Foreign Policy: The Return of Patriarchy

(Hat Tip: OpinionJournal.com's Best of the Web, by James Taranto.)

The premise of this article in Foreign Policy is simple, though Philip Longman irrelevantly and mistakenly derives it from evolution. As societies become prosperous, people don't want to bother themselves with children. But that doesn't apply to all the people. Those who value children will continue to have them; those that don't, won't. And in a generation--two at the outside--the kind of people who value children the most will outnumber, outvote, and outfight the other kind.

Longman clearly impresses me as holding his nose and saying to his fellow secularists, "I don't like it any better than you do, but facts are facts!" But I'll say this for him; he's honest. He even spares a few paragraphs, toward the end, to tell his fellow liberals not to count on another Sixties Generation to save the secular revolution.

Now as those of you who have read this blog for a long time will remember, I see signs that we're on the last cycle--that the restoration of Israel, and the renewal of the strife between Isaac and Ishmael (Genesis 25), presages the Tribulation to come, and the Second Coming of Christ that will end it. If that happens in this generation, then everything that Mr. Longman has said will be moot.

But I have no definitive proof that this will result. And if it does not, then my fellow Christians need a little advice about how not to squander this opportunity.

Because Christians aren't the only ones who are outbreeding the secularists. Muslims are, too. And so the great war of civilization will come anyway, with a bunch of broken-down secularists vainly crying out, "No!" and "Stop!" from the sidelines. (If the Muslims don't kill them first.)

The immediate question will arise: who is likely to win? That question is not quite settled. Our side has the advanced technology, of both agriculture and weaponry. Sadly, their side appears to have the dedication. Whether that appearance of dedication comes from a loud and deadly minority or from a majority biding their time for the right moment is not a settled question, either. That settlement will probably take a Senate hearing--not on whether to let the United Arab Emirates run our container terminals (they shouldn't, and we should stop talking about it and vote, "No!"), but on whether we ought to be as respectful of Islam as we are of Christianity. Religious ideals have consequences, as do any other words--and the words of the Koran are fighting words. Our current President doesn't understand this, or doesn't want to understand.

Nor does Islam represent the greatest threat. We deal also with a separatist movement in the American Southwest, about which few people have a clue. The adherents of this view are fast breeders, too.

All told, I'd give us one generation before a shooting war breaks out. Before that happens, we need to redouble our efforts in education and missions. It can work--but it will be a near thing.

Again, maybe God will cut the whole show short and snatch us all away, thus paving the way for the wars and oppressions that we call the Tribulation. Or maybe we'll have another big slug-fest that, while not approaching the awful scope of the Tribulation, will still dwarf the Second World War both in severity and importance. Either way, we'll all have to choose on that day whom we shall serve.