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post-christian europe, birth rates, and radical islam…

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This weekend I was bouncing around on the web, and read some blogs that I don’t hit as regularly and I stumbled upon, Why (Many) Europeans Refuse to Reproduce over at Justin Taylor’s blog. Taylor links to Uncommon Knowledge, with Peter Robinson, (of National Review Online) and a series of clips from a larger interview entitled, The Decline and Fall of Europe, with Bruce S. Thornton (a professor in the classical studies program at California State University Fresno). I found each of the five very intriguing. Here are the links for you to view them:


    The Decline and Fall of Europe: Chapter 1 of 5
    The Decline and Fall of Europe: Chapter 2 of 5
    The Decline and Fall of Europe: Chapter 3 of 5
    The Decline and Fall of Europe: Chapter 4 of 5
    The Decline and Fall of Europe: Chapter 5 of 5

Here is one of the five I found on youtube:


Check out all five and please pray for Europe and the state of this continent!

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birth rate in europe on the rise?

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My mother, took a huge step of faith and went to Africa on a medical mission trip recently and on her way through Amsterdam she picked up a copy of the USA Today and saved it for me because of an article on the front page entitled Euro-babies go from bust to boom. It immediately caught my because of the graph you see below.
birth_rate1.png

Czech is on top! I don’t know what an 8.5% increase brings the rate to; it’s probably still low, but let’s be optimistic here! I was actually really excited to see this because the birth rates in Europe have been very scary in the last twenty years or so. The interesting thing in the article is that the main reason they site for this being alarming is that there are an extreme amount of Europeans nearing retirement and they don’t know how their pensions will be taken care of. Now this is important don’t get me wrong, but it is playing second fiddle to the bigger problem – the demise of European Culture. That sounds strong doesn’t it? It should. The birth rate for Europeans is so alarmingly low and the birth rates for Islamic immigrants is so high that the demise of the European culture seems as if it could be eminent.

Awhile back a friend posted an article from the Jerusalem Post entitled, Right on!: Say Goodbye to Europe. Here is an observation from the article,

If you ever wanted to see Paris or Rome before you die, but haven’t had a chance to do so, you might want to hurry. Soon enough, most of what we now think of as Western Europe will be transformed into a branch of the Muslim world, which is sure to make it an even less welcoming place for Americans, Israelis and for Jews.

Now that might be a bit strong as well, but it is a reality unless we continue to see birth rates increase amongst Europeans. Enter the Church. I really believe the local church needs to be revitalized in Europe to see the birth rates increase. Governments can try to offer as much incentives as possible, but let’s face it, having kids isn’t a priority to the average European. Heck marriage isn’t a priority for most younger Europeans. Why would it be? Thus the Church living missionally and living out a strong lifestyle of marriage and kids being on the heart of God and a blessing from Him is of the utmost of importance. I pray to the Lord that when the time comes for me to plant a church, get married and have kids (not necessarily in that order, well, kind of) over in Europe that my wife and I will take the lead and show the Czechs and Europeans we live amongst how great the Creation Mandate is!

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

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islamophobia in czech?

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Really? Is there? I didn’t know this was actually happening here in Czech. According to an article, Czech Muslims complaining about Islamophobia, from the Czech News Agency some would say it does exist. If you have, the time to read the whole article you will see that there is much debate about this and many disagree if it is or isn’t present. However, I have noticed more veiled women in the city than ever before, going back to my first summers spent here in ’02 and ’03 or to my 18 months in ’04 and ’05. It has been interesting to see. Immigration numbers are up, and that means other cultures and religions will be brought into the larger Czech context. Some Czechs are very skeptical about immigration and “outsiders” coming in (which is easy to understand from a historical point because this went for centuries here and it hardly ever produced positive results) and what that will do to their country. See one of the things that communism prevented here in Czech was immigration. Because of this, immigration, for the most part, is a fairly new thing here. Although there are periods of the history of the Czech lands, especially Prague, where the city was much more multi-cultural than even now (relatively speaking of course). This changing fairly quickly now and it has been interesting to see what has transpired. I don’t know what to think about this presumed Islamophobia, that may or may not be here. Here are a few quotes that I thought I would share with you, that really made me think:

“The situation of the growing hatred and xenophobia has escalated to such an extent that it is necessary to launch a national debate on the phenomenon,” Lukas Lhotjan from Libertas Independent Agency says.

According to these polls, 60 percent of Czechs are afraid of danger coming from Muslims and almost half of Czechs are afraid of a direct terrorist attack.

Three-quarters of Czechs do not want to allow Muslims to build mosques in the Czech Republic although they have no negative experience with them. The reason is a mere prejudice that “is being fueled by the media,” the report says.

Judging from what is said in those quotes you can see why some are raising concern. Concern should be raised, but this is a very, very, dangerous discussion. On one hand you can see why there is concern because there are radicals, but on the other hand there are people who just want a better life than what they had so they immigrate to Europe to find that. Now there very well could be a fine line between to the two parties, or a very blurry line. This has been wrote about and spoke about much (click here for another post) and I even have 3 books on my shelf about it that I haven’t got to yet. It could be very scary in the years ahead, in that vein I read this:

If you ever wanted to see Paris or Rome before you die, but haven’t had a chance to do so, you might want to hurry. Soon enough, most of what we now think of as Western Europe will be transformed into a branch of the Muslim world, which is sure to make it an even less welcoming place for Americans, Israelis and for Jews. (read whole article)

That is concerning and you can see how these fears lead to things, ideas and actions throughout Europe. I think we must be mindful of this, but also we must see this as an opportunity! That is how I want to look at it. The Middle East is coming, and has come, to Europe. We can either foster harsh feelings towards them, or see this an opportunity to love and see Jesus do something much larger than we could imagine. Last fall, we had Josh McDowell come and spend an afternoon with our staff here, and in respects to the low European birthrates, the high birth rates amongst Muslim immigrants, and the growing secularism of Europe, he said the only thing for us to do, is do what we are doing – loving Christ and loving people. In the face of all this I will choose to love Christ and love people, and leave the rest up to Him to take care all of the details….

where’s their daddies?

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Over the last year or so, I’ve posted several times on the frighteningly low birth rates in Europe and here in Czech (click here for pasts). This week I read another interesting article, One third of Czech children now born out of wedlock, that threw another layer on top of this discussion – where’s the daddies? It was eye opening to read this, but then again it wasn’t because marriage numbers are on the decline and co-habitation numbers are climbing gradually. If you put these two things together, it would equal children being born out of wedlock. Here are the numbers, from the article:

In the Czech Republic, 39,674 children were born out of wedlock in 2007, which accounted for 34.5 percent of all the children born in that year. Our institute has been monitoring the numbers of extramarital-born children continuously since 1919; in the 1920s and 1930s, around 12 percent of children were born outside marriage, while in the period of 1938 – 1990, their numbers ranged between four and ten percent. At the end of the 1980s, the share of children born out of wedlock began to rise, and this tendency has been persistent ever since.

This should not surprise us though. As communism force fed godlessness down the people’s throats, but still imposed a pretty strict “some what” moralistic code (except for themselves, the leaders, of course). Once communism fell and that moralistic code (which consisted of more “traditional” things – i.e. marriage) was lifted to a degree as “freedom” rolled in accompanied with consumerism and fighting to get more and more money, there was a huge shift here. Things like marriage are not valued nearly as highly as in the past, but that isn’t unique to Czech. It’s happened all over the Western World. I truly believe with the rising tide of godlessness (that stills exists, even post-communism) and secularization of Europe this will continue to become worse and worse.

Due to this, it makes me want to pray, pray, pray that God would move here in Czech and throughout Europe. What can change this “problem?” I don’t think it will come from government programs, set up to give major incentives to couples who have children. There are countries all over Europe realizing there is a huge problem and not enough kids so they are rewarding people with pretty impressive incentives (read an article from the Washington Post about this in German and elsewhere, or here is another once entitled, Paying Women to Have Children). For instance, one of my dear friends over the last year, that I studied Czech with, was here for a year because his country gave him paternity leave, and paid up to 80% of his salary for a year! Now I’m thankful this exists there, because it enabled me to meet this friend, but I’ve wondered will programs like these really work? Or is there something else? Is there a better answer to the dangerously low birth rates throughout Europe? Here is another interesting quote from the article about the current Czech rate in relationship to Europe’s numbers.

For the future, Czech fertility is at risk of being even lower than today because in the past, it was women with basic education who had the highest average number of children. And because today, around 60 percent of those women have children out of wedlock, those women will not have more children. This phenomenon might in the future decrease the overall fertility level in the Czech Republic. Today, we have 1.4 – which is below the European average – and my guess is that this could be between 1.2 and 1.3.

As I’ve read many articles and followed this as of late, I couldn’t help but be concerned. See the “magic number” we need to see is 2.1 children born and as you can see Czech, and Europe as a whole, are well below that. What will this mean? How will the immigrants to these countries effect things? What needs to be done? There are so many questions, but one thing I know for sure, there needs to be an awakening in this city, in this country, and on this continent to really see lasting change. The governments try and try and try, but I’m nearly convinced that these programs will not, on a long term basis, produce the change they are actually going for. I think the change they are going for rest in Someone that can bring true lasting change, and I will labor here to that extent…

sorry we are full…

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I’ve mentioned my concern about the ridiculously low birth rates throughout Europe before, especially in relationship to the high birth rates of immigrants here. Well it would seem that in Czech we are having somewhat of a baby boom. One of the things I’ve noticed since moving back, 10 months, ago was the amount of pregnant women and baby carriages I see on the streets. It seemed way higher. Well sure enough, the birth rate is spiking a little here right now. I’m sure it isn’t enough to counter act the amount of elderly that will be passing away in the years ahead, but at least we are moving in the right direction. In fact, I read an article entitled Crowded Prague Maternity Hospitals Curb Admissions. What the heck does that mean? Well they are actually turning Moms-to-be away because of overcrowding! Here is what one of the hospital website’s had up on their site:

“We are warning mothers that until 6 January 2009 our capacity is full and for that reason we cannot admin any more mothers for the moment.”

Wow! So many pregnant moms and babies the hospitals can’t handle the sheer volume! Here are the actual statistics:

Childbirths in the country are steadily on the rise, reaching 114,500 in 2007. The total fertility rate rose to 1.44 children per woman in childbearing age.

Another article (Czech population reaches new high) I read points out that with the higher birthrate, and immigration, the Czech Republic has reached its highest population (10,349,372) since the end of the 1980’s. All this confirms my passion for being here in this city. The population is increasing, the economy is growing and Prague’s Europe-wide influence is growing. It is as I’ve said, “Reach the Heart, Reach the Whole!”

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happy easter! – vesely velikonoce!

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Easter is here and I am celebrating in the midst of a full weekend of football, and etc. but I’ve also enjoyed a 5 day weekend off from school and learning Czech that I am on the end of. However, there are some traditions that others are anticipating as Easter, or Velikonoce (Roughly translated as big or great, or big, night, which is in reference to Jesus’ big night of the resurrection. Interesting, in the midst of arguably one of the most atheistic countries in the world.), approaches. Some seem somewhat traditional to myself, as a American, and some will forever puzzle me a little. I need to remember the Crusade adage I’ve heard again and again being overseas, “It’s not work, it’s just different!” That might be up to debate a little bit, but here we go…

pomlazka.jpgI’m only going to hit on the tradition I find most interesting (if you desire to read more, click HERE), and/or slightly confusing for me. It is called the pomlazka. Which is pretty much the opposite of an “ugly stick”! Have I got your attention yet? The pomlazka is braided whip of sorts that Czech men use to “tap” the women on the rear on the Monday morning after Easter Sunday. I have been told, and/or read, that this is why Czech women are so beautiful, because the pomlazka is said to bring beauty and fertility. (I find the fertility one interesting, because the birth rate is way low here, but that doesn’t mean a lack of fertility.) Yes you read that right and NO I’m not making this up. Here is a bit more about it from myczechrepublic.com:

The origin of the pomlazka tradition (pomlazka meaning both the whip and the tradition itself) dates back to pagan times. Its original purpose and symbolic meaning is to chase away illness and bad spirits and to bring health and youth for the rest of the year to everyone who is whipped with the young pussywillow twigs. Boys would whip girls lightly on the legs and possibly douse them with water, which had a similar symbolic meaning. An Easter carol, usually asking for an egg or two, would be recited by the boy while whipping. The girl would then reward the boy with a painted egg or candy and tie a ribbon around his pomlazka. As the boys progressed through the village, their bags filled up with eggs and their pomlázkas were adorned with more and more colorful ribbons.

So tomorrow, women beware as clans of men looking for chocolate, painted eggs or alcohol will be roaming the streets of the Czech Republic with their pomlazkas in hand. It is interesting living here and seeing how many of their traditions date back before the arrival of Christianity and definitely have a hint of paganism to them. It just confirms the Czech ability to endure what ever “outside” force or entity arrives on Czech soil with a resilience that is amazing. Even when that “outside force” is a positive thing – i.e. Christianity. Anyway…

With that being said, I do wish you a beautiful Easter, or Resurrection Day, or Velikonoce! Praise God that in the midst of pain, darkness, confusion, ugliness, hate, sacrifice, and more that He brought the most beautiful thing and event of all time – The Resurrection of His Son, Jesus the Christ, the Incarnate Son of God, who sold out for His Bride the Church and then beat down death! Praise God, HE IS ALIVE!

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