The Witness of Large Families

I first ran into the culture of death's arguments as a child on the bus. I am the oldest of six, so each new addition to the family seemed to be another chance for some kid to rehash that the reason my life sucked was because my folks wouldn't stop having kids. Other folks used contraception, and thus could afford to outfit the children they did have in Reeboks and Guess jeans and whatever else was popular at the time. It was hard to articulate it at the time, but my parents were acting out the opposite argument; why waste your money on a bunch of things when you can have another brother or sister?

In the U.S. and Europe, there is no witness like a large family, mainly because there aren't that many large families. The children on the bus made it clear that contraception is now considered a 'common sense' thing, proving once and for all that those who are common have very little sense, so anyone married with six kids and some reasonable level of intelligence represents a true stumbling block to the masses. It's the difference between words and action, not to mention having evidence of one's conviction wandering the aisles.

I think this is why our lives don't look exactly like the lives of our predecessors in the Book of Acts. First, there are the needs of the Church in each age, and second, the world errs, but from age to age it errs differently. I don't even know how many Christians really understand that our God is the God of the Living.