A weekly re昀ection from a memeber of the Hastings clergy

Written by Pastor Paris Pasch of The Journey Church in Hastings

Is Overpopulation True in America?

On March 27, 1972, the “Rockefeller Commission on Population Growth and the American Future” issued its report. Named for its chairman, John D. Rockefeller, and made up of an impressive group of Republican and Democrat lawmakers, policy makers, scientists, sociologists, economists, and foundation heads, its predictions continue to scare Americans today.

But what is actually true 50 years later? Since the establishment of this untested and fear-based mindset, we have seen the population growth rate steadily decline. Today, many of our public schools have reduced enrolment and our workforce has been steadily diminishing. We as a nation, often use our fears, to stimulate the rejection of the unborn, the aged, the infirmed and those we deem less wanted. Millions of creative, enterprising and amazing builders have been discarded even before they had a chance. Today we actually have too many deaths and too few births to even replace our present population.

Like so many, I was affected by this erroneous view of overpopulation, until I got my driver’s license. Since then I have traveled thousands of miles during family vacations and road trips. Now maybe if I would have visited downtown New York or LA, I would have seen a different story, but it would have been an incomplete story none the less. Instead we drove the highways of our nation, many times not seeing another home or city for many many miles. Millions of acres are open countryside where people could love to live.

It has been calculated that if everyone in the US were given an equal share of the 1.9 Billion acres of livable land, all 332 million of us, we would each have 5.7 acres per person with which to live on. That’s each individual, not family. We produce more food across the globe than we can consume. We have so many products that lay waste in our landfills that still had use. We throw away enough food to feed and satisfy many millions more than we number.

Let’s stop telling the story of fearing we won’t have enough space or food in order to support things that devalue human life and keep us from obeying God’s instructions. Let’s stop buying into the scarcity fear tactics used by agencies that want to control our lives. Remember God told Noah in Genesis 9:1 (NIV) … “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. Maybe you should see it for yourself and simply go for a long drive this summer.