Mohler: Intentional Childlessness Is ‘Avoiding Responsibility’

The increase in the number of married couples in the United States who are deciding not to have children is a disturbing trend that could have a long-term negative impact on society, R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360.”

Sometimes referring to themselves as “non-breeders,” these couples are intentional and sometimes militant in their resolve not to have children, with some of them saying they are showing advanced maturity by recognizing that children do not fit their lifestyle.

Mohler, however, said the trend is nothing more than a disturbing commitment to perpetual adolescence. Raising children is part of becoming an adult, he said on the CNN broadcast’s Dec. 15 edition.

“Parenthood is a part of helping to create adults,” Mohler said. “We grow up by having children. Without that responsibility, we have a generation of perpetual adolescents just growing old . . . This is really about avoiding responsibility and I find that tremendously sad.

“I think [it] is dangerous to assume that we’re going to say that people can be recognized as responsible adults who don’t even aspire to grow up to be mature enough to have children.”

Madelyn Cain, author of “The Childless Revolution: What It Means to be Childless Today,” said a couple’s decision to remain childless is simply a lifestyle choice. Cain said modern women are choosing not to bear children more often than their forbears because they are better educated and have more opportunities in the workplace than in previous generations.

“I think parenting is an option, it’s not an obligation,” Cain said, “and I think that we should be applauding the people who are mature enough in making a decision and saying, ‘I know that this is not the right choice for me.’”

But Mohler said these couples apparently are not considering the implications of their choices for society.

“Obviously there is a moral point to be made here. These couples have to be very thankful that their parents didn’t make the same decision. Society depends upon parenthood, the raising of children, being seen as the norm for married couples and as something of social value.”

Jennifer Shawne, an intentionally childless wife who was interviewed for the show, denied she is self-centered and said those who have children often do it for selfish reasons.

“You can turn the tables and say, ‘Isn’t that selfish that you have children that you expect to take care of you when you are old?’” Shawne said. “‘Isn’t it selfish that you want a replica of yourself?’”

Another woman interviewed for the show had a simple rationale for her intentional childlessness: “The cost of raising a cat is much less than raising a child.”

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