Population decline is already on a course that will yield a dramatic rise in the median age of the world’s populations. The U.S. Census Bureau reported in March of this year that the fertility level for the world as a whole will drop below replacement level before the year 2050. In the 1990s women worldwide were giving birth to 3.3 children over their lifetimes. By 2002 the average was 2.6, only a little more than required to replace a population.

In some parts of the world, aging populations are already of notable concern. Eberstadt reports world fertility levels down by nearly half since the early 1950s. Europe, Japan, and China are at subreplacement levels. The economic implications are fairly obvious. Along with severe declines in child populations and growing elderly populations, there comes a decline in industry and productivity, a drop in the number of tax-payers, and significantly fewer workers to support the costs of an increasingly gray population.

So, the reality is that population decline has negative implications for world stability, not only economically but also in terms of family life. The church ought to give serious consideration to the negative effects of encouraging further population decline.

Scripture’s overwhelming message is the value of human beings to God. People are intended by God to be both blessings and resources. When God gives the blessing of children, he adds the blessing of "crops and flocks" (Deut. 7:13). Any theological discussion of population and resources ought to stem both from our concern for stewardship and from our understanding of God’s sovereignty over the whole of his creation.

The premises on which the Baltimore overture are based should be subjected to careful scrutiny. The assertion that we are headed toward an overpopulation disaster is simply not supported by the evidence.