While on a breakpoint, a daily look in an ever-changing culture through the lens of

unchanging truth, for the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street.

Fewer people today are raising children.

The verb raise is apt despite the long-standing

insistence and style guides that the correct verb here is actually to rear.

Farmers race crops and animals. Activities vital for any society that hopes to

well have food.

Of course not everyone needs to farm, especially since industrialization has made food production so much more efficient.

However, some percentage of the population has to or will starve.

This is an example of a shared responsibility of citizens

an activity that no specific individual is obligated to do

but that many individuals must choose to do if the society is to survive.

Raising corn and cows isn't only about making a living.

It's about feeding people.

And in the same way, not everyone can or will choose to raise children but many people have to if a society

is to have a future. In fact the majority must. The number of children born each year

does not equal or exceed the number of people who die the population

will age and shrink.

This is the current situation basically all across the developed world.

And a major factor behind this predicament we face is that we've largely forgotten how to speak of shared

responsibilities today. Our choices, especially when it comes to sexuality and to relationships,

are seen in hyper individualistic terms.

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