Happy Belated Father's Day:

I know that Father's Day is over. But I was drawn to think of the importance of our fathers after reading an insightful blog by Dr. R. Albert Mohler this week (www.almohler.com). If you know who I'm speaking of, you know that they're all insightful. So I really haven't said much.

Have you ever noticed that when you walk into Target to buy your card for mom on Mother's Day, the pickings are pretty slim? At least in my case, by the time I whisk in at the last minute to get my Mother's Day card, this is sad scenario. Yet, when Father's Day rolls around, there's always plenty to choose from. No doubt, this is a reflection of the fact that the ratio of involved dads over against involved moms leaves a huge gap to be filled. It is certainly a disparity in the favor of moms. We all know this. However, I want to take a moment to offer striking evidence that shows the very survivial of our civilization in the upcoming decades will depend on something as trivial in most people's minds as an involved dad.

For years the role of the father has been eroded by our culture of self gratification where men have been sold the idea that if your wife no longer lights your fire, you can always trade her in for a new one. This idea has been fostered a great deal through the "trophy wife" culture of some of the most influencial stars and politicians. Once you've exchanged your first four or five wives in for new ones, it isn't the same as saying you once drove a Ford Pinto, and now you've worked your way up to an Expedition. Where do your children fit into the picture when their mom is two or three wives/girlfriends back? You know you're adept at the game when you introduce your wife only to hear the exclamation, "What a beautiful granddaughter you have." As aghast as some of us are to this picture, what would repulse us seeing a eighty year old man do should be just as repulsive when seen done by a thirty year old. The infidelity that has become so accepted on the part of men has certainly given mom a greater edge when the holidays roll around, and shows why we have largely become a Matriarchal society.

A recent article Al Mohler's cites has indicated that there will soon be a return to patriarchy. Phillip Longman in the March/April 2006 issue of Foreign Policy (not at all known as a Conservative, much less Christian publication), raised the ire of many in the politically correct crowd by making this prediction. However, Longman is a renowned researcher who has much evidence to back it up, not the least of which is the evidence that shows society cannot last long without responsible fathers at the helm. To start off with you must know that the results of indolent, absentee fathers has not only led to the downfall of the people unfortunate enough to be part of their families, it has lead to the downfall of people . . . period.

Pretty soon, mom wises up to the fact that dad isn't going to be in the picture long. So what does she do? The abortion rights movement was largely based on answering this dilemma. If dad can cast his responsibility to the wind and be free, mom has the same right. Hence, almost 50,000,000 of our own unborn have been shamelessly killed through government sanctioned infanticide since 1973. So mom has it figured out. No dad in the picture will pretty soon equal no child in the picture either.

The birthrates in every developed country have fallen so low that they are below replacement rate. Japan has fewer children today because of men (and women) who place career before family than they have had since 1908. Only 11% of Tokyo's population are 14 or younger. Yet 25% are 65 or older. The elderly already outnumber chldren, 2 to 1. By 2020 they will outnumber them 3 to 1, and by 2040 they will outnumber them 4 to 1. You might be thinking, "so what, fewer people means fewer headaches." This is not the case. The aging demographics of Japan show that by 2050 their workforce will be 70% smaller than it is today, and will leave their country more vulnerable than it was when after WWII.

Of course, the population implosion is not Japan's problem alone. Europe has a birthrate of just above 1.3 children per couple, which is just above half replacement rate. In Brussels, Belgium, 55% of all infants born in 2004 were born to immigrant families, predominately Muslim immigrant families. Anders Fogh Rasmussen of Denmark has shown that at the current rate of population decline, the Muslim immigrant population will overtake that of ethnic Danes in their own backyard of Denmark by 2060.

This situation is not secluded to Belgium or Denmark, it is epidemic all over continental Europe. Norwegian imam Mullah Krekar, told the Oslo newspaper Dagbladet in 2006. "Just look at the development within Europe, where the number of Muslims is expanding like mosquitoes. Every Western woman in the EU is producing an average of 1.4 children. Every Muslim woman in the same countries is producing 3.5 children." As he summed it up: "Our way of thinking will prove more powerful than yours."

Canadian-American writer Mark Steyn, goes into more detail when predicting the coming population displacement of Europeans: "What's happening in the developed world is one of the fastest demographic evolutions in history: most of us have seen a gazillion heartwarming ethnic comedies -- My Big Fat Greek Wedding and its ilk -- in which some uptight WASPy type starts dating a gal from a vast loving fecund Mediterranean family, so abundantly endowed with sisters and cousins and uncles that you can barely get in the room. It is, in fact, the inversion of the truth. Greece has a fertility rate hovering just below 1.3 births per couple, which is what demographers call the point of "lowest-low" fertility from which no human society has ever recovered. And Greece's fertility is the healthiest in Mediterranean Europe: Italy has a fertility rate of 1.2, Spain 1.1. Insofar as any citizens of the developed world have "big" families these days, it's the anglo democracies: America's fertility rate is 2.1, New Zealand a little below. Hollywood should be making My Big Fat Uptight Protestant Wedding in which some sad Greek only child marries into a big heartwarming New Zealand family where the spouse actually has a sibling." (America Alone: The End of the World as we know it).

This phenomenon is described by Al Mohler as unprecedented. Usually for a population to go into decline there must be an inexorable force such as war, famine, infant mortality, or the plague. But when a nation such as Japan, the second largest economy in the world, chooses to quit reproducing, it is like unto a perfectly healthy man choosing to starve himself of his own will.

I am absolutely convinced that the population implosion the developed world is beginning to see, and the Islamic explosion that the West is so willfully blinded to, is a direct consequent of having lauded unfaithful men for so long, and for allowing marital infedility to become completely acceptable and even expected. Psalm 10:3 speaks well of the dilemma of praising men who the Lord abhores. Isaiah 5:19 also condemns those who call evil, good, and good, evil. That put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.

I don't have time to corroborate all of this today. But let me start with this thought: The idea that every man is an island, stranded alone to find sustenance and satisfaction only for himself must lead to the starving of our future. Men everywhere must ask, "Do I really want to have a stake in the future, or is my legacy so unimportant that I can af ford to live only for today?" (To be continued! Seriously this time!)