Why Chinese Christians Don’t Talk About Family Planning

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Christianity Today

Religion, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.3 • 622 Ratings

🗓️ 3 June 2021

⏱️ 47 minutes

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Summary

China has expanded the number of children married couples can have to three. Home to nearly 1.4 billion people—or more than one billion more people than the US—the country is anxious about its future. Under its current demographic trajectory, China’s labor force is shrinking, numbers which concern economists and government officials. China first began to regulate its population in the late 1970s, under what become known as the one-child policy, although two-child exceptions were made to ethnic minorities and Han families in rural areas who had daughters first. In 2015, the government began to allow all families to have two children. Despite these changes to the law, births have fallen for four years in a row. And many share similar concerns about the lack of family leave and cost of daycare that American families do. In its announcement, the Communist party pledged to improve maternity leave and workplace protections for married couples seeking more children. Raymond Yang has been a house church pastor for 27 years. He is currently enrolled in a PhD program at Talbot School of Theology at Biola University and is a licensed counselor based in northeast China. He has done marriage and family counseling for more than 10 years. Yang joined global media manager Morgan Lee and senior news editor Kate Shellnutt to discuss why abortion is prevalent among Chinese Christians, why the church rarely talks about sex, and how his family made the agonizing decision to have two children. What is Quick to Listen? Read more Rate Quick to Listen on Apple Podcasts Follow the podcast on Twitter Follow our hosts on Twitter: Morgan Lee and Kate Shellnutt Music by Sweeps Quick to Listen is produced by Morgan Lee and Matt Linder The transcript is edited by Bunmi Ishola Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is brought to you in part by The Apologetics Guy Show, the podcast that helps you find clear answers to tough questions about Christianity.
0:11.1	Learn to explain your faith with courage and compassion. Join Moody Bible Institute professor Dr. Mikhail del Rosario at apologeticsky.com.
0:27.6	China has expanded the number of children married couples can have to three. Home to nearly 1.4 billion people, more than 1 billion more people than the United States,
0:32.6	the country is anxious about its future.
0:35.6	Under its current demographic trajectory, China's labor force is shrinking,
0:40.3	numbers which concern economists and government officials.
0:44.3	China first began to regulate its population in the late 1970s
0:47.3	under what became known as the one-child policy,
0:50.3	although two child exceptions were made to ethnic minorities
0:53.3	and Han families in rural areas
0:55.7	who had daughters first. In 2015, the government began to allow all families to have two children.
1:03.1	Despite these changes to the law, births have fallen for four years in a row. And many share
1:08.4	similar concerns about lack of family leave and cost of daycare that
1:12.3	American families do. In its announcement of this new policy, the Communist Party pledged to
1:17.9	improve maternity leave and workplace protections for married couples seeking more children.
1:23.6	Like we mentioned on our episode several weeks ago about falling fertility rates, many of these
1:29.3	conversations can feel sterile or overly informed by political or economic perspectives.
1:35.3	We wanted to hear what conversations about family planning look like at a local Chinese church
1:40.5	level.
1:43.1	You are listening to Quick to Listen where where we go be on hashtags and hot takes to discuss a major
1:48.8	cultural event.
1:50.1	I'm Morgan Lee, global media manager at Christianity Today.
	...

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