Fur Babies vs. Children: Why Children Are Worth The Effort

CongreGate

Today we are talking about fur babies vs. children, and why raising children is worth the effort. A growing number of young adults are opting to adopt pets in place of having children. Meanwhile, birth rates are dropping. We share a couple of funny, though slightly disturbing, stories about people that value animals too much.

We also discuss an article by John Stonestreet, Fur Babies: Pets, Children, and the Triumph of Autonomy, in which he writes:

"Another thirty-year-old, writing in Charlotte Magazine, wrote about how she went from wanting to be a stay-at-home mom to a pet parent. In her words, pets 'give us a greater purpose without making our lives mainly about theirs.'

While there is something “stunning” about such 'self-centered transparency,' as Mattes put it, we shouldn’t be surprised. It’s the logical outcome of the triumph of personal autonomy in the West. We exist for our own benefit and pleasure, as do our children and our pets."

While pets can bring comfort to people, they are not equal to people. Human beings alone are made in the image of God and have eternal souls that live forever. That is why we put the effort into raising children. Shawn finishes with a story about the eternal rewards of raising children for the glory of God, which stands in stark contrast to temporary worth of "raising fur babies."