. What a gloomy outlook when people leave the Bible!
Kyle Campbell