Have you ever been completely infuriated at people’s stubbornness? They so want to see things their way so badly that they ignore the obvious. They’re blinded by their own stubbornness. Maybe it’s just me. Maybe I’m the blind one. I’m probably opening a can of worms here, but I think it’s time to pop the lid. Christians have a serious problem dealing with this world. By “world” I don’t mean the people in this world. That’s another issue. By world I mean environment. Christians have a very hard time dealing with the environment we live in and how we’re supposed to interact with that environment.

Population is just one tiny issue. I’ll start there (and end there–this could, and has, filled text books). It’s a known fact that the population of the earth is skyrocketing. In 1830 the world population reached the 1 billion mark. In 1930 it reached 2 billion. 1960 brought 3 billion, and in 1975 came 4 billion. 5 billion came in 1987, and the 6 billion mark was passed last year. In case you’re not catching the pattern, that’s exponential growth. Exponential population growth is usually a bad thing in nature. When that happens among animals something happens and the population drastically dies out. Something has to give, either there’s not enough food, or the animals run out of space. Something gives, and the population plummets. It constantly happens in nature. Of course we’re not bound by nature, are we? Humans often think we’re so high and mighty. Unfortunately, I think we’re in for quite a crash as well if we’re not careful.

So why am I bringing this issue up? And what does this have to do with stubbornness? A number of Christians claim the population explosion is a hoax. They claim we don’t have to worry about the growing numbers of people on this planet. The claim the earth can support billions more. They say that the Bible told us to multiply and fill the earth–there’s still empty earth left, so we’re not done. Is that how it works? Somehow, I don’t think so. God didn’t put people on this planet to dominate. He put us here to be stewards. He didn’t put Adam in the garden and tell him to trash everything. God told Adam to care for the garden. That’s what we’re supposed to do with the earth. Allowing uncontrolled population growth is trashing God’s creation. More people take up more space. When we need more space we clear more forests. Clearing out natural ecosystems degrades the environment and threatens our own survival. I was looking at a Christian web page that claimed the population explosion was a hoax. A pilot for the Navy wrote in commending them for their stand, saying that he’s flown all over the world and says there’s plenty of room for more people. What kind of logic is that? Oh, there’s an empty space! We can put people there! What about the environment? What about plants and animals? We can’t mow down every forest and replace it with green suburban grass.

Now perhaps these people have a point. Again, maybe I’m the one being blind. After all, how do you control population? Have fewer babies. One answer to that is abortion. Obviously, that’s a horrible answer. I’m not advocating abortion. But that’s some Christians’ argument. If you want to slow population growth, you have to stop people from having as many children. That’s done through family planning, which has received a bad rap among conservatives as being synonymous with abortion. However, if family planning works, there should never be a need for abortion. It’s when family planning is cut that people find themselves having unwanted children and they turn to abortion. Some Christians claim that the population explosion is just an excuse to advocate abortion. Somehow that logic doesn’t jive with me.

I just don’t understand how some people think. How can you claim we should never even pause to think about the population? If you want to be completely ludicrous, eventually the population will get so out of hand that there are too many people to stand on the face of the earth. What happens then? Doesn’t that sound like a problem? Of course the pundits answer that will never happen. The population will take care of itself before then. Or Christ will return before then so we don’t have to worry. Sorry–wrong answer. One: the population won’t take care of itself. If my ludicrous situation won’t happen because it will be fixed before it goes that far, how’s it going to get fixed? Somebody has to step in at some point and curb population growth. Two: You can’t put off the world hoping Christ will return. What are you going to do, stand on your roof top and wait for him? Christ could come in the next ten minutes, and he could come in ten thousand years. You certainly don’t know.

I just get so frustrated sometimes. Christians have such a bad reputation in the world, and frankly, I think a lot of times we are deserving of that reputation.