Children Are the Answer

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Children Are the Answer
by Steve Koob—Steve@omsoul.com

“Contraception is Not the Answer” (CINTA) was the title of an enlightening and groundbreaking conference that the Pro-Life Action League sponsored in the Fall of 2006. Information about the conference and CDs of the presentations are available at http://www.prolifeaction.org/home/2006/cdset.htm. At this conference, the Pro-Life Action League boldly brought together a wide range of speakers and participants to discuss whether contraception really is the solution to many of our culture's ills or whether it really adds to the culture of death's disease.

It could be said that the speakers, who included such distinguished persons as Janet Smith, Alan Carlson, Lionel Tiger, and Jennifer Roback Morse, all shared ways in which contraception is truly not the answer to our society's problems. The next obvious question, then, seems to me to be "What is the answer?" IF contraception is NOT the answer to these important questions, is it possible that CHILDREN ARE THE ANSWER to these questions?

I believe that more children (and therefore more souls) are the answer to many (perhaps most) of our culture’s problems. So I am issuing this blanket invitation to all writers to help me and One More Soul explain how children are the answer to our culture’s problems. Let me give you a few examples to stimulate your creative juices:

1. Some predict that the Social Security System will be insolvent in a few decades due to the declining ratio of workers to beneficiaries. More children (future workers) are the answer.
2. Non-embryonic stem-cell protocols have proven amazingly successful for the treatment and cure of a myriad of illnesses, injuries and diseases. The huge inventory of stem cells needed for researching new applications and for refining protocols of treatments already proven successful are readily available in umbilical cord blood. Cord blood stem cells from children are the answer to many common health problems in our society.
3. Divorce is a proven society buster, reducing family income and education levels, increasing single-parent households, crime, and out-of-wedlock pregnancies. Marriage is strengthened by children—the more children, the lower the divorce rate. Couples in distressed marriages that stay married, even those who stay together “for the children," report that they are happier five years after the crisis than couples who divorced. Children tend to preserve marriages—children are the answer to the divorce problem (and its associated) problems.
4. With rare exceptions, parents love their children. Parents devote enormous portions of their time, energy, and resources to providing for their children’s welfare. Because the average child today has but one sibling, children may be getting more attention and more stuff than is prudent for their development as mature adults. Larger families foster the virtues of generosity, helpfulness, communication and self-sacrifice as a counter to materialism and hedonism. Children are the answer!
5. The shortage of priests and nuns has been attributed to the sparsity of large families that historically have been a rich source for religious vocations. Again, children are the answer.
6. The intentional killing of pre-born children is a disgrace to any society. Abortion, like contraceptive birth control, fails to recognize on a societal level the fundamental truth that virtually all parents understand—children are a blessing—children are a gift from God. John Paul II referred to children as “the SUPREME gift of marriage.” Children change a family, the block, parish and community. Show me a community dominated by families with four or more children and I’ll show you a community where families know each other, people regularly meet on the sidewalks, car pool and child care needs are met, the incidence of crime is low, and trust is high. Children are the answer.

Please share with us your thoughts on how “children are the answer." All serious (and humorous)

papers will be posted at www.OMSoul.com and will help us define a 2008 “Children Are the Answer” (CATA) Symposium. Authors that respond to this “Call for Papers” may be invited to present (or summarize) their work at the CATA Symposium.

Papers should be less than 2500 words and should include a brief abstract with key words underlined. Multiple submissions are permissible. Send papers to CATA@OMSoul.com or use this on-line submission form.

One More Soul welcomes co-sponsoring organizations and individuals.

Call for Papers

For questions and comments regarding our mission and products, please contact us.

"Fostering God's plan for love, chastity, marriage, sex and children"

"Fostering God's plan for love, chastity,
marriage, sex and children"