Demographic suicide

Among the consequences of Europe’s aban-Ife donment of its religious roots and the moral “code that derives therefrom is a plunge in its birth rates to below the replacements level. Abortion, birth control, acceptance of gay marriage and casual sex are driving the trend. Europe is “committing demographic suicide, systematically depopulating itself,” according to Weigel.

United Nations population statistics back him up.

Not a single Western Euro-II pean country has a fertility rate I sufficient to replace the current population, which demographers say requires 2.1 children per family. Germany, Russia, Spain, Poland and Italy all have rates of about 1.3 children, according to the UN. The Czech Republic’s is less than 1.2, and even Roman Catholic Ireland is at 1.9 children. (The US. rate, which has remained stable, is slightly more than 2 children per woman.) Fifteen countries, “mostly located in Southern and Eastern Europe, have reached levels of fertility unprecedented in human history,” according to the U.N.’s World Population Prospects 2004 revision.

As children grow scarce and longevity increases in Europe, the continent is becoming one vast Leisure World. By 2050, the UN. projects, more than 40% of the people in Italy will be 60 or older. By mid-century, populations in 25 European nations will be lower than they are now; Russia will lose 31 million people, Italy 7.2 million, Poland 6.6 million and Germany 3.9 million. So Europe is abandoning religion, growing older, shrinking and slowly killing itself. These are signs of a society in eclipse — the Roman Empire writ large. Is this any model for America?

In his 2001 book, The Death of the West, conservative commentator Patrick Buchanan argues that a European-style “de-Christianization of America” is the goal of many liberals -and they are succeeding.

Court decisions that have banned school-sponsored prayer, removed many Nativity scenes from public squares, and legalized gay marriage are part of that pattern, as is the legal effort to erase “In God We Trust” from US. currency and “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance.

Europe is showing us where this path leads. It is not the right path for America.