Engaging Elon: Having Kids Vs. Building Families

Elon Musk is the rare figure whose interests become worldwide trends. So is the case with global infertility. On his X feed, Musk has called attention to the West's plummeting birth rates: "Low birth rates will end civilization," he wrote recently. His shorthand post drew over 47 million views.

Musk is right, entirely right, about global infertility. For generations, leftist ideologues have driven whole societies into abject panic over "climate change," indoctrinating scores of ordinary people into an ideology we call anti-natalism. This reverse morality emphasizes the virtue of not marrying, not having children, and -- by all means -- not having lots of children. (Bonus points if you key a Tesla after buying your $14 asparagus at Whole Foods.)

In his inimitable way, Musk has made it his mission to oppose anti-natalism. (On this subject, here's a compelling presentation I heard in London that thoroughly substantiates the peril of global infertility.) He is right to do so. As Christians, we know that God loves life. We know that God called Adam and Eve and all successive posterity to "be fruitful and multiply" (Genesis 1:28). We know that God has set up creation -- in a wonderful and almost mystical way -- to renew itself, produce fresh crops each year, and feed an ever-growing planet.

Resources are not scarce in God's creation; resources are abundant. Humanity is not a pestilence, but the race that bears God's image. As believers, then, we can be thankful for Musk's counter-cultural courage. Yet we cannot end the conversation over anti-natalism there. According to a recent profile by The Wall Street Journal, Musk has fathered at least 14 children by four women.

As Christians, this is not the way to overcome global infertility. In biblical terms, the answer to anti-natalism is this: to build families. This might sound like semantics: "You say have children, I say build families. It's all the same!" With respect, however, these two approaches are not the same. God's design for humanity is not to scatter children across the earth like grain, unfathered and largely unknown. Nor are children primarily gambits in a great struggle to fight off paganism, secularism, or Islam. Children, Solomon wrote, are a gift (Psalm 127:3).

Solomon gives us the starting point for a biblical worldview of children. Children are a blessing from God. Beyond this, we know that every boy and girl is a sinner in need of the gospel of grace. Yet the gospel is not something we shout at our kids; the gospel is woven into all our discipleship efforts. Our boys and girls need a great deal of attention, forgiveness, discipleship, training, correction, discipline, and mercy.

The work I am describing is costly work. It is self-sacrifice from start to finish. But we must never let the narrative about family-building center in drudgery and gloom and fear. Parenting is oriented around the cultivation of living beauty; it is the stuff of wonder. In a world that all too often reads children as a curse, we nurture them in hope, love, and faith, always pointing them to Christ, never walking away from them, intentionally choosing to savor all the many happy moments each day brings.

In the final analysis, absentee fatherhood is not a cure for what ails us. In truth, absentee fatherhood is a force multiplier of untold damage to communities. Because of this, while many of us agree wholeheartedly with Elon Musk that anti-natalism is wrong, we do not simply encourage people to have children. Facing the specter of death that shadows children at every turn today, we embrace the much harder and much more rewarding approach of Scripture: we build families.

Originally published at The Washington Stand