In a world of scarce resources, your selfish emphasis on large families is absolutely obscene. One more reason your religion is regarded as a selfish cult.

Beautiful. You said it well. I'm sending your article to each of my nine children (who grew up in a state where the politically correct number of children was zero to two per family). Thanks for lending a delightful connotation to the title "Big Love".

Carl, with a mind of scarce intellegence, your selfish emphasis on hating families is absolutely obscene. One more reason your leftest philosophy is regarded as a selfish cult.

It's ironic that some people call it "selfish" to be parents to a lot of children. It may be exhausting, expensive, complicated, and difficult, but the one thing it is NOT is selfish. One kid with 7 siblings is not nearly the drain on the world's resources as the only child with the multiple cars, mansions, and swimming pools. Good responisble parents are doing a service to the world when they raise their children as responsible individuals--there have to be enough of them to be able to solve the problems caused by others. Overpoluation" has never been about the number of people on the planet. The reality is that our impact on the planet has a lot more to do with the choices we make and where we live than sheer numbers of human beings. Taking the overpopulation argument to the extreme... should we be happy when people are killed because that leaves more resources for the rest of us? Would my greatest contribution to the planet be killing myself? Of course not. We can all make the world a little better by what we do.

Where is the evidence that there is not enough resources in the world? That's not true at all, the problem is that we don't use the resources wisely to care for everyone in the world. There is plenty of food and water in the world, and space. It's just thrown away too often.

And having less children won't help, especially with the nation's and world's population getting older. Who is going to take care of this aging population? The shrinking younger generation. Perhaps we need more children, not less (IF they can be loved and raised well, which is exactly what this article is about!)

Craig and Rick,

Forgive me please, but I had forgotten that God is a closet Republican in Mormondom. After so fruitfully multiplying as most good LDS do, it is convenient to forget about the "replentishing" part!

Only "liberals" worry about those stupid types of things!

Carl Clark has no faith in Humanities capacity to innovate. He has no real faith in Humans. Through all the ages dire predictions were made of the end of the world because of finite resources, then we moved from burning the forests to mining coal then we moved to uranium and hydro and wind and energy efficient light bulbs. Alaska's coal could power the current world pop energy needs for 500 years. If all the arable land in the world was farmed with the best current and sustainable farming techniques we could create enough food to feed over 10 billion people RIGHT NOW.

The delusion that there 'isn't enough' is garbage. Look at the selfishness of that view. Carl just doesn't want to share the energy and make his demands on the world to be less. The selfishness is found in those who move to a resort town, build their home, and THEN want to ban further development.

Have faith in human innovation. Humanity is far less selfish and far more innovative than the likes of Carl want to admit, because it's so much nicer for their sensibilities to have those left over resources that could have powered a whole family to power the jets that take them on their international vacations.

Look at the average carbon footprint of your average secular household on a per person basis and compare it to the average per person carbon foot print of an LDS family of 5 or more. I can assure you that my family of eleven consumes far fewer resource FAR FEWER than almost every population controlling secular humanist does in the US or Europe.

Trust the ultimate goodness of humans and humanity. Have a family.

Carl,

Replenish is better translated from the original text as "fill."

What do Liberals (with the big L, for I am a 'little l' liberal) 'replenish'? Do they replenish the linings of Al Gore's portfolio with it's sizable holdings in institutions designed to benefit from what is essentially a new tax levied on the unsustainable claim that humans either significantly cause, or can in actuality mitigate, any global climate change?

Carl,
I have a small family, 2 children, and I came from three generations of small families of 2 children each. I believe very little of what the media has told us about overpopulation. My small families waste and overspend. We all have a minimum of 3 cars for 2 drivers, boats we don't use much, and throw out our computers as soon as the next one arrives on the markets. My friends with big families reuse, make do and grow their own. Plus their kids learn to share and contribute on a scale that cannot be matched by a very small family. Technology too advances our useage of everything so that we can do more with less. Have more faith Carl in the human race. Don't blindly follow the media.

It's funny how the issue of having a large family can lead into Mormonism being a "selfish cult" or that "God is a closet Republican." Do you have any idea what it's like growing up in a third world country like the Philippines where employment opportunities are scarce and resources are too limited? You don't know the meaning of the word poverty. I know so because I am the youngest of 7 siblings and my mother raised us all by herself after my father died in 1981. Our oldest was 19 and I was barely 3 years old at that time. My mother never remarried despite the fact that she knew she had to raise us and send us to school all by herself. She had no college degree to fall back on but it didn't stop her from raising us in the ways of the Lord. She could have placed me and my 5-year old brother for adoption but she didn't.

All 7 of us have graduated college, each one having served the Lord for 18 months to 2 years away from home and went on to have MBAs. We know what it's like to live with nothing and work your way up to make ends meet. You live in the "land of the free" where everything is available to you at the touch of a button. Mormonism is not just a religion, it's our way of life. It doesn't really matter whether you have a small or a large family. What matters is how you raise your family into becoming respectful, honest, and responsible individuals living productive lives and serving the community wherever they may be.

Married in 1965,my husband & I had no doubt then that the media and what had been taught us in school was truth. He was just 19 and I just 16 (I'm from the south , what else )so we were sure we did not want those resource depleting kids. After all, by 2010 the world was suppose to be in such bad shape as to be hardly worth living in. With all the famines and food shortages to say nothing of all the depleted resources of every sort. So our plan included a "green " existance and NO children, and besides, we wanted to bike thru Europe, make lots of money, and, oh yeah, save the planet from communism and keep all those resourses available for as long as possible!You know the old saying " man plans,God laughs" ? While we were making plans, life happened.7 years later, we fell in love with our friends' adorable little boy & yearned to have one of own. We reasoned the world wasn't in as bad a condition as had been predicted. Maybe our child could be an asset instead of a liability. Just 1 child. He was really cute!We grew older, learned a lot, got smarter!3 years later, learned about the "Mormon Church".Got bapt'ed(the building didn't fall down , so it must have been OK).Learned more, noticed things weren't so bad in the world.4years later,first child did OK, wanted 1 more , then another ( they're like potato chips, can't have just 1). Then we saw the fallacy of that "world going to hell in a handbasket because of over population" idea! Just look around. Millions have died in tsunami's, earthquakes, greed caused famines, sicknesses of all kinds! Life goes on, the world turns. Keep having children. Another Einstein maybe?

Nhwoman,
I wanted to tell you that is about THE best comment I think I have ever read on here. Excellent point! :)

Nhwoman, Kitoji, Cherie...Thank you for your comments.

Carl, God is absolutely not a "closet" Republican. He came out quite a while ago. Try to keep up.

Interesting isn't it, how we feel so free to look down on others beliefs and lives? It's easier to point at someone living differently than us and tell them that they are wrong than try to look at what they are saying and open our minds to the root of the message. This article is talking about love, plain and simple. It's not telling everyone to have big families, it's telling us to look out for, help and love our families. I agree 100% with the root of this message. Great job Joe Walker!!!! Keep them coming!