Western society has become one deformed by “planned barrenhood,” as some have coined it.
What follows is a look at the prevalence of elective sterilization in this country. As well, we will see this may have all been predicted by Jesus Himself.
PLANNED BARRENHOOD: IS THERE A MAN LEFT WHO HAS YET TO NEUTER HIMSELF?
Let’s take a look at the 2008 study from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) to see how popular neutering one’s self has become.
About 700,000 female sterilizations and 500,000 male sterilizations occur in this country each year.
Some 36% of all females using contraception rely on sterilization to prevent their pregnancies. This makes sterilizations the most common birth control method in the US.
The NCBI cites a 2002 study from the National Survey of Family Growth to say of that 36%, three-quarters rely on their own sterilization, and about one-quarter count on their male partner’s sterilization.
For the record, the NCBI says 30.6% of American women utilize oral contraceptives, such as the Birth Control Pill, for their birth control.
The NCBI says half the female sterilizations occur within 48 hours post-partum. That means, of all the women to be electively sterilized, half opt to have the procedure now shortly after giving birth. According to the NCBI, approximately 10% of all births include a subsequent sterilization.
The rate of sterilizations for men and women had remained constant for the prior 40 years prior to the 2008 study. There is certainly nothing to give us any indication this trend has gone down since 2008, I might add.
I welcome your input on it, so please leave a comment at the end of this post.
JESUS CHRIST PREDICTED THIS AGE OF PLANNED BARRENHOOD
The Gospel of Luke recounts a scene during the Passion of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
It happens to be the eighth station of the Cross, for those keeping score at home and are familiar with that devotion.
The passage reads like this:
“And there followed him a great multitude of the people, and of women who bewailed and lamented him.
But Jesus turning to them said, ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.
For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never gave suck!’
Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us;’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’
For if they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?’” (Luke 23:27-31, emphasis added).
COMMON INTERPRETATION
Christ predicted the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple. It came to pass in AD 70, a generation removed from his passing, just as He said (Matthew 24:34).
As the Haydock Commentary and others point out, in this passage Christ is looking ahead to the destruction of Jerusalem. He knew and it came to pass as a violent siege on the city. Josephus, the non-Christian historian recounts the fall in great detail, if you ever want to read his writings.
Haydock reads, “In the ruin of Jerusalem, which is at hand, happy shall they be who have no children. They shall save themselves the grief of seeing their sons and daughters perish miserably, and in some sort of suffering as many deaths as they have children to die. (Calmet)” (emphasis added).
This is a common view of the passage.
ALTERNATIVE INTERPRETATION
Let me suggest still another interpretation I have heard recently in a sermon on this passage that I like. I welcome your input on it, so please leave a comment at the end of this post.
Christ predicted there would come a time when people would say “blessed are the barren.” Is this not the age we live in?
I gave you the stats at the top of this article. We live in a time period where contraception has moved from the exception to the norm. It’s pervasiveness has led to it becoming a supposedly-Constitutionally-protected “right” in this country.
God, help us.
After all, what did Christ say would happen to those who thought planned barrenhood was morally acceptable? They will wish to die.
But, hellfire lasts for eternity and there is no escape. Even for those who wish to cease to exist.
God, have mercy.
YOUR TURN
What do you think?
Did Christ predict our age of planned barrenhood?
Leave your thought below.
