There is confusion on what a human embryo is. It is not sperm. It is not an egg. The very first two sentences of “The Developing Human — Clinically Oriented Embryology, (2nd ed 1977)” by Keith Moore states:
“Development is a continuous process that begins when an oocyte (ovum) is fertilized by a spermatozoon and ends at death. It is a process of growth and differentiation which transforms the zygote, a single cell, into a multicellular adult human being.”
No new science has changed that truth in the last 50 years. What is the law here?
North Carolina law on unborn children is not confused. N.C. Sen. Bill 20 (2023) makes lawful abortions up to the 12th week of pregnancy with limited exceptions. Without that law and its Roe v. Wade predecessor, the criminal law would be the same as common law.
In 1859, the American Medical Association unanimously adopted a resolution “condemning abortion at every period of gestation, except as necessary to preserve the life of mother or child.” The reason: the increasing frequency “of such unwarrantable destruction of human life.”
The common law (as of 1776, and probably as of 1669) made abortion a crime from conception. “The moment the womb is instinct with embryo life and gestation has begun . . .” the crime may be committed (1880)
N.C. civil law also considers the unborn child to be protected from the time of conception.
The law of North Carolina is that the property, real and personal, of one dying without a will immediately vests in a child en ventre sa mere. In 1823, the statute clarified: “[n]o inheritance shall descend to any person, unless such person shall be in life at the death of the person last seized, or shall be born withing ten months after the death of the person last seized.” Ten lunar months is 280 days. A child, once conceived, could take a property interest under a will to “children.” (1839)
An 1854 statute states that “[a]n infant unborn, but in esse, (in existence) shall be deemed a person capable of taking by deed as if he were born.” Note the words “infant unborn.”
For all purposes beneficial to her, the unborn child was protected by the civil law. Law and biology were consistent and considered the child in the womb to be within the protection of law from conception.
There is confusion between abortion and IVF.
In either abortion or IVF, the intention includes the destruction of a living human being. Of those embryos created by IVF, most are to be discarded, and only one or two are intended to be implanted and proceed to birth.
There are differences. The obvious one is size. Another is pain. I am not aware of evidence that the embryo at one week has the capacity to feel pain. There is capacity for the unborn child to feel pain somewhere between 10 and 15 weeks after fertilization.
On the other side, the destruction of most of the embryos in the IVF procedure is morally worse than the abortion of the child in the womb. How so? The usual reasons stated for abortion do not apply. The woman seeking IVF has not been impregnated by rape or incest. Neither her life nor her health are in any danger. By definition, she wants at least one of these children and can afford to raise her. The child will not interfere with her career or education nor, as the U.S. Supreme Court said in 1993, interfere with her consideration of the mysteries of existence and her place in the universe.
I suppose that if IVF were accomplished by creating one or two embryos and implanting them, some of the moral objections would be less powerful. The general practice is to create multiple embryos in the test tube, test them, implant one or two and destroy the rest.
Those with a historical or biblical turn of mind might study the first chapter of Luke, written by a historian. When Jesus was about 8 days old (in Mary’s womb) his cousin, John the Baptist, leapt for joy because John was in the presence of the Messiah (John’s mother was in her sixth month).
English is the world’s language of culture and commerce. It is always changing. Try reading Shakespeare or the King James Bible (1611).
Decades ago, most could distinguish between “both” and “each” as in “both Jack and Jill went up the hill” and “each candidate presented his or her platform.” Now these terms are used interchangeably and, as a consequence, neither is clear.
“Meat gets done. People are finished.” There is a difference between “done” and “finished” but the difference will shortly disappear because of one unalterable fact. Billions of times every day an electronic device requires us to push “done” when we are “finished.” Yesterday I called “Siri, telephone call to ????” (S)he or it replied: “To who?”
Who can forget Justice Neil Gorsuch’s faux pas in Bostock. This “textualist” and “originalist” thought he should interpret “sex” in the 1965 Civil Rights Act as meaning the same as “gender” means to some today. He failed to consult Fowler’s Modern English Usage, 2nd ed., 1965, which explained that someone making that error was either joking or ignorant. That decision changed the law of the country with no input from Congress.
These changes have real life consequences.
Other transitions have occurred in the last decade.
Hateful used to mean that a human individual was full of hatred, to wit, a settled rejection of another human. Now the term is often used to mean that a human being or an organization or an amorphous group disagrees with someone else on a matter of importance.
Shameful used to mean that the writer (or a group of which he or she is more or less associated) has done something of which he or she has a serious feeling of moral regret. It now means (to some) that someone else or a group of which I am not a member has done something of which I would be ashamed if I had done it.
Disenfranchised properly means that an individual no longer has the right to vote, either for public or private office, for which that person was previously able to vote e.g. by conviction of a felony. Now it refers to individuals, groups, and societies that don’t feel that their collective voice will prevail against the actual majority.
Other changes took centuries:
Nice used to mean “silly, foolish, simple.”
Silly went in the opposite direction: in its earliest uses, it referred to things worthy or blessed; from there it came to refer to the weak and vulnerable, and more recently to those who are foolish.
Wench is a form of the Old English word wenchel (which referred to children of either sex), the word wench used to mean “female child” before it came to be used to refer to female servants — and more pejoratively to wanton women.
Clue: Centuries ago, a clue (or clew) was a ball of yarn. It morphed from yarn to key bits of evidence that help us solve problems.
Naughty: Long ago, if you were naughty, you had naught or nothing. Then it came to mean evil or immoral, and now just badly behaved.
Quell: Quelling something used to mean killing it, not just subduing it.
Divest: 300 years ago, divesting could involve undressing as well as depriving others of their rights or possessions. It has only recently come to refer to selling investments.
Senile: Senile used to refer simply to anything related to old age, so you could have senile maturity. Now it refers specifically to elders suffering from senile dementia.
It is not just words. The overuse of the passive voice can obscure the truth.
Active voice: A stray dog ate my doughnut.
Passive voice: My doughnut was eaten by a stray dog.
Passive on steroids: It seems that my doughnut was eaten.
Recently a reporter wrote: “his victory seemed to be a reflection of…” but the reporter never stated when or to whom it so seemed, leaving the reader to conclude an everlasting groundswell of public approval.
CONCLUSION
“ Horace, writing more than 2,000 years ago in The Art of Poetry observed that usus (“usage”) is the ius et norma loquendi (“the right and rule of speech”). The change can come about naturally and gradually with social and cultural change, or it can come more rapidly and destructively either through the domination of language by the ignorant and inept, or by intentional distortions and to control information and argument by ideological fanatics. What we have seen recently is a “woke” assault on meaning — the ability of language to correspond with the real message that the speaker wants to convey to the learner.”
“There is effective and beneficial change in language. It occurs when wise writers and speakers find ways to enhance the range and subtlety of words and phrases. Now we have the reverse: all too many users of the language abuse it by flattening out distinctions and nuances so that the ability to communicate clearly is lost.” Robert V. Young, Professor Emeritus, NC State University.
Thanksgiving arrives just in time for an accounting of my time to family and including 3,800 electronic friends.
Thanks to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who has never disappointed or failed. A warm thank you to Dottie who is talented and gracious. Her mother “Dot Dot” is 97 years of age. She has been the ideal mother-in-law. My children, Nathan and Jana, have been a real joy. Their spouses, Kristi and Jimmy, are wonderful parents to our 9 grandchildren. The nine could have been born on 9 continents – so different in personality. Each one is fun.
I was licensed to practice law on October 14, 1975. I will begin my Jubilee Year on October 14, 2024. What is a Jubilee year?
Leviticus 25:8-13 8 “The time of the seven weeks of years shall give you forty-nine years. 9 On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land. 10 You shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan. 11 That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of itself nor gather the grapes from the undressed vines. 12 For it is a jubilee. It shall be holy to you. You may eat the produce of the field. 13 “In this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his property.”
In 2024 Yom Kippur is on October 11-13. This is how I am planning for that year.
By Summer 2024 I hope to transition from full time law practice to part time. In 2024/2025 school year, I plan to teach part time at the high school level at private schools. In 2024/2025 I will be in the second and last year of a three year term as a Commissioner of the NC Innocence Inquiry Commission. That takes a lot of time.
I won 8 and lost 6 elections to the NC House. At one point I was 1-6. Only Abe Lincoln, 7-7, had more losses. Over 36 years I was in, out, back in and back out of politics. There were lots of legislative wins and plenty of losses. For a full accounting see www.paulstam.info. (149 articles)
I have a new project for legislation. I need your help. When I turned 71, I realized why we have a worker shortage and high federal budget deficits. I have a partial solution that has been blessed by two economists and a several members of Congress:
Raise the age from 70 to 75 at which a taxpaying worker stops accruing additional Social Security benefits. At 73 I am still paying Social Security taxes. (In reality for everyone it is 15%.) I want to work. Millions of us retire too early, because it does not make financial sense to continue. Would you join me in this effort. It will partly solve the Worker Shortage and somewhat reduce the annual federal deficit. For North Carolina it will mean more revenue without raising tax rates at all. It addresses the real demographic problem: too few workers for the number retired.
In September I enjoyed another Labor Day weekend in the mountains – this time to Ashe County, hiking at Daughton National Park and Elk Knob State Park. I swim 2-3 times a week. It is great for my health. It is difficult to injure yourself swimming laps. I take grandchildren with me when they can. All six boys now beat me and the three girls are catching up.
I do not like receiving birthday or Christmas presents. I do like to give them. There is a situation to which I have been contributing for decades. I help support two women with special needs. One is 76. I was her guardian for 37 years. She has a permanent brain injury. When she was 30 she was a passenger in an automobile accident. Her mental level is about age 12. Her husband and two of her three children abandoned her. She works part time as a bagger. She lives on about $12,000.00 per year. She lives in a 50-year-old mobile home.
The second woman is 50. She has been disabled since birth, with rickets and other spinal conditions. She also has a bipolar condition, controlled by medication. I am one of three trustees. The trust owns an old house in Johnston County where she lives and often takes care of her grandchildren. She has very limited income. I try to supplement her needs. The trust also owns 8 cemetery lots at Montlawn south of Raleigh. Do you need some?
If you would like to help them, send a nondeductible check to Stam Law Firm Trust Account to bless these two women.
I have been blessed beyond measure.
Psalm 103 “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! 2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, 3 who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, 4 who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, 5 who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”
In a women’s varsity soccer conference tournament, Cary High School lost 3-0 to Apex. During the regular season, Cary had tied Apex 1-1, then beat Apex 1-0. I have figured out why Cary lost in this final match-up.
I listened to Cary’s Coach Norcus’ talk with his team at half time. “Okay women, I’m going to talk to Apex Coach Middleton. I am going to tell him that we are not going to finish this game until we know how many goals Apex is going to score in the second half. We are down by 2. We need a clear line on Apex’s plans so we will know how many goals to score.
“Another thing. We are not sending any of you women into harm’s way,” Coach Norcus said. “There is entirely too much pushing and shoving in the game. I am going to let that Apex coach know that his team is not to hurt you at all.”
“But, Coach,” said Mary Lou “we have been training all year to tangle with the Cougars.”
“Well, this is a new day and there are different rules. I do not believe in letting any of you get hurt. If Apex doesn’t like it, they can find someone else to play with.
“I’m going to talk to the ref. We need an exit strategy. When the game is over, we need to know how we are going to get out without getting mobbed by all these crazy fans. If the ref can’t give me an exit strategy, we are not playing.”
This isn’t exactly why Cary lost to Apex. It illuminates why the American government, despite having an overwhelming technological, material and training advantage, has problems dealing with international crises.
In 1996 Coach Bill Clinton was befuddled. Saddam Hussein had figured him out and played Bill like a yo-yo. Saddam let us lob million-dollar cruise missiles at $50,000 targets in southern Iraq that can easily be replaced. In return, we did not even attempt to stop his slaughter of Kurds in northern Iraq – abandoning those who had been working with us for years.
President Clinton considered sending troops to Zaire. Television reports from Fort Bragg treated us to the spectacle of parents and spouses complaining that Thanksgiving and Christmas was no time to send out the troops. What an embarrassment to our brave soldiers.
Following the Bill Clinton model, Presidents Obama, Trump and Biden each set timetables and exit strategies in Afghanistan. In January 2021, then President Trump ordered his generals to get everybody out of Afghanistan within weeks. The generals refused. Biden refused to follow the advice of his generals in August 2021 with disastrous results.
I prefer a different philosophy of struggle. It was said in 991 AD by a hard-pressed soldier facing an onslaught of Danes at the Battle of Maldon Bridge
Hearts shall be bolder, Harder be purpose, More proud the spirit As our power lessens. Minds shall not falter Nor mood waiver Though doom come And dark conquer.
November 2022, I published “Two Tragedies for Ukraine and Russia.” This article updates with additional developments and more information.
For the last 18 months the world has been flooded with news of Russia’s war against Ukraine. I estimate there have been at least 354,000 soldiers and civilians killed and many times that wounded and sickened. Since the war began, 20,000 to 50,000 Ukrainian soldiers have lost limbs. It is estimated that 7,000 to 10,000 are still in need of prosthetics.[1]
Between 900,000 and 1.6 million Ukrainians have been involuntarily deported by the Russians from the territory of Ukraine and sent to the Russian Federation, including Siberia.[2] Last November 60,000 civilians were “evacuated” from Kherson to other Russian controlled areas. [3] This war crime was a favorite of Stalin’s. The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Putin for his deportation of Ukrainian children. Russia intends to permanently separate these children from their families and erase their Ukrainian identity.
As of April 2022, 11.4 million Ukrainians had sought safety in Europe and beyond.[4]
Since then, about 5.5 million have returned for a net outmigration of 6.2 million from Ukraine.[5]
Thousands of Russians left at the beginning of the war. 700,000 men fled Putin’s “partial mobilization” in September and October, 2022.[6]
$147.5 billion of destruction of buildings and infrastructure have been wreaked
upon Ukraine by Russian missiles, artillery, and drones as of April 2023.[7] Each side has used up many tens of billions of dollars’ worth of weapons, ammunition and equipment which will be replaced. Last year, Russia’s war against Ukraine cost the world economy $1.6 trillion. In 2023 the cost is estimated to be another $1 trillion.[8]
The magnitude of the war crimes, crimes against humanity, and atrocities inflicted by Russia on the Ukrainians can hardly be appreciated, much less calculated.
ANOTHER TRAGEDY
The dissolution of the Soviet Union (USSR) in 1991 accelerated the rapid decline of the Russian Federation economically, demographically and spiritually. From 1991-1995 there was a brief interval of relative freedom (with corruption). In 1995, Russia returned to its old ways of corruption, dictatorship and alcoholism. By 2022 the Russian total population of 144,713,314 had been declining for years.[9] Life expectancy in Russia for men is only 68.2 years, for women 78 years.[10] The Russian fertility rate before the war was 1.8 children per adult woman.[11] To keep a stable population over the long term, a fertility rate of 2.1 is necessary. Russia is gradually committing demographic suicide.
Ukraine had the same problems, including an even lower fertility rate of 1.2[12] and corruption, but with substantially more political and religious freedom. At the start of Russia’s war, Ukraine’s population was about 43.9 million. Its population now is around 37 million.[13]
On August 1, 2023, CNN reported that nearly half of those detained by Russian forces in Kherson were subject to torture, including sexual violence, often genital electrocution designed to keep the victim childless,[14] evidence that Russia is committing genocide.
In 1991 religious freedom was possible in Russia. That year Russian parliamentarians came to North Carolina to study what religious freedom looks like. More recently the dark cloud of corruption and despair have descended over the Russian Orthodox Church as it linked its fortunes to Putin. Its patriarch proclaimed that Russians who die in battle against Ukraine would have all their sins forgiven.[15] This doctrine of works is a repudiation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.[16]
Although Russia has been impoverished by its war, it has actually gained population! The numbers it has deported from Ukraine to Russia exceed the number Russia has lost in battle plus the number of those who fled.
Ukraine has been known as the “breadbasket” of Europe. Russia is one of the world’s foremost exporters of grain. No one has yet discerned a rational reason that Putin initiated this war. Could it be that Putin’s war was a play for population to serve in Russia’s factories and harvest its crops. Putin wants to restore the Russian Empire – a return to serfdom with Putin as Tsar.
A NEW TRAGEDY IN AMERICA?
There is a potential tragedy in America. The twentieth century gave plenty of warning that war in Europe would inevitably come to America. The America First movement led by Charles Lindberg met its Pearl Harbor. The sinking of American ships by German submarines brought us into World War I. Late entrances by America resulted in much greater cost in lives and futures lost, not to mention the enormous extra financial cost.[17]
A minority of each party in Congress disregards history and common sense, appealing to the understandable, but naïve, desire of Americans to be left alone. America Firsters often claim that the American contribution to Ukraine’s defense is many times greater than the Europeans. But the contribution of the European Union together with its member nations and the European members of NATO is roughly equivalent to that of the United States. “Europe’s Real Test is Yet to Come” at page 71 by Radek Sikorski in Foreign Affairs, July/August 2023.[18] The population and economic power of these European countries is roughly equivalent to the population and economic power of the United States.
Because of the disastrous August 2021 Biden execution of the January 2021 disastrous Trump plan for the withdrawal from Afghanistan, our allies in Taiwan were already skeptical that America would really come to its defense. America Firsters have aggravated that lack of confidence.
Would abandonment of Taiwan and Ukraine really save America money? Not in this universe.
Republicans meet June 8 to 11 in Greensboro. Delegates need to know that I am not running for President in 2024. Why?
I am 72 years old. Before my second term expires I will be 82. I am too old.
There are reasons that someone as experienced (old) as I might not be electable. In 2003 my daughter was my legislative assistant. She was a libertarian. I was considering a bill about safety restrictions on young ATV drivers. She told me she might run against me in the next primary – she had just as much name recognition (then Stam) as I did, but without all my baggage. Twenty years later I have even more baggage (a voting record).
I graduated from high school when I was 17, telling classmates that I planned to be President in 1992. To round out my resume I volunteered for military service (USMC 1968-1970). Previous presidents had served: Eisenhower (5 Star General), Kennedy (naval officer), Johnson (Navy), Nixon (Naval Reserve), Ford (Naval Reserve), Carter (naval officer – nuclear sub), Reagan (Army).
I have noticed recently that prior military service has become a negative, politically. Who
would have thought that the youngest Navy pilot of WWII, a hero, George H.W. Bush, would lose to draft dodger, Bill Clinton. Clinton won a plurality of the votes of veterans!!
Who would have thought that President Obama would defeat John McCain, a real hero of the Vietnam War. As the son of an Admiral, he could have been released years earlier from the tortures of a prisoner of war camp. He chose to stay with his men. I realize now that my military service in 1968-70, as insignificant as it was, could be a negative for my ambitions.
In 1970-75 I attended four different schools on the GI bill. I had always been a bookworm and have maintained that practice for the last 65 years, reading and writing extensively. When I write, (www.paulstam.info) I strive for factual accuracy. One article required 27 revisions before my assistant would let it be published. For high federal office factual accuracy has now become an anachronism. But there is more.
Joe Biden won election as Vice President, and again as President, despite a credible accusation of the rape of Tara Reade. He also had a record of other unwanted actions toward women. Who can forget Bill Clinton’s tomcat behavior, even in the Oval Office? Fidelity now means nothing to voters, except that a candidate is boring.
I have prepared thousands of wills and powers of attorney for clients older than I – even nonagenarians. Competency to execute a will does not require the judgment, energy or competence required for the presidency. But a president needs more than passing a quiz, “What month is it?” “Who is president today?” “Draw a clock at 2:30”.
We elders are aware of the slow, cognitive decline that makes us so adorable. My favorite president was Ronald Reagan. His eighth year was not his best. Not too long after his retirement he had early onset Alzheimer’s. Who can predict when that might start for you or for me?
For all these reasons I decline to run for president in 2024. Republicans have many fine candidates from whom to choose.
These words from King Solomon speak to political ambition:
“When you sit down to dine with a ruler, consider carefully what is before you. Put a knife to your throat if you are a person of great appetite.” Proverbs 23:1-2
In these political times the last refuge of liberal losers is the cry that everything they don’t like legislatively is because of the “gerrymander.” On NBC, CNN and MSNBC in May 2023 Governor Roy Cooper said: “Technologically, diabolical gerrymandering. Some of the worst in the country” He didn’t like limitations on abortion or expansions of school choice.
As Dave Larson pointed out in his essay “Super-technologically-diabolical Gerrymandering” (Carolina Journal May 19, 2023), there was no political gerrymander that formed the 2023 – 2024 session of the General Assembly. There may have been one Republican political gerrymander in the past (2017-18) and there may be more in the future. But the current legislature is the result of a Democrat political gerrymander in 2022 of the State Senate and Congressional delegation. The House map was passed almost unanimously, hardly evidence of any kind of political gerrymander. The Congressional map was drawn by special masters chosen by the Democrat Supreme Court. They were ordered to use political criteria to create a Democrat result.
When they’re not blaming the nonexistent political gerrymander, the other cry is a “racist gerrymander.” Let’s look at that more carefully.
In the 2010 general elections, House Republicans picked up 16 seats using a 2004 Democrat-crafted political gerrymander to make a (68 – 52) majority (one independent joined Republicans). The GOP picked up 11 seats in the State Senate for a super majority, (31 – 19).
After the census of 2010, the General Assembly had the legal duty to redistrict the entire state, applying federally required population criteria and the state constitution’s “whole county” provision. The Assembly proceeded to do so, but there was a complication. Federal law required, under the Voting Rights Act, that “racial gerrymandering” must be done to create minority – majority districts where possible. The U.S. Justice Department, run by Attorney General Eric Holder, appointed by President Barack Obama, approved the maps. They were also approved by the State Supreme Court twice and by federal courts. In 2014 African American Democrats made big gains, but it did not help Democrats as a whole. Republicans gained even more seats and obtained supermajorities in the House (77 – 43) and in the Senate (34 – 16).
The U.S. Supreme Court changed its mind (Alabama Legislative Black Caucus v. Alabama, 2014) and decided that what it required in 2011 was hereafter prohibited as an illegal racial gerrymander. The maps would have to be redrawn. The 2011 North Carolina maps were attacked again under this new U.S. Supreme Court doctrine. The maps were redrawn for the 2016 election.
But the narrative had been set by the then legal maps drawn in 2011. Republican legislators must have had race in their hearts (retroactively) instead of complying with the Voting Rights Act and U.S. Supreme Court decisions. They must be bad people. They were guilty of not reading the future minds of Supreme Court Justices.
On July 29, 2016, McCrory came down from the Fourth Circuit just in time for the general election. It claimed that the Voter ID bill (passed in 2013) had been crafted “with almost surgical precision” to disadvantage black voters. The Appeals Court disregarded the evidence from the only election where voter ID had been used in 2016. The trial Judge heard dozens and dozens of witnesses and found that not a single African American voter who tried to vote was prevented from doing so.
On Saturday, July 30, 2016, I read in the New York Times of the “scurrilous attempt by North Carolina Republicans to suppress the rising power of black voters.” It made me feel bad, maybe I had missed something in the 25,000 pages of exhibits or in the 479 pages of the trial judge’s analysis of the evidence. But I had not yet read the McCrory Fourth Circuit decision.
After reading the decision, I was perplexed, amused, and angry. I was perplexed because the appeals court decision ignored Supreme Court precedents, amused because the “evidence” marshaled by the Fourth Circuit was in turns ludicrous or logically fallacious. I was angry because the overwhelming will of the people had been thwarted under the guise of combating racism.
What was the proof that the Fourth Circuit found of legislative racism? Not much. The opinion makes clear that
“our conclusion does not mean, and we do not suggest, that any member of the General Assembly harbored racial hatred or animosity toward any minority group.”
Without any evidence that any of the 170 members of the General Assembly, Republican or Democrat, black, white or Indian, men or women, were intending to discriminate against African American voters, the Fourth Circuit pinned on the collective body an intent which there was no evidence that any member harbored.
The Court marshals another argument. At one of the public hearings Don Yelton, a GOP precinct chair, delivered a baldly racist statement. The Court even cited his call-in to the Daily Show!!
“The statements do not prove that any member of the General Assembly acted with discriminatory intent. But the sheer outrageousness of these public statements by a party leader does provide some evidence of the racial and partisan political environment in which the General Assembly enacted the law.”
With over 150 statements made at the public hearings, that was the best evidence the Fourth Circuit could find. The statement by a party leader does not mean that any member of the Assembly paid any attention to it. Members often pride themselves on how little attention they pay to their party. Guilt by association is McCarthyism at its worst.
In this case the “party leader” was a precinct chair. One vote is usually sufficient to elect yourself as precinct chair. This particular “party leader” was known to be constantly at odds with actual party leaders.
The next scrap of evidence was “the smoking gun.” The sponsors of the bill requested racially disaggregated data of various election methods. This request was made pre-Shelby (2013), when the US Supreme Court declared unconstitutional certain provisions of the Civil Rights Act that required preclearance to changes in election law. It would have been legislative malpractice for the sponsors of the bill to have not requested this data prior to Shelby. The District Court carefully explained this in its 479-page opinion. The Court of Appeals ignored this obvious fact.
The next bit of “evidence” of discriminatory intent was the passage of the bill right after Shelby. The house bill was filed and considered months prior to Shelby. Although they spoke against it Democratic leaders in the House complemented the Chair of the Election Law Committee, Representative David Lewis, for a thorough and proper process. After Shelby, the Senate rules chair announced there would be an “omnibus bill.” The Fourth Circuit apparently thought the word “omnibus” had the same meaning as “ominous” and that it suddenly sprang out of the sea foam of the Aegean, like Aphrodite. But that is not what happened. The legislation which the Senate added to the House bill had been filed in the Senate for months.
The Fourth Circuit, engaging in the logical fallacy, identified by Aristotle 2500 years ago – post hoc ergo propter hoc, decided that the bill was passed because of the unprecedented gains of African Americans in electing Democrats in 2012 and that suddenly this bill became law in 2013 when Shelby gave the green light. But nothing of the sort happened. There were unprecedented gains of African Americans in the elections to the State House and Senate. But that did not help Democrats. In 2014 Democrats had their worst election outcome in 144 years, losing to super majorities in the House (74 to 26) and Senate (34 to 16), as well as the governorship, and with Republicans retaining a majority on the Supreme Court.
Neither did these reforms come because of Shelby. Voter ID came out of the 2000 Bush/Gore razor thin election in Florida, followed by the Jimmy Carter/James Baker report in 2005. That report recommended photo voter ID. Republicans filed voter ID bills in 2003 HB 10, HB 794 in 2005, HB 285 in 2007, and HB 430 in 2009.
To say that photo voter ID came because of Shelby is ludicrous. In 2010 House and Senate Republicans, then in the minority, made, as part of their 10-point campaign platform, photo voter ID as one of the laws they would pass within the first hundred days if they were given a majority. In 2011 HB 351 “Restore Confidence in Government” was passed by the House and Senate and vetoed by Governor Perdue. Photo voter ID in 2013 was passed then because there was finally a governor (McCrory) who would sign it.
On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade. How can you tell if you are hearing or seeing propaganda instead of reasoned debate or analysis?
1. If there is no mention of the child at all, not even mention of a “fetus” or “embryo.” Or if there is no photo of the unborn child, or even a written description of her appearance or function, that is propaganda. The DNA of the baby is distinct from her parents at fertilization. Her heart is beating at six weeks. By the 12th week each of her organs are well in place and growing.
2. If reporters say a “ban,” (rhymes with “Taliban” and means a total prohibition), it is propaganda. I have never seen a “ban.” An exception for the life of the mother is implied in law even when not expressed. Most statutes have other exceptions or definitions that operate as exceptions. Senator Lindsay Graham’s 15-week bill only protected about 7% of unborn children with 4 specific exceptions. Yet it was called a “nationwide ban.” That was propaganda.
3. If the unborn child is called a “fetus” or “embryo” that might be propaganda. “Fetus” is a proper medical term for an unborn child from 13 weeks gestation (older than an embryo). “Fetus” means “offspring” or “progeny.” The feminine is “parva fetus.” If abortionists want to use Latin to dehumanize the child, then the equivalent correct medical term for the mother is “gravida.” There is no masculine equivalent, despite the wild imaginations of those who refer to “pregnant people” rather than “pregnant women.” “To imply that an unborn child is not a “child but a fetus or an embryo” is logically analogous to saying that “she is not a child, she is a ‘toddler’.” “Fetus,” like “toddler,” designates a specific phase of the state of “childhood.”
4. In USA Today I read a full-page article on abortion. It never mentioned the child but constantly referred to “abortion care.” Propaganda. “Abortion” is to “care” as “armed robbery” is to “a bank.” In 99.99% of all abortions an individual living human being dies. If abortion is “health care” what disease is being treated?
5. When they state that the U.S. Supreme Court took away a constitutional right after 49 ½ years, that is propaganda. Justice Alito went to great lengths to clearly demonstrate there never was a constitutional right to abortion. Ask a 5th grader to find the right to abortion in the Constitution. She will tell you it is not there. It never was, except in the fevered imaginations of seven old men with black robes. They are now dead. In North Carolina abortion has always been a crime, a misdemeanor from 1669-1881 and a felony from 1881-1973, and still a felony to “help” a friend.
6. Some say abortions after 15 weeks are only considered for life threatening emergencies and that lifesaving care is needed to prevent the death of women in cases such as ectopic pregnancies and for medical care after a miscarriage (a spontaneous abortion). Propaganda. Only 1/10 of 1% of abortions are committed because of a threat to a mother’s life or serious physical health problem. Such abortions have not, are not, and will not be any kind of offense.
7. Do it yourself abortions (for example, by mail order pills) are themselves life threatening. Without an actual examination and an ultrasound there is no way to rule out an ectopic pregnancy. Liberal excuses for DIY abortions is Propaganda. The unborn child cannot survive an ectopic pregnancy. If not resolved by about the 12th week the child will die and the mother will be in serious danger. Removal of the child in an ectopic pregnancy has never been considered illegal, immoral or unethical. Treatment after a miscarriage is not even an abortion. The suggestion that either of these actions will be illegal is propaganda.
8. Attached are photos of the unborn child at 12, 13, 16, 17 and 24 weeks. Abortions are actually performed at about 24-25 weeks in North Carolina if the abortionist’s opinion that it is necessary to deal with some serious physical health issues. After 24-25 weeks such cases are usually referred to Virginia, Maryland or New York.
How did the GOP do in the November 2022 elections? Here is the big picture at the local, state, and national levels.
Local level. Before the election Republicans controlled 61 County commissions. After the elections, the GOP controls 67 County commissions. Since Democrats control commissions with greater county populations, the population of counties controlled by Republican members vs Democrat members is about 50/50.
Before the Election, there were 45 GOP Clerks of Court and 55 Democrat Clerks of Court. After the Election of 2022, there are 54 GOP Clerks of Court and 45 Democrats.
Before the Election, there were 58 GOP Sheriffs and 40 Democrats as Sheriffs with 2 unaffiliated. After the Election of 2022, there are 64 GOP Sheriffs, a net gain of 6.
Republican candidates swept nearly half of the partisan School Board race – 290 total seats in 85 of the 115 school districts. There were 137 partisan races out of which Republicans won 103 and Democrats 34. Of the 41 school boards elected on a partisan basis, the GOP won all seats in 20 while Democrats swept 4. A majority of school districts are elected on a nonpartisan basis. Counties with nonpartisan boards tend to have a larger population. It may be the number of schools governed by GOP members and Democrat members is about the same.
State Legislative level. Republicans went from 69 to 71 members of the 120-member State House- one member short of the 3/5 required for a veto override if all members are present and voting. A veto override is much more achievable with 71 than with 69. The State Senate went from 28 to 30 Republicans, a “veto-proof” supermajority. Democrats fell from 22 to 20.
Results were uneven across the State. In the 80 counties won by Ted Budd the GOP dominated. But in the 20 counties won by Cheri Beasley Democrats dominated. Wake and Mecklenburg have 38 legislators, but only 2 Republicans, Erin Pare of Southern Wake and John Bradford of northern Mecklenburg. (Senator Vickie Sawyer of Iredell has a small part of Mecklenburg.)
Remember that in the 2011-2012 session the GOP held 68 House seats. Overrides of Gov. Perdue’s vetoes prevailed 8 times. There were 17 House Democrats who voted one or more times to override her. Gov. Cooper would have been overridden this year on the Budget if he had not signed it.
The State Supreme Court was a clean sweep with Republicans Richard Dietz and Trey Allen prevailing. On January 1, 2023, the Supreme Court will go from a 4-3 Democratic majority to a 5-2 Republican majority. Chief Justice Newby’s 401-vote victory in 2020 is still important. The Chief Justice directs the Administrative Office of the Courts and its thousands of employees in every courthouse. Some of these are independently elected or controlled on some issues but statewide administrative control is in the Chief through the Administrative Office of the Courts.
The next two seats up for reelection in 2024 (Morgan) and 2026 (Earls) are also held by Democrats, meaning that Republicans will retain control of the court through at least 2028.
The State Court of Appeals was a clean sweep for Republicans. All four races were won by highly qualified candidates: Julee Tate Flood, Donna Stroud, John M. Tyson, and Michael J. Stading. The numbers on the Court of Appeals are now 11 Republicans (Stroud, Chief, Dillon, Tyson, Murphy, Zachary, Gore, Griffin, Carpenter, Wood, Flood, Stading) and 4 Democrats (Arrowood, Collins, Hampson, and a replacement for Judge Dietz, to be appointed by Gov. Cooper). The Court of Appeals has never voted as an entire group. It has always voted in panels of three. Most panels will be two GOP judges and one Democrat.
This 6-seat sweep at the appellate level in 2022 follows an 8-seat sweep in 2020.
Of the seven statewide candidates the one with the most votes was Chief Judge Donna Stroud with over 2 million.
At the Superior Court level, there are now about an even number of Republican and Democratic Superior Court Judges with several who are unaffiliated. In 1994 there was only one Republican Superior Court Judge out of about 90. At the District Court level, this year Republicans won 51 seats, and Democrats won 43 seats. The partisan numbers are now about even.
National level. Republicans were expecting to gain (and Democrats were expecting to lose) about 25 seats in the US House. Instead, Republicans had a net gain of only 7 seats. This will result in the same margin for a House majority as Nancy Pelosi does now, with Republicans having a majority of only 222 to 213. If Gaetz, Boebert, Gosar, Greene, and Perry switch on a vote, Kevin McCarthy’s GOP caucus loses.
In early November 2022 GOP Senators were expecting to pick up one seat and come away with an advantage of 51-49. Instead, they came up with 49 seats putting Democrats with control ____ 51-49. In North Carolina, Ted Budd defeated Cheri Beasley on a vote of 50.5% to 47.3%. Budd won 80 counties.
While the House will stymie most of President Biden’s decisions, he and the Senate Majority can not be stopped from confi_____ dozens of judicial and executive appointments.
Before the election Republicans held 61 State Legislative Chambers and Democrats held 37. Five chambers flipped, but to the Democrats – the Michigan House and Senate, the Minnesota and Alaska Senates and the Pennsylvania House. It is now GOP chambers 56 to 40 Democrat chambers. Caveat: The Alaska Senate Majority Coalition is all 9 Democrats and 8 GOP of which the Speaker is GOP. The Pennsylvania House is Democrats 102 – 101 – GOP but one of the Democrats is deceased. Query: 61 + 37 = 98 instead of 99. 56 + 40 = 96 instead of 98.
The number of individual seats gained or lost is interesting. Before the election in the 49 State Senates Republicans held 1067 seats and Democrats held 851 seats. After the election, Republicans held 1104 State Senate seats and Democrats hold 849, a net gain of 37 for GOP state senators and a net loss of 2 for Democrats.
Before the election Republicans held 2927 seats in the 49 State Houses and Democrats held 2452. After the election GOP members hold 2923 State House seats and Democrats hold 2397, a net loss of 4 for the Republicans and a net loss for the Democrats of 55. The difference went to other parties. Nebraska is unicameral and officially nonpartisan although the majority are registered Republicans. Its members are not included.
The Democrats picked up Governor’s mansions in Arizona, Massachusetts, and Vermont. The GOP picked up the governor’s position in Nevada, for a net loss of 2. As of January, there will be 28 GOP Governors and 22 Democrat Governors.
Overall North Carolina Republicans had good election results in 2022 and in several other states like Florida and Iowa. We even picked up Congressional seats in New York and California. Results were not so great in the rest of the country.
Ronald Reagan once said that, “America is too great for small dreams.” Throughout this great nation, people from all walks of life have dreamed of freedom, opportunity, and the chance to leave this world a better place for the next generation. The North Carolina Republican Party unequivocally defends that dream.
We are the party of individuals and the institutions they create together—families, schools, congregations, neighborhoods—to advance their ideals and realize their dreams. We are the party that encourages equality for all citizens and embraces the inherent value of every single human being God creates—born and unborn. We are the party that defends the religious beliefs and rights of conscience of all Americans and safeguards religious institutions against government control. We reaffirm the Constitution’s fundamental principles: limited government, separation of powers, individual liberty, and the rule of law. As a Party, we denounce bigotry, racism, sexism, anti-semitism, ethnic prejudice, and religious intolerance. We recognize God–not government–as the Author of these principles. We are the party that stands strong against tyranny and will fight at home and abroad to protect the lives and fundamental liberties of all people. We are the party of a growing economy that gives everyone—regardless of background–a chance in life, an opportunity to learn, work and realize the prosperity that is made possible by the freedom we hold dear.
The Republican Party is committed to the values and ideals that are the true greatness of America, and we gladly join together to fight for justice, secure the blessings of liberty, and provide true opportunity and hope for generations to come.
Our nation’s strength lies with the family. It is the first school of discipline, responsibility, and good citizenship. Economic strength is the foundation of the United States’ greatness. We support free markets, fair trade, and capitalist principles at home and around the world. We support free and fair trade, with allied trading partners, for North Carolina industries that seek business in the global marketplace. Threats to our economic strength should be met with sound, market-based policies designed to enhance individual rights to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness.
Traditional marriage and family, based on marriage between one man and one woman, is the foundation for a civil society. The success of marriage may impact the economic well-being of individuals. Furthermore, we support actions to return marriage laws to the states; therefore, we support the marriage amendment as part of the North Carolina constitution and encourage all efforts to defend it. We recognize and honor the courageous efforts of those who bear the many burdens of parenting alone, even as we affirm our support for traditional marriage.
We affirm the authority of parental rights over their children’s welfare from conception to emancipation. We support laws that require written, notarized consent for all medical treatments such as but not limited to vaccinations, immunizations, mental health treatments of minor children, drug and alcohol treatment, and counseling and services related to immunizations, contraceptives, pregnancy, abortion, sexual orientation and/or gender identity issues. Government, however, should protect children from abuse and neglect, balancing parental rights with the protection of a child’s health and safety.
We support efforts to make adoptions in North Carolina easier to access. We believe that children, when adopted in a “forever home,” have the best chances for success in life. We applaud foster parents for their dedication and urge our state to ensure that the foster care system is efficient and puts the best interests of the child first. Supports should be provided for young adults as they transition out of the foster care system.
We support capitalism as the main economic system in the United States and will continue to ensure that this country does not become a socialist or communist nation.
We support free market solutions for societal issues, which provide the most efficient use of our resources. We support an individual’s ability to choose market-based solutions to retirement, utilities, health care and insurance, worker’s rights, or any goods and services. We believe health savings and retirement accounts should be encouraged and free of taxation.
Recognizing that wealth creation is the product of human enterprise, the free enterprise system is the most effective and just economic system in the world. It creates opportunity, rewards self-reliance and hard work, and unleashes productivity that other societies can only imagine. It is an engine of charity, making America the most philanthropic nation on earth. Government should encourage honest, productive work through elimination of both gratuitous regulations and excessive taxation.
Economic freedom is essential to human liberty and dignity. It preserves the inherent right to liberty and ownership of private property. To protect this inherent right, government must provide an environment for individual initiative and enterprise. We support encouraging economic growth through reduced regulation and taxation, and we oppose corporate favoritism.
Government should tax only to raise money for its constitutional functions. We support a thorough review of expenditures each year, and we support a taxpayer’s bill of rights. We support a federal and state balanced budget. We support the continuation of reforming the tax code to encourage economic growth that moves toward a system that taxes the broadest possible base of economic activity at the lowest possible rates.
We believe that capital gains, which are necessary for employment growth, should not be taxed as ordinary income. We believe dividend distributions should not be taxed, as that constitutes a double taxation on income.
Our nation’s economic security depends on reliable and affordable energy. We support developing energy sources within the parameters of market forces. We support the elimination of mandated renewable energy quotas and subsidies that artificially raise energy costs or taxes. We support federal revenue sharing with those states directly affected by offshore exploration and development in federal waters.
We support agriculture, agribusiness, and commercial fishing as driving forces in North Carolina’s economy. We support legislation to uphold these economic forces from burdensome and frivolous lawsuits and regulations.
We acknowledge that many North Carolina communities are underserved as to their health care needs. We support easing regulations and major reforms to Certificate of Need laws, as they can stifle competition, increase cost, and negatively impact health outcomes.
Liberty is founded upon a belief in the inherent dignity of the human person and recognition that individuals possess God-given inherent rights including, but not limited to: the right to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. The fundamental role of government is to protect those inherent rights as recognized in our Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution, including its Bill of Rights, and the North Carolina Constitution, and its Declaration of Rights.
We support the free exercise of religion by all Americans. We oppose any restriction on the free exercise of religion such as removing prayer from governmental activities or name of God or similar terms from our public documents and institutions. We oppose any attempt of government to establish a state religion, or to foster one religion over another. We oppose any governmental coercive action aimed at limiting the free exercise of religion. We support the right of individuals and corporations to uphold their free exercise rights consistent with the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. We support the right of all institutions, including hospitals and schools, to refuse to provide contraceptive, abortion, or other services and procedures inconsistent with their religious tenets.
Government should treat all citizens impartially and equally under the law. Unjust discrimination is detrimental to freedom for all individuals and we oppose it in any form. The concept of guaranteed equity runs counter to our beliefs. Efforts to equalize outcomes result in unequal treatment of individuals and loss of personal freedom.
The Second Amendment and the NC Constitution guarantee the right of the individual to keep and bear arms. We support the constitutional ownership, sale, purchase and carry of firearms by lawabiding citizens. Further, we support reducing the number of “gun-free zones.” Gun owners have a right to confidentiality. Personal information acquired by government agencies for gun purchases and permitting should be available to law enforcement for investigative purposes only and not for public record.
Private property should not be taken by eminent domain except for a direct public use and upon prompt payment of just compensation.
We disagree with all censorship of constitutionally protected free speech, including–but not limited to– all social media platforms.
We believe in the sanctity of all human life. Unborn children have constitutional rights to life and liberty and, the government must respect and protect all innocent human life from conception to natural death.
We are the Party that offers real solutions for women. We have a moral obligation to assist women who face unexpected pregnancies and applaud organizations that empower women with compassionate, life-affirming resources and care.
We oppose infanticide and urge the enactment of laws to require medical care for babies who survive abortions.
We oppose efforts to mandate the provision of abortion or to fund with taxpayer dollars organizations that provide or promote abortion services. We oppose public school-based health clinics that provide referrals, counseling and related services for abortion and contraception.
We support requiring mandatory counseling before an abortion to ensure the pregnant woman knows all of the options and resources available to her and her baby including information about the possibility of reversing the intended effects of chemical abortion drugs.
We support the right of medical professionals to refuse to participate in abortions. We support the right of pharmacists to refuse to dispense abortion inducing drugs. We believe that state funded institutions should not provide abortion training.
We oppose all forms of euthanasia and assisted suicide, as they are the ultimate form of discrimination against persons with disabilities, including newborns, the elderly and infirm. We believe these individuals should be treated with love and respect, not as a burden. We also oppose basing the denial of life saving treatments on a perceived quality of life. We urge the General Assembly to enact legislation criminalizing assisted suicide.
We support developments in biomedical research that enhance and protect human life. We oppose human cloning and the destruction of human embryos, and we support adult stem cell research.
We support criminal penalties for harming or killing an unborn child when the mother is killed or injured in a criminal act.
We support laws which require written, notarized parental consent for an abortion and/or contraceptives for their minor children.
We oppose the sale, purchase, possession, or use of fetal tissue or body parts obtained from induced abortions.
We believe that in a free society, power should rest in the hands of the people. We believe in a limited government which serves the people, rather than one that burdens them.
We affirm three distinct and equal branches of government with a system of checks and balances. No branch shall usurp the powers of any other branch, except those provided by the State Constitution. The Governor’s emergency powers which impact the rights of citizens should only be used with the consultation and approval of the Council of State.
We believe that government at all levels should not spend money it does not have and avoid passing on debts to future generations.
Government retirement and pension plans should be privately owned and portable.
We oppose unfunded state mandates, including state mandated local property tax exemptions for a particular type of business. We oppose excessive regulation of commerce and industry by either statute or administrative rule, and support sunset provisions that require reauthorization for a business regulatory statute or rule to continue in force.
No State funds should be spent without an explicit appropriation. We oppose “slush funds” as rewards for political support. Raiding of dedicated funds should not be allowed except in an emergency as determined by law. Every bill heard in committee should receive a recorded vote. The budget bill should be made public at least two legislative days before the final vote in each house. To assure transparency, every committee substitute to a pending bill should be scheduled in committee and on the floor in a manner that gives citizens sufficient notice to communicate with their legislators about the bill.
We support the issuance of a driver’s license or state identification card only to those who are lawful residents of the United States.
We support reforming the mental health system. The needs of patients must be the first priority. This includes diagnosis, comprehensive care, follow-up, and stiff penalties for those who abuse or exploit patients.
We affirm that the State of North Carolina is prohibited from taking discriminatory action against a person based on a religious or moral conviction.
We support efforts to ensure that habitual drug users are not on public assistance. We believe that drug tests are appropriate if there is a reasonable suspicion of illegal drug use.
We affirm that law enforcement should honor detainers for illegal aliens held on criminal charges.
The Elections Clause of the US Constitution is the primary source of constitutional authority to regulate elections and appoints states at the primary regulatory authority for the election process. Election laws and policies should ensure honesty and accuracy in all elections.
A free society demands an honest and accurate election process. Our laws and policies at every level of government should ensure that elections are conducted with absolute fairness and integrity, regardless of party registration, race, or socio-economic resources. Every legal vote should count and not be canceled out by illegal votes.
We support legislation requiring election judges at all election sites, including early voting sites. Poll observers should be allowed at every polling place and placed in a position that enables thorough observation. The rights of voters should be equally protected regardless of voting method.
We support enforced statewide procedures for updating voter rolls to ensure accuracy.
Current laws regarding absentee voting should be analyzed and tightened to ensure ballot security. The rights of all voters should be equally protected regardless of voting method.
We encourage election officials to report–and state and federal prosecutors to promptly investigate and prosecute–voter and election fraud.
We support the Electoral College as the Constitutional mode of electing our President and oppose all efforts to abolish it, as a national popular vote would be a grave threat to our federal system.
We support state efforts to ensure ballot access for the elderly, the disabled, military personnel, and all legitimate voters. We support laws with strict requirements regarding the postmark and return of absentee ballots by election date except as otherwise required by federal law.
We reaffirm our support of Voter ID and oppose the reinstatement of straight-ticket voting. Proof of citizenship should be required when registering to vote.
Voters should have timely information on candidates’ campaign finances. We oppose funding election campaigns with public or foreign funds.
Neither the State Board of Elections nor the county boards of elections have the authority to accept private monetary donations for the purpose of administering elections or employing individuals on a temporary basis.
We support an educational system that provides all children access to an education that empowers them to reach their highest, God-given potential, allowing them to contribute to the betterment of our society. A North Carolina high school diploma should fully prepare students to enter college, technical school, or the workforce.
We believe education policies and budget decisions are best made by local and state governments, rather than national agencies, to ensure that North Carolina students graduate with the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in today’s global economy. The people of North Carolina support the highest, most rigorous educational standards that are developed through legislation by the NC General Assembly. All standards and reforms should aim to improve student achievement.
We support English as the official language of the United States. Therefore, we support the expedited use of English as a Second Language in the classroom as an assimilation tool.
Parents have the right to expect excellent public education. Parents also have the right and responsibility to direct their children’s education, while students have the obligation to learn. Allowing choice and competition in education drives all schools towards quality outcomes. We applaud the expansion of vocational curricula and parent choice in North Carolina. We support maintaining and expanding opportunity scholarships and education savings accounts that support the education of children with disabilities and open doors for students in need. All education dollars for grades K-12 dispersed by the state should follow the student to whatever education choice is made by the parents; be it public, charter, or private.
We urge the NC General Assembly to enact legislation guaranteeing parental rights over sex and health education in NC. Parents must have access to all curricula and data about their children, including content that is stored electronically. Schools should not ask children to answer offensive or intrusive personal questionnaires without parental consent. We oppose sex education in public schools without parental consent. Public schools should not be permitted to teach children about homosexual behavior and gender identity. No birth control devices or drugs should be distributed in public schools. We support teaching abstinence until marriage as the expected norm for sexual behavior. Biological males should not be allowed to participate in women’s sports.
We applaud the Republican led North Carolina General Assembly for consistently increasing teacher pay. Teacher compensation should be based on evaluations and market conditions. Teacher evaluations should be based on a variety of factors including, but not limited to, educational training, job longevity, administration-based performance measures, and student achievement.
We support teaching civil liberties and patriotism as an important part of becoming a good citizen. We support regular recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, displays of the American and North Carolina State flag, and use of our national motto “In God We Trust”. Curricula must include civics so that students will be prepared to vote as informed citizens. We oppose curriculum that seeks to divide students based on race or gender. Instead, curricula should promote the unity of all students around American values such as liberty, justice and opportunity for all, and should encourage students to join together against all forms of oppression and injustice.
We believe in religious freedom and support the right of students and faculty to pray in school without censorship, as well as the respect for all religions. Schools should revitalize the Judeo-Christian values of Western civilization and teach American Exceptionalism.
We encourage both state and federal governments to help prospective students understand the real costs of lending and allow students to discharge their debts according to market principles. We support economic assistance for students that comes from both private and public sources using market lending principles.
We applaud the efforts of the Republican led General Assembly in supporting community colleges, as these colleges truly open doors and remove barriers to accessible, high-quality education for all citizens. Community colleges play a vital role in developing our workforce and they provide much needed basic literacy programs, vocational training, and university transfer options for students from all walks of life.
We believe it is a requirement of the state and county Boards of Education to ensure all schools provide a safe learning environment. Schools should provide a level of security which protects students and faculty from harm, consistent with the 2nd Amendment of the United States Constitution.
One of the main duties of government is to maintain law and order, while securing for its citizens the freedom to pursue the blessings of liberty and the fruits of their labor.
e honor the men and women in uniform who protect citizens of North Carolina at home and abroad. We are grateful for our state and local law enforcement as well as our first responders for their public service to our citizens.
We call for mandatory sentencing for all violent crimes, especially crimes committed against those who are charged with protecting us. We support the death penalty for first-degree murder. Suppliers of illegal drugs should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Those who drive or operate a water craft while impaired must face stiff punishment. We support the diversion of first-time, nonviolent offenders to community sentencing, accountability courts, drug courts, veteran treatment courts, and guidance by faith-based institutions with proven track records of rehabilitation. We call for the examination of mandatory sentencing for non-violent crimes to ensure fairness and justice in its application.
We believe the state must protect the rights of victims and their families. We believe in a justice system that provides for restorative justice when applicable. Criminal justice reforms that reduce relapses by former offenders and assist them in seeking reentry as contributing members of society are applauded, including support for transitional housing and employment for recently released inmates.
Millions of lives are destroyed by predatory criminals that exploit children or other innocents via the internet or in person. We deplore pornography, sex trafficking, human trafficking, and the abduction, abuse, and exploitation of children, both born and unborn. We denounce domestic violence. We applaud the efforts of government to protect innocent lives from predators everywhere.
Prisons should focus on security, education, rehabilitation, and labor. Public officials must regain control of their correctional institutions so that every inmate is protected against cruel or degrading treatment. We encourage opportunities for literacy, vocational education, and substance abuse counseling to prepare prisoners for release into the community.
We support tort reform, including a cap on awards for pain and suffering, and structured payments of awards for lost income.
As we are stewards of our God-given natural heritage, we have a duty to protect and wisely use the earth’s resources.
We support reasonable measures to keep our air, water, and soil free of substances that harm the health of our people as well as that of domestic animals and wildlife. We support the maintenance of adequate wildlife habitat, but not at the expense of further loss of private property.
We support a robust system of local, state and national parks to give our citizens access to nature.
We recognize that the theories of global warming and climate change are subject to scientific debate. We urge that both sides of this debate listen and engage with respect, and that drastic action that would raise energy costs and impair our citizens’ quality of life not be undertaken without careful consideration and a thorough evaluation of scientific data.
The US Constitution is the supreme law of this land. As such, it outlines the foundational principles of this great nation. These principles include a legislature which creates laws, an executive who enforces laws, and a judiciary which interprets laws. To this end, we support the separation of powers and all efforts to maintain independent branches of government, based on a strict interpretation of the constitution’s original intent.
We call on Congress, the President and the courts to abide by Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution and the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, which were added to order to protect the rights of the States and the people. We oppose encroachment upon all powers that the Constitution has reserved to the States or to the people. On the basis of the Constitution and the intent of the Founding Fathers, we oppose statehood for the District of Columbia.
Membership in treaties and organizations should never dilute our sovereign right to govern or interfere in our electoral process. We oppose attempts by foreign governments and international organizations to infringe on our sovereignty.
A republican form of government is the foundation of freedom. We support the Electoral College as the constitutional mode of electing our President. We oppose tyranny in all of its forms.
Opposition to slavery is the foundation for the Republican Party. We oppose slavery, including human trafficking, in any form both foreign and domestic.
National security is one of the first and most important roles of government. We support a foreign policy of peace through strength that is accomplished with a strong military with the full gratitude and resources of the United States. Strength only exists when our borders are secure and our enemies deterred.
We oppose granting permanent resident status for those who, by violating the immigration law, disadvantage those who have obeyed it. Granting amnesty only rewards and encourages more law breaking. Employers should only hire those legally allowed to work in the United States.
We support policies which uphold the nation of Israel as a sovereign nation and Jerusalem as its capital.
We support free market solutions for societal issues, which provide the most efficient use of our resources. We support an individual’s ability to choose market-based solutions to retirement, health care and insurance, worker’s rights or any goods.
We support the principle of a “sound money” policy to sustain a stable US currency. The Comptroller General of the General Office of Accounting must perform an annual accounting of the Federal Reserve to ensure its transparency and accountability.
We support policies protecting all innocent human life, and therefore we oppose government efforts promoting abortion and infanticide. We support actions that prohibit the distribution of federal funds to any organization that promotes or provides abortions.
We are free because of those who have answered the call to serve. Our nation’s veterans have been our nation’s strength and remain a national resource. America has a sacred trust with our veterans, and we are committed to ensuring their and their families’ care and dignity.
Thomas Jefferson said that “the price of freedom is eternal vigilance”. We, the North Carolina Republican Party, are committed to remaining vigilant as we stand guard to protect the freedoms, we hold dear. Ronald Reagan stated that a strong Republican Party is like a stool that stands on three legs: strong defense, free enterprise, and strong moral values. Together, we will turn back the tide of socialism and preserve our nation as beacon of liberty, hope, and opportunity for all.
This document was adopted by the 2022 NCGOP Convention.
I was convinced of the pro-life position before I knew what the Bible said.
In 1971 I was studying simultaneously Formal Logic, Biology, and Criminal Law at Michigan State School of criminal Justice.
It was apparent to me that the American Law Institute’s plan for abortion reform was unscientific and relied on inherently illogical reasoning (fallacies).
Since then, as a Bible Christian, I have collected these resources for you.
Paul Stam
Apex, NC
August 2022
LESSONS ON HUMAN LIFE FROM THE BIBLE
(Translation: New American Standard Bible NASB)
Psalm 139 13 You created my innermost parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will give thanks to You, because I am awesomely and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, My soul knows it very well. 15 My frame (skeleton) was not hidden from You When I was made in secret, And skillfully formed in the depths of the earth; 16 Your eyes have seen my formless substance (embryo); And in Your book were written All the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.
Jeremiah 1 4 The word of the Lord came to me (Jeremiah), saying,
5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, Before you were born, I consecrated you; I have appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
Exodus 21
22 “If people struggle with each other and strike a pregnant woman so that she gives birth prematurely, but there is no injury, the guilty person shall certainly be fined as the woman’s husband may demand of him, and he shall pay as the judges decide. 23 But if there is any further injury,then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.
Deuteronomy 24 16 “Fathers shall not be put to death for their sons, nor shall sons be put to death for their fathers; everyone shall be put to death for his own sin alone.
Deuteronomy 30 19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have placed before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, 20 by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding close to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, so that you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”
Job 3113 “If I have rejected the claim of my male or female slaves When they filed a complaint against me, 14 What then could I do when God arises? When He calls me to account, how am I to answer Him? 15 Did He who made me in the womb not make him, And the same one create us in the womb?
21 If I have lifted up my hand against the orphan, (the fatherless) Because I saw I had support in the gate, (at the place of judgment) 22 May my shoulder fall from its socket, And my arm be broken off at the elbow. 23 For disaster from God is a terror to me, And because of His majesty I can do nothing.
2 Kings 21 16 Furthermore, Manasseh shed very much innocent blood until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides his sin into which he misled Judah, in doing evil in the sight of the Lord.
Psalm 106 35 They got involved with the nations And learned their practices, 36 And served their idols, Which became a snare to them. 37 They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons, 38 And shed innocent blood, The blood of their sons and their daughters Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; And the land was defiled with the blood.
2 Kings 21 2 [Manasseh] did evil in the sight of the Lord, in accordance with the abominations of the nations whom the Lord dispossessed before the sons of Israel. 3 He rebuilt the high places which his father Hezekiah had destroyed; and he erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah, just as Ahab king of Israel had done, and he worshiped all the heavenly lights and served them. 6 He made his son pass through the fire, interpreted signs, practiced divination, and used mediums and spiritists. He did great evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him to anger.
Worship of Moloch & Asherah
– sacrifice of 1st born to prove dedication to the god
– Asherah pole involved a fertility rite, including ritual prostitution,
both male and female.
The king of Judah practiced this and led his people to tolerate it.
Is the worship of Moloch & Asherah different than practices today?
Sacrifice your first child to us. Prove your dedication to pleasure. Over 1/3 of first pregnancies end in intentional death.
We’ll give you the tools for promiscuity and prostitution so that you may practice without shame. The practices of Moloch & Asherah are institutionalized at the highest level – killing is paid for by the government and immorality is encouraged. Follow the story.
Our Lord is a gracious God – eager to forgive, to be reconciled to man to extend his salvation.
The abominable practices of Manasseh did not last forever.
In the time of Josiah, the young king found and read the law.
2 Kings 236 [Josiah] took the Asherah pole from the temple of the Lord and burned it. He ground it to powder. 7 He tore down the quarters of the male shrine prostitutes.
10 He desecrated Topheth so no one could use it to sacrifice a son or daughter in the fire to Moloch.
13 The king desecrated the high places of Ashtoreth, the vile goddess of the Sidonians. 14 Josiah smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles and covered the sites with human bones.
Then King Josiah celebrated Passover.
2 Kings 23 21 The king commanded the people, saying, “Celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.” 22 Truly such a Passover had not been celebrated since the days of the judges, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah.
2 Kings 23 25 Before him there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart, all his soul, and all his might, in conformity to all the Law of Moses; nor did any like him arise after him.
With such total house cleansing and obvious repentance, it sounds like all would be well. NOT.
2 Kings 23 26 Nevertheless, the Lord did not turn from the fierceness of His great wrath with which His anger burned against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him.
2 Kings 24 3 It indeed came upon Judah at the command of the Lord, to remove them from His sight due to the sins of Manasseh, in accordance with everything that he had done, 4 and also for the innocent blood which he shed, for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; and the Lord was unwilling to forgive.
And into captivity in Babylon they went for 70 years.
Jeremiah 29 1 These are the words of the letter which Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the rest of the elders of the exile. 4 “This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, says to the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:
5 ‘Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. 6 Take wives and father sons and daughters, take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may give birth to sons and daughters; and grow in numbers there and do not decrease. 7 Seek the prosperity of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord in its behalf; for in its prosperity will be your prosperity.’
Conclusions:
10 “This is what the Lord says: ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for prosperity and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.
Proverbs 24 11 Rescue those who are being taken away to death, And those who are staggering to the slaughter, Oh hold them back! 12 If you say, “See, we did not know this,” Does He who weighs the hearts not consider it? And does He who watches over your soul not know it? And will He not repay a person according to his work?Rescue those being led away to death.
Malachi 44 “Remember the Law of Moses My servant, the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him for all Israel.
5 “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. 6 He will turn the hearts of the fathers back to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and strike the land with complete destruction.”
Isaiah 545 For your husband is your Maker, Whose name is the Lord of armies; Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, Who is called the God of all the earth. 6 For the Lord has called you, Like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, Even like a wife of one’s youth when she is rejected,” Says your God. 7 “For a brief moment I abandoned you, But with great compassion I will gather you. 8 In an outburst of anger I hid My face from you for a moment, But with everlasting favor I will have compassion on you,” Says the Lord your Redeemer.
FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT: WHAT DID JESUS DO TO
TEACH US THE VALUE OF CHILDREN BEFORE THEY ARE BORN?
(Translation: English Standard Version ESV)
Luke 1 – Birth of John the Baptist Foretold 13 The angel said to Zechariah, “Do not be afraid, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John (the Baptist). 14 You will have joy and gladness. Many will rejoice at his birth. 15 He will be great before the Lord. He must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. 16 He will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, 17 and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” 4 After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, 25 “Thus the Lord has done for me.”
Birth of Jesus Foretold 26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to Nazareth, 27 to Mary, a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David (and Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Judah). 28 Gabriel he came to Mary and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” 29 She was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to find out what this greeting might be. 30 The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid. You have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus (means “God saves”). 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David. 33 He will reign over the house of Jacob forever. Of his kingdom there will be no end.”
34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” 35 The angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you. The power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. 36 Behold, your cousin Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.”
Mary Visits Elizabeth 39 Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country (about a week), to a town in Judah. 40 She entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 She exclaimed with a loud cry, “[Mary] blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 Why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.
56 Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home. (Six months plus three months equals _______ months.)
The Birth of John the Baptist 57 The time came for Elizabeth to give birth. She bore a son. 59 On the eighth day 64 [Zechariah’s] mouth was opened, and he spoke, blessing God. 66 All who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, “What then will this child (John the Baptist) be?”
Zechariah’s Prophecy 67 His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying,68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people 69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David.
This addition to the Preamble to the Code of Professional Responsibility should be rejected.
SEXUAL ORIENTATION, GENDER IDENTITY and MARITAL STATUS
The Bar Council has recommended to you a change to the Preamble.
(6) The North Carolina Constitution requires that “right and justice shall be administered without favor, denial, or delay.” Public confidence in the justice system is strengthened when all participants are treated equally, fairly, honestly, and respectfully within the system. A lawyer, as a representative of and crucial contributor to the justice system, should foster public confidence in the administration of justice by treating all persons they encounter in their professional capacity equally, courteously, respectfully, and with dignity regardless of a person’s race, sex, national origin, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, or socioeconomic status.
Significant problems are presented. I am not concerned that I will be disciplined as an attorney. I am concerned that someone could plausibly call me an unethical attorney under this language. I have enjoyed “av” ratings forever.
SEXUAL ORIENTATION
This term has no commonly understood meaning. There are several dozen sexual orientations. Is an attorney unethical if (s)he/they does not hire, promote, retain or represent someone who is a member of the NAMBLA (North American Man Boy Love Association)? Is the attorney unethical if the attorney does not hire as a partner/associate, or does not represent a person who says that he/she/they engages in sadomasochism? Is an attorney unethical if the attorney speaks out publicly in a legal context against polygamy, bigamy, or adultery?
It was recently reported that three “polyamorous” men had become a “throuple” and would be raising two female infants born through surrogates. https://apple.news/A4Py2t03NQOaduKkyAmFM2Q
NEW SEXUAL ORIENTATIONS ARE DISCOVERED REGULARLY
Would it be unethical if an attorney let a client, employee or partner know that (s)he/they does not respect adultery of any type? Since bisexuality or pansexuality, by definition, includes adultery, the same question arises.
GENDER IDENTITY
“Gender Identity” is not defined or even definable. Is it the same as “gender expression” found in some states, once in our General Statutes, and all over the internet? Is “identity” intended as subjective or objective? The Obama and Biden administrations, and a few courts, say it is purely subjective – no medical treatment or evidence is required. Facebook allows an unlimited number of self-identities of gender. 70 such identities had been previously denominated. Has an attorney discriminated by not accepting at face value a person’s subjective gender identity that is not consistent with that person’s biology?
Notwithstanding Justice Gorsuch in Bostock, “gender” is defined in Fowler’s Dictionary of Modern English Usage (2nd Ed, Oxford Press, 1965) (the same year as the Civil Rights Act of 1965) as:
“gender, n., is a grammatical term only. To talk of persons or creatures of the masculine or feminine g., meaning of the male or female sex, is either a jocularity (permissible or not according to context) or a blunder.”
In other words, the author of Bostock was either kidding or made a serious blunder in his textual analysis. Bostock disclaims the application of its definition of “sex” to anything other than Title VII.
Has an attorney disrespected a “trans person” by using standard English pronouns, either intentionally or not? “A Guide to Gender Identity Terms” may be helpful to understand the “zeitgeist” of today’s culture. https://apple.news/AUjr4s7FMR0OGWIcAXE_gdQ
NEW GENDER IDENTITIES ARE DISCOVERED REGULARLY
The court may find it difficult to believe that some will be offended and/or sue if one uses a pronoun that is not to their liking when one refers to “s(he)” or “them”.
Like many smaller firms, ours has two restrooms. One is labeled for the use of men, one is labeled for women. The state building code requires separate restrooms. In 45 years of practice I have never had occasion or desire to direct who goes where. Have I discriminated if I ask, or require biological males who, even if only that day, have decided to identify as female, to use the private space designated for men?
How does an attorney avoid creating a hostile work environment if the attorney allows non-biological subjective identities to determine the operations of the office? The female attorneys or other staff may not appreciate my defense that I was only trying to respect the Preamble.
Have I unethically discriminated if an applicant for a position with my firm tells me, shows me via social media or by resume, that “(s)he” or “they” is a biological male who won various sports events while subjectively identifying as a female, and I do not hire, or thereafter promote, or retain that person.
MARITAL STATUS
An otherwise qualified male applicant wants me to hire him. He lives with and is married to a woman by whom he has three children. With or without her knowledge he tells me (or others tell me) that he also uses Saturdays to have indiscriminate sex with men in another city. Am I really ethically bound to hire, promote, or retain a person with a bisexual orientation and a marital status that would be unacceptable to me and to my other clients and community.
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
The Council could have avoided these questions by simply saying that an attorney should appropriately respect everyone. If it insists on a list, it should include “color” and “caste”. “Color” is actually in the statutes and is a very real source of actual discrimination. “Caste” is becoming more relevant as a source of actual discrimination. The list should not include the three described above.
I asked these same questions of the Ethics Committee and of the State Bar Council. I received no response at all.
Days ago, a congressional committee moved H.R.1619, a bill that would grant Catawba Indian Nation a controversial casino in North Carolina. The Catawba’s reservation is located in South Carolina; however, since the Palmetto State’s restrictive gaming laws prevent them from conducting gaming at home, they are now attempting to build a casino across state lines. If H.R.1619 passes, it will mark the first off-reservation casino granted by Congress.
The bill attempts to short-circuit an ongoing court battle that would determine the legality of the controversial Cleveland County project. As an attorney, former elected representative in North Carolina, and long time consumer advocate, turning this legal process into a political one concerns me for many reasons.
The legislation flies in the face of the people’s will. The North Carolina legislature has already made strides to ban video poker parlors because of residents’ complaints that their presence in the state increases crime, stimulates addictive behavior, tears apart families, and fuels poverty. This off-reservation casino would be full of video poker machines.
Over 1,000 citizens signed a full-page ad in protest while county officials passed resolutions opposing it. When I served as Speaker Pro Tem of the North Carolina House of Representatives, I led a petition that over 100 members signed opposing this casino’s construction in our state. H.R.1619 circumvents the people’s will while skirting the judicial process.
A federal appeals court is currently reviewing whether the Department of Interior illegally approved the building of this off-reservation casino in North Carolina. A Federal Court judge labeled this battle a “close call” and the Interior Department just a few years ago said it couldn’t grant the tribe the casino land. There is certainly reason for hope that the appeals court will deny the application. H.R.1619 will use the power of the legislative branch to muscle this casino into North Carolina no matter what the courts rule or the people want.
There is a reason Congress has never approved an off-reservation casino before. It’s not the job of politicians in Washington, D.C. to take the right to make laws applicable to its land away from North Carolina and hand this power over to predatory out-of-state interests. Members of Congress don’t have the knowledge, background, or contextual evidence to decide what’s fair or in line with North Carolina law and historic realities.
Not only would the legislation greenlight this casino in North Carolina without any respect for the legal process, but if passed, it could also embolden other casino developers to latch onto the precedent and short-circuit normal procedures to do the same. Casinos could start sprouting up throughout the country without any regard to what the state and local government, courts, and professional analysts say. Is this really a Pandora’s Box that Congress wants to open?
Rep. Virginia Foxx’s district is where the casino will be located should the Catawba Nation get its way. She needs to lead the charge in telling the rest of Congress this legislation is short-sighted and misguided. North Carolina citizens deserve far more careful deliberation on this issue than a rushed attempt to shut down examination of the facts and law surrounding it.
THE HIDDEN ECONOMIC STORY BEHIND NORTH CAROLINA’S HB2
“ The sky is falling!!!” Those words remind us of the children’s tale, “Chicken Little” in which a chicken, struck on the head with an acorn, convinces her friend, Henny Penny, that the sky is falling and to join her to tell the Lion. While on their journey, a fox persuades them to take a shorter path. That shorter path leads to the fox’s lair where he devours Chicken Little and Henny Penny.
North Carolina’s HB2—the notorious “bathroom bill”—was North Carolina’s “Chicken Little.” Upon its passage in 2016, a handful of businesses and associations led the way pulling out of North Carolina in protest and predicting economic doom for the State. Similar to Henny Penny, aided by the media frenzy, other businesses joined the cacophony of naysayers.
Legislators panicked, and soon they abandoned HB2. Five years later, corporate activists and Wall Street firms are leveraging their resources to pressure lawmakers on everything from voting reform and gun sales to social justice laws and women’s sports.[1]
HB2, in reality, was enacted to protect privacy, safety and freedom for people and business owners to live and work according to their beliefs, and it in no way depressed the economy or business successes of North Carolina. In hindsight, it is clear that threats of economic doom were simply used by the LGBTQ community and some willing corporate allies to advance the agenda.
The Real Economic Story
HB2, named “An Act to Provide for Single-Sex Multiple Occupancy Bathroom and Changing Facilities in Schools and Public Agencies and to Create Statewide Consistency in Regulation of Employment and Public Accommodations”, was simply a response to ordinance number 7056 passed by the Charlotte City Council which exceeded the Council’s authority. In February 2016, the Charlotte City Council passed a nondiscrimination ordinance which expanded discrimination protections to include, among other things, “sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.” Additionally, the ordinance protected these classes from discrimination in public “restrooms, shower rooms, bathhouses and similar facilities.” Under North Carolina law, municipalities did not have the authority to enact local anti-discrimination ordinances, and so one month after the ordinance was enacted, the General Assembly repealed it by passing HB2. Almost immediately upon its passage, LGBTQ activists and their corporate allies screamed discrimination. Flexing their political muscle, these corporations predicted that the passage of HB2 would cause economic doom for North Carolina. They estimated that the annual loss of business revenue would range from $3.76 billion,[2] to more than $5 billion.[3] Local governments were predicting losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars due to lost businesses or cancelled events.
Five states and multiple cities placed a ban on public travel to North Carolina, and, under pressure, the NCAA in 2016 announced seven relocations, including the Division I Women’s Soccer Championship and the future first-and second-round games of the men’s 2017 NCAA basketball tournament. The ACC followed by announcing ten relocations, including (i) the football championship in Charlotte, which generated $32.4 million in revenue in 2016, (ii) the first-and second round games of the 2017 men’s basketball tournament in Greensboro, with estimated revenues of $14.6 million, (iii) men’s and women’s tennis championship and women’s soccer championship in Cary ($2 million), and (iv) baseball championship in Durham ($5.2 million).[4] The NBA estimated that its move of the 2017 All-Star game from Charlotte to New Orleans could have had an economic impact of over $100 million.[5]
A handful of businesses did change their plans for North Carolina, including PayPal, Adidas, Duetsche Bank and Costar.[6] PayPal was planning to hire 400 new people for a global operations center with an average wage of $51,000. The combination of PayPal, Deutsche Bank and CoStar added up to nearly 1,400 jobs.[7]The cancellations of Pearl Jam, Cirque Du Soleil and others allegedly left the Raleigh area with $130,000 in lost wages.[8] In Charlotte, Cirque du
Soleil, Boston, Demi Lovato, Nick Jonas and Maroon 5 all canceled their performances. Several North Carolina cities reported conference and convention cancellations.[9] Unemployment rates (not seasonally adjusted) rose across the state for a short period of time in 2016 before returning to pre-recession levels of 4.9% at the end of 2016.
Chart 1: North Carolina Unemployment Rates During HB2
Curiously, with respect to at least two of these companies, PayPal and Deutsche Bank, HB2 may not have been the primary reason for the cancellation of their North Carolina plans.
Five years later, PayPal has never established the global operations center in another state. Deutsche Bank suffered a staggering $8.8 billion in 2015-2016 when it canceled nearly 500 planned jobs in Cary under the cover of HB2.10 Since its announcement, the Deutsche Bank has continued its worldwide efforts to lay-off 25% of its worldwide bank staff by 2022 as part of their restructure and recovery plan. In 2020, Deutsche sited European financial markets and its investment in China’s Hua Xia Bank, not HB2, as the full reason for its failure to keep its agreement with the state. Last year the bank laid off another 223 people and asked North Carolina to terminate its $9 million incentive package tied to future jobs.[10] Regardless of the reason for their departure, the loss of these businesses and events barely affected the overall health of North Carolina’s economy. Commerce Secretary John Skvarla, the top economic official in Governor McCrory’s administration stated that “the law has basically had zero effect on the state economy.”[11]
The Facts
North Carolina saw impressive economic growth in 2016. The GDP of $517.9 billion represented a 1.6 percent growth from 2015 and .1% higher than the national average. The largest industries in North Carolina — finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing— experienced a 2.0 percent real growth.
According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, North Carolina professional and business services were the largest contributor to real GDP,[12] accounting for 0.5% of the total growth in real GNP. Business and association boycotts barely put a dent in the economy, representing less than 0.1% of the GDP.[13]Moody’s reported that North Carolina’s 2016 revenue growth has outpaced the 20 largest states ’average by more than 2-to-1. The State ended the fiscal year with a $425 million revenue surplus. S&P, Moody’s and Fitch affirmed North
Carolina’s AAA credit rating, citing the state’s continued diverse economic expansion.[14]
Business growth and retention, in particular, steamed ahead during HB2 and was in the Billions. Despite a few companies’ exit from North Carolina, according to Southern Business and Development Magazine, between January 2016 until the Spring of 2017, at least 45 companies established, expanded or announced plans to bring their businesses to North Carolina. Alevo, Avadim, Baxter, Citrix, Corning Optical Communications, Novo Nordisk, Moen Inc., Pfizer, Snyder-Lance, and Tyson Foods announced plans to expand existing operations.[15] In
March, 2016 Novo Nordisk, a Danish healthcare company broke ground on a new plant in Clayton, NC with a projected $2 billion investment creating 2500 construction jobs and 700 new employees.[16]In July 2016, CSX announced a $272 million investment to build an intermodal rail terminal in Edgecombe County.[17] In December, 2016, auto parts manufacturer GKN Driveline announced an investment of $179 million at 4 plants to create 302 jobs.[18]In February 2017, Corning announced plans to create 410 jobs in two years and to invest $176 million in facilities in Catawba and Cabarrus counties. In March 2017, Moen announced plans to expand their warehouse and distribution operations in Lenoir County, adding 35 new jobs and investing $15 million over the next five years. [19]
Visitors flocked to the State during 2016 in record numbers and they brought their dollars with them. According to the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, 97 out of 100 counties enjoyed an increase in visitor spending.
Chart 3: Direct Visitor Spending in North Carolina 2014 to 2019 (In Billions)
In Mecklenburg County visitors spent over $5 billion. In 2016, the Charlotte region hosted approximately 27.8 million visitors, an increase of one million visitors from 2015 according to the Visit Charlotte.[20] Former Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority CEO Tom Murray reported, “Charlotte’s visitor economy has grown every year since 2010” when publishing their 2017 Annual Report. 22
In Wake County spending topped $2 billion; and Guilford, Dare and Buncombe Counties each reaped $1 billion in visitor dollars. Due to this spending, the state collected nearly $1.2 billion in state taxes; local governments collected more than $693 million. Visitor spending supported 219,094 jobs which translated into $5.6 billion in payroll income across the State.[21]
The hotels and motel industry set record-breaking occupancy rates in 2016. According to a 2016 lodging report by Visit North Carolina, hotel/motel occupancy increased by 3.4% over 2015 and room demand increase by 4.7%. This increase in occupancy was coupled with increased room rates (ADR) of 3.6%, a record high for the state, with each month setting a record high from any year on record. Additionally, every month in 2016 showed an increase in demand for rooms statewide.[22]
North Carolina’s economic prosperity in 2016 brought with it a rise in employment and a rise in per capita income for North Carolinians. The number of North Carolinians employed between January 2016 and January 2017 increased by over 100,000 from 4,834351 to 4,934,991.[23] Based on American Community Surveys (ACS), between 2015 and 2016, the median household income rose from $48,420 to $50,584, an increases of 4.5% with a margin of error of +/- 1.2%. The per capita personal income (PCPI) increased by 3.0 % in 2016 averaging $42,002.[24] Unemployment numbers remained the same at 5.3% over a 12-month period between January 2016 and January 2017.[25]North Carolina added 5,000 jobs in the last three quarters of 2016.[26]
North Carolina’s business growth during the lifetime of HB2 reaped several national awards. Site Selection Magazine Awarded North Carolina its Prosperity Cup for 2017, 2018 and 2020 besting Texas with which North Carolina had tied in 2016. In announcing the award, Site Selection stated “HB2 didn’t change the strategic significance of a North Carolina location to companies already there, nor to most considering North Carolina a potential addition to their real estate portfolios.”[27] Additionally, Site Selection ranked North Carolina fourth in attracting and expanding businesses and first in the South Atlantic region for drawing corporate facilities.30 CNBC chose North Carolina as number five for America’s Top States for Business both in 2016 and 2017.31 North Carolina was named one of the top five states with the best climate for business by corporate executives, according to a report by Development Counsellors International,[28] and Forbes, in 2017, ranked North Carolina number two in the nation for business, a position it has held for several years,[29]before raising to best in nation for the last three years.
It is now clear that the fight to repeal HB2 was never initiated out of concern for the economic welfare of the State. Rather, it was simply used as a false argument to advance an agenda far more dangerous than an economic downturn.
The LGBTQ Lobby’s Transformation of Corporate America
The fight to repeal HB2 exposed the inroads the LGBTQ lobby has made in Corporate America, beginning almost 40 years ago. From the outset, LGBTQ activists knew that mainstream America would not flock to their cause outright. Corporate America, a symbol of prosperity, economic freedom and leadership, provided the perfect foil.
For some companies, convincing them to join the LGBTQ cause wasn’t difficult. In 1986, Apple sanctioned gay groups within the company.34 In 1987, AT&T sanctioned League, a company network for gays.35 By the early 1990’s, corporations began dialoguing with LGBTQ activists to discuss providing benefits to same sex couples.36 In 1995, the CEO of IBM, Louis V. Gerstner, formed several task forces, including one for LGBTQ employees. 1996, Proctor & Gamble allowed its gay and lesbian employee group, GAMBLE, to create an email network in the company and eventually adopted GAMBLE’s point of view. In 1998, P&G pulled their ads from Dr. Laura Show37 and in 2003 IBM stepped up and offered critical support for a National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce just getting off the ground.
By the early 2000s the LGBTQ movement had made enough progress transforming internal policies in corporations that it went public. In 2002, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), an organization advocating for LGBTQ rights, authored a report entitled, “The Corporate Equality Index” and rated companies by their pro-LGBTQ policies, highlighting those who had reached 100% approval rating and those who scored 0%. Such pro-LGBTQ policies included non-discrimination covering sexual orientation and gender identity, health insurance for same-sex domestic partners, LGBTQ support groups and “corporate action that would undermine equal rights for [LGBTQs]. Thirteen companies achieved a 100% score;[30]three companies scored a zero.[31][32]
In 2004, lobbying efforts became more organized and public. That year, Equality Forum, a LGBTQ advocacy group, established the FORTUNE 500 Project. The Project’s goal was to convince corporate CEO’s, Boards of Directors and shareholders of FORTUNE 500 companies to include sexual orientation protection in their internal policies.[33]
The Project’s efforts worked. Between 2005 and 2012, shareholders collectively offered 237 LGBTQ inclusive resolutions in 177 companies. 50% of these resolutions included employment discrimination protection for sexual orientation and gender identity. Shockingly, despite rejection by shareholders, the majority of these companies reformed their discrimination policies to include discrimination protection based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
In those companies where shareholders voted to remove LGBTQ policies already in place, 100% of these companies refused to comply with shareholder resolutions.[34] By 2005, 100 businesses scored 100% by HRC. In 2004, the criteria placed a greater emphasis on transgender inclusion, rather than just gay rights. By 2011, the number of businesses that scored 100% climbed to 337.42 In 2013, the Human Rights Campaign added a requirement that contractors and non-profit organizations receiving gifts from these companies must adhere to pro-LGBTQ policies.[35][36] In 2015, 306 Fortune 500 companies received a 100% score.[37] By 2021, the number of businesses scoring 100% had exploded to 767 companies including 94% of America’s Fortune 500.[38][39] Veterans of the LGBTQ movement are now petitioning an expansion of the Index to include affirmative political engagement beyond social issues.
This month the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), the world’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer media advocacy organization, amplified HRC’s efforts by setting out to influence corporations by announcing its first Social Media
Safety Index (SMSI). The new index seeks to limit nonconforming speech and content found on social media platforms in order to achieve true equality.[40]
LGBTQ’s Alliance with Corporate Sports
The NCAA’s and the NBA’s opposition to HB2 reflects a close relationship between these organizations and the LGBTQ rights movement.[41] As early as 2009, the NCAA teamed up with other pro-LGBTQ groups and participated in a think-tank entitled, “On the Team: Equal Opportunity for Transgender Students.” With the exception of a few professors and one student, the think tank was composed of LGBTQ activists. In 2010, the NCAA
Executive Committee published a periodical entitled, “NCAA Inclusion of Transgender Student Athletes,” pledging to provide programming and education “which sustains foundations of a diverse and inclusive culture across dimensions of diversity including, but not limited to …gender expression.”[42] In 2011 the NCAA adopted a non-discrimination policy for transgender athletes. In 2016 the NCAA took this policy a step further by encouraging college Presidents to sign a similar pledge to “establish initiatives for achieving….gender equity and inclusion”, the buzzwords for transgenderism.[43]
The NBA’s endorsement of the LGBTQ agenda has been more subtle. For years, the NBA has partnered with the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), one of the most rabid pro-LGBTQ education advocacy groups in the country.50 In 2011 the NBA adopted a non-discrimination policy against, among other things, sexual orientation and gender
identity. In 2012, the NBA’s support for the LGBTQ agenda became more public when it fined a player $50,000 for making an anti-gay comment, and in 2013, the NBA publicly supported one of its players who announced that he was gay.[44]
Corporations’ Social Activism
Commentators have observed that two events completed the transformation of businesses into LGBTQ activists: New York’s legalization of same sex marriage in 2011 and the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, finding unconstitutional state statutes defining marriage as between one man and one woman.[45][46]As one author stated, “The Supreme Court gave corporate America the political cover to speak out.” 53
Before 2011, few companies were willing to sponsor any LGBTQ event or produce pro-LGBTQ advertising. By 2014, five of the largest companies in the U.S. —TD Bank, eBay, Hilton, Macy’s and Wells Fargo —were pumping thousands of dollars into gay pride parade sponsorships.[47] TD Bank, one of the largest banks in the country reportedly spent over $1 million annually on LGBTQ events and initiatives in North America sponsoring 160 LGBTQ community initiatives and 83 pride events.55 Today, sponsorships by corporations are fairly common. In [48][49], the year of the Supreme Court’s legalization of same sex marriage, at least seven corporations produced pro-LGBTQ ads. One, paid for by Clean and Clear, featured transgender Jazz Jenner, the company’s transgender spokeswoman.56
Corporations’ Legal Activism
In 2011, corporations began flexing their muscle to pursue legal changes for the LGBTQ community. In 2012, 379 elite corporations, including Coca Cola, Goldman Sachs, Google, Amazon, AT&T and Morgan Stanley, signed an amicus brief challenging the constitutionality of marriage amendments defining marriage as between one man and one woman.[50] In June of 2015 their efforts bore fruit with the Supreme Court’s decision that state laws defining marriage between one woman and one man are unconstitutional.[51]
In 2015, big business pounced again on Indiana for enacting a religious freedom law. That law, entitled the “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” (RFRA), modeled after the 1993 federal RFRA, sought to legally protect individuals from being forced by the government to participate in events and speech that violates their deeply held religious beliefs. Threatening boycotts, big business vigorously fought for the law’s repeal. Eventually, the law was amended to the pleasure of the LGBTQ community.
When HB2 was enacted, the business elite had two wins under their belt and they were primed and ready for another battle. Almost immediately after its passage, Salesforce CEO, Marc Benioff, began a massive lobbying effort to repeal the new law.[52] In large part due to
Benioff’s efforts, corporate allies fell in line. Businesses signed a letter penned by Equality NC and the Human Rights Campaign to then Governor McCrory opposing HB2.[53] A few months later, 68 companies, including Apple, American Airlines, Red Hat and Morgan Stanley, signed onto an amicus brief claiming that HB2 condones “invidious discrimination and damages the companies’ ability to attract and retain a diverse workforce,” an absurd claim. [54] Shoulder to shoulder with the LGBTQ lobby, corporations flexed their political muscles, predicted economic Armageddon and threatened boycotts. Finally, one year later, legislators with their tails between their legs, repealed the law the LGBTQ lobby and its cohort, Corporate America, found objectionable and replaced it with a much less clear prohibition on local nondiscrimination laws that expired in 2020.
An Unholy Alliance – Economics, “Values” and the Government
For the past 40 years, corporations have used economics and “values” to justify their support for internal pro-LGBTQ policies and their opposition to marriage amendments and, recently, their opposition to religious freedom legislation and HB2.[55] Despite claims by corporations and their LGBTQ activist motivators that pro-LGBTQ policies are “good for business,” there is no hard evidence linking economic growth and pro (or con) LGBTQ policies. An often-cited study, “The Business Impact of LGBTQ-Supportive Workplace Policies” from the pro-LGBTQ think tank, The Williams Institute, states the following:
In total, this study reviews 36 research studies that include findings related to the impact of LGBTQ-supportive policies or workplace climates on business outcomes. We conclude that this body of research supports the existence of many positive links between LGBTQ-supportive policies or workplace climates and outcomes that will benefit employers. However, none of the studies provides direct quantitative estimates of the impact on the bottom line.[56]
In other words, there is no concrete proof provided by 36 research studies that pro-
LGBTQ policies increase profits. Six years after Obergefell, GLAAD reports 61% of advertisers still voice concern over brand backlash when including LGBT people in their advertising.[57] An analysis by Credit Suisse, which appeared in the July 2, 2014 Harvard Business Review, echoed this same conclusion: “[The research] indicates quantitatively that an employer’s stance on LGBTQ issues does not make a material difference in its stock price, even in today’s economy. [58]
When examining the impact of pro-LGBTQ policies on economic development, authors of another study by the Williams Institute reached a similar conclusion. In November, 2014 the Institute released a study on the subject entitled, “TheRelationship between LGBTQ Inclusion and Economic Development: An Analysis of Emerging Economies.” Though touted as a study showing a direct correlation between pro-LGBTQ laws and economic growth in developing economies, there is no evidence to support that result. Hidden among numerous conjectures about economic gain, the authors admit: “. . . we cannot draw a firm conclusion about . . . whether more rights cause higher levels of development or whether more developed countries tend to introduce more rights.” 66
By 2013, when defending their pro-LGBTQ positions, some members of the corporate elite had shed the economics argument. That year, as reported in the Seattle Times, Starbucks publicly issued the following statement defending its support for homosexual marriage as being philosophical:
This important legislation is aligned with Starbucks business practices and upholds our belief in the equal treatment of partners. It is core to who we are and what we value as a company.Internally the coffee retailer never slowed their plans to grow stores in the state.67
Weeks after signing an open letter blasting the state, Starbucks signed a $2.25 million ground lease for a new store in Hendersonville[59] and testing in-store kiosks in Charlotte and WinstonSalem with Publix.[60]
PayPal CEO Dan Shulman adopted the same “values” argument. When PayPal pulled out of North Carolina, Shulman stated that he was canceling the operations center because he did not want to invest in a state where his employees “would not have equal rights.”[61]Both Starbucks and PayPal appear to have selective outrage about injustice. While shaming North Carolina legislators for passage of HB2, both corporations were expanding business opportunities in two of the most repressive countries in the world—PayPal in Cuba and Starbucks in China. In its 2021 report, Freedom House, an international organization dedicated to advancing freedom, gave both Cuba and China Freedom scores of 13 and 9, respectively, out of a 100.[62] Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Time Warner and Merck Pfizer all signed onto the letter expressing outrage at the passage of HB2 with the Human Rights Campaign and then went on to make campaign contributions to lawmakers who voted for HB2 and the governor who signed it.[63] The federal government also provided a financial incentive for businesses to comply with pro-LGBT policies. Since July 2014, President Obama’s Executive Order number 13672 has been in place—except for during the Trump Administration[64]—requiring all federal contractors to incorporate policies prohibiting discrimination based on homosexuality or gender identity.[65]For 17 consecutive years the Exxon-Mobil shareholders rejected anti-discrimination policies which included homosexuality and gender identity. One year after the Executive Order went into effect, Exxon-Mobil did an about-face for fear of losing millions of dollars in government contracts.[66]
Looking Back, the Corporate Boycott Movement Hasn’t Aged Well
Democratic strategists inside the Biden administration continue to point to the success of HB2 to persuade corporate leaders on the value of corporate involvement in the LBGTQ movement. 57 The administration is counting on broad corporate support following the Capitol insurrection in the final days of the Trump Administration to leverage what they call the “emerging social conscious movement” to push for support of their political agenda and policies inside corporate boardrooms, but some corporations may have second thoughts.[67]
Emboldened by HB2, early adopters of this new corporate activism set to influence public policy on their own with mixed results. Gillette received harsh backlash after weighing into the #MeToo Movement during its Super Bowl Ad in 2019.58b Delta Air Lines, largely uncontroversial to this point, has found themselves in a battle twice with the state legislature after issuing statements of support on social issues. In 2018 Georgia’s House of Representatives stropped the fuel tax credit after the airline went head-to-head with the National Rifle Association over gun control. In response, Georgia Lt. Gov. Cagle said, “Businesses have every legal right to make their own decisions, but the Republican majority in our state legislature also has every right to govern guided by our principles.”[68] Months later the Georgia Governor Nathan Deal signed an executive order to recommence the credits to smooth over relations with the airline.[69]
This year the airline was only a Senate vote away from losing the fuel incentives again after boisterously condemning Georgia’s new voting laws. Over 100 companies joined and soon
Major League Baseball announced it was moving the 2021 All-Star Game and draft out of Atlanta. The response from the public and Georgia State House was swift. Brands found themselves in the middle of a divisive political debate but this time customers from both sides were calling for boycotts. Lawmakers again voted to remove $40 million in tax incentives, and social media was trending with outrage against the brands. CEO’s quickly learned the cost of their vocal activism. Delta’s CEO walked back his comments, and Atlanta-based Coca-Cola and Home Depot have attempted to stay neutral.[70]
Likewise, the Save Women’s Sports movement, which has gained popularity in 2021 has attracted strong support and opposition. The NCAA has resumed issuing LGBTQ policy statements and threatening to once again boycott any state that considers legislation to prohibit transgender sports participation. The NCAA issued a statement saying, “when determining where championships are held, NCAA policy directs that only locations where hosts can commit to providing an environment that is safe, healthy and free of discrimination should be selected.”[71] Despite the threats, seven Governors have signed the bill into law.[72] Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has committed to signing the bill and South Dakota, Gov. Kristi Noem issued an executive order addressing the issue.[73] So far the NCAA failed to follow through on their threat when it announced its softball tournament would be played in Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee, all three states passed the Save Women’s Sports Act in 2021.[74]
Long Past its Sunset Provision, the Media Won’t Let Go of HB2
When North Carolina’s ban on local nondiscrimination ordinances expired on December 1, 2020, Charlotte and other municipalities began to consider passing nondiscrimination ordinances. The press continues to disseminate the false narrative that HB2 harmed the State’s economy and led to widespread job and fiscal losses. LGBTQ groups in the State are calling for the General Assembly to pass a statewide nondiscrimination law.
But the fact is, some of the most liberal tech companies in America have overlooked politics in favor of the rich, business-friendly, low-tax, highly academic climate in North Carolina and have chosen to invest billions to locate in the State. Apple, Google, Facebook, DC Blox, and Walt Disney have invested heavily into massive datacenters and engineering centers in North Carolina.[75] In 2021, Apple announced another billion-dollar investment into North Carolina to expand its Piedmont datacenter and establish an East Coast Hub in Wake County.[76]
Even Amazon admitted that HB2 had nothing to do with its recent decision to choose Virginia over North Carolina for its second headquarters. In the recently published book, Amazon Unbound, author Brad Stone told the News & Observer, “Raleigh was the most impressive smaller city (on the list) by leaps and bounds. They [Amazon] were impressed by the city’s economic health and population growth, and they saw not just an opportunity for today but for the future.” [77] While the media suggested “HB2 gave Amazon “heartburn” Stone said, “The positives really outweighed the negatives” when evaluating the city.87 It was the size of the metro area, not HB2, which led Amazon officials to eventually select Arlington, Virginia according to Stone.[78]
The truth is Amazon has been betting heavily on North Carolina. It invested $400 Million into its wind farm while HB2 was in place, and since has rapidly increased its warehouse and distribution system across the state.[79] Amazon currently operates 19 sites in North Carolina, including eight new delivery point stations, two Prime hubs and sort stations and distribution centers with several more in development.[80] Courtney Johnson Norman, a spokesperson for Amazon said, “North Carolina is great for business, and Amazon is excited to continue its growth and investment,”[81] noting the company has created over 27,000 jobs in the state and invested more than $2.1 billion as it announced another $100 Million investment.[82] There was never a mention of HB2.
A summary of Amazon Major North Carolina Distribution & Sort Centers93
In their essay, “Overhauling of Straight America,” a playbook on how to alter the values of America to normalize and promote homosexuality, Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen stated the following:
Give Protectors a Just Cause….Our campaign should not demand direct support for homosexual practices, should instead take anti-discrimination as its theme…. It is especially important for the gay movement to hitch its cause to accepted standards of law and justice because its straight supports must have at hand a cogent reply to the moral arguments of its enemies.[83]
Hindsight is 20/20. It is clear now that the fight over HB2 was never about economics. The economic disaster prophesied by the LGBT activists and Corporate America never occurred. Businesses didn’t engage in a mass boycott of the State. While Diversity Officers pushed a public narrative, the corporations quietly purchased land, invested in infrastructure and continued to hire North Carolina’s brightest and best university students to help their bottom-line. Not one company that was doing business in North Carolina before HB2 was passed pulled out and moved elsewhere. Economic Armageddon didn’t happen. Rather, the battle over HB2 was about perception of harm, the saber-rattling of a pubescent cancel culture and the advancement of the LGBT agenda to transform American values. If HB2 had any negative impact on the State’s economy and specifically direct tourism spending, the impact was too small to be detected by all available data.
In the end, the NCAA returned. The All-Stars played. The musical artists and celebrities rebooked their shows. In today’s world of moral relativism, it is true as one writer has stated,
“Business practices help both to define and reflect our values.” Allies in Corporate America, transformed by the LGBT lobby, served as the perfect Goliath to argue the moral case against the “injustices” of HB2.
Will politicians continue to be led into the fox’s lair by big business and the “values” of liberal activists, or will our elected leaders take a stand for the values they profess? Five years after HB2, there is abundant evidence that elected leaders should refuse to cower to big business and their vacuous threats of economic doom; our leaders should represent the people who elected them, not the corporate bullies who are manipulated by liberal activists.
[27] Site Selection Magazine. May 2017http://siteselection.com/issues/2017/may/prosperity–cup.cfm30 Bradford Richardson and Valerie Richardson. “Tourism Thriving, Economy Expanding in North Carolina Despite Bathroom Bill Desertions.” The Washington Times. March 20, 2017.
[34] Neel Rane. “Twenty Years of Shareholder Proposals After Cracker Barrel: An Effective Tool for Implementing LGBTQ Employment Protections.” 162 U. Penn. L.R. 929 (2014).
[40] GLAAD Calls The Entire Social Media Sector ‘Unsafe for LGBTQ Users’. Adweek. May 10, 2021.
[41] Nelson, Alex Jackson and Cronn-Mills, Kristin. 2017. LGBTQ-Athletes Claim the Field: Striving for Equality. Minneapolis, MN. Twenty-First Century Books. 89.
For 48 years, since the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v Wade, it has been legal in North Carolina for a doctor to abort the child of a consenting mother, up to birth, for almost any reason. There is a statute limiting abortions after five months, but the exceptions are so broad that this limitation is disregarded. The practical limitation on third trimester abortion in North Carolina is that I am not aware of facilities that actually commit abortions past six months. In those cases, they are referred to out-of-state hospitals, primarily to Washington DC or Maryland. There is one reason that can make an abortion illegal – if the purpose is to select the sex of the child. If a mother wants a boy or wants a girl and is naïve enough to tell the abortionist that she wants to abort her child if the sex is wrong, then it is illegal.
Some limitations have been in place over the last 5 to 25 years and, as a result, we have reduced abortion rates about 25 to 30% from the peak. What are the limitations?
First, the abortion must be performed by a doctor. There are no legal do-it-yourself abortions in North Carolina. Women can find advertisements on the internet for chemical abortions from pills purchased primarily from out of the country. North Carolina requires the first pill for a chemical abortion to be administered in the presence of a prescribing physician.
Second, all healthcare providers have conscience protections. Doctors, nurses, radiologists, pharmacists, and other healthcare workers cannot be forced to assist in an abortion.
Third, there is a 3-day waiting period after the time that the mother first makes contact and has obtained specific health information orally from the abortionist or qualified professional, as well as information in writing provided by the state and available on websites, at pregnancy care services, or even from abortionists. All abortions are preceded by an ultrasound in order to determine that the woman is actually pregnant, and that the pregnancy is not dangerously in her fallopian tubes. Ultrasound has been required by administrative rule for almost all abortions, but if not by rule then by the standard of care. If the mother asks to see the ultrasound or asks questions about it, the abortionist cannot deny that to her.
Fourth, state and local governments may not pay for abortions, except where the mother’s life is at stake or in cases of rape or incest. The state abortion fund for the poor was virtually eliminated 25 years ago. 10 years ago the State Health Plan stopped paying for abortions. Eight years ago, cities and counties stopped paying for elective abortion. Health insurance policies purchased here on the federal ACA exchange cannot pay for elective abortions.
Fifth, since 1996 it has been illegal to abort the child of a mother under 18, without first obtaining either the informed consent of her parent or approval by a judge. While most district court judges approve, and the parents do not even know about the court proceeding, the fact that a minor has to go to court to get the judge’s approval means the rate of abortions on mothers under 18 has gone way down since that law was enacted.
In North Carolina there have been over one million abortions reported since 1973. More than 100,000 have probably been prevented or discouraged following these legislative restrictions.
What can you do about this scourge? First. Take a look at this photo of a three-month-old unborn child. Most abortions are performed at or before this age. Now look at this photo of a six-month-old unborn child. In North Carolina abortions are performed through this age. This information is easily available on the internet.
Share this information with children and teenagers. I have been teaching fourth graders for almost 20 years. At Christmas I teach the first chapter of Luke. I show them what John the Baptist looked like at 6 months when he was full of the Holy Spirit and leaping for joy in the presence of the preborn Jesus. And I show them the three-month photo which is what Jesus looked like at the time John the Baptist was born and Zechariah, his father, was proclaiming that the Redeemer – Jesus – had already come. I trust God that these students will never consider an abortion as they remember what Jesus and John looked like.
Second. Contact every governmental representative of yours at every level. Let them know what you think. You don’t know your leaders? Why not? Find out. Mass emails are not effective, but a personal email or, better yet, a real letter or phone call from you makes a big difference. Tell something about yourself and the reasons that you want to stop this Slaughter of the Innocents.
Third. Watch your language. Why call an abortionist a doctor? Why call the unborn or preborn child a “fetus” or an “embryo”? Using Latin or Greek does not change reality. On the other hand, don’t call an abortion “murder.” It may be the moral equivalent of murder, but the term “kill” or “destroy” is more accurate.
Fourth. Volunteer now or contribute money now to your local pregnancy support center. There are about 78 in North Carolina. They make a real difference. The virus has been a real problem for the women (and men) they serve. As a result, the centers have been having a greater impact than ever before.
Finally. Stay in this fight for the long haul. Devotion to Molech and to Asherah has a very long history.
How did the NC GOP do in the November 2020 elections? Here is the big picture at the local, state, and national level, including the presidency.
Local level. Before the election Republicans controlled 59 County commissions. After the election the GOP controls 61 County commissions. Since Democrats control commissions with greater county populations, the counties controlled by Republican/Democrat members is about 50/50. It will skew more to the Democrats after the 2020 census figures are reported.
State level. In legislative races Republicans went from 65 to 69 representatives of the 120-member State House, short of the 72 required to override a veto. A veto override is much more achievable with 69 than with 65 votes. In the 2011-2012 session the NC GOP held 68 House seats. Overrides of Governor Perdue’s vetoes prevailed 8 times. There were 17 Democrats who voted one or more times to override Governor Perdue. There are more than 3 persuadable House Democrats.
The State Senate went from 29 to 28 Republicans: Democrats from 21 to 22. A veto override is still possible. There are more than 2 persuadable Democrats in the Senate.
The State Appellate Courts saw a clean sweep for Republicans. All five Court of Appeals races were won by highly qualified Republican judges. Judge Phil Berger, Jr. won his race for the State Supreme Court, so Governor Cooper appointed Darren Jackson, the House Minority Leader, to the resulting vacancy on the Court of Appeals. After that replacement the numbers on the Court of Appeals are 10 Republicans (Stroud (Chief), Dillon, Tyson, Murphy, Dietz, Zachary, Gore, Griffin, Carpenter, Wood) and 5 Democrats (Arrowood, Collins, Hampson, Inman, Jackson). The Court of Appeals has always voted in panels of three.
The State Supreme Court was a clean sweep with Justices Paul Newby, Tamara Barringer and Phil Berger Jr. prevailing. That trio includes the significance of Chief Justice Newby who also directs the Administrative Office of the Courts and its thousands of employees in every courthouse. Many of these are independently elected or controlled on some issues, but statewide administrative control is through the AOC. Judge Drew Heath was appointed as Administrator of the Administrative Office of the Courts. There are four Democrat Justices – Robin Hudson, Sam Ervin IV, Michael Morgan and Anita Earls.
At the trial court level there are now, at the Superior Court level, 24 Republicans, 35 Democrats and 36 unaffiliated judges. In 1994 there was only one Republican Superior Court Judge. At the District Court level there are now 130 Republicans, 128 Democrats and 2 unaffiliated judges.
Council of State – The GOP won a 6 – 4 majority on the Council of State. The presiding officer, Governor Cooper, has never called for recorded votes. That needs to change. Some have asked for an explanation how the NC GOP lost four of the ten races statewide while winning six handily. It is not a surprise that Governor Cooper won by 4.5% over Dan Forrest. Governor Cooper was on television for free almost every day for 8 months telling people how to be safe. He refused to take hard questions from the press. He had been on the statewide ballot 5 previous times preceded by many successful runs for the state house and senate as well. Between Cooper’s own- campaign and outside groups, he outspent Dan Forest at least 10 to 1. Dan Forest outperformed all the polls taken prior to the election. They had him down by 10. Dan has a great future in North Carolina politics.
Josh Stein was reelected as Attorney General by only 10,000 votes out of 5 million cast. He raised and spent $12 million to Jim O’Neal’s $1.1 million. Stein plans to run for governor in 2024. That vote margin should have him shaking in his boots, especially if he runs again for Attorney General against O’Neal.
It is no surprise that Elaine Marshall won re-election as Secretary of State. She has been on the ballot statewide (including a run for the U.S. Senate) for 28 years. She had universal name recognition. E.C. Sykes did much better than expected and has a great future in state politics. It is no surprise that Beth Wood won re-election as State Auditor. She had name recognition, incumbency and few complaints about her work as State Auditor. It did not help the Republican candidate that he was not an accountant, certified or not.
Mark Robinson was heavily outspent (over $8 million from Michael Bloomberg), but Mark won big as North Carolina’s first African American Lt. Governor. Dale Folwell was handily reelected as State Treasurer, Steve Troxler as Commissioner of Agriculture, and Mike Causey as Commissioner of Insurance. Catherine Truitt was elected as Superintendent of Public Instruction and Josh Dobson as Commissioner of Labor.
The entire election machinery in N.C. is controlled by Democrat Governor Roy Cooper and Attorney General Josh Stein. These were fantastic results for the NC GOP in the face of huge financial headwinds.
National level. Democrats were expecting to gain (and Republicans expecting to lose) a dozen seats in the US House. Instead, Republicans won almost every seriously contested seat, a net gain of 12 seats. This will result in the smallest margin (222-213) for a house majority in decades. If a few Democrats switch on a vote Nancy Pelosi loses.
Democrats were expecting November 3rd to result in an advantage of about 52-48 in the US Senate. They only came up with 48 seats, putting Republicans in position to maintain a 52-48 majority. Our own Thom Tillis defeated the Democrat, despite a massive spending disadvantage in what was, until then, the most expensive U.S. Senate race in history. I leave it to the pundits why Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock beat David Perdue and Kelly Loefler in the January 5 Georgia runoff. Instead of an easy layup to maintain the GOP majority in the US Senate, the ball was turned over, making Vice President Kamala Harris the majority maker.
Before the election Republicans held 59 State Legislative Chambers. Democrats held 39. Democrats put untold hundreds of millions toward flipping a dozen chambers so as to have an advantage in the 2021 Congressional redistricting. Their effort failed miserably. Two chambers flipped, but to the GOP – the New Hampshire House and Senate. It is now GOP chambers 61 to 37 Democrat Chambers.
Consider the number of individual legislative seats gained or lost. In the 49 State Senates Republicans held 1059 seats and Democrats held 860 seats before the election. After the election Republicans hold 1067 state senate seats and Democrats hold 851, a net gain of 8 for Republican state senators. The GOP picked up one Governor’s mansion in Montana.
Before the election Republicans held 2789 seats in the 49-State Houses. Democrats held 2600. After the election GOP members hold 2927 state house seats and Democrats hold 2452, a net gain of 138 for the GOP and a net loss for the Democrats of 148. 10 went to other parties. Nebraska is unicameral, officially nonpartisan and not included.
Republicans controlled both legislative chambers and the governor’s office in Georgia and Arizona. Republicans held both legislative chambers, but not the Governor’s office, in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. Republicans have significant control over election law and/or election machinery in all 5 battleground states.
The Presidency in North Carolina. Donald Trump won with 49.93 percent to Biden’s 48.59 percent, what pollsters had predicted.
Republicans had a great election (which sort of concluded in November of 2020 and finally concluded in January 2021), with the exception of the Presidency and Georgia.
Every year, parents, students, teachers, and schools celebrate school choice week to raise public awareness of the importance of effective education options for children. This year, Stam Law Firm celebrated school choice week by filing an amicus brief with the North Carolina Supreme Court.
The amicus brief addresses arguments in State v. Kinston Charter Academy, a case about the relationship between charter schools and the State of North Carolina. Stam Law Firm filed the brief on behalf of Pinnacle Classical Academy, a Shelby, North Carolina charter school. The brief argues charter schools should not be treated as part of the State because they are independent. Treating charter schools as part of the State could have negative legal and regulatory implications for charter schools.
Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi must have taught Roy Cooper lessons in effective negotiation tactics. They are each using an old negotiating tactic from a story by O. Henry:
Spoiler Alert: In the next paragraph I’ll tell you the story. You may want to read the story first.
Two desperados living on the American frontier needed money. They decide to kidnap the 10-year-old child of a wealthy banker. Abducting him was easy. Then they took him to a hideout a few miles from town. They wanted $2,000. In those days that was a lot. They didn’t want to hurt the kid, so they put up with all his demands for recreation, accommodations and entertainment at their expense. The kid was quite a handful. Then they sent a ransom note. The boy’s father rejected it but said he would take the kid back if the criminals paid him $250. These desperados paid the reverse ransom.
Schumer/Pelosi/Cooper missed the point. Taking this type of hostage does not work. The Schumer-Pelosi tactics on the Covid-19 Relief Package 4.0 won’t work. They want a 3 trillion dollar package to be paid for by our great grandchildren. Republicans have offered only ½ trillion dollars. The two sides are at loggerheads. There is nothing in the Republican package that Schumer/Pelosi actually oppose. But they are taking items from the GOP plan hostage to get the other $2 ½ Trillion. They may get nothing and the people may suffer.
Roy Cooper learned this tactic on the knees of Schumer-Pelosi. He wanted Medicaid Expansion and really high teacher pay. So he repeatedly vetoed teacher pay raises (the GOP offered 4.9%) and he vetoed Medicaid Transformation, neither of which he actually opposed. He took these provisions hostage because it wasn’t enough. He ended up getting no pay raise for teachers (except step increases) and a much delayed Medicaid Transformation. That delay will harm the state.
It is time for serious people who care about the country and the state to take a crash course in effective negotiating tactics.
May I introduce you to some of the first-degree murderers who had their death sentences indefinitely postponed by our state Supreme Court on June 5. All of these are from Randolph County in chronological order.
Kenneth Bernard Rouse Date of Death Sentence: 03-23-1992
Rouse stabbed Hazel Broadway to death while she was working at a convenience store. He was sexually assaulting Ms. Broadway’s body while the knife was still in her neck. An Asheboro Police Officer responded to the convenience store after a call from a citizen who noticed Ms. Broadway was not at her check out station. The officer discovered Rouse at Ms. Broadway’s body in the back of the store and covered in her blood. Rouse was also convicted of Armed Robbery and First-Degree Rape.
NOTE: Rouse was suspected of murdering another older woman prior to Ms. Broadway. DNA testing many years later matched him to evidence left at the scene of that murder. As he is on Death Row he has not been charged in that murder.
James Edward Williams Date of Death Sentence: 11-03-1993
Williams brutally beat and then strangled to death Elvie Marie Hamlin Rhodes. Ms. Rhodes’ body was found by hunters. Investigation revealed that she was murdered in her home. Large amounts of blood and blood spatter were located. The autopsy revealed that Ms. Rhodes was beaten severely about the upper body and died from a combination of blunt force trauma and strangulation. Williams’ fingerprints were found in the victim’s stolen car. Williams attempted to blame a woman he was in a relationship with for the murder.
Jeffrey Clayton Kandies Date of Death Sentence: 4-24-1994
Kandies raped and beat to death Natalie Lynne Osborne, age 4. Kandies was the boyfriend of Natalie’s mother. After murdering Natalie he hid her body in a closet. A huge search for Natalie was conducted over several days. When her nude and beaten body was discovered in a plastic bag in the closet of her home, Kandies claimed he had accidentally ran over her with his vehicle. The autopsy revealed that Natalie had been brutally beaten and raped. Kandies was also convicted of First-Degree Rape of a Child.
Jason Wayne Hurst Date of Death Sentence: 03-17-2004
Hurst robbed and murdered Daniel Lee Branch. Branch was a hard-working family man, married with children. He needed money and was selling several firearms he owned in order to raise money. Hurst contacted him through a mutual acquaintance and expressed interest in buying the firearms. Branch agreed to take Hurst and another man to a remote field to demonstrate that the firearms worked. As Branch walked into the field to set up a target, Hurst shot him with a pump shotgun. Branch fell and then got up and began to run for his life. Hurst shot him again and Branch fell. Hurst then walked to him and stood over Branch as he begged for his life. Hurst shot him a third time in the face. Hurst then removed the keys to the car from Branch’s pocket and took the car and guns, travelling to West Virginia. Before leaving the area he sold some of the firearms. Apparently, Hurst’s motive was to obtain the means to see a girlfriend.
John Scott Badgett Date of Death Sentence: 05-06-2004
Badgett robbed and murdered J.C. Chriscoe in the older man’s home. Badgett was homeless and Chriscoe had agreed to let him stay in his home temporarily. Badgett stabbed Mr. Chriscoe in the throat and by his own admission followed him around the house as he bled to death, even knocking him down when he tried to call for help. Badgett claimed self-defense, alleging that Mr. Chriscoe became irate and irrational and was yelling at him. After murdering Chriscoe, Badgett came back to the house on subsequent days stealing and selling items from the house. Badgett had been convicted of manslaughter years before by stabbing that victim in the throat at the same location (at the Adam’s apple). Badgett had a violent history of stabbing and beating other persons while in custody.
Alexander Charles Polke Date of Death Sentence: 02-07-2005
Polke murdered Randolph County Sheriff’s Deputy Toney Clayton Summey and shot and wounded Deputy Nathan Hollingsworth, while they were in the performance of their duties. Deputies Summey and Hollingsworth went to Polke’s home to serve an Order for Arrest for Failure to Appear on minor matters in District Court. Polke fought with Deputy Summey at the front door and obtained his duty weapon from the holster. He then shot Deputy Summey several times, killing him. Polke then fought with Deputy Hollingsworth and attempted to murder him as well with Deputy Summey’s pistol. Polke shot and struck Deputy Hollingsworth in the upper arm as they exchanged gunfire at close range.
In all his records, including military records, Polke was listed as White. He now claims some small percentage of American Indian heritage for the purpose of his Racial Justice Act claim.
George Thomas Wilkerson Date of Death Sentence: 12-20-2006
Wilkerson murdered Casey James Dinoff and Christopher Cameron Voncannon. Wilkerson was a violent drug dealer and he believed that one of the victims owed him a small amount of money for a drug sale. He obtained an SKS rifle that had been modified to fire fully automatic. He drove to the residence of the victims at night where he cut power lines to the house and burst in killing both victims. One was asleep on the couch. In recorded phone conversations Wilkerson bragged about the murders, stating he felt like a Navy SEAL.
Could you tell which ones were black or white? I couldn’t but five are white, one is black and one is listed in military records as white but now claims a small percentage as an American Indian. All obtained a new lease on life because of the Racial Justice Act.
In addition there was a Gary Allen Trull who was also white. he hsd his death sentence postponed by the Racial Justice Act so long that he has now died of natural causes.
Gary Allen Trull Date of Death Sentence: 11-19-1996 (DECEASED)
Trull murdered Vanessa Dixon. Trull died while on Death Row. Trull had previously been convicted of a brutal First-Degree Rape in Guilford County and sentenced to Life. He was paroled and settled in Randolph County in an apartment complex where Vanessa also lived. Trull kidnapped Vanessa Dixon from her apartment, transported her into a secluded area and raped her while she was tied to a tree. He then murdered her by cutting her throat. Vanessa’s badly decomposed body was discovered by hikers many days after she went missing. The autopsy revealed that she had been raped. DNA testing matched the semen to Gary Trull. He was also convicted of Kidnapping and First-Degree Rape.
STATE v. RAMSEUR
On June 5, 2020 the North Carolina Supreme Court reinstated the Racial Justice Act for these first-degree murderers on death row. There has not been an execution in North Carolina since 2006. Most of these first degree murderers were sentenced to death long before 2006. Effectively the decision of the state Supreme Court lengthened the moratorium on the death sentence by another 5-10 years.
Let’s see how this happened.
Public reporting on this decision has been wrong. On June 5, WRAL published an article online which said that the Racial Justice Act “allowed death row inmates to seek to have their sentences commuted to life without parole if they could prove that racial bias may have tainted their trials.” Similar statements were made by NC Policy Watch and on NC Spin. These reports may have been induced to report it this way because the Supreme Court opinion written by Associate Justice Anita Earls stated:
“Here the right is to challenge a sentence of death on the grounds that it was obtained in a proceeding tainted by racial discrimination, and, if successful, to receive a sentence of life without parole. Repealing the Racial Justice Act took away that right,” State v. Ramseur, No 388A.10 June 5, 2020 Slip opinion p 31.
These characterizations of the Racial Justice Act are false. Let me explain, first in summary and then, in detail. Long before the Racial Justice Act was passed in 2009 the law was:
“a finding that race was the basis of the decision to seek or impose a death sentence may be established if the court finds that the State acted with discriminatory purpose in seeking the death penalty or in selecting the jury that sentenced the defendant, or one or more of the jurors acted with discriminatory purpose in the guilt-innocence or sentencing phases of the defendant’s trial.”
But the Racial Justice Act provides that a remedy is available to white defendants who prove that discrimination occurred in other parts of the state in other decades to other defendants who were discriminated against. Can you believe it? As a result, 152 of the 156 murderers then on death row filed motions for relief under the Racial Justice Act.
Before the Act was passed in 2009 we predicted (accurately) that almost every person on death row whether white, black, or Indian would take advantage of it. We predicted (inaccurately) a minimum additional time in court of two or three years (which has now been 11 years.) The delay will likely go on for another five or ten years under the Supreme Court’s latest opinion.
If the trial is indeed tainted by racial discrimination the law should have granted the defendant a new trial. But it does not. It grants them a sentence of life in prison. Why in the world would a person whose own trial was tainted by racial discrimination receive a life sentence instead of a new trial. The answer is that the discrimination to be proved is not suffered by that convicted first degree murderer but rather by someone else. Can you believe it?
Since the modern era (1976) when our death penalty statutes were reformed to comply with U.S. Supreme Court decision, there has not been a single execution of a person who had any claim to factual innocence. Yet that canard is why we have effectively had a 14 year moratorium on death sentences for first-degree murderers.
For those with a desire for extensive discussion and research on the injustice of the Racial Justice Act please see the link below to the debate on June 16, 2011, to 28 studies on the effectiveness of the death penalty as a deterrent to homicide, and the actual text of the 2012 law (Gov. Perdue’s veto being overridden) which effectively repealed the Racial Justice Act.
The victims of the Racial Justice Act have been mostly innocent African Americans. Why do I say this? Numerically the majority of the victims of homicide in North Carolina are African Americans. Several hundred of them and their families have been denied justice and an appropriate deterrent now for 11 years.
Not everything proposed or enacted in the name of “racial justice” is worthy of the name.
In considering controversial issues of the day, it is helpful to consider analogous issues from times long past. Consider:
Afghanistan on 9/11. Protected by the Taliban, war was launched by Al-Qaeda against the United States. Early in the conflict the Taliban blew up huge 1500-year-old statues of the Buddha that were located in the Bamiyan Valley. One was 175 feet tall and carved out of the mountainside. While Afghanistan is now 99% Muslim, these Buddhist statues were part of the cultural history of Afghanistan from a time long before Islam existed. The world was outraged at this destruction of cultural history. It was a war crime. I had mixed feelings, remembering that Gideon obeyed the direct command of an angel to destroy his father’s idols to begin the Israelite Rebellion against the Midianites’ oppression. Even though I oppose idolatry I thought it was wrong of the Taliban to blow up these idols. Which side would you have taken?
In western China there are thousands of Terracotta soldiers found underground near the ancient capital of Xi’an dating from about 220 BC. China was unified then under its first emperor Qin Shi Huang Di. Qin Shi Huang Di was the epitome of a fascist. He burned the books he could (except those relating to agriculture, forestry, medicine and divination) and had scholars of the day killed. Tradition is that they were buried alive. The Terracotta soldiers of Xi’an were to be his protection in the afterlife. Should they really be celebrated as part of China’s cultural heritage just to reap tourist dollars?
The Great Wall of China is one of the “Wonders of the World.” It was almost useless as a barrier to invasion. A despairing Chinese general opened the gates allowing China to be invaded by the Manchus, erasing the value of centuries of slave labor. Should the Great Wall be celebrated as an achievement or should it be denounced as a symbol of slavery?
The Pyramids of Egypt and Sudan are also “Wonders of the World.” These were built to satisfy the vanity and superstition of the Pharaohs, requiring forced labor (slavery) of millions of Egyptians who could ill-afford the time. What do you think of the pyramids as a cultural symbol? How should today’s Muslims and Copts of Egypt, who believe in nothing that the pyramids stood for, treat the pyramids? As a symbol of slavery or as an ATM machine?
In 1966 Mao initiated the 10-year Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. He already had experience during the Great Leap Forward of 1958-1961 starving 20 to 30 million Chinese to death due to his absurd economic and foreign policies. During the 1966-1976 cultural revolution, his intent was to obliterate the four “olds”: Old Customs, Old Culture, Old Habits and Old Ideas. He was partially successful in obliterating the architectural, genealogical, literary, artistic, religious and cultural history of China, just like Qin Shi Huang Di before him. There were some who hid away stories and artifacts that now inform us of China’s 5000-year culture. What do you think about Mao’s cultural revolution? Should Mao’s photo still be used as a good luck charm, while most of his economic policies have been thoroughly repudiated?
George Washington is on the $1 bill. Some have talked about removing him from that currency and even demolishing the Washington Monument. President Washington was a slaveholder and fought against some Indian tribes in the French and Indian War that preceded the Revolution. With that record does it even matter that he was “first in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen?” Without him it is doubtful that our Revolution, our Declaration, and our Constitution would have been produced in the 18th century. George Washington freed his slaves, but only upon his death. I have never thought that was particularly generous of him.
Andrew Jackson is on the $20 bill. Except for his victory at the 1815 Battle of New Orleans, I have never read anything good about him. I would be more inclined to remove Jackson from the currency than George Washington.
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence which contains the seeds of equality in America. Yet he was a slaveholder who had children by one of his slaves, which would have required rape. Some would destroy the Jefferson Memorial or turn it into something else.
What would Mt. Rushmore symbolize if Washington and Jefferson were removed, either legally or blasted out by a vandal? To the right is Theodore Roosevelt who died in 1919. “Teddy” was a vocal white nationalist. The New York City Museum of Natural History has just decided to remove the statue honoring him. If Washington, Jefferson and Roosevelt were removed, could Lincoln be far behind? Not everyone loved Lincoln.
At its inception, the Democratic Party was called the Democratic-Republican Party. It was founded by Jefferson and others to counter the Federalists. One of the most vicious white supremacists, Furnifold Simmons, was chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party. Together with Josephus Daniels, he organized the coup d’état in Wilmington of 1898 and the actual voter suppression of 1890 which enshrined white supremacy / Jim Crow in North Carolina for more than half a century. In the years leading up to the Civil War, the Democratic Party was the party defending slavery. Does that mean that the Democratic Party of today is a party of racists? No. Will it change its name to disassociate itself from its rancid history? “Progressive” Democrats will soon decide that would be appropriate.
The Republican Party was founded specifically as a party to abolish slavery. The GOP was the victim of the 1898 coup d’état in Wilmington. About 60 African Americans were murdered in the campaign initiated by the Democratic Party of Furnifold Simmons and Josephus Daniels. They were not murdered only because they were African American. It was also because many, if not most of them, were Republicans who served in the biracial government of Wilmington, then North Carolina’s largest city.
I argued to the Raleigh City Council that the 8-foot tall statue of Josephus Daniels adjoining the Raleigh municipal building on Nash Square should be accompanied by a plaque. It would point out Josephus Daniels’ actions as a truly evil man, despite his later service as Secretary of the Navy and as Ambassador to Mexico. On June 16 the family of Josephus Daniels removed his statue from Nash Square. The same day the Wake County Board of Education removed his name from “Daniels” Middle School. On June 22 NC State University removed his name from a building.
Baghdad 2003. After the United States and the international coalition invaded Iraq the people pulled down the statue of Saddam Hussein. He had been a tyrant and murderer of his own people for decades. Would you have stopped the vandals who wanted to topple the statue of their oppressor? Giant statues of Genghis Khan adorn Mongolia as tourist attractions. His brutal crimes were committed 1000 years ago. Should Mongolia forego the tourist dollars?
Recently statues of Christopher Columbus have been torn down or damaged in St. Paul, Boston and Richmond. A statue of Columbus will soon be removed from the rotunda of the California State Capitol. So far Governor Andrew Cuomo has resisted attempts to purge the memory of Christopher Columbus from New York City, arguing that memorials to Columbus only acknowledge the city’s Italian American heritage. The argument against remembering Christopher Columbus is that the net effect of his discovery of America was the subjection by violence and exposure to disease of the original population of the Americas. But lots of good came from his explorations of the Americas.
Part of my ancestry is Danish. My mother told me I was a descendant of Leif Erikson. That was cool. I could claim to be a descendant of the true European discoverer of America. Then I read A History of the Kingdom of Denmark. These Vikings used theft, kidnapping, rape, and pillage. They inscribed graffiti on the main door of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. On the other hand, my mother’s relative still in Denmark was part of the Danish Resistance and was tortured by the Nazis. The Danish Resistance, inspired by their king, was one of the most successful in protecting Jews. They helped many escape to neutral Sweden. Should I be embarrassed by my Danish heritage or proud of it?
I served under a Speaker of the House who was a criminal, Jim Black. In 2006 he went to federal prison for paying bribes and taking bribes. He also broke eight House rules as he passed the Lottery in 2005. His picture is on the wall of the Legislative Building, along with many other Speakers of the House. Some have suggested that his picture should be removed from the wall. I believe it should stay on the wall so that tour guides can point out to school children that even the most powerful man in the state can be brought down by the law when he is a crook. There are other men whose pictures are on that wall who engaged in activities that today, and even then, would have been considered wrong. Should the walls be cleansed of some of the photographs, or all of them? Who decides if it is to be selective? Will the decision be made by vandals or by law? On June 19, 2020, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi removed portraits of four former slaveholding Speakers. Will others be removed as other scandals are revealed? Who decides which scandals qualify?
Silent Sam, 2019. The soldier statue memorialized the alumni of UNC-Chapel Hill who died fighting for the Confederacy. During my three years of law school, and hundreds of visits thereafter, I never knew of the existence of Silent Sam until recently. A statute protecting statues and other monuments was passed by the General Assembly in 2015. This is often described as being a law passed by the “Republican-led General Assembly.” In the Senate the law preserving these historical monuments was passed unanimously. It became partisan in the House. Two actions that could have easily been done were not.
At the dedication of the monument, Julian Carr, a rabid white supremacist, spoke using the vilest language against his African American cousins. That same year the Town of Carrboro was incorporated and named after the same Julian Carr. The use of that name by the Town has a real practical effect on the people who live in Chapel Hill and Carrboro. Thousands of times every day the people of Carrboro have to receive or put that Carr name on their correspondence, pass signs using that name or be known as citizens of Carrboro. Citizens and students at Chapel Hill also regularly see and use that name. Why hasn’t the Town of Carrboro ever changed its name? Some falsely claimed that it would not be legal to change the Town’s name. It would only require the Town, by ordinance, to put the change to a referendum. And UNC-Chapel Hill could have renamed the venue of Silent Sam, McCorkle Place, after someone other than a slaveholder.
Buildings have been renamed. More will be. There is an elementary school in Raleigh named “J.Y. Joyner.” J.Y. Joyner was the superintendent of Public Instruction for North Carolina. He bragged about his ability to educate black children at a much lower cost than what he would spend on white children. But thousands of North Carolinians have been students at that school with no knowledge of the association of the name of the school with the most virulent form of racism. Rename the school after Irving Joyner, a Civil Rights attorney?
Fort Bragg was named after Braxton Bragg, a Confederate general 160 years ago. Not only was he a slaveholder but also a pathetic general. Why would the Army and the local community want one of the most important military installations in the nation named after him? On the other hand, hundreds of thousands of American soldiers have served at Fort Bragg, with no knowledge that it was named after Braxton. Why not find a worthy soldier named Bragg, preferably from North Carolina and preferably served at Bragg and served heroically in combat? Rename Fort Bragg in honor of that person? The signage would remain Fort Bragg, but the official records would no longer be named after a bad person. And the thousands of veterans who tell their grandchildren about their service would not be challenged as to their own patriotism.
Jane Wettach of Duke Law School’s
Children’s Law Clinic is on the attack again.
“School Vouchers in North Carolina – The
First Three Years” was authored by Professor Jane R. Wettach of the Children’s
Law Clinic, Duke Law School in March, 2017. This month she has released another
broadside. My analysis of her 2017 report is found at www.paulstam.info. under Articles
for 2018. This analysis addresses the current attack but also includes an
updated analysis of some of the matters addressed in her first attack and which
she still seems relevant.
First,
these scholarships in 2019-20 cover almost 1% (.008) of the public-school (K-12)
population. This is far below the demand shown by surveys taken in North
Carolina which show that 35% – 43% of parents would send their child to a private
school if money were not an obstacle. In other words if parents had their
preference over 500,000 children would now be in private school. I do not
believe the numbers will ever reach that figure.
There are approximately 102,000 students in
private schools this year (of which 12,283 receive opportunity scholarship.) At
the 2027 projected levels of funding for the scholarships, that would mean
approximately 138,000 students (36,000 on opportunity scholarship, over 2% of
the public school population) would be in private schools.
Professor Wettach’s
recent report emphasizes cumulative projected expenditures of $730 million
between now and 2027 for these scholarships. That is a big number. But she does
not mention that if you add those same years to the other side of the ledger
there would be about $65 billion in K-12 spending for public schools in
those same years.
The report fails to mention that this $730
million expense will be offset by about one billion dollars in savings to state
and county taxpayers ($4,953 per child as shown by the latest fiscal
research memorandum), since taxpayers would no longer be paying the operating cost
of educating those same children in the public schools. Those savings do not
include the capital costs of educating those children. In Wake County alone
I estimate the capital savings for taxpayers on account of the children already
on scholarship at about $25 million. If trends continue, the capital savings in
Wake will be another $50 million through 2027.
Second, the report states that private
schools need not be accredited. True. But public schools are not required to be
accredited. Professor Wettach fails to recall that a vast majority of
opportunity scholars are in elementary school. Accreditation for public
elementary schools is rare. And accreditation is often meaningless. 43
traditional public high schools were committing “academic genocide,” declared
Judge Manning in the Leandro case.
These 43 schools were also “accredited.” Accreditation is a worthy goal,
depending on the criteria used by the accrediting agency. It can also be a
useless marker when it measures inputs rather than outputs.
Third, the report emphasizes that private
schools do not administer the state “end-of-grade” tests. Right. But they do
administer nationally normed tests on grammar, reading and math (annually for
scholarship students). Nationally normed tests paint a truer picture than the
state “end-of-grade” test. I urge our public schools to use nationally normed tests.
We have had decades of problems with homegrown “end-of-grade” tests. When the
public schools begin using a nationally normed test we can discuss how to
compare performance on these tests with the academic performance of opportunity
scholars.
Fourth, Professor Wettach, in her first
report, criticized Opportunity Scholarships because they do not require that
students be in “failing schools” or “low performing schools.” Some supporters of
the program have used that as a rationale. I do not. But that is not a defect
in the program.
A lower income student may well move from
a fine traditional public school to a private school for many reasons: (A) the private school is near the parents’ employment
and the parents feel that it would be better for the child to ride with them
rather than spend hours on a bus, (B) the curriculum may be more interesting to
the child who is on sports teams and wants to take up (for example) chess and Spanish
instead of PE and Chinese, (C) the student may want to have religious
instruction or worship as part of the school day. That is forbidden in public schools
but is a normal and natural part of a classical education, (D) the private
school may have a lower class size ratio. Parents might think that is important
for their child, (E) the parents may be happy with the public school but the
teacher assigned to that student for that year may not be the best, (F) the
child has been bullied in the public school and wants to go where her parents
believe that will not happen, or (G) the child may not appreciate the vulgar
language used at many public schools, even in elementary grades.
Fifth, in her first report she recognized
that in private schools quality is controlled by the parents. She claims that
there is no state power to shut down a private “fringe” school. This is akin to
the claim by a former superintendent that scholarships would fund terrorist
training camps.
Parents are more likely to notice the lack of academic progress
than will a bureaucrat in a public system. In a domestic situation or a social
services investigation parents can be prohibited from sending a child to a
school if the child is not being educated. In that case the representative of
the state’s Division of Non-Public Education is able to obtain testing records
for that child.
In a 2016 Friedman Foundation Report by
Dr. Greg Forster https://www.edchoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/2016-5-Win-Win-Solution-WEB.pdf, 31 out of 33
peer-reviewed studies have found that a choice program improves the outcome for
public-school students in the neighboring area. One report found no effect and
one found a negative effect. This profound and positive effect on neighboring schools
occurs for the same reason that grocery shopping in Apex has drastically
improved over my 44 years here. Then Apex had only one store with high prices,
bad service and no selection. Now we have dozens of grocery stores with lower
prices, excellent service and selection. Stores compete in order to make more money.
Sixth, in this report, Dr. Wettach claims
that no information is available to the public about whether the students using
school vouchers have made academic progress or have fallen behind. This is not
true. A study conducted by
North Carolina State University and the Friday Institute found that Opportunity
Scholarship students score higher on standardized tests in reading, math,
and language compared to their public school peers. The researchers wrote the
Opportunity Scholarships Program showed a “positive, large and
statistically significant” effect in math, reading and language. Study
authors cautioned that test participants comprised a small percentage of the
students then receiving the scholarships.
Seventh, her first report complains about
discrimination and advocates that no form of discrimination should be allowed.
The report fails to appreciate the difference between private and public discrimination.
Should the state discriminate on the
basis of sex? No. For 50 years the state has provided money to 35 four-year
private liberal arts colleges to help educate residents of North Carolina. However
Meredith, Bennett, Salem, and Peace served only women. No public college would
be allowed to discriminate in this way. But is it really a bad thing that women
students at Meredith have been educated, partly at state expense? Men only had 31 choices of schools and women
had 35.
Eighth, Professor Wettach, in her latest
report, complains that too many opportunity scholarships are used at religious
schools and that some of them “use a biblically-based curriculum presenting
concepts that directly contradict the state’s educational standards.”
While the preliminary evidence from the
study above indicates that scholarship students are doing just as well on core
academic subjects as their public school peers, it is true that one reason that
parents might send a child to a private school is to escape indoctrination from
secularists.
NOTE: The author was a member of the House for 16
years, the last 10 as Republican Leader or Speaker Pro Tem. He practices law in Apex, North Carolina and
may be reached at paulstam@stamlawfirm.com. His website is www.paulstam.info. This article will
be found under Articles for 2020.
One of the advantages of being older is that I experienced some things that younger folks only know from history books.
1972
1972 was
the first presidential election in which I was able to vote. The unofficial
platform of the George McGovern Democrat Party of 1972 was “Acid, Abortion and
Amnesty.”
“Acid” was
LSD, a psychedelic drug promoted by Timothy Leary. There were other drugs,
primarily heroin and marijuana. These drugs were vastly less potent than they
are today.
“Abortion”
was a crime in most of the nation and in most of the world. Only New York,
North Carolina, and Colorado had legislated significant loopholes. In 1972 the
debate was over whether exceptions would be recognized. Roe v Wade
(1973) overturned the law in all 50 states.
The
anti-Vietnam War candidate, George McGovern, would grant “Amnesty” to draft
dodgers to return from Canada with no consequences. “Amnesty” did not relate to
immigration.
2020
The winner
of the Democrat presidential nomination in 2020 will be running again on a
platform of pot, planned parenthood, and porous borders, but in a newly
supercharged context.
The
Democrat candidates want legalization and expunction for marijuana. Will we
have a nation of zombies if they get their way?
Since 1972
abortion has always been at the top of the Democrat agenda. Jimmy Carter was
all for Roe v Wade but now says he was “against abortion.” He
still acted to make the government pay for it. Bill Clinton said he wanted
abortion to be “safe, legal, and rare.” Abortions reached their highest number
in 1998, during his presidency. Clinton usually acted pro-abortion. But he
signed budgets with Hyde Amendment (and similar provisions like the DeWine
Amendment) language restricting federal government payments for abortion,
except to save the life of the mother, and in cases of rape or incest.
Barack
Obama was the most pro-abortion president in history. But he repeatedly signed
budgets during his entire presidency that included the Hyde and DeWine
Amendments which effectively stopped Federal funding of elective abortion.
Obamacare even allowed states to restrict abortion coverage in insurance
policies sold on the Exchange. North Carolina did so.
The New
York liberal, Pat Moynihan, had been Domestic Advisor to President Lyndon
Johnson. As a Democrat Senator he called late-term abortion “akin to
infanticide.” Now, the crop of Democrat presidential contenders in 2020 defend
the right to post-birth infanticide. And they have shamed Joe Biden into
renouncing his long time support for the Hyde and DeWine language. They claim
the mantle of public support for their hard-core position, a platform held by
about 20% of the American people – Abortion, all the time, for any reason, paid
for by taxpayers – no restrictions for minors, and no regulation of clinics.
The term
“amnesty” has been grossly misused in immigration debates. Proposals for
immigration reform by some Republicans are not amnesty at all. These proposals
include real consequences, such as paying back taxes, learning English, moving
to the back of the line, or long delays before citizenship is granted, if ever.
But most of
the Democrat contenders for President favor open borders, including the right
to receive free medical care at taxpayers’ expense. This was not the position
of President Obama. His acolyte, Joe Biden, is criticized by most of the other
contenders for being an old fogey who has forgotten the “lessons of history.”
If
Democrats want a rerun of 1972, they will get in 2020 what they got in 1972. They
will richly deserve it.
After the failure of
the House to override Governor Cooper’s veto of SB 359 (“Born Alive Abortion
Survivors Protection Act”), we discovered why some House Democrats voted “no.” These Democrats accepted faulty legal
advice. There were three main legal
errors.
Some Democrats thought that Lily’s Law applied to
children who survive lawful abortions. It
does not.
The first error was propagated
by Representative Queen. In a memo dated
June 12th, 2019 to 14 Democratic Representatives, Representative
Queen stated:
I
voted against Senate Bill 359 because it is already law. Infanticide is not happening in North
Carolina. We all agree that babies must
be protected, however they are born. And,
as Governor Cooper said when he vetoed this bill, our current law reflects that
belief. In 2013, six years ago, I voted
for Senate Bill 117, which codifies protections against murder for babies born
alive. That bill passed the House
unanimously, and it is law in our state today, General Statute 14-17. Senate Bill 117 was a clean bill to provide
protections for born alive babies. Senate
Bill 359 was politically motivated, and it goes a step too far, threatening and
criminalizing doctors who are trying to help mothers through absolutely
terrible situations.
As the bill’s title (“An Act to Codify the Common
Law That It Is Murder Where a Child Who Is Born Alive Dies As the Result of
Injuries Inflicted Prior to the Child’s Birth”) shows, Lily’s Law (G.S. §
14-17(c)) is not about the survivor of a failed abortion. Rather, it codified the common law rule that
if an unborn child was injured by an unlawful act prior to birth, then survived
until birth, but then died after live birth, that would be murder. For example, an armed robber shoots a mother,
with murderous intent, and also injures the unborn child. The unborn child survives long enough to be
born but then dies. That is murder.
Murder of any degree is an “unlawful killing.” E.g.State v. Williams, 308 N.C. 47, 301 S.E.2d 335 (1983). If Lily’s law had been interpreted to apply to a lawful abortion followed by a live birth, after which the child died of injuries from the abortion (with no intention or overt act after the child was born alive) it would have been clearly unconstitutional under Roe v Wade and Planned Parenthood vs Casey et al. That it was unanimously passed in 2013 shows that no sentient legislator thought that it had anything to do with the care required by health care professionals after a failed abortion. Laws against unlawful killing do not apply to lawful abortions.
The Abortion Survivors Protection Act, Senate Bill 359, modified our murder statutes by setting out an alternative method of proving murder, that there was an intentional, overt act committed after the child was born alive. Lily’s law offers no protection to the surviving child of a failed abortion attempt. Representative Queen is not an attorney. Whoever suggested that line of defense to him was clearly mistaken.
2. Democrats thought laws criminalizing murder and manslaughter are sufficient to protect children who survive an abortion attempt. They are not.
The office of Representative Darren Jackson, the
House Democratic leader, provided a memorandum on June 10th, 2019,
that said:
Additionally here are current North Carolina criminal statutes that make SB 359 unnecessary:
It is a Class D felony under current law to unlawfully cause the death of an unborn child (G.S. 14-23.1). It is a Class F felony under current law to kill another human being by a culpably negligent act or omission (G.S. 14-18). It is a Class B2 felony, second degree murder, to kill a child born alive, with malice (G.S. 14-17). It is a Class A felony, first degree murder, to kill a child that is born alive, with malice and a specific intent to kill formed after premeditation and deliberation (G.S. 14-17)
Like Lily’s Law,
G.S. §§ 14-23.1, et seq. protects unborn children from unlawful
acts committed before birth. G.S. §
14-23.7 makes it clear that the entire article of which G.S. 14-23.1 is a part
does not even apply to lawful abortions.
Voluntary manslaughter laws are almost certainly not applicable to a newborn child—which is why Representative Jackson’s office did not cite them (although others did). Involuntary manslaughter is “a culpably negligent act or omission” or an “unintentional killing” resulting from “an unlawful act not amounting to a felony nor naturally dangerous to human life.” State v. Wingard, 317 N.C. 590, 600, 346 S.E.2d 638, 645 (1986). Confusingly, “unintentional killing” requires some intentional act—just not one with the intent to kill. State v. Wilkerson, 295 N.C. 559, 582, 247 S.E.2d 905, 918 (1978). Under this definition, refusing to treat a child is not “unintentional killing” because it is an omission not an intentional act.
When a child
survives a lawful abortion and dies because he or she does not receive
treatment, that neglect of care is not a “culpably negligent act or omission.” The word “omission” is also modified by the
term “culpably.” To be culpably negligent, the abortionist must have a legal
duty to the child. The most relevant
legal duty is a doctor-patient duty. Generally,
a physician-patient relationship is only created when the physician consents to
treat the patient. E.g., Prosser
and Keeton on The Law of Torts § 56 (5th ed. 1984); Galloway v. Lawrence,
266 N.C. 245, 247, 145 S.E.2d 861, 864 (1966).
A child born to a woman whom a physician is treating is not the physician’s
patient, unless there are circumstances establishing that relationship (i.e.
the doctor provides treatment to the child).
Mozingo v. Pitt Cty. Mem’l
Hosp., Inc., 101 N.C. App. 578, 585, 400 S.E.2d 747, 750 (1991), aff’d
on other grounds, 331 N.C. 182, 415 S.E.2d 341 (1992). An abortionist could argue that his or her only
duty to the child is to report the child to social services as neglected or
dependent juvenile. By the time social
services is able to investigate, the child would likely be dead. Without any duty to the child, an abortionist
is not guilty of a “culpably negligent act or omission.”
Representative
Jackson’s office cited class A and B felonies which are generally inapplicable.
Most abortionists are not so foolish as to follow the Gosnell method and
directly kill the child after it survives an abortion. Neglect will generally accomplish the
abortionist goal – death of the child.
To clarify this, the “Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act,” Senate Bill 359, requires doctors and other health care providers to provide medically reasonable care to children who survive an abortion and to report when a child survives an abortion. This would make it clear to both doctors and other providers what their legal duties and liabilities are.
3. Democrats missed the importance of civil penalties.
While existing
criminal law is inadequate, SB 359 would also have applied civil penalties to
health care practitioners who refused to treat and report children who survive
abortions.
In his 18 April 2019 veto message, Governor
Roy Cooper said:
Laws already protect newborn babies and this bill is an unnecessary interference between doctors and their patients. This needless legislation would criminalize doctors and other healthcare providers for a practice that simply does not exist.
Governor Cooper and Democrats’ talking points ignore the effect of civil
remedies.
In addition to the
criminal penalties the “Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act” provides effective
civil remedies. Opponents of the bill
completely ignore these. They may be as
effective, if not more effective, than criminal penalties. A criminal penalty requires a unanimous
verdict by 12 jurors based on proof beyond a reasonable doubt. In the current cultural environment, it is
not hard to envision many counties where support for infanticide is so
entrenched that a unanimous jury cannot be found to convict. Jury nullification is a real problem.
Civil remedies require proof by a preponderance of the evidence. A civil case may require a unanimous jury. But where there is no genuine issue of a material fact as to liability, many civil cases are resolved by summary judgment. Liability is decided solely by a judge.
What are those remedies under the “Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act?” The woman may sue for money damages for all injuries, psychological and physical. Since these all arise, by definition, from late-term abortions there are obvious physical injuries, not the least of which is the increased risk of preterm birth in subsequent pregnancies with the possibility of the child’s death and the long term sequelae of brain injury, culminating in cerebral palsy. Psychological injuries from a failed abortion so late in pregnancy that the child survives will create in most women psychological trauma.
The “Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act” provides for statutory damages of three times the cost of the abortion. Since by definition these are all late term abortions, we estimate the cost at $3,000, which tripled is $9,000. The Act also provides for punitive damages. Punitive damages may be imposed for egregiously wrongful acts G.S. ID-1, such as willful or wanton conduct G.S. ID-(a)(3) and are limited to the greater of $250,000 and three times the compensatory damages G.S.ID-25(b). The “Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act” also provides for attorney’s fees for the plaintiff if he or she prevails (or for the defendant if the suit is frivolous or brought in bad faith).
A Comparative Analysis of the Response of Chinese Christians to the One Child Policy With the Early Church’s Response to Cultural Norms of Abortion and Gendercide
by Nathan Stam for his PhD
(A link to the full PDF is available at bottom)
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
The growth of Christianity in China during
the 20th and 21st centuries has been well chronicled from
both a popular Judeo-Christian worldview[1]
and a secular interpretation of social science.[2]
Commonly identified factors contributing to the growth of Christianity in China
are: 1) a relative relaxation of ideological control beginning with Deng
Xiaoping and the 1982 Constitution; 2) new policies allowing the restoration of
church properties to their respective churches; 3) the popularity of a faith
associated with the economy of the West; and 4) an emphasis on the benefits of
a belief system that promotes social stability and common morality.[3]
However, there is much more to the story of the growth of Christianity in China
over the past four decades.
This study attempted to
connect the importance of sociological issues with the growth of Christianity
in a particular culture. Rodney Stark, Professor of Sociology at
Baylor University, wrote a volume entitled The Rise of Christianity: How the Obscure,
Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force in the Western
World in a Few Centuries. In this work, Stark argues that Christianity was
a movement not of the lower classes and the oppressed, but of the upper and
middle classes, particularly in urban settings. Stark details a number of
advantages that Christianity had over paganism: 1) Christians stayed in cities
during plagues, caring for the sick, while others escaped urban areas; 2)
Christianity valued women and allowed females to participate in worship,
leading to a high rate of secondary conversion;[4]
and 3) Christians freely went to martyrdom while praying for their captors,
which added credibility to their testimony.[5]
This
study sought to show that Stark’s analysis ties into the growth of the church
in the modern world as well. In The Rise
of Christianity, Stark makes the case that the church grew into the
dominant influence in Western culture because, among other things, pagans
practiced infanticide while Christians valued the lives of their children. In
addition, Christians built strong families while pagans did not.[6] Over time that made a difference in demographic
patterns. Similarly, the population control practices of the
One-Child
Policy in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has implications for Chinese Christians
today, particularly in the church’s ministry to families, as Chinese Christians
exercise a form of civil disobedience.
The thesis of this
dissertation is the following: The Early Church’s response to abortion and
gendercide and the Chinese Christian church’s response to abortion and gendercide in the context of the One-Child
Policy has similarities and implications for the
church today, particularly in its ministry to families. The general research
question that this dissertation sought to address is what effect a Christian
ethic of life has on the growth of Christianity in a totalitarian society.
Importance and Contribution of this Study
Though the Chinese do not have many ways to
protest government policy, they have been able to protest the One-Child Policy
by having more children, or by not aborting once a child is conceived. Although
it is true that many affluent Chinese consider having a second child a status
symbol,[7]
it is also possible to find many Christians who are being obedient to God’s
command to love their children and not to harm them (Psalm 127:3–5). This study
explored several of these stories and connected the obedience of Christians
with the growth and health of their families.
On
October 29, 2015, the Fifth Plenum of the Central Committee held in Beijing
announced that the thirty-five year old policy allowing parents to have only
one child had officially concluded, and families were now permitted to have two
children.[8]
Claims made by various news outlets including the Wall Street Journal[9]
cited the escalating demographic crisis
as a primary cause for the policy change, and the desire, led by President Xi
Jinping, to “rebrand [China’s] human rights record.”[10]
Despite the relaxation of policy over the past three years, demographers have
not been able to identify a meaningful difference in births.[11][12]
The implication is that even though couples are allowed to have two children,
they are still choosing to have only one.[13]
There are several reasons, but the simplest answer is that a one-child family
has become the social and economic norm.[14]
Despite
the recent change in population policy, the
author believed this study was valid because of the possible implications for
growth in Christian populations for the
future. The
author had confidence that the data confirmed that Chinese Christians, in
contrast with the general population,
possessed a higher view of marriage and family, and had more children.
Research Methodology
The purpose of the research was to ascertain
predominant sociological issues influencing family health and growth among
Christians in the PRC. An ethnographic interview was used to determine if there
is indeed an intentional correlation between a Christian ethic of life and the
growth of Christian families in the context of a thirty-five year coercive
family planning system.[15]
This was an inductive analysis aimed at uncovering the meaning of religion in
the lives of Chinese Christians.
The participants in the
study were Christian Chinese nationals and naturalized U.S citizens. The
population of the study included twelve Chinese nationals in country and
fifteen U.S. naturalized citizens residing in North Carolina. Participants were
contacted personally, by telephone, or by email to request their participation
in the research project. For fluency of language and logistics, nationals
facilitated the twelve in-country interviews. The participants were chosen at
random from both a house church network in
Hebei province and from a local Three Self Patriotic Movement[16]
network in Hebei using local contacts in the region.[17]
The author conducted the interviews for the fifteen Chinese residing in North
Carolina.
The first part of the survey
asked participants to identify their demographic setting, including sex, age,
church association, and education.[18]
The second part asked participants to identify the predominant influences on
their decision-making concerning family planning. The author utilized three categories of questions in the ethnographic survey—family
structure, social structure, and religious structure.[19]
The historical methodology
for examining the origin of the One-Child Policy in Chapter Two consisted of
analyzing three key historical figures instrumental in the creation of China’s
population control policies.[20]
In Chapter Three, the dissertation included a broad survey of historical accounts beginning with the first century and
concluding with the Edict of Milan using both primary and secondary
sources from the Early Church. Octavius
by Marcus Minucius Felixprovided
primary material for investigating the Early Church’s ethic concerning a common
cultural prenatal practice, as did Musonius Rufus’ Discourse 15, which provided the perspective of Stoic Philosophy.
Other primary materials contributing to a survey of the Greco-Roman ethic of
life included Aristotle’s Politics,
Plato’s Republic, Celsus’ De Medicina, Tertullian’s A Treatise on the Soul, and Seneca’s The Histories. Secondary sources
supplemented the investigation of Early Church population practices.
Definition of Terms
Early Church refers
to the beginning of the Christian movement. For the purposes of this dissertation the movement begins with the
first century and concludes with the Edict of Milan in 313 AD.[21]Pagan
indicates the non-Jewish Roman population that generally regarded Christianity
as peculiar, bizarre and dangerous to the socio-political structure. Pagan ethic refers to a polytheistic
value system that elevates self-preservation and is characterized by the
absence of any absolute authority. In a pagan ethic, moral values are at their
essence, good advice, and are grounded in a humanistic foundation.[22]
One-Child Policy denotes the population control policy formally
instituted on September 25, 1980 in the PRC under the auspices of Mao Zedong that limited a majority of the
Chinese population to only one child. This social engineering program focused
on depressing the birth rate, with the goal of economic prosperity. The Two-Child Policy is the current
iteration of population policy in China, enacted on October 29, 2015, and it allows for the majority
of families in China to bear two children. There are exceptions— for example,
the number of children can fluctuate based on if either parent is from a
“one-child”
family, or if the family is from a minority people group, but in the general urban
setting families are currently encouraged to have two children.[23]
Gendercide in a broad sense indicates the killing, abandonment, and
trafficking of young girls, but specifically for this study the term refers to
sex selective abortion or infanticide where female infants are killed in utero.[24]Infant abandonment
in this dissertation refers to female infants left to die post-partum.[25]Gender imbalance
deals with sex ratios as the number of boys per one hundred girls. The World
Health Organization defines a “biologically natural sex ratio” as one hundred
and five, which means that one hundred and five boys are born for every one
hundred girls (105:100).[26]
Availability of Resources
The author accessed multiple sources over
the course of this study. Much of the works listed in the bibliography were
available at either the Library at Southeastern Baptist
Theological Seminary, The Hunt Library at
North Carolina State University, or Davis Library at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill. Other works were available through interlibrary loan
and the exchange program of North Carolina Private Academic Libraries.
Dissertations, theses, and many of the articles cited were made available through WorldCat and ProQuest.
Chapter Summaries
This opening chapter contains the
introduction to the dissertation, beginning with a brief summary of pertinent background regarding
population control policies. Following the background, the thesis of this work
was stated. The author then documented the particular methodology employed in the study as well as
the impact made by this dissertation regarding
possible implications for growth in Christian populations for the future. A
definition of terms was included, and each term was elaborated upon textually
as the study developed.
Chapter Two focuses on a summary of
the One-Child Policy in China. The author surveys a historical progression of
its origin and then transitioned to an examination of the policy’s
implementation and enforcement from 1980–2015. The demographic consequences of
social engineering are explored including the current gender imbalance and
Chinese family size and characteristics. Finally, the chapter includes a
summary of society’s response to population control and the current status of
family planning in the People’s Republic of China.
Chapter Three presents an
analysis of family planning practices in the Early Church—specifically focusing
on fertility, gendercide and abortion issues in the cultural milieu of the
first three centuries A.D. The chapter focuses on the claims made by Rodney
Stark from his study on the role of women in Christian growth.[27]
The author then examines the Greco-Roman view on infanticide as recorded by
Seneca, Tacitus, Plato, Aristotle, and others.[28]
This study includes a description of ancient abortion procedures and then
contrasts these practices with the Christian rejection of invasive birth
control methods that caused pagans to have low fertility. This chapter briefly
examines the writings of Justin Martyr, Marcus Aurelius and Minucius Felix on
the issue of Christian fertility and population increase.
Chapter Four begins by
summarizing the research methodology and then presents demographic data
collected from participants utilizing the ethnographic survey tool. The
responses from participants in the study are organized and presented in Chapter
Four topically and conclusions are drawn from isolating four themes.
The final chapter of this
dissertation concludes with practical implications this study yielded for
missiology. The author compares the Early Church response to abortion and
gendercide with the Chinese Christian response to coercive family planning in
the context of the One-Child Policy. The author offers several possibilities of
Christian influence including a brief discussion of constructive noncompliance
in Chinese culture. In the conclusion, the author summarizes the dissertation’s
argument and offers suggestions for further study.
Conclusion
This dissertation attempts to connect the
significance of sociological issues with the growth of Christianity in Chinese
culture. The study presents a historical survey of both the implementation and
enforcement of the One-Child Policy, as well as the current status of family
planning in China. The author investigates the Roman Empire’s practices of
abortion and gendercide and describes the Early Church response. An ethnographic
survey is used to capture the experiences of Chinese Christians and gather data
relating to family, religion and society. Finally, similarities in Christian
response to cultural norms of abortion and infanticide between the two
historical periods of the Early Church and
One-Child Policy are noted, as well as relevant differences.
CHAPTER TWO
A HISTORY OF THE ONE
CHILD POLICY IN CHINA
At the founding of the People’s Republic of
China on October 1, 1949, the nation consisted of a population of 540 million.
By 1980 the population surpassed 800 million.[29]
According to economist Avraham Ebenstein from Hebrew University in Jerusalem,
this extraordinary surge resulted in global concern that China was destined for
a “Malthusian collapse.”[30]
Ebenstein elaborates, “The breakdown would be characterized by unchecked
population growth that eventually outstrips growth in the food supply and
results in massive famine.”[31]
Regarding the dire situation facing China, historian Jonathan Spence records,
In the early 1950s, some of China’s foremost economists had
warned of trouble if close attention was not paid to the nation’s overall
population picture. A host of factors supported this conclusion: the new
marriage law of 1950 that allowed women as well as men the opportunity to leave
uncongenial partners and find new ones; the drop in infant mortality because of
improved health care; a rise in life expectancy because of better diet and
health care for the elderly; the closing of monasteries and convents; the
banning of prostitution, which brought even more women into the marriage
market; and the persistence of the Chinese people in seeking prosperity and
lineage continuity alike through numerous progeny.4 Chinese leaders’ fear of a Malthusian collapse came
to fruition in 1958–1962 through Mao Zedong’s failed economic-planning known as
the Great Leap Forward.[32]
In pursuit of utopia, Mao collectivized the entire nation. The result was the
death of 45 million people, mainly from starvation, during a five-year
period—one of the largest “mass murders” in human history.[33]
Origin of the One-Child Policy and Historical
Overview
In an article on challenging common myths
surrounding the One-Child Policy, Martin King Whyte, Wang Feng and Yong Cai
propose Mao’s approach to population issues after 1949 was far more practical
than ideological. They observe, “By the mid-1950s, confronted with the
challenges of managing the country and feeding its population, Mao and other
leaders began to sing a different tune.”[34]
Early the following year, in the
original version of his speech on February 27, 1957, “On the Correct
Handling of
Contradictions among the People,” Mao conveyed the same idea
in more detailed terms:
Our country has so many people, which no country in the
world can compare with. It would be better to have fewer births. (Re)production
needs to be planned. In my view, humankind is completely incapable of managing
itself. It has plans for production in factories, for producing cloth, tables
and chairs, and steel, but there is no plan for producing humans. This is
anarchism—no governing, no organization and no rules. This government perhaps
needs to have a special ministry—what about a ministry of birth control? Or
perhaps establishing a commission, as part of the government?[35]
For Mao it was a simple step moving from
central planning of the economy to central planning of family size. In 1964,
Mao’s Birth Planning Commission within the State Council was established to
lead birth control efforts soon after China’s population recovered from the
nation-wide famine.[36]
Policies dealing with
control of family size were initiated after Mao launched a campaign to
encourage families to have more children, leading to birthrates of over four
children per family in the late 1950s.[37]
His subsequent policy reversal regarding population growth was characteristic
of Mao’s personality and heavily influenced by the “pseudo-science” of New
Population Theorists, led by Ma Yinchu.[38]
Mao became convinced that an economically strong China would not come from a
large population, but from a decrease in
population that would effectively lead to greater stability and status as a
global super power.[39]
Though the birthrate had dropped from six children per family in the late 1960s
to slightly under three children per family by 1980, Chinese officials had
confidence that forcibly containing population growth would “directly correlate
to economic prosperity.”[40]
Chai Ling, founder of All Girls Allowed, writes, “As a result, a coercive policy
was born that would impact the most intimate aspect of every
China’s One-Child Policy was
formally instituted on September 25, 1980, in an open letter from the Chinese
Communist Party.[42]
The population goal of the policy was for couples to bear 1.6 children after
exceptions were taken into account.[43]
Some common exemptions included parents who were “only children” themselves
(they have no siblings), rural families whose first child was a girl, and
ethnic minorities because of their already limited populations. Population-control activists in the West affirmed
the One-Child Policy including the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)[44]
whose goal, according to Executive Director Nafis Sadiq, was to achieve “the
lowest level of population in the very shortest time.”[45]
Social scientist and demographer, Steven W. Mosher,
elaborates concerning the
United Nation’s approval, “Western
population-control advocates, therefore, welcomed China’s 1980 policy with a
mixture of euphoria and relief.” Mosher continues, “Euphoria because the
world’s most populous nation was at last getting serious about its numbers, and
relief because China would now dam up its seas of people before they could
inundate the world.”[46]
The United Nations and
affiliated global entities such as the Population Institute and the World Bank
continued to praise China’s family planning policy as worthy of emulation
around the world.[47]
In 1994, Dr. Richard Cash of the Harvard School of Public
Health congratulated the State Family Planning Commission on
having had “a very strong family-planning program for many years,” and
counseled China to not allow its
“people to slip back into having larger families.”[48]
Mosher continues,
Having underwritten the China program, population-control
advocates were soon acclaiming its achievements, and even expressing approval
of many of its methods. The United Nations picked 1983, a year of unusually
severe coercion inside China, to present the first United Nations Population
Award to the PRC. The decision was criticized in many quarters—the American
Nobel Prize-winning economist, Theodore W. Schultz, immediately resigned in
protest from the Population Award advisory commission—but the U.N. was
undeterred. As a family-planning “high tide” ripped through the Chinese
countryside, U.N.
officials lauded China “for the most outstanding
contribution to the awareness of population questions.” That same year, the
IPPF welcomed the Chinese Family Planning Association to full membership, declaring
the goals of the Chinese program entirely consistent with its own.
Commendations from the World Bank and the Better World Society of Washington,
D.C., followed.22
Wemer Fomos of the Population Institute, a
group with close ties to the UNFPA, declared in 1982 that the Chinese program
was one that “the world should copy.”[49]
The World Bank, in its 1984 Development Report, contended that “voluntary”
incentives “need be no more objectionable than any other taxes or subsidies,”
and went on to describe the Chinese program in laudatory terms.[50]
Ma Yinchu
Ma Yinchu’s New Population Theory was particularly influential in developing
the theory connecting the restriction of population growth with economic
prosperity. Ma, an
American-educated president of Peking
University, spent most of his formative years at Yale and Colombia University
where he was heavily influenced by the fiscal theories of Hegel, Kant and
Keynes and eventually received a doctorate in economics before returning to
China and founding the Chinese Economic Society. After the Sino-Japanese war Ma
became allied with Zhou Enlai, the first Premier of the People’s Republic of
China, and seemingly convinced Mao of the
negative impact of population growth. After Mao realized his initial judgment
was flawed, he exiled Ma for twenty years for counterrevolutionary ideas and
decided in 1957 that a large population directly correlates to national power.
Richard Jackson details Ma’s
fall from grace after Mao reversed policy. “Ma’s standing was completely
undercut,” Jackson writes. “He was particularly attacked as a bourgeois and
Western ‘Malthusian’ and forced to recant.”[51]
Mao was obsessed with emulating the success of the Soviet machine and took
particular offense at the fact that the Communist Party in Russia had never had
a discussion concerning population control policy. Jackson writes that Ma’s
fall from grace was so drastic that he was used as an example for aspiring
Chinese population specialists.[52]
Ma argued that a smaller
population is always beneficial to a nation’s prosperity, environmental
protection and construction of a harmonious society. He contended that many of
the world’s problems, such as deforestation, global warming, acid rain and the
disappearance of glaciers, were all directly related to rapid population
growth. A strictly enforced family planning policy would help to advance
economic growth in a nation that had struggled mightily under the leadership of
Mao. Nathan Vanderklippe, Asian correspondent for The Globe and Mail, comments,
When the Communists took over in 1949, Mr. Ma was among
China’s most prominent academic voices. He served as president of Peking
University and was friends with Zhou Enlai, the first premier of the People’s
Republic of China. And Mr. Ma was worried about babies. The first census of
Communist China, in 1953, counted 600 million people, a shocking rise from 450
million in 1947. The prospect of the population cresting a billion was suddenly
possible–and frightening. If China wanted to make each of its people wealthy,
Mr. Ma reasoned, it would be easier to do so if there were fewer of them.
Besides, he added, China didn’t have the land to feed so many new mouths. As a
fix, he proposed a “new population theory” that embraced the widespread use of
childrestraint propaganda, encouraged birth control, offered incentives for
small families, and called for bureaucratic dissuasion of large families.[53]
While the Communist Party’s
Family Planning Commission eventually adopted Ma’s population policy proposals
in the late 1970s and his New Population
Theory became a foundational pillar for the reasoning behind the One-Child
Policy, it is important to note that he maintained a lifelong opposition to
abortion as a means of population control. In “New Population Theory,” Ma
underscores his aversion to abortion: “Abortion kills the fetus in the mother’s
womb which has the right to life.
Abortion should not be permitted unless the
pregnancy endangers the mother’s life.”[54]
Ma also believed that abortion modulated the importance of contraception, was
detrimental to the mother’s health, and increased the burden on the medical
community.
Ma was later exonerated following Mao’s death.[55]
Song Jian
Song Jian graduated from Moscow University
and eventually became president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. While
his background was in mechanics and cybernetics, specializing in the
development of antiballistic missiles, Song was responsible for the development
of “Population Control Theory” in the 1980s. It was his training in cybernetics
that enabled Song to work out a theory of bidirectional limits to the Total
Fertility Rate.[56]
Mathematician Renaud Helbig proposes
that in the 20th Century no mathematician had a greater
consequential worldwide impact than Song Jian. Helbig explains, “Song Jian is
unique in his direct impact on the lives of millions of individuals in a very
short time. It was Song Jian who persuaded the Chinese government of the 1980s
to implement a policy that would harshly influence their society for more than
thirty years: the onechild policy.”[57]
Helbig adds that Song was responsible for the first draft of the open letter
that would later be published through the Central Committee of the Communist
Party enacting the One-Child Policy in 1980.[58]
Song followed the directives of Deng Xiaoping, who encouraged
scientists to apply their skills toward the developmental and economic issues
the People’s Republic of China was facing in the 1980s,
and he took an interest in the demographic issue that had plagued the nation
over the previous two decades. Helbig describes Song’s process:
Back in China, he organised a team of mathematicians and
engineers that devised a population growth model. Like all models, this one
aimed at representing reality in mathematical terms as a means to make
predictions; in that case, the goal was to project an estimate of the evolution
of Chinese population over the next century according to a birth rate imposed to
the whole of society.[59]
Interestingly, Song’s population model was
developed by his team on one of the few existing computers in China at the
time, which was normally reserved for the military. Helbig records the
calculations of Song’s simulation, “The results presented by the machine were
indisputable: given a population of almost a billion in 1979, it was absolutely
necessary that Chinese women did not have more than one child throughout their
lives in order to come back by 2080 to a population figure that was deemed
reasonable (700 million people).”[60]
Song’s findings were met
with resistance, but he eventually was able to gain the support of Deng
Xiaoping and other party leaders who were taken aback by the computations, but
who agreed that immediate and decisive action had to be taken.[61]
Although Chinese birth control policies had
begun a decade earlier, Song’s “Population Control Theory” in the 1980s was
instrumental in ushering in a new era of family planning policy. While Ma
provided the theoretical foundation for population control,
Song Jian delivered the engineering computations, which
facilitated action.
Zhou Enlai
Zhou Enlai fought side by side with Mao
against the Nationalists and Chiang Kai-shek from 1946 until 1949. On October
1, 1949 when Mao stood on the Gate of Heavenly Peace in Tiananmen Square and
established the People’s Republic of China, Zhou joined him as the first
Premier of the People’s Republic of China and served until his death in
1976. Mao and Zhou had their
differences, and their relationship is best described as an enigma. Biographers
Wenqian Gao and Lawrence R. Sullivan explain, “Mao was a man of immense talent,
but he could not run the entire show by himself. He needed Zhou Enlai.
Throughout the decades to come, Mao was plagued by this paradoxical
relationship.” Gao and Sullivan continue, “He had to keep Zhou at bay to
prevent him from ever gaining the upper hand; at the same time, to stay ahead
of the game and keep his eye on the big picture, Mao grew even more dependent
on Zhou Enlai.”[62]
Zhou had the unenviable task
of mediating, albeit indirectly, between Mao’s utopian Socialist vision and other
Communist Party cadres bent on reversing disastrous policy decisions. This
included programs regarding family planning. In direct contradiction to Mao’s
thinking at the time, Zhou Enlai gave a speech at the Eighth Congress of the
Chinese Communist Party in 1956 in which he twice mentioned the need to
advocate for birth control prior to Mao’s policy reversal.[63][64]
Under the leadership of Zhou Enlai, family planning
policies aimed at limiting
fertility were first attempted in 1971.
Prior to the implementation of the One-Child Policy the government had
campaigned for voluntary birth control and discouraged large families.[65]
The goal of these policies was to reduce the birthrate from thirty per thousand
to twenty per thousand by 1980. The campaign was similar to current policy—a
twochild limit.[66]
Zhou’s mantra was, “late, sparse, and few.”[67]
John Bryan Starr identifies
the three pronged strategy of this early attempt, “Couples were encouraged to
delay marrying until their late twenties, to space their children at least four
years apart, and to limit themselves to two children.”[68]
Under Zhou’s leadership the campaign was partially successful in reducing the
birthrate, but projections in 1978 suggested that it was not enough to slow
down the population growth.[69]
Deng Xiaoping agreed with Zhou’s insistence that there was a direct correlation
between economic growth and limited population, and decided that further family
planning limitations had to take place. As the State Family Planning Committee
began to piece together a formal family planning and birth control policy, the
Committee took five main factors into account: “The availability of land
suitable for agriculture throughout
China, the overall age profile of the population, the balance
of urban and rural growth,
the characteristics of the labor force, and
the levels of education attained by the population.”[70]
These factors were short sighted and naïve at best.
Ultimately, Zhou remains a
complicated figure in history. He was warmly regarded by the Chinese people and
was far less ideological than Mao. However, he is also regarded as complicit in
the application of programs that have directly cost the lives of millions of
Chinese over the years. Ma Yinchu was the theorist, Song Jian the engineer, and
Zhou was the implementer. He directly applied and enforced the One-Child
Policy.
Implementation
From the early 1980s the government
struggled with the One-Child Policy being an expensive unfunded mandate. Starr
comments, “Although the state claims that nearly $1 billion is spent annually
on implementation of the birth-control program, virtually all that money comes
from local governments, which … find themselves paradoxically funding the
birth-control program exclusively from fines levied against those who violate
it.”[71]
Stuart Gietel-Basten, Associate Professor of Social Policy
at the University of
Oxford, authored an article in 2015 pointing
out the complication of ending the OneChild Policy. He argues that disbanding
family planning policy overnight would lead to chaos and writes, “In 2005, it
was estimated that that over half a million staff were directly involved in
family planning policy at the township level and above, added to 1.2 million
village administrators and 6 million ‘group leaders.’”[72]
After the Family Planning
Commission discovered that in 1981 almost 6 million babies were born to
families with one child, threatening the family planning population policy,
they took decisive action.[73]
Spence observes, “The government intensified the rigor of its birth-control
programs, ordering compulsory IUD insertion for women who had borne one child,
and compulsory sterilization of either husband or wife after the birth of a
second child.”[74]
Every married couple had to apply for a birth permit from their local Family
Planning Office before becoming pregnant and quota systems for birth control
officials were established on both the provincial and municipal level. Spence
adds, “There were reports of couples fleeing as local sterilization teams
entered their villages, and some birth-control cadres felt so threatened that
they requested armed escorts.”[75]
Ebenstein records,
“Following a forced sterilization and abortion campaign in 1983 that created
domestic unrest, Chinese policymakers began considering revisions to the
policy. By allowing some mothers to have a second child, the government hoped
to discourage violations and increase public support for the policy.”[76]
Eager to encourage acquiescence, the
Family Planning Commission extended a variety of enticements. Starr writes,
In Guangan County, in Sichuan, in the early 1990s, these
included subsidies. Although a subsidy comes to no more than a dollar a month,
this constitutes a 3 percent increase in the average household income there.
There is also access to a pension plan, additional land in the household’s
farming contract, a reduction in the grain tax, and, finally, tuition
assistance for a family with one child.[77]
Party administrators awarded land contracts
to rural families if they signed an agreement not to give birth to a second
child while they worked the acreage. If they broke the contract these peasants
were subject to exorbitant fines or even faced losing the property.
By 1984 the Central
Committee’s Family Planning Office instituted policy in which provinces were
subject to distinct reproductive limitations based on provincial demographics.
While urban residents remained under a strict one child limitation, rural
residents were generally allowed to have a single additional birth (a 1.5 child
policy) and families in remote counties were permitted even more children to
help work the land.
These remote families only accounted for 1% of the
population.[78]
Because
of the variety in enforcement and response, which the central government could
discern through the data of each year’s national census, the Family Planning
Office used a quota reward system for local Planning Officials who carried out
the birth control policies.[79] Many provinces linked job promotion with an official’s
ability to meet or exceed population planning targets,[80] thus providing a powerful structural incentive for
officials to employ coercive measures in order to meet population goals.[81] If the officials did not meet these quotas, they were
either punished or lost the opportunity to earn promotions.[82] According to All Girls Allowed, teachers who violated
birth quotas were at risk of losing their retirement benefits.[83] Starr identifies the problematic nature of enforcing the
One-Child Policy,
The
birth-control program is yet another good example of the problems in the power
grid of China’s political system. The central government has come up with a
program it wants implemented everywhere, but it must rely on local
authorities—indeed, government at the very lowest level of the political
system— to enforce it. And, like pollution control, the birth-control program
is an unfunded mandate. Since the program is both highly unpopular and
unfunded, local governments have either modified, delayed, or thwarted it.[84]
for each woman with two daughters whom
they fail to sterilize. Conversely, they are promised a reward of 500 yuan
(US$77) for each tubal ligation that they see through to completion.
The quota
structure was an unreliable source of compliance. In addition, quotas were
frequently met by compelling pregnant women to undergo abortions[85] often under threat
of job loss, personal harm, and even massive fines.[86]
Enforcement
Regarding the
problematic issue of enforcing national policy through local authorities
Spence details
the hierarchy and function of provincial governments,
Political life in a given province was directed by three
officials: the first party secretary, the governor, and the ranking military
officer from the PLA—the regional commander if the provincial capital was his
headquarters, otherwise, a senior officer from the military region in which the
province was located. These three officials took responsibility for different
aspects of the province’s life. The party secretary oversaw ideological work,
mass campaigns, rural policies, and personnel assignments; the governor
supervised education and economic development; the PLA officer saw not only to
military needs, but also to various economic endeavors. These three positions
each had their own staff and bureaucracy responsible for carrying out the
governing of the province all the way down to townships. At the base of the
structure every working Chinese man or woman was registered in the unit with
which he or she worked (the danwei)….
The party leaders in each danwei had
immense power over their danwei
members, since their approval was needed in such areas as job assignments,
educational opportunities, travel at home or abroad, or for permission to marry
and to have a child.[87]
Coercion
ordinarily begins with verbal harassment of noncomplying couples: women are
urged to undergo sterilization, and pregnant ones are urged to have an
abortion.[88] Starr comments, “Those who resisted are threatened…. There is fairly widespread evidence of the destruction of
personal property in retaliation against those who do not cooperate.”[89] Elizabeth L. Gerhardt, Professor of Theology and
Social Ethics at Northeastern
Seminary, details the consequences of the
1983 and 1991 sterilization campaigns in China: “Thirty million women were
forcibly sterilized,” she writes. “In addition to the dehumanization of women
through forced sterilizations and abortions, it is estimated that millions of
baby girls have been killed and abandoned in China.”[90]
Enforcement
of the policy applied to all segments of the population. Chai Ling, Director of
All Girls Allowed, reports that in 2007 Hubei Province expelled 500 cadres and
dismissed 395 government officials, including three provincial lawmakers and
four members of the local Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference,
for having ‘‘unauthorized’’ children.[91]
Nicholas
Eberstadt, political economist at the American Enterprise Institute, relates a
high-profile court proceeding that took place from February to April 2010 in
Jiangsu Province. A 30-year-old female plaintiff sued the local Family Planning
Bureau, claiming that she had been barred from a civil service position in the
county government for giving birth to a child before marriage. Eberstadt
writes, “Although she married the father soon after the child’s birth, the
court ruled that the Family Planning Bureau’s original decree citing the birth
as out of wedlock held, which did make her ineligible for the government
position.”[92]
One law in Guangdong Province
gives the following orders to officials:
Strictly
prohibit out-of-plan second births or multiple births; those who have
outof-plan pregnancies must adopt abortion measures, force those who exceed
birth limits to have an abortion. Out-of-plan children will not be allowed to
enjoy benefits for villagers; for a period of 15 years, parents of out-of-plan
children will not be allowed to enjoy benefits for villagers, gain employment
at a village-run enterprise, or be granted documents.[93]
Some local
governments offer rewards to informants who report out-of-plan pregnancies and
other population planning violations. Vicky Jiang documents in a 2011 Annual
Report to the U.S. Congress, “Officials mentioned rewards for informants in
amounts ranging from 100 yuan (US$15) to 6,000 yuan (US$926) per case for
verified information on violations by either citizens or officials, including
concealment of out-ofplan births, false reports of medical procedures, and
falsified family planning documents.”[94]
Mosher shares an email
correspondence from 2014, entitled, “Better to be a Criminal in China than a
Pregnant Mother.” In summary, the correspondence gives five reasons why
criminals in China have more rights than a mother who gives birth to an
outof-plan child.[95]
First, there is the issue of finding work. Many businesses require applicants
to submit a “Family Planning Certificate.” In contrast, many criminals can, at
the least, apply for many jobs. Second, according to Article 37 in China’s
Constitution, criminals cannot be tortured, detained without probably cause,
have the legal right to sue, etc.[96]
In contrast, violators of family planning policy have no rights. They can be
legally detained and are subject to forced abortion and sterilization and are
unable to take legal action. Third, a suspect of a crime can only be arrested
after certain authorities have issued a warrant, and the arrest has to be
carried out by the Public Security Bureau. A violator of the One-Child Policy,
however, faces recriminations from the Family Planning Bureau, which frequently
operates outside the law by not allowing legal counsel and violating other
civil liberties. Fourth, a criminal’s unborn child is protected. The
administration of a sentence is frequently deferred until after the mother has
given birth. In comparison, the unborn child of a family who has violated
family planning policy must be terminated immediately. Finally, no matter where
a criminal is detained, in a local jail or a state prison, they are permitted
to communicate with their family. On the other hand, a pregnant woman and her
family members can be held incommunicado for however long the Family Planning
Bureau wishes to hold them.[97]
In
an op-ed for the New York Times, Ma Jian writes of her experience in southwest
China in 2009:
Almost every
one of the pregnant women I spoke to had suffered a mandatory abortion. One
woman told me how, when she was eight months pregnant with an illegal second
child and was unable to pay the 20,000 yuan fine (almost $3,200), family
planning officers dragged her to the local clinic, bound her to a surgical
table and injected a lethal drug into her abdomen. For two days she writhed on
the table, her hands and feet still bound with rope, waiting for her body to
eject the murdered baby. In the final stage of labor, a male doctor yanked the
dead fetus out by the foot, then dropped it into a garbage can. She had no
money for a cab. She had to hobble home, blood dripping down her legs and
staining her white sandals red.[98]
The
consequences of such actions are not difficult to fathom. Ma Jian continues,
“It is not surprising that China has the highest rate of female suicide in the
world. The one-child policy has reduced women to numbers, objects, a means of
production; it has denied them control of their bodies and the basic human
right to determine freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their
children.”72
In 2010, regulations requiring women who violate family-planning
policy to terminate their pregnancies still existed in the provisions of the
Population and Family Control Regulation of Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang
provinces. An additional 10 provinces—Fujian, Guizhou, Guangdong, Gansu,
Jiangxi, Qinghai, Sichuan, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Yunnan—required unspecified
“remedial measures” to deal with unauthorized pregnancies.[99] In 2010, the abortion rate among women in China
was 29.3 percent, which far exceeds the average level of other developed
nations, and in the population of 20–29 year-old
young women, the abortion rate was 62 percent.[100]
In
May of 2013, Zhang Ping was forced to the local Family Planning Office for a
required abortion. Ping was already in her third trimester, but the local
officials ignored a provincial ban on late-term forced abortions and proceeded
with the abortion. Following the surgery, Ping experienced a hemorrhage and
died early the next day.[101] As more and more human rights groups across the globe
became increasingly aware of the reality of coerced abortion in China the
pressure upon the Family Planning Commission in Beijing grew tremendously.
In
response to the universal condemnation of forced abortion, the Chinese
government began outlawing late-term forced abortion at the national and provincial levels. This action took
place on July 19, 2012. In a speech to the Family Planning Commission’s semi
annual meeting, Chairman Wang Xia instructed family planning officials to
immediately halt late-term forced abortions and to “guide families to plan
voluntarily.”[102]
Social Compensation
Fees
Couples who violated the One-Child Policy
were subject to fines, known as “social compensation fees,” that often amounted
to two to four times the local annual per capita income. These fees were the
most common form of penalty for failure to abide by the policy. Depending on the
province, the minimum fine nationwide was on average around the equivalent of a
year’s income ($400).[103]
If a family’s income exceeded $400 the social compensation fee could be as much
as 1.5 times the annual income.[104]
While these fines have provided a
significant deterrent for the general working class populace, there is still a
small segment of population that accumulated a great deal of wealth due to Deng
Xiaoping’s economic reforms in the 1980s, and have not been as drastically
impacted by social compensation fees. The rich upper class and celebrities who
have ignored the country’s family planning policy because of their wealth and
have had more than one child will have to pay a heavy price, according to a
senior official with the National Population and Family Planning Commission.[105]
Not only are they required
to pay exorbitant fines, but they are also
named publicly. Known as the “Shame List,” the names of the cultural elite who
have as many children as they would like are recorded in an official “bad
credit” file and are disqualified for any honors from society. In addition,
public disclosure of an individual’s family planning crimes results in a
revocation of an individual’s right to be nominated as a deputy to the local
people’s congress, political consultative conference or other significant
posts.80
For example, wealthy
couples in East China’s Zhejiang Province who chose to ignore family planning
policy by having two children faced fines of up to 1 million yuan ($129,000). In Shanghai, the minimum fine was 63,000 yuan ($10,200)
and the maximum fine was 413,800 yuan ($67,000), which equaled 11.4 years of
average urban annual income and 25.8 years of average rural annual income.81
Mosher provides a summary of family planning policy
enforcement:
Home-wrecking, unlawful detention, heavily punitive fines,
and like measures continue to be, as they have been from the late 1970s, the
whip hand of the program. Women are psychologically and physically pressured to
abort unauthorized children, to the point of being dragged to the abortion
mill. Networks of paid informants are used to report on unauthorized
pregnancies; entire villages are punished for out-of-plan births. Officials
conduct nighttime
raids on couples
suspected of having unauthorized children, and they keep
of being the latest high-profile
violator of China’s one-child policy. The People’s Daily, the Communist Party
mouthpiece, alleged that Mr. Zhang had fathered seven children with four
different women. The truth is: for the rich, the law is a paper tiger, easily
circumvented by paying a “social compensation fee”—a fine of 3 to 10 times a
household’s annual income, set by each province’s family planning bureau, or by
traveling to Hong Kong, Singapore or even America to give birth. The extremely
affluent Zhang received an enormous “social support fee” of 7.48 million Yuan. Faced with the options of asking for an
administrative review, filing a lawsuit, or simply paying the fine, Zhang chose
to accept the financial penalty. Authorities will deposit his money in the
national treasury.”
See “‘One-Child’ Policy Violators to Be Put on Shame
List,” n.d., http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-03/02/content_817358.htm.
“One?Child Policy Fines Relative to Income Levels
in China, A Report by All Girls Allowed. November 1, 2012.” n.d., http://www.allgirlsallowed.org/sites/default/files/One-
detailed records on the sexual activity of every woman in
their jurisdiction. There are prison cells—with bars—to detain those who resist
forced abortion or sterilization. (Forced sterilization is used not only as a
means of population control, but sometimes as punishment for men and women who
disobey the rules.)[106]
While all the
consequences of contravening family planning laws have been dire, one of the
greatest tragedies resulting from a long-term program of social engineering has
been the rise of the suicide rate in China, particularly among females.
Suicide
In March 2013 in
Henan Province, Yang Yuzhi, a mother of four, committed suicide by
hanging herself inside a Family Planning Office after two failed forced
sterilizations. Yang was forced to undergo an unsuccessful sterilization
surgery in 1995 and again had to endure sterilization surgery in 2006. These
two botched attempts resulted in intestinal infections requiring regular
medication as well as chronic pain. It is estimated that in some rural
provinces like Henan, suicide is the most common form of death for women ages
fifteen to thirty-four.[107]
All Girls Allowed reports
that later in the same year Ai Guangdong ended his life in Hebei Province
because he was unable to pay One-Child Policy fines. Ai, father of five, earned
5,000 yuan ($823) a year from growing corn. When Ai had his second daughter in
2003, the Family Planning Office charged him 7,000 yuan ($1,153) for violating
the One-Child Policy. After his third child was born, the penalty soared to
60,000 yuan ($9,882), which he was unable to pay. Local officials confiscated
3.5 tons of corn from Ai before he finally committed suicide by drinking
pesticide.[108]
The
Beijing Suicide Research and Prevention Center reported in 2009 that China not
only had the highest rate of suicide among females in the world, but that the
suicide rate for females was three times higher than for males.[109] Suicide is the leading cause of death for adult women
living in rural areas in China and a total of 56 percent of the world’s female
suicides occur in China.[110] The U.S. State Department reported in 2017 that five
hundred women in China commit suicide every day.[111] A major cause of the high rate is easy access to
pesticides contributing to the prevalence of suicides among rural women.[112] The U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on
China affirms that “violence against women and
girls, discrimination in education and employment, the traditional preference
for male children, birth-limitation policies, and other societal factors
contribute to the high female suicide rate.”[113] Steven Mosher agrees, “China’s women have the highest
suicide rate in the world, not to mention the highest rates of breast cancer,
all in consequence of having had their babies killed in utero by a state
ruthlessly bent on population control.”[114]
Current Status
In 2013, Simon Rabinovitch detailed events
for the Financial Times from the
annual session of the Chinese parliament:
The government merged the commission that enforces the
one-child policy with the health ministry. Some analysts believe the move could
presage a more rapid shift away from strictly enforced birth controls. “After
the ministerial restructuring, the power of the family planning unit will be
reduced,” said He Yafu, a Chinese demographer. “It won’t have the ability to
design policies and it will have less say in the country’s population strategy.[115]
After the supervision of family planning was
given to the health ministry, Rabinovitch quoted Yang Yuxue, the deputy head of
the Family Planning Unit, “The idea of easing the ageing problem by increasing
the fertility rate is like drinking poison to quench thirst.”[116]
Nevertheless, on October 29,
2015 the Fifth Plenum of the Central Committee held in Beijing announced that
the thirty-five year policy allowing parents to have only one child was
officially concluded and that families were now permitted to have two children.[117]
Claims regarding the reasoning for the change cited the escalating demographic
crisis and the desire of China, led by President Xi Jinping, to “rebrand its
human rights record.”[118]
The Two-Child Policy led to unintended consequences. One
example is China’s
labor market. In spite of regulations that prohibit
gender discrimination and labor laws, over the past three years companies have
been reluctant to hire young women because of their disinclination to finance
multiple maternity leaves.[119]
A 2017 survey from Human Rights Watch found that 75 percent of companies had
become reluctant to hire women in the wake of the Two-Child Policy.[120]
Are Families Having
More Children?
Despite the relaxation of family planning
policy since the Two-Child Policy’s enactment, demographers have not been able
to identify a meaningful increase in births. This reality defies reports from
the state media describing a baby boom in Beijing with long lines reserving
beds at hospitals and maternity wards booked months in advance.[121]
A justifiable conclusion is that although couples are allowed to have two
children, they are still choosing to only have one child.[122]
There are several reasons for this development, but the simplest one is that a
one-child family has become the social and economic norm.
Author and journalist Howard W. French describes this
reality:
Demographers expect this reform to make little difference,
though. In China, as around the world, various forces, including increasing
wages and rising female workforce participation, have, over several decades,
left women disinclined to have large families. Indeed, China’s fertility rate
began declining well before the coercive one-child restrictions were introduced
in 1978. By hastening and amplifying the effects of this decline, the one-child
policy is likely to go down as one of history’s great blunders. Single-child
households are now the norm in China, and few parents, particularly in urban
areas, believe they can afford a second child.[123]
Stuart Gietel-Basten, Associate Professor of
Social Policy at the University of Oxford, argues changes in family planning
policy will not affect China’s population in any meaningful way, stating, “In
fact the change is really a very pragmatic response to an unpopular policy that
no longer made any sense.”[124]
A 2013 article in the Wall Street Journal by Chao Deng addresses the economic
factors relating to the relaxed policy by suggesting that while a shift in
policy could help address the future decrease in work force, a change in policy
would not significantly address the expenses of raising an additional child.[125]
Simon Denyer and Congcong Zhang of The Washington Post concur, “Indeed, when
the one-child policy was first relaxed in 2013, allowing parents who grew up as
only children to have a second child, just 18 percent of the 11 million
eligible couples applied to do so, Wang [Feng] said, a response he called
‘lukewarm.’”[126]
The implementation of the Two-Child Policy saw an 11.5 percent increase of
births over the previous year, but the following year the number of births
decreased 3.5 percent.[127]
While 45 percent of births were in families with one child already the increase
of 1.31 million infants in 2016 fell far below the official projection of an
added 3 million births annually over the next five years.[128]
A survey on Sina Weibo
showed 37 percent of respondents would opt out of having a second child.[129]
Reasons given were the high costs of a semester of kindergarten (10,000 yuan),
prenatal care, further education costs, housing, food, and even skepticism
regarding the domestic production of dairy products harkening back to a 2008
scandal.[130]
Starr elaborates on this reluctance:
Urban couples are generally better educated, and worldwide
there is a correlation between the level of education (particularly that of
women) and the decision to limit births…. In most cases both urban parents work
outside the house, and, because childbearing disrupts the woman’s career, it is
more likely to be delayed and limited.[131]
The predicament facing the Chinese
government is that it could find that it is simpler to persuade the population
to have fewer children than to increase their family size.[132]
An
article by Tabitha Speelman in the Wall Street Journal chronicles the impasse
surrounding this issue. Speelman quotes Tan Yudan, “It
[new family planning policy]
does open up a legal pathway to a second child,
but if I want to have two kids, I can only marry a man who is a single child,
or someone belonging to a minority. This limits my dating options by more than
50%.”[133] Tan, who recently earned a Beijing hukou,[134] continues:
I should not
have to worry whether or not the person is a single child. Instead, I would
rather focus on how happy we could be in marriage. What if I had a boyfriend
with siblings right now? Would I break up with him? Luckily, I am single, so I
have the chance to consider looking for someone suitable. But that also means
that, without even considering a potential’s boyfriend character, talent,
economic situation or looks, my pool of potential partners greatly decreases.[135]
These are a
few of the reasons many couples are saying “No” to a second child. A survey by
the Ministry of Health and Family Planning cited by Chinese state news media Xinhua states that 15 to 20 million people are eligible to get
another birth permit, but only half of them are actually willing to have two
children.[136]
In August 2018 The People’s
Daily urged families to give birth to children and warned of the impact of a
low birth rate on the nation. Zhang Yiqi, the author of the oped, counseled the
government to provide support for families who sought to have multiple children
and the release of a new official postage stamp commemorating the Year of the
Pig featuring multiple children hints that a complete repeal of the long
standing population policy could be forthcoming. Yi Fuxian, a scientist at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison, comments, “The issuance of the pig family
stamp, while subtle, is a clear sign that they are going to abandon all birth
restrictions.”[137]
Other sources report that “proposals under discussion would replace the
population-control policy with one called ‘independent fertility,’ allowing
people to decide how many children to have….
The decision could be made as soon as the fourth quarter.”[138]
Denyer and Zhang report on
efforts by the Chinese government to encourage increased fertility,
Provinces all across China have offered women longer
maternity leave, often adding several months to the old standard 98 days. In
villages, new slogans are being dreamed up by party committees and draped
across buildings and walls. “Train your body, build up strength, get ready for
the second baby!” one slogan said, according to reports in an online forum.
“Get to sleep early, stop playing cards, work hard to produce a child!”
exhorted another. “No fines, no arrests. Go ahead and have a second child if
you want one!”[139]
Denyer and Zhang conclude by summarizing the feelings of many
urban residents,
Xi Wei, father of a 9-year-old boy, said that he and his
wife won’t be trying for another child. Their son does extra classes after
school and all day on Saturday, and parents and child all feel exhausted by the
social pressure for him not to “fall behind.” As only children themselves, Xi
and his wife also don’t think there is anything wrong with growing up alone.
“After all these years, everybody is inclined to just have one child.
Everybody’s used to it,” he said. “How can you have a second child when the
whole society has hostile and incompatible resources towards it?”[140]
Longer maternity leaves, new party slogans,
and various economic incentives have not proven to this point to be motivation
enough to create the rise in childbirths that the Chinese government desires.
Planned Birth Laws
While the Two-Child Policy has been in
existence for three years, and there are rumors of further changes to family
planning policy in the future, the practice of forced abortion still existed in
2018.[141]
Families with two children were still prohibited from having another child, and cohabitating couples that
became pregnant were counted as out-ofquota, according to a report from Population
Research Institute.[142]
If these unwed couples married within sixty days after the infant’s birth, they
were granted an exception.[143] In
specified provinces, the Two-Child Policy was being enforced as rigorously as
the One-Child Policy. In Henan, Article Twenty-Five of the Planned Birth
regulations
states,
Any person who engages in one of the following behaviors
must, under the direction of Planned Birth technical service cadres, be given
remedial measures to terminate their pregnancies: Those who are pregnant and
not married; Those who have already given birth to one child and become
pregnant again without a birth permit; Those who use illicit means to obtain a
birth permit and become pregnant.[144]
Article Forty-Three of the Guizhou Planned
Birth regulations suggests eugenics, “If either husband or wife suffers from a
serious congenital defect, etc., and is, in the opinion of medical science,
unfit to reproduce, they must undergo sterilization; if already pregnant, she
must terminate the pregnancy in timely fashion.”[145]
Comparable regulations were also found in Hainan, Jiangxi and Fujian provinces.
In addition, private companies were terminating employees in 2018 for violating
the Two-Child Policy, and in Hubei, were required to “cooperate with forcing
migrant workers to have abortions.”[146]
Birth Control
Following the 1982 census there was a strong
indication of an enormous pool of women in their childbearing years.[147]
Consequently, Chinese fertility policy was redirected toward limiting fertility
as a significant aspect of Deng Xiaoping’s reforms.[148]
China developed its own version of the contraceptive pill and significantly
expanded the national distribution and
propaganda network devoted to promoting birth control.[149]
Mosher comments,
Communist propaganda displayed along busy streets and other
public places made the cost of noncompliance clear. One such sign, strung high
over a busy street, read: “If you are supposed to wear an IUD but don’t, or are
supposed to have your tubes tied but don’t, you will be arrested on sight!” In
some cases, women who failed to report for a pregnancy screening had their
homes destroyed by rampaging Planned Birth police.[150]
Even the
vaginas of rural women were routinely checked to ensure that there was no
recent birth.[151] A director of a village family planning center in
Guangdong Province gave other examples of invasive enforcement to journalist Ma
Jian.[152]
A record book was presented to Jian that meticulously charted the menstrual
cycles and pelvic examination results of every woman of childbearing age in the
village. The director of the planning center said that 98 percent of the 280
women were fitted with IUDs, and that every three months he broadcasted an announcement
through the village summoning every woman for a mandatory ultrasound to check
that her IUD was still in place.[153]
If a woman refused to appear for her inspection, she was subject to heavy fines
or even sterilization if she refused to appear for over six months.[154]
In 2017 the
central government began a campaign to remove previously inserted
IUDs for all
women who were eligible to have another child.[155] The new policy was
received with a lukewarm response. This reaction was perhaps
precipitated by the government’s continued silence on coercive procedures. As
Abbamonte and Mosher report, “Documentary film-maker Ai Xiaoming, now
63, said she was forced to have an IUD fitted, but then left with it for
decades with no further check-ups…. It hasn’t helped that the Chinese
government has never apologized for the way it has brutalized women.
Nor has it ever, not even now, offered to
compensate women forced to use the device.”[156] The New York Times records Han Haoyue, a
columnist on Weibo, as writing, “To say they are offering free removal as a service
to these tens of millions of women— repeatedly broadcasting this on state
television as a kind of state benefit—they have no shame, second to none.”[157]
Unfortunately, for many of the women
who were forcibly inserted with the IUDs this change of policy comes too
late—they are well past fecundity. Because of their age these women are not
eligible for IUD removal. If they desire their intrauterine device removed they
are made to pay out of pocket.[158]
Gendercide
A major factor in the practice of gendercide
in China was the development of reproductive technologies—specifically
ultrasound. For a time the practice of a pre-natal sonogram was used to
identify sex. Consequently, when a girl was identified many women chose to have an abortion. As a result,
the Family Planning Council outlawed the use of ultrasounds in 2000 for
determining gender in an attempt to curb this practice.[159]
However, the use of illegal equipment remained prevalent in determining sex,
and in other cases midwives were reported as terminating female infants by
strangling them with their mothers’ umbilical cord as they were delivered.[160]
It was estimated in 2000 that more than half of all the abortions in China were
due to the practice of prenatal sex selection.[161]
Avraham Ebenstein writes, “Parents
under tighter fertility control are characterized by lower fertility and higher
sex ratios among births, indicating that parents are engaging in sex selection
to satisfy their dual interest in complying with the fertility policy and
having at least one son.”[162]
Ebenstein reports on the total of 37 million girls that have disappeared in
China since 1980 and observes, “Prenatal selection and infanticide can account
for a female deficit of roughly 9.3 million missing girls in China’s 2000
census.”[163]
Many of these girls who went unreported at birth due to local birth quotas were
later reported sometime between the ages of ten and twenty.[164]
The exact number is unknown, but the majority remains unregistered and unable
to benefit from household registration laws enacted in 1958.[165]
All Girls Allowed reflects
on the account of Xiao Mei, a victim of the burgeoning sex trafficking
industry:
Because she was
a girl, her family mistreated and even tortured her. Her mother and grandmother
tried to kill her by putting her in boiling water. She survived, but still
bears the physical burns on her body–and the emotional burns of being told that
she’d never be good for anything but a prostitute. All this merely because she
was a girl. We heard multiple stories about village elders encouraging parents
to send their daughters to the city to work, with the naive (and sometimes not)
assumption that the girls would make money for their family.[166]
There are
approximately 4 to 6 million sex workers in China, and trafficked brides can be
bought for as little as $460 in certain places.[167] The U.S. Department of State’s 2013 Trafficking in
Persons Report describes Chinese criminal syndicates and local gangs active in
the trafficking of girls throughout the nation.[168] The report cites China’s birth limitation policy and a
cultural preference for sons as the underlying cause of prevalent sexual
exploitation of females. The Department of State details one example in July
2012 where eight girls under the age of 14 were kidnapped and forced into
prostitution. Each of the five people arrested for the crime of commercial
sexual exploitation were local government officials and businessmen.[169]
Gender Imbalance
Another consequence of China’s family
planning policy is the growing gender imbalance. China’s National Bureau of
Statistics predicts that by 2020 China will be home to 40 million more men than
women under the age of 20.[170][171]
Decades of gendercide have resulted in a surplus of
males who are now struggling to find wives. Increased prostitution, trafficking, and violent crime are just some of the outcomes of this
substantial bachelor population.[172]
Andrea
dan Boer and Valerie M. Hudson elaborate further in The Washington Post:
A surplus of
40–50 million bachelors throughout the mid to late 21st century will have a
significant effect on China’s stability and development as a nation: Male
criminal behavior drops significantly upon marriage, and the presence of significant
numbers of unmarriageable men is potentially destabilizing to societies. In the
case of China, the fact that a sizeable percentage of young adult males will
not be making that transition will have negative social repercussions,
including increased crime, violent crime, crimes against women, vice, substance
abuse and the formation of gangs that are involved in all of these antisocial
behaviors.[173]
It is evident
that China is dealing with a considerable demographic crisis. A China
Family
Development report estimates that by 2040 the total number of Chinese families
will increase to 500 million.[174] Some demographers suggest that it is already too late to
reverse China’s demographics.[175] The Washington Post reports, “Even if sex ratios were
rectified today, young adult sex ratios in China will result in a significant
gender imbalance in the adult population for the next 30 years.”[176]
Eberstadt cites projections
that by 2030 more than a quarter of Chinese men in their 30s will not have
married.[177]
This particular demographic of men has a moniker, shengnan, which means, “leftover men.”[178]
In 2015, a Chinese businessman in his 40s reportedly sued a Shanghai-based
introductions agency for failing to find him a wife, having paid the company 7
million yuan ($1 million) to conduct an extensive search.[179]
In 2014, a computer programmer from the southern city of Guangzhou attempted to
propose to his girlfriend and purchased ninety-nine iPhones, the equivalent of
two years’ salary, as part of an elaborate proposal. He was turned down in
front of friends and colleagues and photos of the event were quickly shared
through social media.[180] Problematic sex ratios have also resulted in
the creation of outdoor marriage markets. At one of China’s largest markets in
Shanghai the “matchmaking corner” is populated by parents who post hand-written
advertisements for their single children. Some parents have been known to visit
the market every week for years with no success.[181]
Additionally, New York Times
columnist, Nicholas Kristof, reports that there are disturbing market responses
to the shortage of brides: life-size, anatomically correct “female dummies,”
selling for at least $5,000. He asks, “If China
is running out of women, why not make fake women?” Mei Fong, Kristof’s
co-author, explains. Fong interviews a manufacturer who experimented with skin
substitutes (silicone and rubber), hair (synthetic and human), and breast size
(C to EE). “They really are designed to take the place of real women,” says
Vincent He, and he’s proud of their resilience. “The nipples—they are very
tough,” says He, tugging at one to demonstrate to Fong. “Normal ones could
never withstand such treatment.”[182]
Family Size and Characteristics
China’s Ministry of Health and Family
Planning reported in 2014 that China’s 430 million families were shrinking and
aging.[183]
Since the 1950s the size of Chinese families has
decreased from 5.3 to 3.02 people per
family. Chai Ling notes, “While the decrease
in family size
has been gradual over the past few years, China’s families steadily continue to
shrink. From 2010 to 2012, family size fell from 3.10 to 3.02.”[184]
Another
significant finding of the family planning report was the ever-increasing age
of China’s families. The typical Chinese family is now commonly comprised of
four grandparents, two parents, and one child. “160 million of China’s 430
million families now have this ‘4–2–1’ makeup,” according toLing. China currently has over 180
million people over the age of 60—a figure that authorities expect to grow to 330
million by 2050.[185] The large aging population has become a burden for
Chinese society because there is a significant shortage of young people that
are able to provide for the older generation. The Ministry of Health’s report
found that 90 percent of China’s elderly
live at home rather than in assisted living facilities.[186]
Ling confirms, “Another survey found that 37.5 million of China’s elderly were
unable to care for themselves in 2013.”[187] Concerning
this demographic catastrophe, Feng Wang describes the rapid aging shift for the
China Economic Quarterly,
China’s aging process is happening far more quickly than in
most other countries, largely thanks to the speed of its demographic transition
from high death and birth rates to low death and birth rates. It took China
only 50 years to increase life expectancy from 40 to 70 years, compared to 100
years in Western industrialized countries. China reduced its fertility level
from five to two children per couple in just 25 years, just one-third of the
time taken in the West. The impact on China’s future age structure is clear: it
will take less than 30 years for the share of the population aged over 65 to
rise from the current 9% to 25%. In other aging countries like Italy, Germany,
and Russia, it will take the best part of a century.[188]
In addition,
Boer and Hudson from The Washington Post report,
China is different from the other aging countries of the
world in that a) it is not yet fully developed, b) most of its population is
still poor, and c) it has the highest sex ratio in the world. By 2055, China’s
elderly population will exceed the elderly population of all of North America,
Europe and Japan combined, and this is exacerbated by the now declining
working-age population. China’s impressive economic growth has been facilitated
by its expanding working-age population: The population ages 15–64 increased by
55 percent between 1980 and 2005, but this age cohort is now in decline due to
the declining fertility rate. In 2012, the working age population declined by
3.5 million and is expected to continue to decline unless there is a dramatic
shift in China’s fertility rate.[189]
Howard French, Professor at the Columbia
University Graduate School of Journalism, details the consequences of a
dramatic and rapid workforce decline:
China today boasts roughly five workers for every retiree.
By 2040, this highly desirable ratio will have collapsed to about 1.6 to 1.
From the start of this century to its midway point, the median age in China
will go from under 30 to about 46, making China one of the older societies in
the world. At the same time, the number of Chinese older than 65 is expected to
rise from roughly 100 million in 2005 to more than 329 million in 2050—more
than the combined populations of Germany, Japan, France, and Britain.165
The subsequent issues of pension coverage,
health care, and the absence of personal savings, particularly in rural
settings are particularly concerning to a nation once predicted to overtake the
United State’s economy. French concludes, “The consequences for China’s
finances are profound. With more people now exiting the workforce than entering
it, many Chinese economists say that demographics are already becoming a drag
on growth.”[190]
Hidden Children
Chinese children conceived and born in violation
of the One-Child policy are known as “hidden children”—those who are outside
the boundaries of Chinese society.[191]
While an exact number is unknown, estimates run into the tens of millions.[192]
Mosher writes, “Unlike illegal immigrants in the United States, who are
generally treated with some compassion, these children have no rights. Anyone
and everyone can mistreat them, and they are totally without recourse.”[193]
Celia
Hatton, a journalist for the BBC, chronicles the stories of hidden children who
are denied an identity under the One-Child policy.170 In an article published in
January 2014,
she describes the life of Zhang Rundong, a three-year old boy living in
Shandong
Province. An important detail that separates Zhang from other boys his age,
Hatton suggests, is that he does not exist. “Because Zhang Rundong is the
second child born to his parents,” Hatton writes, “Chinese Family Planning
Officials deemed him
‘over-quota’
and subsequently denied him the right to a legal identity. As punishment for
having a second child, the Chinese government withheld Rundong’s identity
papers from his parents, his key to medical care, education, travel, and even
access to public libraries.”[194]
In
Kay Ann Johnson’s China’s Hidden Children,
she shares the story of Li Rong and Wang Aiying, a couple who lost their
fifteen year old son in a drowning accident. One day shortly after the incident
Li walked by a junkyard where he heard the sound of an infant crying. Johnson
recounts,
Investigating,
he found a newborn girl, barely alive and apparently left to die. Li scooped
the baby up and ran home with her, fearing she would die in his arms, and then
he and his wife warmed her up and fed her with powdered milk. They took turns
staying awake around the clock for days to keep her alive. Li and Wang used all
their savings to pay medical bills, and to try to cajole the authorities to
give her an urban registration, a hukou
necessary for attending school. Officials resisted giving the hukou, angering Li, who noted that he
and his wife had saved the authorities the cost of raising the child. “Perhaps
the government would have preferred she
had died in the garbage dump,” he said.[195]
Hatton also relates the story of Li Xue, a twenty year old growing up
in Beijing: Li is the second in her family,
born outside the One-Child Policy.[196] She has lived her whole life without the identification
that would allow her to access government services. “I couldn’t get regular
health checks as a baby, and I wasn’t able to receive any kind of basic
vaccines,” Li said. “I couldn’t go to school to receive the compulsory
nine-year education. Now, I don’t even have an identity file. I haven’t
received any education, and no work place would accept me. Everyone needs to
provide an identity card to take a train anywhere and to see a doctor. Right
after I was born, my father went to the local police station to get my
registration. My father visited several government departments with me in his
arms, and tried to bring the case to court. I grew up little by little during
this process, and reached school age.”[197] In an almost unheard of action, Li and her family sued
the local police station for dereliction of duty.175
In 2013, a sixteen-year-old
girl in a similar situation drank pesticide in an attempt to end her life after
she learned that she could not attend college.[198]
Cai Yanqiong lived in Sichuan Province and was informed that her lack of
government registration barred her from
taking China’s college entrance exam. “Cai, who has
one older brother, was raised by a single father who came under the
jurisdiction of the One-Child Policy,” Chai Ling reports. Ling adds, “In Sichuan, fines for
violating the policy range from $4,200 to $31,400 while the average annual
urban income is $2,919. Because her father could not afford the fine, Ms. Cai
never received a hukou, the
government registration needed for access to medical care, public
transportation and education.”[199] Cai tried to attend different area schools throughout
her elementary years, but was unable to even procure school lunches without a hukou.[200] Meanwhile, in Cai’s hometown of Chishui, Family Planning
Officials denied her father’s requests for the fines to be waived. “Cai
resorted to making up her own government identification number using her birth
date,” Ling records.
“She also
wrote a note that read, “Dear brother, Dad, Mom, Grandma and Grandpa …. I’m so
sorry to all of you. I have a lot to say to you all at this moment, but time won’t
wait for me. I’m standing at the track of my memory, seeing my memories as
pictures passing in front of me.”[201]
China’s 2010 census
estimated 13 million people existed without official documentation—a population
almost the size of Ontario.[202]
John Bryan Starr comments on the practice of giving
birth in secret and the subsequent population discrepancy:
Once a female
child is born, the simplest method to avoid having her count against the
family’s quota of children is not to record her birth. The gradual relaxation
of social control associated with the reforms and the possibility of going away
from home to give birth have made it easier to conceal births from those
charged with limiting their number. The widespread incidence of this practice
was revealed in the 1990 census…. The census showed the Chinese population to
stand at 1.13 billion, a figure that exceeded projections by some 13 million.
[Most of this discrepancy] was due to the number of female children whose
births had gone unrecorded.[203]
Steven Mosher relates the
account of Li Aihai, who conceived too quickly after having her first child, a
daughter. After Li fled her hometown to escape the draconian measures of the
local Family Planning Office, she safely delivered her son in a neighboring
county. Upon her return, Li discovered that local officials were furious and
that she had a monumental task ahead of her to “regularize her son’s status.”
Li’s son “was currently a black child,” family-planning officials explained to
her.[204]
Mosher summarizes the officials’ communication to Li concerning her son:
Because he was conceived outside of the family-planning
law, he did not exist in the eyes of the state. As a non-person, he would be
turned away from the government clinic if he fell ill, barred from attending a
government school of any kind, and not considered for any kind of government
employment later in life. He would not even be allowed to marry or start a family
of his own. The government had decreed that ‘black children’ would not be
allowed to reproduce; one generation of illegals was enough.[205]
The officials informed Li, however, that if
she paid a fine of 17,000 yuan ($2,000), her son would be granted a national
identity number, and would receive fair treatment. However, he would still be
required to pay double fees for his school supplies.184
The Consequences of Long Term Social
Engineering
On March 14, 2017 the Chinese Health
Ministry reported the following statistics for its family planning practices
since 1971:
These numbers
equate to seven million abortions, two million sterilizations and seven million
intrauterine devices inserted every year.[207] Scholar and author, He Yafu, reports that dating back to
1980 fines levied for violation of the One-Child Policy have provided the
government with an estimated two trillion yuan in revenue.[208]
China has developed into a
global superpower fulfilling Mao’s ambition that the world would take China
seriously. Particularly under the leadership of President Xi Jinping, China has
made enormous strides in the areas of finance, infrastructure, political
alliances, and defense.[209]
Despite the current economic boom, however, there are already signs that a
crisis is imminent. China is in the midst of a transition from a plentiful
workforce, which is relatively young, to a diminished workforce with a
population that is past its prime.[210]
While the effects of a
thirty-five year family planning policy are substantial, it is accurate to note
that family planning is not the only reason for fertility decline. China’s
National Population and Birth Planning Commission conducted an internal study
that claimed the One-Child Policy had prevented 400 million births by 2005,
which directly contributed to global well being including the reduction of 1.3
billion tons of carbon emissions in China. Whyte, Feng and Cai argue that the
claim has at least three serious flaws,
First, the number is based on a ‘what if’ scenario that
is completely unrealistic….By predicting a birth rate that is unrealistically
high—17 per cent higher than the average of the comparison group as of 1990, 29
per cent higher in 1998, and as much as 45 per cent higher in 2005—the estimate
of total births prevented is clearly a wild exaggeration….Second, the major
part of the fertility decline occurred in the 1970s, prior to the one-child
policy. Third, this claim totally ignores the most significant source of
fertility decline worldwide:
An interview with Norman
Cheng serves to comment further on the consequences and effects of long-term
social engineering. Cheng is a Professor of Demographics at a leading
university in China. The author of this study interviewed Cheng on a range of
topics including the current sex rate at birth ratio (SRB), fertility rates,
and sociologist
Rodney Stark’s claims regarding population replacement.[212]
Regarding SRB, Cheng references an April 2009 study by
the British Medical Journal,which found that China has 32 million
more boys than girls under the age of twenty.[213] While the average worldwide ratio of male to female
newborns is 105:100, statistics show that the peak ratio in the People’s
Republic of China was 120:100 in 2008.
It is
estimated that in some provinces the number is even higher, reaching 130:100.
Cheng argues
that the strict birth control policies of the One-Child and currently TwoChild
Policy are to blame. The evidence is that there is no other nation in
the world with a higher SRB than China.[214]
Cheng does not believe that the Two-Child Policy will effectively mediate the
gender imbalance, as nations with a high SRB such as Taiwan and South Korea
have not implemented any kind of family planning program. The gender imbalance,
according to Cheng, can only be affected through a seismic shift in culture
including gender equality.
Cheng also comments on the
efficacy of the 2015 shift to a Two-Child Policy regarding the population
replacement rate and points to one of the One-Child Policy exceptions as
evidence that there will not be a significant shift in births. The government,
according to Cheng, was fearful that more parents would take advantage of being
allowed to have two children (as couples from one child families had been able
to do since 2013). In fact, the reality was just the opposite. While the
expected number of births was 11 million the actual result was a mere 1.5
million children after a year and a half. Cheng concludes that this does not
mean the Chinese do not desire more children. Instead, he claims that the high
pressure and stress facing young modern families, and the fact that there are
no public policies for helping to alleviate these stressors, is to blame. Cheng
references a “birth desire survey,” which shows that among eligible couples
50.4 percent have the desire to have a second child, 32.4 percent did not want
to have a second child, and 17.2 percent were undecided. In addition, Cheng’s
research suggests that the move to the Two-Child Policy came “at least two
years too late.”
He argues that based on the
2010 census the number of childbearing women at ages 30–34, 35–39, 40–44, and
45–49 were 47.64, 57.63, 61.15, and 51.82 million,
respectively. When the Two-Child Policy went into effect five
years after the 2010
so, including India and South
Korea, but they were not able to maintain population control to such an extend
as China has been able to maintain.
census women in the 45–49 demographic
entirely lost their fecundity and women in the 40–44 demographic were extremely
close to losing their fecundity.[215]
The total number of women who lost their fecundity during those five years
totaled more than 110 million. Even though women in the 30–39 demographic still had the ability to have a second
child they fell into the category of high-risk delivery. This meant that the
two-year delay of implementing the Two-Child Policy affected over one hundred
million families with serious consequences for society. Another outcome of
long-term social engineering mentioned by Cheng is the sizeable presence of shidu in China. Journalist Fan Liya
explains,
Meaning “lose only,” shidu
is a term that has been used by the media since 2010 to refer to parents who
have lost their only child and are no longer able to have another. According to
a 2013 report by the China National Committee on Ageing, a government branch
overseeing the country’s increasingly grey society, there are at least one
million shidu parents in China, and
the number is increasing by 76,000 a year.[216]
“It’s definitely becoming a very serious
social problem,” notes Cheng, although he does not believe a government subsidy
is much of a solution. “Although the government has some policies in place, in
practice, assistance remains very poor,” he states.[217]
The government did not anticipate all of the possible consequences of a strict
family planning policy from the beginning and Cheng believes that today
“psychological trauma and issues associated with aging” are more urgent
difficulties than poverty for shidu
parents. “It’s a feature of Chinese
society that once two elderly women meet, they will talk about their children,” Cheng explains. “For shidu parents, that’s another bitter
conversation.”
Conclusion
While the One-Child Policy officially came
to an end after thirty-five years (1980–2015), its repercussions continue to be
felt. Even with modified family planning policies, the severity of enforcement
is unchanged in many instances, as local family planning offices have gradually
and reluctantly adopted revised regulations. Officials, who previously received
“compensation” from out-of-quota births have been forced to seek supplements to
their meager income from a smaller pool of potential violators.[218]
Although the government might have
intended enforced family planning to last one generation in order to combat the
potentiality of a surging population, the societal impact and loss of life has
been monumental. An aging population, a substantial decrease of numbers in the
work force, a significantly distorted sex ratio at birth, and continuing fertility decline point to an alarming
demographic trajectory for the People’s Republic of
China.
CHAPTER THREE
ANALYSIS OF RESPONSES TO ABORTION AND GENDERCIDE PRACTICES
IN
THE EARLY CHURCH AND THE
CONSEQUENT GROWTH OF THE EARLY
CHURCH
Edward Gibbon, in the eighteenth century,
and Adolf Harnack, in the early twentieth century each authored an influential
scholarly work addressing the growth of early Christianity.[219]
Subsequent studies have explored and developed the same theses proposed by
these two historians in different forms, but have not added anything
particularly new to the discussion.[220]
In fact, New Testament scholar and historian at the University of Edinburgh
Larry Hurtado argues that many of the supposedly distinctive factors of growth
had parallels in pagan society and were not unique to Christianity at all.[221]
The cost of conversion was high and largely prohibitive.
Hurtado presented a lecture
in 2016 at the University of Marquette entitled, “Why on Earth Did Anyone
Become a Christian in the First Three Centuries?” in which he argues that the
social and political costs to individuals for converting to Christianity were
overwhelming. Politically, leaders of the Christian movement were targeted from
the beginning, and this eventually trickled down to lay believers as well. A
simple accusation of being a Christian introduced the dangerous possibility of
being brought before a
Roman magistrate.4
Regarding communal
consequences, Hurtado emphasizes the cost of conversion upon relationships,
both familial and social. Humiliation, social ostracism, and slander from
neighbors, business associates, and family members were all real possibilities
for Christians in the Greco-Roman world. It was not uncommon for the cultured
elites to treat believers with disdain and attack Christians as intellectually
inferior.5 If Hurtado’s claims are accurate, then what factors
contributed to such a rapid increase of Christianity
the claim that Christianity was
attractive because it “offered close relationships in which adherents formed a
fictive family of brothers and sisters.”
Hurtado agrees that Christian community did indeed foster close
relationships, but that this kind of brotherhood was hardly unique to
Christianity. Other voluntary associations of the time used similar familial
language and offered meaningful relationships to adherents. In the case of care
of widows and orphans, Hurtado simply makes the point that this was only
beneficial to widows and orphans. It would have been hardly an attraction to
those who were well off or at least able to take care of themselves. And again,
this kind of care had some, albeit limited, parallels in other groups during
the first three centuries. “Status consistency” refers to people who were
unable to climb the social ladder because of their birth or rank. Hurtado poses
the question, “Why would such people . . . find it attractive to commit to
small, insignificant circles of people of varied social status, whose religious
identity marked them in the eyes of the larger society as suspicious, strange,
even contemptible?” Even if a person was able to become part of that group, how
would that identity lead to greater social acceptance? Larry W. Hurtado, Why on Earth Did Anyone Become a Christian
in the First Three Centuries? (Milwaukee: Market University Press, 2016)
110–113.
Hurtado, Why on Earth Did Anyone Become a Christian
in the First Three Centuries?, 110.
Hurtado, Why on Earth Did Anyone Become a Christian
in the First Three Centuries?, 112.
over the first three centuries?[222]
While there is no single answer to this question—a whole series of factors have
been demonstrated as crucial—it is perhaps surprising to find one significant
explanation relating to a prenatal and postnatal ethic of human life.
Rodney Stark, in The Rise of Christianity, makes the
novel claim that it is quite reasonable to assume that a “nontrivial” portion
of Christian growth was due to superior fertility among Christians.[223]
Both the Early Church and historical scholars have found this superior
fertility directly connected to a Christian ethic of human life and family.
In 59 B.C. Julius Caesar
approved legislation that granted land to fathers of three or more children.
Three decades later Augustus enabled laws that gave political preference to
fathers of three or more children and imposed sanctions upon childless couples.
Many emperors continued these policies through the years. However, as Stark
records, they were unsuccessful at promoting fertility in first century Rome.[224]
Arthur E.
Boak reports “[policies with] the aim of
encouraging families to rear at least three children were pathetically
impotent.”[225]
Stark confirms Roman Senator and historian Tacitus as affirming that
childlessness prevailed throughout the Roman Empire.[226]
Not only was there general
childlessness, but there was also a decrease in overall population.[227]
While it is true that the
plagues of the first few centuries after Christ played a significant role in
the decline of the Roman Empire’s population, Stark finds the low fertility
rate of Romans more significant because of the current below replacement levels
in the cases of China, Japan, Korea, Singapore and other Asian nations. Even
during periods with no plague or famine in the Roman Empire, the population was
not replacing itself. Stark
gives the reasons for a stagnating population, “The primary reason for low
Roman fertility was that men did not want the burden of families and acted
accordingly: many avoided fertility by having sex with prostitutes rather than
with their wives, or by engaging in anal
intercourse.”[228]
The pagan ethic of human life and family was such that the Roman Empire could
no longer sustain itself. Bioethicist Mark J. Cherry comments on this ethic
that flourished in the Roman Empire:
Thereby severed from any transcendent account of moral
truth, human flourishing is not to be found in submitting to God or living
within a richly textured traditional religious culture; cardinal moral value is
instead assigned to individual liberty conceptualized as autonomous
self-determination. Persons as secular moral beings are to free themselves from
the supposedly irrational superstitions of traditional religion, choosing
instead to be autonomous and self-determining individuals, who shape their
moral values and perceptions of the good life for themselves.[229]
Joe Carter, an editor for
The Gospel Coalition, has written a helpful article on fertility rates. Carter
notes that demographers use the word “fertility” to refer to the output of
reproduction.[230]
While there are several different measures for fertility rate the one most
useful for this study is the total fertility rate (TFR). The TFR measures the
total number of children who have been born or who are likely to be born in a
woman’s lifetime.[231]
Carter states that the TFR is a key
factor in the growth of a population, all other factors being equal.[232]
Demographers today agree that a TFR of 2.1 is necessary to ensure a broadly
stable population.[233]
“The TFR is also known as the replacement rate,” Carter writes, “Since the
total number of children replaces both the mother and the father and accounts
for the number of children who won’t live to childbearing age.”[234]
Carter ultimately warns against the negative consequences in a given population
of a declining
TFR: “This would lead to economic stagnation
and hardship for those who remain in those areas. These factors could lead to a
spiral of instability that can have a spiritual effect on communities that last
for generations.”[235]
Rodney
Stark’s research on TFR in the Greco-Roman world demonstrates a
startling correlation between sex ratios and fertility for
Christian communities:
If women made up 43 percent of the pagan population of Rome
(assuming a ratio of 131 males to 100 females), and if each bore four children,
that would be 172 infants per 100 pagans, making no allowance for exposure or
infant mortality. But if women made up, say, 55 percent of the Christian
population (which may well be low), that would be 220 infants per 100
Christians—a difference of 48 infants. Such differences would have resulted in
substantial annual increases in the proportion of the population who were
Christians, even if everything else were equal.[236]
The Roman Empire recognized its own
demographic calamity as evidenced by the attempts of the cultured elite to
legislate larger families. Still, low fertility could not be halted through
legislation alone. If there was to be significant change the Roman world
required a significant shift regarding its pagan views on human life and
family, specifically the practices of infanticide and abortion.
Infanticide and Abortion in the Greco-Roman World
Stark’s research on infanticide in the early
Greco-Roman world provides a starting point for this study. He notes, “Even
when Greco-Roman men did marry, they usually produced very small families—not
even legal sanctions and inducements could achieve the goal of an average of
three children per family. One reason for this was infanticide— far more babies
were born than were allowed to live.”[237]
This practice was reflected in the writings of ancient historians. Tacitus
argued that the Jewish admonition that it is a sin to kill an unwanted child
was yet another one of their sinister and revolting practices.[238]
Seneca agreed and suggested that the drowning of children at birth was not only
a common practice, but also a practical one.[239]
While acknowledging the
prevalent practice of infanticide in the Greco-Roman world, William V. Harris
remains skeptical on this point, however, concerning Seneca’s reported method
of termination. Harris writes, “As to the treatment of handicapped infants in
imperial times, it may be doubted on practical grounds that they were usually
drowned. In all likelihood most of them were promptly eliminated by the
midwife.”[240]
Whether or not Harris is correct in his assessment, the point remains that the
practice of infanticide was widespread in the first three centuries of the
Early Church.[241]
Infanticide as
Infant Exposure
Harris has written extensively on the
practice of infanticide, or what is termed infant or child exposure in the
Greco-Roman world, and he notes that this
practice proportionally affected female infants with much more frequency than
their male counterparts.[242][243]
“We have extremely strong reasons for supposing that the exposure of infants,”
Harris notes,
“very often resulting in death, was common
in many different parts of the Roman Empire, and that it had considerable
demographic, economic and psychological effects.”[244]
The inclination to expose unwanted female infants, in particular, has been
almost universally acknowledged by historians of the Roman Empire. Thomas
Africa records that even in comparatively large Roman families more than one
daughter was rarely ever reared.[245]
Andrew Lintott documents a series of inscriptions in a study found in his
seminal Violence in Republican Rome that
reconstructs six hundred Roman families, and concludes that only six of these
families raised more than one daughter.[246]
The ubiquitous practice of gendercide was a threat to the female population of
Rome.
In a well-known letter
written from Hilarion, a Roman soldier, to his wife, Alis, the motivation for
terminating the newborn’s life was gender based. Hilarion desired a son, and his
wife had given birth to a daughter. Hilarion writes to Alis,
Know that I am still in Alexandria. And do not worry if
they all come back and I remain in Alexandria. I ask and beg you to take good
care of our baby son, and as soon as I receive payment I shall send it up to
you. If you are delivered of a child [before I come home], if it is a boy keep
it, if a girl discard it. You have sent me word, “Don’t forget me.” How can I
forget you. I beg you not to worry.[247]
Harris comments further on the common practice of
gendercide,
Many Romans set a relatively low value on the lives of
new-born children, especially girls; a corollary is that they also set a
relatively low value on having their own children as their heirs. On what then
did they set a relatively high value? On ensuring that the children they did
bring up did not suffer from extreme want, and at a higher social level that
they had the economic means to live lives as civilized and comfortable as those
of their parents.[248]
According to Harris’ research, the infant
would typically be left in an abandoned place or where trash was often
accumulated.[249]
Whether prompted by poverty, economic concerns including the family’s desire to
conserve property for future inheritance, or other factors, the general
population deemed infant exposure a necessity.[250]
Ray Laurence, Professor of Ancient History at Macquarie University, suggests
that infant exposure was simply a safer late form of abortion considering the
dangers of the abortive procedure. He proposes that in the minds of the Romans,
exposure saved a child from a life of impoverishment.[251]
Regarding the influence of
poverty in the context of infanticide, historians recognize that in the first
three centuries A.D. life offered hard choices.[252]
Harris writes,
The act of exposing an infant rather than killing it
outright can seem to modern minds to be a hypocritical evasion, especially if
it is concluded that the majority of the victims died and that parents
generally expected this…. For a family living in dire poverty, in particular,
not to expose might seem as likely to lead to the death of some member of the
family as exposure was to kill the newborn.[253]
The pagan ethic of human life and family
offered little hope to communities locked in a cycle of impoverishment and
despair.
Infanticide as Sex Selection
Reflecting the pagan view that could justify gendercide in
society the Greek comic
Posidippus wrote a couplet based on a well-known aphorism in
the ancient world,
Posidippus’ words are not shocking
considering that scholars commonly document the system of infanticide as sex
selection in the Greco-Roman world.[255]
Harris highlights the practice of gendercide from the conclusion of his study
on Hellenistic, Egyptian and
Roman child exposure customs, “It is certainly hard to think that in the
Roman Empire as a whole male infants were exposed as often as female ones.
Indeed one of the reasons why the Romans relied heavily on child-exposure to
control population was that, unlike contraception or abortion, it permitted
them to choose the sex of their children.”[256]
Mark
Golden, Senior Scholar and Professor Emeritus in the
Department of Classics at the
University of Winnipeg, adds,
We need not believe that fathers (or mothers) who exposed
newborn daughters were motivated by actual hostility, conscious or even unconscious,
towards them. But a tendency to expose daughters more readily than sons implies
that it was more important to raise boys than girls, and that men were valued
more highly than women. To quote a standard textbook of demography: “Wherever infanticide is practised, female
infanticide is the rule … supplemented by the elimination of defective and
unhealthy offspring and those undesirable by reason of some magical (e.g.,
multiple births) or social (e.g., illegitimacy) factor. Infanticide is thus
associated with the higher valuation of males.”[257]
John M. Riddle, History Professor at North
Carolina State University, analyzes abortion and contraception in his work, Ancient Rome in Contraception and Abortion
from the
Ancient
World to the Renaissance.[258]
Riddle argues that physicians in Rome had a more than adequate medicinal
knowledge of abortifacients and contraceptive herbs. Etienne Van de Walle
suggests that if Riddle’s thesis proves true, then the general populace would
also have access and knowledge regarding abortifacients and would have only chosen
to practice child exposure if there were some other motive for doing so.[259]While Van de Walle disagrees with Riddle’s conclusions based on
insufficient demographic evidence, it is reasonable to conclude, based on
Riddle’s extensive research, that while herbs and medicine were used to limit
family growth, the motive for child exposure was a means of sex selection.[260]
Gendercide and Marriage
The gendercide of female infants had a
direct correlation on the average age of girls at first marriage in the Roman
Empire, which was around fifteen.[261]
Men were required to wed young brides since the population of eligible females
was significantly below the
average sex ratio at birth (SRB).[262]
J. B. Birdsell, an anthropologist from UCLA,
published a study entitled Human Evolution in which he makes the
argument that in societies which kill up to fifty percent of their female
infants each male still has the opportunity to find a spouse if he waits long
enough and if the females marry in early adolescence.[263]
It is probably true that one reason Roman men married females at such a young
age is that they were more likely to marry a virgin, but an even greater
concern was the shortage of women. Stark points out, “A society cannot
routinely dispose of a substantial number of female newborns and not end up
with a very skewed sex ratio, especially when one adds in the high mortality
rate associated with childbirth in all ancient societies.”[264]
It was not uncommon for women to marry again and again. Harnack records that
Cicero’s daughter, Tullia, “married at 16 … widowed at 22 … remarried at 23 …
divorced at 28 … married again at 29 … divorced at 33—and dead, soon after
childbirth, at 34.”[265]
Stark agrees with Birdsell and confirms his theory with anecdotal evidence, “As
to the histories, silence offers strong testimony that Roman girls married
young, very often before puberty. It is possible to calculate that many famous
Roman women married at a tender age: Octavia and Agrippina married at 11 and
12, Quintilian’s
wife bore him a son when she was 13, Tacitus wed a girl of
13, and so on.”[266]
Cambridge sociologist M. K.
Hopkins conducted a well-regarded study based on Roman inscriptions on the age
of Roman girls at marriage.[267]
Hopkins examined 287
tombstones that enabled him to tabulate ages
of predominantly upper class females as well as separate women out on basis of
religion. Hopkins concludes from his findings, “Pagans were three times as
likely as Christians to have married before age 13 (10 percent were wed by age
11). Nearly half (44 percent) of pagans had married by age 14, compared with 20
percent of Christians. In contrast, nearly half (48 percent) of Christian
females had not wed before age 18, compared with a third (37 percent) of
pagans.”[268]
Not only are Hopkins’ findings noteworthy statistically, but they become even
more significant when combined with Stark’s discovery that young pagan girls
who married older men were forced to consummate their marriage at once, in many
cases not waiting
for the onset of puberty. Stark remarks,
Unfortunately, the literary sources offer little
information about how pre-pubertal girls felt about these practices, although
Plutarch regarded it as a cruel custom and reported “the hatred and fear
of girls forced contrary to nature.” I suggest that, even in the absence
of better evidence and even allowing for substantial cultural differences, it
seems likely that many Roman girls responded as Plutarch claimed. Thus, here
too Christian girls enjoyed a substantial advantage.[269]
Mark Golden’s demographic projections led
him to conclude that one in five females could not be married at the
conventional age, and, indeed, might never be married if parents raised all of
their female infants.[270]
The implication, according to Golden, was that families in antiquity faced a
financial tragedy in such circumstances. Golden observes, “The longer a girl
stayed at home, the more costly her upkeep—and the less likelihood of her
marrying at all. What if she didn’t marry?”[271]
The prospects in such cases were generally either prostitution or concubinage.
Moral Apathy,
Philosophers and Infanticide
It is evident from both the edicts of the
emperors in the first century A.D. and from the testimonies of ancient Roman
historians such as Tacitus and Seneca that infanticide was a prevalent method
of family planning during the time of the Early Church, but what did the ethicists and philosophers of the time
think about such matters? Although the question of whether or not Greek and
Roman philosophers were ambivalent to the reality of infanticide has been
debated for decades, recent research in the fields of osteoarchaeology and
anthropology has served to illuminate the discussion.
Simon Mays, an archaeologist
from University of Southampton, published an article concerning infanticide in
Roman Britannia. In his research he draws upon DNA evidence from the skeletal
remains of children in south England to demonstrate the widespread reality of
infanticide across the Roman Empire.[272]
Mark Golden discerns, “Any Greek or Roman who reached the age of marriage could
look forward to burying one or more, often very small ones…. What I do suggest
is that in a world in which such deaths and burials were routine, so to speak,
the intensity and duration of the emotional responses were unlike modern
reactions.”[273]
Golden argues for the reality of demographic determinism where affection and
love “were not to be expected in pre-industrial populations.”[274]
Affection and love for children as the modern world knows it, Golden contends,
could not be present in a context with such a high mortality rate.[275]
Golden quotes Lawrence Stone to this effect, “The omnipresence of death
coloured affective relations at all levels of society, by reducing the amount
of emotional capital available for prudent investment in any single individual,
especially in such ephemeral creatures as infants.”59
In scientific terms, this
view of geographic determinism was to preserve
the mental stability of society. Mays’ archaeological study reveals that in the
pagan world, children made little impact, whether through life or through
death. “They were rarely commemorated,” Golden observes.60 Cicero,
the Roman statesman and philosopher, expresses this attitude of ambivalence
succinctly, “If a child dies young, one should console himself easily. If he
dies in the cradle, one doesn’t even pay attention.”61
In part because of this
general apathy regarding the death of the young, but also for the purported
good of the state, ancient philosophers supported the practice of infanticide.
The weight of classical philosophy concurred with the practices of the Romans.
Stark notes, “Both Plato and Aristotle recommended infanticide as legitimate
state policy. The Twelve Tables, the earliest known Roman legal code, permitted
a father, or paterfamilias, to expose
any female infant and any deformed or weak male infant.”62 To
“expose” refers to the practice of abandoning an infant outdoors where the
child
percent with a life expectancy of
35 years. The probability of a newborn child surviving to adulthood in Roman
Italy has been calculated at roughly 50 percent.
Golden, “Did the Ancients Care When Their Children
Died?,” 154.
Golden, “Did the Ancients Care When Their Children
Died?,” 155.
Cicero, Cicero:
Tusculan Disputations, Revised edition (trans. John Edward King; Cambidge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1927), Book 1. 93.
Stark, The Rise
of Christianity, 118.
would typically fall victim to the elements
or to wild animals.[276]
Aristotle adds, “There must be a limit fixed to the procreation of offspring,
and if any people have a child as a result of intercourse in contravention of
these regulations, abortion must be practiced.”[277]
In Politics, Aristotle argues for the
termination of deformed children for the good of the state,
As to the exposure and rearing of children, let there be a
law that no deformed child shall live, but that on the ground of an excess in
the number of children, if the established customs of the state forbid this
(for in our state population has a limit), no child is to be exposed, but when
couples have children in excess, let abortion be procured before sense and life
have begun; what may or may not be lawfully done in these cases depends on the
question of life and sensation.[278]
Plato concurs with his pupil, and advocates
in TheRepublic for making abortions mandatory for women who became
pregnant after the age of forty in order to limit the population.[279]
He records a conversation later in The
Republic between Socrates and
Glaucon in which Socrates argues that infants born with any
disability must be killed:
And then, as the children are born, they’ll be taken over
by the officials appointed for the purpose, who may be either men or women or
both, since our offices are open to both sexes. Yes. I think they’ll take the
children of good parents to the nurses in charge of the rearing pen situated in
a separate part of the city, but the children of inferior parents, or any child
of the others that is born defective, they’ll hide in a secret and unknown
place, as is appropriate. It is, if indeed the guardian breed is to remain
pure.67
Seneca rationalizes abortion as
beneficial for the long-term health of the mother. He writes: “Mad dogs we
knock on the head; the fierce and savage ox we slay; sickly sheep we put to the
knife to keep them from infecting the flock; unnatural progeny we destroy; we
drown even children who at birth are weakly and abnormal. Yet it is not anger,
but reason that separates the harmful from the sound.”68 Dio Chrysostom,
the
Greek orator and philosopher, writes concerning slaves,
In the case of slave women, on the other hand, some destroy
the child before birth and others afterwards, if they can do so without being
caught, and yet sometimes even with the connivance of their husbands, that they
may not be involved in trouble by being compelled to raise children in addition
to their enduring slavery.69
The consequences of this pagan ethic
espoused by the ancient philosophers are seen plainly in Lawrence E. Stager’s
discovery of a late 20th Century excavation of a Roman
villa:
A gruesome discovery in the sewer that ran under the
bathhouse…. The sewer had been clogged with refuse sometime in the sixth
century A.D. When we excavated
and dry-sieved the dessicated sewage, we found the bones …
of nearly 100 little
For a man–his daughter, his mother,
his daughter’s children, and his mother’s ancestors; for a woman–her son and
his descendants, her father and his ancestors. Having received these
instructions, they should be very careful not to let a single fetus see the
light of day, but if one is conceived and forces its way to the light, they
must deal with it in the knowledge that no nurture is available for it. That’s
certainly sensible.” 67 Plato, Republic,
Book 5, 460 b-c.
Seneca the Younger, Of Anger, ed. The Perfect Library (CreateSpace Independent
Publishing Platform, 2015), I, 15, 2–3.
Dio Chrysostom, Dio
Chrysostom: Discourses 12–30, trans. J. W. Cohoon (Cambridge, Mass:
Harvard University Press, 1939),
Slavery 2, 8.
babies apparently murdered and thrown into the sewer.
Examinations of the bones revealed them to be newborns, probably day-olds.[280]
Stager and his colleagues were unable to
determine gender, but regardless, the bones bring to light a key source of
population decrease.
The Greek historian,
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, records the following account to give context for
the permissiveness of killing newborn infants, under the auspices of
Romulus in the 7th Century B.C.,
By these institutions Romulus sufficiently regulated and
suitably disposed the city both for peace and for war: and he made it large and
populous by the following means. In the first place, he obliged the inhabitants
to bring up all their male children and the first-born of the females, and
forbade them to destroy any children under three years of age unless they were
maimed or monstrous from their very birth. These he did not forbid their
parents to expose, provided they first showed them to their five nearest
neighbours and these also approved. Against those who disobeyed this law he
fixed various penalties, including the confiscation of half their property.[281][282]
The requirement of a committee of five
neighbors seems dubious as a Roman practice in the early centuries of
Christianity, but in a general comment on the Twelve Tables and Roman law W. V.
Harris concludes, “In any case it is reasonable to infer that the Romans of the
late Republic did not rear all their healthy male infants, or all their
first-born female infants, and that the abandonment of other female infants was
fairly common and not heavily censured.”72 The law granted the
father absolute power to order any female in his household to abort, or to
kill, expose, or abandon infants.[283]
Harris’ research on the law
of Romulus distinguished between three types of killing of the young: 1)
abortion; 2) infanticide; and 3) the killing of one’s children beyond the first
year of life. Harris writes concerning this edict,
[The law] seems to assume that parents will sometimes kill
children under three years of age whom they have accepted, but it forbids the
killing of physically normal children below that age; the point of this age
stipulation was probably to make the parents wait until an age when they were
practically certain to have become too attached to the child to kill or expose
it.[284]
The consensus among historians is that the
Romans generally condemned the practice of killing children after they had been
accepted into their families. Nevertheless, the moral indifference of the
philosophers and society at large regarding infanticide is readily apparent,
and the same pagan ethic is unmistakable regarding the practice of abortion in
the Roman Empire.
Abortion Practices
in the First Three Centuries
Celsus, the Roman medical author, admonishes
surgeons in his De Medicina that an
abortion “requires extreme caution and neatness, and entails very great risk.”
He advises that “after the death of the fetus” the surgeon should slowly force
his “greased hand up the vagina and into the uterus.”[285]
Celsus instructs, “The surgeon should then insert a smooth hook and fix it into
an eye or ear or the mouth, even at times into the forehead, then this is
pulled upon and extracts the fetus.” He continues, “If the fetus was positioned
crosswise or backwards … a blade be used to cut up the fetus so it could be
taken out in pieces.”[286]
After the procedure, the woman’s thighs should be tied together and her pubic
area covered with “greasy wool, dipped in vinegar and rose oil.”[287]
Pliny the Elder, describes several examples of medical procedures,
But say, that in these cases
it might be tolerable to set down in their books some poisons: what reason, nay
what leave had those Greeks to shew the means how
the brains and understanding of men should be intoxicated and troubled? What
colour and pretence had they to set down medicines and receipts to cause women
to slip the untimely fruit of their womb, and a thousand such-like casts and
devices that be practiced by herbs of their penning? For mine own part, I am
not for them that would send the conception out of the body unnaturally before
the due time: they shall learn no such receipts of me.[288]
Even the Greek physician Hippocrates advocated for certain
kinds of abortion. He writes,
It was in the following way that I came to see a
six-day-old embryo. A kinswomen of mine owned a very valuable danseuse, whom
she employed as a prostitute. It was important that this girl should not become
pregnant and therefore lose her value. Now this girl had heard the sort of
thing women say to each other–that when a woman is going to conceive, the seed
remains inside her and does not fall out. She digested this information, and
kept a watch. One day she noticed that the seed had not come out again. She
told her mistress and the story came to me. When I heard it, I told her to jump
up and down, touching her buttocks with her heels at each leap. After she had
done this no more than seven times, there was a noise, the seed fell out on the
ground, and the girl looked at it in great surprise…. It was round, and red,
and within the membrane could be seen thick white fibres, surrounded by a thick
red serum; while on the outer surface of the membrane were clots of blood.[289]
While this passage seems to speak
approvingly of abortion, there is debate among medical historians regarding the
exact translation of the Hippocratic Oath.[290]
One section of the classic version has a potential reference to abortion. G. E.
R. Lloyd argues for a translation of this reference that reads, “Neither will I
give a woman means to procure an abortion.”[291]
However, Dr. Owsei Temkin suggests that this particular phrase should be
rendered instead: “I shall not give a woman an abortive suppository.”[292]
Whether or not the intent of the Hippocratic Oath was to only prevent certain
kind of abortions it is possible that Hippocrates’ writings could be used to
justify the practice of late-term abortions.
Soranus, a seminal Greek
pioneer in the field of gynecology who worked in Rome, suggested that midwives
examine newborns for any defective parts. If any aspect of the body did not
function properly it would be appropriate to either let the infant die, or to
terminate. Soranus concludes, “And by conditions contrary to those mentioned,
the infant not worth rearing is recognized.”[293]
Even the Roman poets were well
acquainted with the widespread acceptance of abortion. Ovid, in Book 2 of The Amores, pens this stanza:
Why cheat the full vine of the growing cluster, and
pluck with ruthless hand the fruit yet in the green?
What is ripe will fall of its self:
let grow what has once become quick; a life is no slight reward for a short
delay.
Ah, women, why will you thrust and pierce with the
instrument and give dire poisons to your
children yet unborn.[294]
The final couplet sounds like Ovid is
questioning the morality of abortion, but he is simply describing the common
procedure. And in Fasti, Ovid writes,
“Every matron vowed not to propagate the line of her ungrateful spouse by
giving birth to offspring; and lest she should bear children, she rashly by a
secret thrust discharged the growing burden from
her womb.”[295]
Ovid’s reference to a “secret thrust” is somewhat of a mystery and perhaps
poetic imagery, but tools used for abortions were very real. Tertullian
describes an abortion kit used by Hippocrates in A Treatise on the Soul,
A flexible frame for opening the uterus first of all, and
keeping it open; it is further furnished with an annular blade, by means of
which the limbs within the womb are dissected with anxious but unfaltering
care; its last appendage being a blunted or covered hook, wherewith the entire
fetus is extracted by a violent delivery. There is also a copper needle or
spike by which the actual death is managed.[296]
In a culture of apathetic acceptance of such
rituals as described by Tertullian it is safe to conclude that there must have
been a general sense of brokenness amongst the pagan population where these
practices not only existed in secret, but found overwhelming public support.
The cost of terminating life in the womb bore consequences not only
spiritually, but demographically as well.
Abortion and Low
Fertility Rates
Just as infanticide contributed to low
fertility rates among pagans in the Greco-Roman world, abortion was also a
major factor.[297] The frequency of abortions combined with the
dangerous techniques implemented each contributed to population decline. It was
not uncommon for women to die after the procedure, or to become infertile,
which further contributed to the low fertility rate and skewed sex ratios.[298]
Mark J. Cherry writes, “The perceived positive utility of abortion and
infanticide, to get rid of less than physically perfect or otherwise unwanted
children, together with the social devaluing of females led historically to a
decrease in women and a generally low female-to-male ratio.”[299]
Author Michael J. Gorman,
New Testament scholar and Professor of Biblical Studies and Theology at St.
Mary’s Seminary and University, notes that given the hazardous conditions
surrounding the abortion procedure it is no surprise that abortion was a major
cause of death among women during the Greco-Roman period.[300]
One of the reasons why abortions were in such high demand was the reality of
extramarital sexual activity between unmarried men and women—including women
who would become pregnant while their husbands were away from home. Gorman also
notes economic factors as a reason for abortion despite the fact that the
procedure was so risky—rich women utilized abortions to avoid splitting up
inheritance between many heirs and poor women sought to avoid children they
could not afford.91
While recognizing these significant realities, Stark contends:
The very high rates of abortion in the Greco-Roman world
can only be fully understood if we recognize that in perhaps the majority of
instances it was men, rather than women, who made the decision to abort. Roman
law accorded the male head of family the literal power of life and death over
his household, including the right to order a female in the household abort.
The Roman Twelve Tables did suggest censure for husbands who ordered their
wives to abort without good reason, but no fines or penalties were specified.92
Gorman documents one example of Stark’s
contention. He records a specific instance involving the Emperor Domitian in
the first century A.D. After he impregnated his niece, Julia, he ordered her to
have an abortion, which she did not survive.93
Non-Christian
Objections to Abortion and Infanticide
Even in cases where the practices of
abortion and infanticide were publicly criticized, the reasoning rarely
pertained to a changing ethic concerning the intrinsic value of human
waited, uncertain whether missing periods really meant
that she was pregnant, until the second trimester. But a primary consideration
was that parents who wanted male but not female offspring will have allowed
pregnancies to go to term and then, if nature went against them, exposed their
infant daughters.” W. V. Harris, “Child-Exposure in the Roman Empire,” 15. See
also Michael J. Gorman, Abortion &
the Early Church: Christian, Jewish & Pagan Attitudes in the Greco-Roman
World (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1982).
91 Gorman, Abortion & the Early Church, 28. 92
Stark, The Rise of Christianity, 120.
93 Gorman, Abortion & the Early Church, 28.
life; instead, it was the welfare of the
family, the state, or the city, that was of utmost importance. Cicero, In Defense of Cluentius, suggests,
I remember a case which occurred when I was in Asia: how a
certain woman of Miletus, who had accepted a bribe from the alternative heirs
and procured her own abortion by drugs, was condemned to death: and rightly,
for she had cheated the father of his hopes, his name of continuity, his family
of its support, his house of an heir, and the Republic of a citizen-to-be.[301]
Michael Gorman details the acts of Caesar
Augustus, in both 18 B.C. and A.D. 9, who promoted childbearing instead of
abortion for the benefit of the Roman state through two separate edicts.[302]
However, as Gorman points out these edicts never outlawed abortion.
This reluctance can be
mainly traced back to the belief of the Stoic philosophers that an unborn child
was not human. Papinian, a Roman jurist, connects Stoic views on this issue to
its codification as Roman law.[303]
Gushee comments on this development, “During the fateful transition to
Christendom, reverence for the sacred worth of every human life was extended in some important
respects and receded in others. A world
without authorized gladiator contests, crucifixion, and infanticide was
a better world, in large part due to Christian influence translated into
imperial law.”[304]
When Roman laws were finally codified to outlaw abortion in the early third
century A.D. they were concerned with the rights of the husband relating to
losing a child and did not consider abortion as an act of murder.[305]
Although not a pagan in the
same sense as the Greeks and Romans, the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria
writes,
Divine ordinance forbids the exposure of infants, “which,
has become an everyday impiety among many of the other nations because of their
natural inhumanity.” Parents who do it thereby accuse themselves of hedonism,
misanthropy, murder, and–the worst of curses–child-killing. “Some do the deed
with their own hands,” strangling or suffocating them or causing them to drown.
“Others carry them to a deserted place, exposing them, so they claim, to the
hope of safety, but in reality to the most dreadful misfortunes,” for animals
and birds come to devour them. Sometimes passers-by take pity on them and look
after them. Those who kill infants are the cruelest and most merciless of men.[306]
Philo expands on his accusation against
parents who expose their children as guilty of self-indulgence and infanticide
in even stronger evocative and condemnatory language:
They defend infanticide with lucid demonstrations, those
people, some of whom are murderers of their own children by choking their first
breath out of them, cruel as they are and horribly lacking in feeling, others
by throwing them into a river or the deep sea after having fastened some heavy
weight on them that they may sink faster; others again take them to the
wilderness to expose them, hoping, as they say themselves, that the child may
be saved, but actually so that they will die a ghastly death. For all the
beasts that feed on human flesh will come along unchecked and feast on the
babes, an enjoyable meal—a meal which the only ones who should have taken care
of them, and more than all others were bound to save them, the father and the
mother, have prepared. And then the meat-devouring birds
of prey come flying to gnaw on the left-overs, that is if they have not noticed
it before, for in that case they fight the land-beasts for the entire prey.[307]
While pagan opposition to abortion and
infanticide was not common, there were still points of connection with the
Early Church that the apologists and early Christians were able to build on as
Christianity began to move out into the Empire.
The Response of Early Christianity to Abortion
New Testament scholar, Larry Hurtado, recognizes the Early
Church’s growth into
Christian communities and writes,
I underscore the point that in addition to noting
similarities to other Roman-era groups, we should also seek to identify
particular features of early Christianity that made it distinctive among the
many other options of the time. There must have been features of early
Christian faith that made it not only distinguishable but also worth the
consequences often involved in taking it up.[308]
What were those features that Hurtado mentions
and how did they relate to superior fertility in Christians mentioned by Stark
in his research?
In contrast to the
prevailing pagan ethic, early Christians were both pro children and family
oriented. Hurtado notes, “We can see that there is a major difference in the
historical effects of early Christian behavioral exhortation.”[309]
The emphasis on behavioral practices and social mores was unusual in the pagan
world, particularly as these ethics were considered central to religious
practice.[310]
This can be seen specifically regarding the early Christians’ attitude towards
infanticide and abortion.[311]
Both practices were viewed as abhorrent and an affront to the life-giving
character of God. Stark argues that this reflected Jewish influences in
Christianity.[312]
Jewish historian, Josephus, writes
to this effect, “The law, moreover, enjoins
us to bring up our offspring, and forbids women to cause abortion of what is
begotten, or to destroy it afterward; and if any woman appears to have done so,
she will be a murderer of her child.”[313]
A collective effort by the Christian community to shape behavior and morals, in
contrast to the pervasive pagan practices of the wider culture, served to not
only warn followers of Jesus against such customs, but also to proclaim a different
kind of humanity to the pagans.[314] Over
the first three centuries of growth, the Early Church was able to retain a
distinct moral vision regarding the value of human life. Stark comments on the
culturechanging ethic of Christian morals, “Perhaps above all else,
Christianity brought a new conception of humanity to a world saturated with
capricious cruelty and the vicarious love of death…. Christians effectively
promulgated a moral vision utterly incompatible with the casual cruelty of
pagan custom.”[315]
In effect, Christianity provided converts with a new way to be human and faith
in Christ restored a broken humanity, both individually and corporately. David
P. Gushee describes this new ethic as “a seamless, holistic
commitment to the sacred worth of every person.”[316]
The Influence of
Doctrine
Hurtado advocates for the uniqueness of the
Judeo-Christian view of the sanctity of human life in the first three centuries
A.D. He proposes the doctrine of a loving God as an important factor in the
attractiveness of Christianity to the pagan world. He contrasts the God of
Scripture with the pagan polytheism of the Greco-Roman world and suggests that
the Judeo-Christian emphasis on a transcendent deity who loved the world and
even sought out a relationship with humanity was revolutionary.[317]
Gushee emphasizes “that the
earliest Christians did not see themselves as founding a new religion but as
celebrating God’s fulfillment of his long-awaited promise to redeem Israel.”[318]
Jesus, the Messiah, had broken into the world and inaugurated his Kingdom
through his birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension. The ethic of Jesus
was an upside down Kingdom characterized by peace and justice and love. The
formerly oppressed and the marginalized were now the beloved. The resurrection
of Christ provided the broken and persecuted believers with hope. Gushee adds,
“And this was a Jesus who was loved, not just imitated. Here was a Saviour to
be loved, not just a teacher of Truths, founder of a Religion, or centre of a
Faith. He was adored, worshiped, cherished, and clung to; he was alive, more
real than any other reality.”[319]
The power of love poured out by the Judeo-Christian God upon the world changed
the way Christians interacted with pagans.
Pagans also used the word
“love” when talking about the gods, but in an altogether different sense.
Whereas the Greco-Roman world used the language of philia to delineate a vague sort of friendly disposition
characteristic of the gods’ attitude toward humanity, the early Christians used
agap?.[320]
Hurtado suggests that this word choice for Christians implied a moral
commitment to the beloved and a relational intensity. This sort of love was not
only used by God concerning humanity, but was also to characterize the love
that humans had for one another.[321]
In the early Christian movement, this revelation of God, characterized by love,
also required that his followers treat one another with charity and respect as
fellow image bearers.[322]
Gushee comments, “The Sermon on the Mount played an especially visible role in
early Christian moral exhortations. Early Christian commitment to nonviolence
in such a desperately violent world offers the best example of a faith
community transfixed by the example of its source and head, its
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.” (Gen 1:28) And that God also reaffirmed to Noah: “Then God
said to Noah, “Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your
sons’ wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of
all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the
earth—that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the
earth.” (Gen 8:15–17 ESV)
Out of the cultural mandate flowed an ethic
of human life and family, and consequently, the early Christian community
viewed infanticide and abortion as murder in contrast to the views of the
surrounding pagan culture. Hurtado notes, “Indeed, the emphasis on God’s love
and the appeal for an answering ‘love-ethic’ characterizing Christian conduct
comprise something distinctive. We simply do not know of any other Roman-era
religious group in which love played this important role in discourse or
behavioral teaching.”118 The doctrine of the redemptive love of God,
and humanity as recipients of this agap? love,
were foundational for how the Early Church approached the issue of the sanctity
of human life.
The Early Christian
Tradition
Records of the earliest Christian reaction
to abortion and infanticide follow the example of the Jewish community before
them. Justin Martyr writes in the mid-second century A.D., “And again we do not
expose children lest some of them, not being picked up, should die, and we
become murderers. But whether we marry, it is only that we may
Michael W. Goheen, The
Drama of Scripture: Finding Our Place in the Biblical Story (Baker
Academic, 2004), 38.
118 Hurtado, Destroyer of the Gods, 65.
bring up children; or whether we renounce
marriage we live in perfect continence.”[325]
The Didache instructs, “Thou shalt
not murder a child by abortion nor kill them when born.”[326]
Michael Gorman quotes the Sentences of
Pseudo-Phocylides in his research: “A woman should not destroy the unborn
babe in her belly, nor after its birth throw it before dogs and vultures as
prey.”[327]
Minucius Felix, at the end of the second century, connects pagan religion to
contempt for life:
And I see that you at one time expose your begotten
children to wild beasts and to birds; at another, that you crush when strangled
with a miserable kind of death. There are some women [among you] who, by
drinking medical preparations, extinguish the source of the future man in their
very bowels, and thus commit a parricide before they bring forth. And these
things assuredly come down from your gods. For Saturn did not expose his
children, but devoured them. With reason were infants sacrificed to him in some
parts of Africa.[328]
Also composed in the late second century, an
anonymous Christian writing known as the Epistle
to Diognetus delineated certain distinctives that marked Christians from
the rest of humanity.[329]
These distinctives include Christians “participating in everything as
citizens,” but having to “endure everything as foreigners,”[330]
but also, “Marrying like everyone else, and having children, but they do not
expose their offspring.”[331]
Hurtado comments on the Epistle to Diognetus: “In the case of
this particular text, therefore, the claims about Christian beliefs and
behavior addressed to this Diognetus are also likely indicative of what was
advocated and urged within various Christian circles of the time.”[332]
The text clearly seeks to balance living peaceably in a hostile cultural
setting while maintaining distinguishing Christ-honoring behaviors.[333]
In his plea to emperor Marcus Aurelius, Athenagoras writes,
We say that women who use drugs to bring on an abortion
commit murder, and will have to give an account to God for the abortion … we regard the very foetus in the womb as a created
being, and therefore an object of God’s care … and we do not expose an infant,
because those who expose them are chargeable with child-murder.[334]
The Early Church’s vehement reaction to
abortion and general infanticide is considerable. It also advocated for the
dignity and wellbeing of women in a way hitherto unknown to pagan society.
Greco-Roman Response to Gendercide
A survey of two instrumental Greco-Roman
apologists elucidates a Stoic and Christian response to gendercide. Following a
brief exploration of Christian identity in Acts this study examines Marcus
Minucius Felix’s Octavius and
Musonius Rufus’ Discourse 15.
9 8
A New Way of Living
in Acts
C. Kavin Rowe, in his historical discussion
of Acts, writes extensively on the collision of worldviews articulated by Luke
and contends for a reassessment of Luke’s political intention. Rowe writes,
No longer can Acts be seen as a simple apologia that
articulates Christianity’s harmlessness vis-à-vis Rome. Yet neither is it a
direct call for liberation, a kind of theological vision that takes for granted
the solidity of preexistent political arrangements. Rather, in its attempt to
form communities that witness to God’s apocalypse, Luke’s second volume is a
highly charged and theologically sophisticated political document that aims at
nothing less than the construction of an alternative total way of life—a
comprehensive pattern of being—one that runs counter to the life-patterns of
the Greco-Roman world.[335]
Christianity and the pagan culture
surrounding the Early Church were competing realities. Rowe comments on several
of Luke’s narratives, “The accounts of the Christian mission in Lystra (Acts
14), Philippi (Acts 16), Athens (Acts 17), and Ephesus (Acts 19) do not merely
target one particular aspect of pagan religion but display narratively the
collision between two different ways of life.”[336]
Rowe writes, “The dissolution of patterns basic to Greco-Roman culture is
nothing less than the necessary consequence of forming life-giving
communities.”[337]
In the case of gendercide “life-giving communities” can be taken literally.
These communities of Christ-followers quickly became “a force for cultural
destabilization.”[338]
Rowe concludes,
Reading Acts as a document that explicates ‘the Way of the
Lord’ (Acts 18:25) thus allows us to see that Luke’s redescription of cultural
dissolution as the gracious act of God in bringing the pagan world out of
darkness—his insistence that Christianity is not a governmental takeover but an
alternative and salvific way of life—is a reading of the world in deeply and
ultimately Christian terms.[339]
One practical implication of an alternative
total way of life was the Early Church’s response to gendercide.
Marcus Minucius Felix
and Octavius
Minucius Felix’s apology Octavius takes its name from Octavius
Januarius, a friend and student of Felix. Octavius was a follower of Jesus and
a provincial lawyer. Although Octavius was also an apologist for Christianity
during the time of the persecutions in the late second century A.D. none of his
works or lectures have survived. In Octavius,
Felix, also a lawyer, presents his friend in dialogue with the pagan Caecilius
patterned after the dialogues of Cicero. At the conclusion of the work
Caecilius declares himself converted to Christianity.[340]
In Chapter 9, Caecilius accuses early
Christians of practicing a rite of initiation characterized by the slaughter
and blood of a baby,
To turn to another point. The notoriety of the stories told
of the initiation of new recruits is matched by their ghastly horror. A young
baby is covered over with flour, the object being to deceive the unwary. It is
then served before the person to be admitted into their rites. The recruit is
urged to inflict blows upon it—they appear to be harmless because of the
covering of flour. Thus the baby is killed with wounds that remain unseen and
concealed. It is the blood of this infant—I shudder to mention it—it is this
blood that they lick with thirsty lips; these are the limbs they distribute
eagerly; this is the victim by which they seal their covenant; it is by
complicity in this crime that they are pledged to mutual silence; these are
their rites, more foul than all sacrileges combined.[341]
G. W. Clarke insists that this charge was an
infamous slander made against Christians and was due to a pagan
misunderstanding of the Eucharist. It originated from the ritual use of an
embryo or infant in black magic. Pliny would later remark that the Christians’
food was harmless, demonstrating that he was aware of the charge of
cannibalism.[342]
In Chapter 30, Octavius
responds to Caecilus concerning the slander of infanticide,
And, in fact, it is a practice of yours, I observe, to
expose your very own children to birds and wild beasts, or at times to smother
and strangle them—a pitiful way to die; and there are women who swallow drugs
to stifle in their own womb the beginnings of a man to be—committing
infanticide before they give birth to their infant.[343]
Felix’s argument of moral virtue in Christianity is grounded
in the assertion that the
“slander of infanticide” is more appropriate
to pagan rites and practices and abhorrent to God.[344]
Octavius imagines that the only people who could be guilty of such a heinous
act are those who are capable of believing such a practice exists—the pagans.
Octavius traces the practice of
infanticide to the pattern given by the pagan gods of Rome. He argues, “Saturn,
indeed, forbore to expose his own children; he
devoured them.”[345]
This example, Felix contends, directly contributed to the ritual of infanticide in the Roman Empire. Octavius
continues, “Parents used to do right, therefore, in some parts of Africa, to
sacrifice their babies to him, suppressing with endearments
and kisses their wailing for fear they
should sacrifice tearful victims.”[346]
The dialogue concerning infanticide concludes with these provocative remarks:
There is little to distinguish between such men and those
who devour wild beasts from the amphitheatre all smeared and stained with man’s
blood and glutted with his flesh and limbs. But for us it is not right either
to look at or to hear of acts of manslaughter; in fact, we are so careful to
avoid human blood that in our meals we do not allow even the blood of edible
animals.[347]
It is clear from Felix’s rhetoric the
revulsion early Christians experienced when they witnessed or encountered
reports of child exposure.
Regarding Christian marriage,
Minucius Felix writes, “But with us modesty is paraded not in our appearance
but in our hearts: it is our pleasure to abide by the bond of a single
marriage; in our desires for begetting children, we know one woman or none at
all.”[348]
This fidelity was in extreme contrast to the practice of the pagans. Ray
Laurence clarifies,
In practice, young men often did not marry until they were
twenty-five…. it would appear that once they
shed their toga praetexta, they
sought sexual pleasure in the brothels. In Roman comedy, young men are
frequently represented as having fallen in love with prostitutes, much to the
horror of their fathers…. There was almost an expectation that youths would
drink to excess, have sex with as many people as possible and attack passing
strangers in the night.[349]
Cherry comments on this point, “In its
presumption of the permissibility of sexual freedom and experimentation in the
pursuit of personal gratification, bioethics straightforwardly reflects the
permissive background worldview of Western culture.”[350]
The societal repercussions of such an ethic in a world with high mortality
rates must have been considerable.
Musonius Rufus and
Discourse 15
Musonius Rufus, an Etruscan born in Volsnii,
lived in the first century A.D. Nero exiled Musonius in A.D. 65 to the island
of Gyara for his outspokenness and “noble way of living.”[351]
By vocation a Roman Knight, and greatly admired by Pliny the Younger, Musonius
returned to Rome under the Emperor Galba where he almost lost his life for
instructing soldiers in “pacifist propaganda”—specifically, “peace was to be
preferred to the calamities of war.”[352]
Eventually, Musonius was banished again by Emperor
Vespasian and died in exile circa A.D. 101.
Musonius was well known for his
counter cultural views on women, and it is highly likely that many of his
contemporaries followed his lead in articulating equality for women and men.
Hierocles, Callicratidas, Perctione, Phintys, Nicostratus, and Clement of
Alexandria all wrote in language similar to Musonius’ position—women could
possess all virtues, and the distinction between the sexes was not moral, but
biological.[353]
There remain two fragments of
Musonius’ lectures that address the relationship of parents and
children—specifically, the question of whether parents should raise all of
their children. In these lectures, Musonius condemned gendercide not because it
was unethical; rather, it was a transgression against the family and the gods.[354]
In particular, abortion was a violation of the will of Zeus of whom Musonius
wrote, “[Zeus] is the guardian of the family, from whom wrongs done to the family
are not hidden.”[355]
Musonius had other
objections as well. As a Stoic philosopher he affirmed that the seed of humans
contains part of their souls. Hence, child exposure was contrary to nature. W.
V. Harris comments, “Musonius further claimed that civic duty requires large
families; so do respect for the lawgivers who supported this aim, and respect
for the gods and especially for Zeus, guardian of the family. So does honour,
which comes to the man with many sons. Finally, brothers are useful.”[356]
Geytenbeek, a Greek scholar, adds, “As far as can be ascertained he is the
first moralist who both emphatically defends the rearing of many children and
disapproves of exposure, for which he even uses the word
There is nothing recorded in
the preserved lectures concerning rights the infant child might have. In
response to the common lamentation of poverty as just cause for gendercide,
Musonius rejoins, “From where the little birds, which are much poorer than you,
feed their young?”[358]
Hurtado comments on the writings of Musonius and other pagan philosophers who
voiced opposition to child exposure:
Musonius and philosophical traditions in general appealed
to the individual’s sense of honor and the avoidance of personal shame, shame
in the eyes of others and so also internally, as the basis for the demands of
living by their principles.
But early Christian texts typically invoked divine
commands, appealed to the divine calling laid upon believers to exhibit
holiness, and, notably, invoked the mutual responsibility of believers to one
another in their behavioral efforts, reflecting an emphasis on the formation of
a group ethos.[359]
The apostolic teaching of the Early Church
emphasized the importance of day-to-day living and replaced “social shame” with
a theological basis for life.
The Subsequent Growth of Christianity
The Early Church in the first three
centuries was a distinctive religious movement. Based on his study of the role
of women in Christian growth, Rodney Stark claims “superior
Christian fertility played a significant
role in the rise of Christianity.”[360]
In contrast to the Greco-Roman world at large, Christian communities did not
have their sex ratios affected by gendercide, and even maintained an excess of
women to men based on evidence of gender differences in conversion during the
first three centuries.[361]
This was due, in part, to the direct relationship of women being afforded a
higher status in the Christian community and the particularly high
responsiveness of women to the Christian message.[362]
R. L. Fox records a study of
an inventory of property removed from a Christian house church in the North
African town of Cirta. In A.D. 303 the Christians had gathered for distribution
to the poor 82 women’s tunics compared to 16 men’s tunics in addition to 47
pairs of female slippers. Fox concludes that both Christians and pagans
recognized the predominance of women in the membership of churches.[363]
Harnack also notes that “women of all ranks were converted in Rome and in the
provinces; although the details of these stories are untrustworthy, they
express correctly enough the general truth that
Christianity was laid hold of by women in particular, and
also that the percentage of
Christian women, especially among the upper classes, was
larger than that of men.”[364]
The sex ratios that existed in the
Roman Empire during the first three centuries A.D. could only occur when there
has been a significant interference with life.[365]
This study has attempted a survey of obstacles prevalent in the Greco-Roman
world, and Stark notes the result, “Given these practices, even in childhood,
before the onset of the high female mortality associated with fertility in
pre-modern times, females were substantially outnumbered among pagans
….Moreover, it wasn’t just the high mortality from childbirth that continued to
increase the sex ratios among adults.”[366]
In contrast to the pagan
world, followers of Jesus maintained a rate of natural increase. Their fertility
rates were noticeably higher than their pagan counterparts, and the Christian
mortality rates were substantially lower.[367]
The Early Church forbade all forms of abortion and infanticide, and removed the
major causes of gender imbalance that existed amongst the pagans. Accordingly,
Stark can confidently conclude Christian fertility played a significant role in
the rise of Christianity.[368]
Concerning the low fertility rates of
the pagans, Tertullian declares, “To the servant of God, forsooth, offspring is
necessary! For our own salvation we are secure enough, so that we have leisure
for children! Burdens must be sought by us for ourselves which are avoided by
the majority of the Gentiles, who are compelled by laws, who are decimated by
abortion.”[369]
Regarding Tertullian’s recognition of his surrounding culture’s tragedy, Stark
makes the following point: “The differential fertility of Christians and pagans
is not something I have deduced from the known natural decrease of the
Greco-Roman population and from Christian rejection of the attitudes and
practices that caused pagans to have low fertility. This differential fertility
was taken as fact by the ancients.”[370]
In Harris’ research
regarding the Roman demographics of the early centuries of the Christian movement
he emphasizes that while it would be a mistake to allow a discussion of
child-exposure to revolve around a demographic model due to the abundance of
evidence of other societies’ population stability despite the practice of
infanticide, there is still a strong correlation between average life
expectancy at birth and the frequency of infanticide in a society.[371]
Addressing the population of the Roman
Empire in the 2nd century A.D., Harris writes,
The most recent study … concludes that average life expectancy
at birth lay somewhere between twenty and thirty years (in other words, it
remains very uncertain). The author sees no difficulty in accepting a high
level of infanticide. This model includes a mortality rate of 30.6 per cent in
the first year of life. As Frier has shown, however, a higher rate of infant
mortality is quite consistent with a stable population. His own model includes
a mortality rate of 35.8 per cent in the first year. An infant mortality rate
as high as this, or nearly so, should be hypothesized to accommodate the level
of child-exposure, more often than not fatal, that the evidence reviewed here
would lead one to expect.[372]
Low life expectancy combined with low
fertility rates resulted in a culture of hopelessness and death that spilled
out into other practices including chariot races and gladiatorial contests in
the coliseum.[373]
A High View of
Marriage and Life
According to Stark, one of the primary
causes of low fertility was a patriarchal society that did not have a high view
of marriage.[374]
In fact, the Roman censor Quintus Caecilius
Metellus Macedonicus proposed in 131 B.C.
that the senate make marriage obligatory because so many men chose to remain
single. Augustus made the same proposal to the Senate a century later, but it
was not received with any more interest than the first time it was proposed.[375]
Stark concludes,
In the final analysis, a population’s capacity to reproduce
is a function of the proportion of that population consisting of women in their
childbearing years, and the Greco-Roman world had an acute shortage of women.
Moreover, many pagan women still in their childbearing years had been rendered
infertile by damage to their reproductive systems from abortions or from
contraceptive devices and medicines. In this manner was the decline of the
Roman Empire’s population ensured.[376]
In contrast to the pagan
attitude of ambivalence, or outright disdain towards marriage, Christian
practice held marriage in the utmost regard.[377]
Followers of Jesus affirmed marriage as instituted by God at creation (Gen
2:20–25) and also insisted that
Jesus reaffirmed marriage as an institution from God in the
Gospel accounts (Matt 19:3–
6). Hurtado concludes the book, “Why on
Earth Did Anyone Become a Christian in the First Three Centuries?” by arguing
that it was certain beliefs and teachings that attracted pagans to Christianity
more than any social factors. John Barclay agrees, “After all that can be said
about social trends and sociological models, a decisive ingredient in the
spread and impact of early Christianity is in fact early Christian ideology
(dare I say, theology?).”[378]
Hurtado contends that it was
not merely an intellectual assent to doctrine that characterized Christian
growth, but that there was an affective impact in the experience of Christians.
Even the prayers of the Early Church as recorded in the Liturgy of St. Basil
demonstrate the foundation for a counter-cultural ethic of life: “O God, who
knowest the age and the name of each, and knowest every man from his mother’s
womb.”[379]
Directly influencing the Early Church’s resolve to remain true to their faith
was the doctrine of a loving God.[380]
Stark references the dialogue between Caecilius and Octavius and observes that
Octavius argues, “that day by day the number of us is increased” which is
attributed to “our fair mode of life.”[381]
One practical example of an affective impact was in the way
that the Early
Church treated widows. Stark notes,
Pagan widows faced great social pressure to remarry.
Augustus even had widows fined if they failed to remarry within two years. Of
course, when a pagan widow did remarry she lost all of her inheritance, it
becoming the property of her new husband. In contrast, among Christians,
widowhood was highly respected and remarriage was, if anything, mildly
discouraged. Thus, not only were well-to-do Christian widows enabled to keep
their husband’s estate, the church stood ready to sustain poor widows, thus
allowing them a choice as to whether or not to remarry.[382]
In these conditions Christian women
possessed far greater advantages in their lives compared to their pagan
counterparts. They enjoyed superior equality and marital security.
The Apostle Paul follows
Jesus’ example in Matthew’s Gospel (Matt 19:1–6) and roots an ethic for
marriage in the creation account:
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and
gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the
washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself
in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy
and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their
own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own
flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because
we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother
and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is
profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let
each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she
respects her husband. (Eph 5:25–33)
Stark further comments on marriage in the Early Church:
If a major factor in low fertility among pagans was a
male-oriented culture that held marriage in low esteem, a major factor in
higher fertility of Christians was a culture that sanctified the marital bond.
As noted, Christians condemned promiscuity in men as well as in women and
stressed the obligations of husbands toward wives as well as those of wives
toward husbands.[383]
In the same way, the early
Christian community deferred from their pagan counterparts in regards to the
practice of birth control. Primarily, this was centered on sexual practices.
Stark observes that medical historians are convinced that the ancient world
had, at the very least, a tolerable comprehension of reproduction and
“developed a substantial inventory of preventive measures.”[384]
The chewing of various plants such as
Queen Anne’s lace, contraceptive devices inserted into the vagina, goat
bladders as condoms, honey, ointments, and even pads of soft wool were used to
block the path of semen to the uterus.[385]
Apart from contraceptive techniques men and women practiced sexual variations
to prevent pregnancy. These varied from mutual masturbation to a preference for
anal sex.[386]
Jack Lindsay notes, “Heterosexual anal intercourse was very common. It was used
as the simplest, most convenient, and most effective form of contraception.”[387]
The Christian community emphatically rejected anal intercourse, and in so
doing, spurned the patterns of their Greco-Roman pagan counterparts that
further led to population decrease.[388]
Finally, Stark notes, “Given their attitudes about marriage and their distant
relationships with their wives, many Greco-Roman men seem to have depended on
the most reliable of all means of birth control, avoiding sex with their
wives.”[389]
In contrast to their pagan neighbors Christians approached marriage with a
fundamentally different mindset. Stark writes, “In
fact, devout Christian married couples may have had sex more often than did the
average pagan couple, because brides were more mature when they married and
because husbands were less likely to take up with other women.”[390]
Not only did early
Christians differ with pagans on the practice of certain birth control methods,
but also in the moral foundations of their ethic for valuing the life of
infants. Whereas the Stoic philosophers and others appealed to the civic duty
of families, the Christian response was often pointed in its appeal to a moral
conscience grounded in a theology of God. Hurtado writes, “As we have seen in
considering the practice of infant exposure, early Christian writers often
expressed a view held also by at least some pagans. What made the early
Christian stance in such matters different was not always the sentiment itself
but that it was openly expressed and was intended to shape social behavior.”[391]
The Christian response was intended not only for the benefit of disciples of
Jesus, but for the general public.
In a milieu of antagonism
towards Christ followers, which required of them discretion and wisdom in how
to engage the broader culture, the issue of infanticide was one practice that
the early Church spoke out against vociferously.[392]
Stark concludes his study on Christian fertility in the early church:
It was for this reason that I devoted much attention to
establishing that the primary causes of a population decline in the Greco-Roman
world did not apply to the Christian subculture. It thus seems entirely proper
to assume that Christian population patterns would have resembled the patterns
that normally apply in societies having an equivalent level of economic and
cultural development. So long as they do not come up against limits imposed by
available subsistence, such populations are normally quite expansive. Lack of
subsistence was not a factor in this time and place, as the frequent settlement
of barbarians to make up population shortages makes clear. We can therefore
assume that during the rise of
Christianity the Christian population grew not only via
conversion, but via fertility ….All that can be
claimed is that a nontrivial portion of Christian growth probably was due to
superior fertility.[393]
Cherry adds, “Rather than celebrating
abortion and infanticide as liberation from the tyranny of biological forces,
through its experience and worship of God, Christianity recognized in abortion
and infanticide a further enslavement to the passions.”[394]
These practices did not represent liberation, but rather roads to damnation.[395]
Secondary
Conversions
Another factor in growth
directly connected to a Christian ethic of human life and family, and
specifically related to children was the social occurrence of secondary
conversions—a religious conversion that results precisely from a relationship
with another convert. In the particular context of early Christian growth,
Stark refers to conversions resulting from the marriage of Christian women to
non-Christian men.[396]
To illustrate, consider the following example,
After person A converted to a new faith, that person’s
spouse agreed to “go along” with the choice, but was not eager to do
so and very likely would not have done so otherwise. The latter is a secondary
convert. In the example offered by Chadwick, upper class wives were primary
converts and some of their husbands (often grudgingly) became secondary
converts. Indeed, it frequently occurred that when the master of a large
household became a Christian, all members of the household, including the
servants and slaves, were expected to do so too. Keep in mind that once
immersed in the Christian subculture, even quite reluctant secondary converts
can become ardent participants.[397]
Hurtado recognizes the reality of these
mixed marriages as addressed in 1 Pet 3:1–7. He writes, “[Here] we have another
reference to the possible tensions in the marriages of believers to
unbelievers, particularly the situation of believing wives married to
unbelieving husbands. The text first urges Christian wives to be submissive to
their own husbands, aiming through ‘the purity and reverence’ of their lives to
win them over ‘without a word.’”[398]
If the Early Church had taken a rigid stand against such marriages, it ran the
risk of alienating Christian women who might choose to abandon the faith over
the prospects of remaining single as well as amassing a population of young,
unwed females. At the same time, a surplus of eligible Christian women provided
the opportunity for secondary converts and even more growth in Christian
communities.
Stark also examines 1 Pet 3
along with 1 Cor 7:13–14 and concludes that both Peter and Paul, at least to
some extent, were able to tolerate exogenous marriage.[399]
He posits, “Peter and Paul hoped that Christians would bring their spouses into
the church, but neither seemed to have the slightest worry that Christians
would revert to, or convert to, paganism.”[400]
The high level of commitment exhibited by Christians in the face of danger and
persecution in the Roman Empire served to reinforce the belief that they would
be prudent and cautious when entering into exogenous marriages.[401]
The case of Poponia
Graecina, an early convert to Christianity and member of the upper class in
Rome, is particularly instructive. “It is uncertain whether her husband
Plautius ever became a Christian,” Stark writes, “although he carefully
shielded her from gossip, but there seems to be no doubt her children were
raised as Christians.”[402]
The Early Church recognized the numerical and moral advantage of children being
raised in the faith even in exogenous marriages.[403]
Michael Walsh agrees when commenting on a decision by Ignatius of Antioch that
Christians could marry only with the permission of the local bishop, “Ignatius’
proposal may have been an attempt to encourage marriage between Christians, for
inevitably marriages between Christians and pagans were common, especially in
the early years. The Church did not at first discourage this practice, which
had its advantages: It might bring others into the fold.”[404]
Stark comments on the
benefits of secondary conversion, “The fact that there was such a shortage of
women in the empire seems sufficient to have produced the apparent population
decline. And it most certainly gave Christians a significant advantage, not only
in fertility, but also in producing substantial rates of conversion through
marriage.”[405]
In the Roman Empire there was such a remarkable shortage of pagan brides that many Christian girls had to marry pagan
men. The resulting mixed marriages saw husbands committing to Christianity at
significant rates, and it is reasonable to say this phenomenon would not have
happened had it not been for their marriage to believing females.[406]
In the Greco-Roman world women were proportionately far more likely to become primary
converts, and their pagan husbands secondary converts.
Conclusion
This chapter offers historical evidence for
the growth of Christianity being significantly influenced by doctrinal
positions on a Christian ethic of human life and family and fertility rates of
Christians versus pagan families. Stark writes, “So, substantially more
Christian (and Jewish) female infants lived.”[407]
As these female infants lived and thrived in Christian families and
communities, a high level of exogenous marriages took place resulting in even
more conversions and growth in the Christian faith.
By the 4th
Century A.D. the Roman Empire sought measures to curb the instances of
infanticide, perhaps in response to general economic decline. Hans Zinsser
details the desperation of the Empire by describing the admission of
“barbarians” as settlers of empty estates and to fill the army.[408]
In March A.D. 374, Flavus Valentinian Augustus
addressed Probus, who was in command of Italy, Africa and Illyricum, and he issued the first clear edict condemning
child-exposure in the Roman Empire’s history:
Let everyone give nourishment to his own progeny. If,
however, anyone thinks of exposing it, he will be subject to the statutory
punishment. But we leave no opportunity open to masters and patrons (sc. to
reclaim children), if a decision based on pity collects those whom they have
exposed (as it were) to death: he will not be able to call his own a being whom
he held in contempt when it was at the point of death.[409]
W. V. Harris comments on Valentinian’s
motivation, “The criminalization of childexposure, with its potentially
considerable repercussions in the spheres of marriage and sexuality, can easily
be seen as an attempt on the part of Christian emperors to assert ideological
control in the reproductive lives of their subjects.”[410]
In
The Rise of Christianity, Stark makes
a convincing case that the Early Church grew into the dominant influence in
Western culture because, among other things, pagans practiced infanticide while
Christians valued the lives of their children, and Christians built strong
families while pagans did not.[411] Mark Cherry aptly describes the spiraling trap of the
pagan ethic, which Christians were able to avoid:
Without appeal to God, and His unique perspective on
reality, morality and bioethics are trapped in immanence. Absent God, there
exists no standpoint outside of particular cultural sociohistorically
conditioned perspectives from which to communicate any deeper perspective of
reality or of the bioethics that such a perspective on reality would secure.[412]
The Early Church was able to capture God’s
perspective on morality and bioethics and place an inestimable value on the
lives of children and on the well-being of the family unit.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA AND COMPARATIVE
ANALYSIS
The general
research question that this study addresses is what effect a Christian ethic of
life has on the growth of Christianity in a totalitarian society. Specifically,
are there parallels between the Early Church’s response to Greco-Roman cultural
norms of abortion and gendercide and Chinese Christians’ response to similar
cultural norms in the context of the One-Child Policy?
The design considerations
for this project’s qualitative method follow concerns of methodologists, Yvonna
S. Lincoln and Egon G. Buba in Naturalistic
Inquiry. Lincoln and Guba list ten concerns in preparing a qualitative
dissertation: 1) Determining the focus of the inquiry; 2) Determining the fit
of paradigm to focus; 3) Determining the fit of the inquiry paradigm to the
substantive theory selected to guide the inquiry; 4) Determining where and from
whom data will be collected; 5) Determining successive phases of the inquiry;
6) Determining instrumentation; 7) Planning data collection and recording
modes; 8) Planning data analysis procedure; 9) Planning the logistics; and 10)
Planning for trustworthiness.[413]
Research Methodology
The first three considerations concern the
assumptions that underlie this study.[414]
Sampling was
purposively conducted based upon Strauss and Corbin’s grounded theory approach.[415]
An inductive analysis was used to condense raw data into a summary format and
to establish a clear link between the research question and the summary
findings. The procedure for condensing the data began with data coding that
included multiple thorough readings of all responses. The responses were then
organized around four major themes. If a comment addressed more than one theme,
it was coded in each of the themes. Data that was chosen for presentation in
this chapter specifically addressed the research questions of the study.
Sampling and Sample
Size
The author used “criterion sampling” and
identified and located participants who either experienced or are experiencing
the pressures of family planning policy in China.[416]
For the purposes of this study, all participants were selected because they are
Chinese Christians and their experience is relevant to the study.[417]
The research design intentionally incorporated a wide range of perspectives.
The population of the study includes twelve Chinese nationals and fifteen U.S.
naturalized citizens residing in North Carolina.[418]
The participants in China were chosen at random from both a house church
network in Hebei province and from a local Three Self Patriotic Movement[419]
(TSPM) network in Hebei using local contacts in the region.[420]
The author conducted the interviews for the fifteen U.S. naturalized citizens.
Personal acquaintances of the author conducted the twelve incountry interviews.[421]
The author was personally acquainted with two of these participants, and the
other interviews were chosen from referrals given by naturalized citizens. One
particular gatekeeper[422]
was instrumental in providing access to the participant pool, which is a
deliberate representational sample of Chinese Christians affected by the
OneChild Policy.[423]
Each participant was willing to discuss sensitive issues such as government
control, family planning policies, and the influence of Christian faith.
Instrumentation
An ethnographic interview was used as the
survey instrument to determine if there was a correlation between a Christian
ethic of life and the growth of Christian families in the context of a
thirty-five year coercive birth control system.[424]
Participants were contacted either in person, by telephone, or via email, to
request their participation in the project. For fluency of language and
logistics, nationals facilitated the twelve in-country interviews. All surveys
were confidential and included an Agreement to Participate
The survey began with a prepared
opening statement, “The research in which you are about to participate is
designed to explore the Christian response to abortion and gendercide in China
in the context of the One Child Policy. The author for purposes of dissertation
research is conducting this research. In this research, you will answer
questions in three categories—family structure, social structure, and religious
structure. Any information you provide will be held strictly confidential, and
at no time will your name be reported, or your name identified with your
responses.” Following the opening statement, the author obtained informed
consent by asking the participants to sign an Agreement to Participate form. Each
participant was informed that anonymity would be honored and a pseudonym would
be utilized in the study’s report.
Next, the survey asked
participants to identify their demographic setting, including sex, age, church
association, and education.[426]
The second part of the survey asked
participants to identify the predominant influences on their decision-making
concerning family planning and other social justice issues. The questions
employed in the interviews were worldview questions.[427]
The survey included three categories of
questions—family structure, social structure, and religious structure.[428] The survey produced textual data and focused the
interview on the research question.
Data Collection and
Procedures
The interviews conducted were open-ended, resulting
in “mid-high fidelity and little structure.”[429]
Interviews gathered in Hebei Province were recorded in a combination of audio recordings and field notes while
interviews in Shanghai were collected through surveys. Interviews gathered in
the United States were recorded using field notes, including a journal to
record impressions and responses. Data analysis was
conducted based upon Strauss and Corbin’s grounded theory approach with three
steps of coding: open coding, axial coding, and selective coding.[430] Open coding was used to become familiar with the data by
reading through the surveys repeatedly. Axial coding allowed the author to
organize the data into categories. Finally, selective coding permitted the
author to develop a central narrative revolving around four themes.[431]
The subsequent data reduction process
selected and focused the data in the field notes and transcripts for
intelligibility. This process included “smoothing out” language for efficiency.[432]
The author utilized data reduction for the study to remain focused on salient
research questions.
Validity
The trustworthiness of the research design
concerns the reliability, internal validity and external validity of this
study.[433]
The ethnographic interview can be replicated without difficulty in other
contexts and with other researchers. The demographic coding scheme is both
simple and reproducible. The internal validity of the study is corroborated
through spending an extended amount of time with the participants and in
comparing participants’ responses with other data available through scholarly
research in the area of the OneChild Policy. Participant surveys are adequately
noted so that the “generalizability” of the study is transferable to other
settings.[434]
Study
limitations are primarily due to sampling. Data from each participant was
collected in one interview, followed by occasional emails or text messages for
further clarification. A comprehensive
interpretation of the relationship between Christian faith and the growth of
Christianity in China cannot be attained through one interview. While the
author attempted to gather as much information as needed for this work by conducting interviews, collecting data, and
forming observations, the findings presented in this study need to be explored
further.
Triangulation
Triangulation is utilized in qualitative
studies to enhance the quality of the investigation. It is employed to provide
different types of data and to mix intentional samples. While there are several
methods of triangulation, this study employed triangulation of sources, which
examines the consistency of data sources using a uniform survey tool.[435]
Data for this study was solicited from multiple sources in order to
substantiate evidence and develop common themes. Participants included mainland
Chinese in two different geographic
locations as well as naturalized U.S. citizens currently residing in North
Carolina. The study pool included a wide range of ages, educational levels and
members of various socio-economic means. In addition, some of the participants
came from a onechild background while others had multiple siblings.
Credibility
The author brings certain biases to this
study. First, the author is a missions pastor at Apex Baptist Church in Apex, North Carolina.
Second, the author has both lived and
worked in Sichuan, China, including a two-year term with the
International Mission Board (2004–2006).
The author lived for one year in Tianjin, China (1990–1991). Third, the author
is involved with Hand of Hope Pregnancy Resource Center in Raleigh, North
Carolina, and served on its Board of Directors from 2007–2009. With these
preconceptions in mind, the author strove to remain as objective as possible
throughout the study.[436]
Demographic Data
The composition of the participant pool was
56 percent female and 44 percent male. In the sample, 68 percent were married,
62.5 percent of the unmarried participants were male. Respondents with children
equaled 72 percent, while 32 percent of participants had more than one child.
The average number of children in the participant pool was 1.16.[437]
The participants’ ages ranged from 25 to 65 years. The average age of the
participants was 39.72 years.
Regarding
generational breakdown: 24 percent of the participants belonged to the
Boomer Generation; 40 percent belonged to
Generation X; and 36 percent were Millennials. Participants who were an “only
child” accounted for 36 percent of the sample, while 58 percent had at least
one sibling. Occupations included journalists, lab engineers, pastors,
linguistics professors, students, movie producers, software engineers,
attorneys, and housewives. Graduate degrees were held by 40 percent of
participants while 52 percent had a Bachelor’s Degree or various Associate or
Technical Degrees. Participants who completed their educational experience upon
graduating secondary school accounted for 8 percent of the sample. Hometowns
included representatives from Beijing, Shanghai, Dalian, Xinjiang Province,
Shandong Province, Hubei Province, Sichuan Province, and Jilin Province. Urban
residents accounted for 64 percent of the population pool, and 36 percent came
from a rural background. The fifteen participants residing in North Carolina
had lived in the United States for an average of 10.5 years. Family church, or
house church, participation accounted for 63 percent of the sample, and
37 percent were associated with the TSPM.
Surveys
Participant responses to the survey were
organized around four themes, which included: 1) The changing dynamics of
Chinese families relating to economics and freedom; 2)
Christian faith and gender equality; 3) A
Christian ethic of life and social justice; and 4) The relationship between
religion and government. Once these overarching patterns within the data were
consolidated they were analyzed to identify similarities presented in
Chapter Five between the Early Church’s response to abortion
and gendercide and
Chinese Christians’ response in the context of the One-Child
Policy.
The first theme is
significant as this study attempts to connect the importance of sociological
issues with the growth of Christianity. With the transformation of family
structure and an evolution of family values into an increasingly urban Chinese
context, Christians have distinctive opportunities
to display a Christian value system in the way they disciple their families.
The theme of the connection
between Christian faith and gender equality is important as this study attempts
to demonstrate similarities between the Early Church response to sex-selective
abortion and infanticide and the Chinese Christian response to sex-selective
abortive practices. Specifically, Christians have a distinctly different view
concerning the respective value of gender in comparison to the non-Christian
population in China. Christians affirm that women are made in the image of God
in the same way that men are.
The
third theme of this study serves to illustrate another similarity between
Chinese Christians and the Early Church. Chinese Christians demonstrate
a gospelcentered ethic of human life and family through their moral choices in
which every human being is treated as unique gifts from God. This includes the
unborn as Christians refuse to abort their children and sometimes take extreme
measures to carry their children to term.
The final theme of the
relationship between religion and government is important to this study as it
shows the commitment of Chinese Christians to the Bible as their ultimate
authority. While participants acknowledge their duty as Christians to obey the
governing authorities, they also disclose how their faith informs their
unwillingness to comply with unbiblical public policy. This addresses the
research question: What effect does a Christian
ethic of life have on the growth of Christianity in a totalitarian society?
By remaining faithful to the truth of the Gospel, Christians are able to
persist in obedience and multiply both biologically and through conversion.
The Changing Dynamics
of Chinese Families
Each of the participants verified that the
dynamics of family life in China have changed drastically over the past three
to four decades. These changes can be grouped into three categories: economic
development, social engineering, and cultural diffusion.[438]
Families have shrunk in direct response to rapid economic growth and to family
planning policies. The study’s participants came from a wide range of family
patterns including single person households, single parent households,
households with multiple children, and dual income households.
NCFDL had multiple
siblings and came from a rural background in southwest China. He agreed that China’s social structure is changing, particularly in the
realm of family. NCFDL suggested that in traditional China women made the
important decisions, however today decisions are generally mutual.[439] Due to recent economic and technological growth the
younger generation was able to earn substantially higher wages than its
parents. Because of wage increases, the current generation had the power to
make decisions and had freedom to challenge traditional patterns of behavior.
NCFDL surmised that in modern China those who did well economically were
empowered to make decisions for the family and had freedom to determine their
own course.
Consequently, older generations were more likely to
listen to their children’s opinions.
NCKLL, a Ph.D. student agreed, “My parents’ generation
moved to the city. This led to quite a bit of change. People have access to
more money now.” DLM, an unmarried millennial, highlighted the willingness of
families to move from rural areas to
urban centers. She said that she witnessed change in family dynamics,
particularly over the last decade. In the past the father worked outside the
home while the mother tended to domestic life and the father’s mother had the
most authority in the family. In 2018, each parent worked outside the home, the
grandparents played a significant role in raising the children, and the wife
was more important than the husband’s mother. DLM referenced the out of balance
sex ratio and commented that since it is difficult for men to find wives, the
mother-in-law no longer had primary authority, which served to facilitate
potential marriage partners as potential wives felt more autonomy.
The lines of authority have transferred to younger sons
and daughters in the work force as a new generation bore the majority of labor
demands. Meanwhile the older generation stayed behind in the countryside and
took care of the family and grandchildren.[440] NCFDL noted, however, that in general the younger
generation still felt like it has the responsibility to take care of their
parents. Particularly in the context of the
One-Child Policy, “only children” bore the weight of a
substantial “social burden” to care for each set of parents.[441] It was not unusual for children to have bought a house
for their parents near their own residence. NCJIY also mentioned the reality of
families living together. The grandparents took care of the children while the
parents worked during the week.
NCDLH, a millennial Christian,
emphasized the change to family structure, and the decrease in family size. As
he grew up in rural southwest China the majority of his classmates fit the
“only child” pattern. NCMLL, another millennial living in the United States, shared
that his childhood experience was filled with friends who were the only child
in their respective families. NCJIY affirmed that families were becoming
increasingly smaller as a consequence of social engineering.
NCTQQ,
a software engineer in the United States, mentioned
that for her Boomer
Generation two children was considered a small family. In
2018, the nuclear family in
China typically fit the 4–2–1 pattern suggested by family
planning officials in the 1970s.[442]
Normally, NCJIY said, this new arrangement was satisfactory. However, if
the parents came from different
locations then this presented logistical problems for the family. For example,
which set of grandparents received a visit during Spring Festival? NCJIY solved
this conundrum by inviting her parents to live with her family for an entire
year.
NCLYS, a mother of three
preschoolers, shared a consequence of the 4–2–1 family dynamic known throughout
China as “The Little Emperor.” According to LYS, this new reality was directly
attributable to the One-Child Policy. Each child had six adults that focused on
that child’s every need. NCTQQ commented that the family treated this one child like a “treasure.” The result
of being the center of attention, according to NCLYS, is that these children
were spoiled. They did not care what anyone else had to say and were quick to
quit when life became difficult. They had no desire to pursue a vocation and
work hard because they believed that their family would take care of them.[443]
NCJMZ, a business consultant residing in the United States, observed that these
“little emperors” drove expensive cars and assumed money was the answer to all
of life’s difficulties. They frequently cheated in school because they did not
care about the consequences and believed their parents would always provide
them with finances to live comfortably.
Whereas in previous
generations families were able to gather together with extended relations, it
was much more difficult to have this sort of family interaction with a small
nuclear family. NCJEY, a stay-at-home mother, grieved this change in society.
She shared a recent conversation with her mother, who was one of seven
siblings. Every week her mother gathered with her sisters and brothers and
played mahjong and shared a meal. NCJEY believed this kind of camaraderie is
what should characterize family and lamented the fact that her generation did
not make the same effort to gather. According to NCJEY, Generation X, was too busy with their
own children. Even when she traveled to her hometown, she rarely encountered
her own cousins as their time was consumed with the demands of parenting. NCJEY
related the story of a Chinese New Year’s celebration, which was hosted by her
mother. Each of her uncles and aunts attended the party, but NCJEY’s generation of family did not attend.
She speculated that perhaps they would visit friends instead, and ultimately,
this change in family dynamics led to a sense of loneliness and isolation.
NCLYS concurred with NCJEY’s assessment. NCLYS shared that her parents’ family
was very large. Both her mother and father had three siblings. Like NCJEY’s
parents, NCLYS’s uncles and aunts gathered together during festivals and
celebrated Chinese New Year together. However, NCLYS is an “only child,” and
her generation of cousins was not particularly close. She agreed that her
cousins lived separate lives, and without siblings her family life was
secluded. NLH, an expectant mother from western China, shared that her extended
family visited their siblings less than they saw their neighbors.
NCDLH mentioned a shift in
generational preference for relocation. When his family moved from the
countryside to a city, his grandmother chose to stay in her hometown instead of
moving with the rest of the family. She preferred to stay in a closeknit
environment with high levels of familiarity where various families frequently
interacted with one other. DSL suggested that her grandmother’s preference was
informed by the reality of city life in China where it was extremely difficult to
build relationships with neighbors. NCKLL also observed this shift in culture,
“In my parents’ generation everyone lived in the same province, but now people
live everywhere.” NCJOZ had one son. In 2018 she had lived in the United States
for less than a year while her husband resided and worked in China. She
discussed the impact of education on the changing dynamics of family and how it
had impacted economics and freedom in China. In the past, NCJOZ reminisced,
China’s population was poorly educated and was generally reluctant to send
children to school due to financial limitations. NCJOZ, who holds a Ph.D., said
that in 2018 people were much better educated as young parents desired for
their children to receive advantageous educations. There was an “underneath
current,” according to NCJOZ, which ran through familial society and resulted
in children receiving a better education that led to wider economic
opportunities and greater freedom for their future.
Because of the change in
family dynamics, Christians have the opportunity to live out their faith as
they disciple their family. They are able to not only intentionally engage
their own extended family, but they can also reach out to their neighbors who
are experiencing loneliness as they live an increasingly isolated lifestyle.
Through the church fellowship, they can meet material needs and develop rich
community, particularly for those who have moved away from their families into
urban environments. Christians can also develop strategic family ministries
including private education options that minister to a variety of familial
structural patterns. Through increased economic freedom, younger generations
have the potential to live out their Christian faith among minority groups in
remote geographic locations throughout China.
Christian Faith and
Gender Equality
The majority of participants in this study
agreed that considerations of gender equality have shifted over the years.
Unlike secular society, Christians generally continued to choose to give birth
to daughters and treated them with equal dignity and worth throughout the
thirty-five years of the One-Child Policy.
Before Conversion
NCTQQ became a Christian in the early 2000s
due to the influence of a Christian professor in her life. One of six children,
NCTQQ had three brothers and two sisters. She summarized her experience, “My
mother did all of the cooking, and she was housewife. In her mind, it was the
girl’s duty to take care of all the housework. If there was a girl at home,
then the boys should not do any housework! And before I knew Jesus I treated my
father like a god. We did not believe in the existence of any god, but we
trusted that my father always had the right answers. We gave him great
respect.” NCTQQ went on to receive the highest education of any of her
siblings—a Ph.D. in the United States. While her mother allowed her daughters
to receive an education, which was unusual in her generation, NCTQQ’s mother
still held to a hierarchy where boys possessed more value than girls, and this
included her grandchildren. She loved her children and her grandchildren
equally, according to NCTQQ, but treated her grandsons as more important than
her granddaughters.
NCJOZ shared her experience
of gender privileges with education. She said that when she was a young girl
all of her female friends wanted to attend school, but their parents prohibited
education for girls. Consequently, they grew up hating their fathers because
their prospects were limited. NCJOZ revealed that her neighbors laughed at her
father for sending his daughters to school.
NCLGG, age 65, and a
Christian for eight years, shared an example of how his parents viewed gender
in language. The Chinese word for grandchild is s?nzi. NCLGG’s mother had a total of six grandchildren—four boys
and two girls. She referred to her grandchildren as y? s?nzi (1st grandchild), èr s?nzi (2nd grandchild), s?n s?nzi (3rd grandchild), and sì s?nzi (4th grandchild). According to NCLGG, she did
not have a name for her granddaughters and told others that she only had four
grandchildren. NCJOZ shared her experience with her grandparents, “My
grandfather really loved boys and did not want any girls. Because of my sister
and I, my Mother was not treated well by her parents.” NCJOZ struggled with
malnutrition as an infant and toddler, which contributed to a frustrated family
environment because she was not wanted due to her propensity for illness. She
shared that a common perception in the rural area where she grew up was a sense
of shame for those who could not give birth to a son. NCDLH also commented on
gender regarding a sense of shame. He said, “There is a big difference in the
way boys and girls are viewed by families. When I was born I was important
because I was a boy. My grandmother only had one grandson—me! My mother said
she felt like I had honored our family.”
This value discrepancy was
traced to customs surrounding the institution of marriage according to 60
percent of the participants. NCTQQ clarified, “When a girl is married, she
becomes a part of another family.” NCLYS agreed that boys were seen as more
important because when they married the wife came to live with the family, and
any income she made came to her husband’s family. He stated, “When a daughter
marries she joins a new household and her income contributes solely to her new
family.”[444]
NCJEY shared her experience regarding family names. After her marriage she did
not change her family name. Instead, she was known as Mrs. (husband’s family
name). NCJEY said that this practice was quite common in China. Furthermore,
NCJEY’s in-laws had a very popular surname and prepared male descendants’ names
well ahead of time as the female’s name was immaterial.
Several participants pointed to the reality that in a
traditional rural economy, it was necessary for families to have sons to work
the fields. NCKLL, who had an older sister, shared that his parents paid a
significant amount of money to the local family planning committee in order to
have a second child. They were willing to pay the “social compensation fee”
because of their strong desire for a son. NCJMZ added that the importance
placed upon a son is because traditionally it is the male heir that inherited
the business of the father.
NCJIY suggested that in
modern families with high levels of education, there was a higher regard for
gender equality. However, she also shared the experience of a good friend in an
urban center. Her friend’s husband had two sisters and recently discovered that
his parents desired to leave all inheritance to him, and leave nothing to his
sisters.
His parents’ rationale was that his sisters
would depart to become part of another family and be taken care of through a
different family network. NCJIY noted that in urban families it was frequently
the daughters, single or married, who bore the responsibility of caring for her
aging parents. However, they were unable to claim any property rights or
inheritance.
NCMNN, a single female in the United States, emphatically
denied that there had been significant change regarding gender equality. She
exclaimed, “All of our leaders are men! If you are a woman you have to be
beautiful and sacrifice yourself to older men in order to have any influence.”[445] NCMNN’s experience in the entertainment industry was a
constant struggle to maneuver through bureaucratic channels to accomplish her
job. She claimed that she was consistently harassed and extorted by men looking
for money or sexual favors. NCJMZ agreed with NCMNN’s assessment. He claimed
that there were no women serving in the Politburo and blamed the communist
political system.[446] CTU also agreed. She shared that there were recent
“high-profile murders” of young women at the hands of taxi and DiDi drivers.[447]
She referenced the occasional leaked footage of company holidays or promotional
events during which women were made to kiss or withstand groping from their
male superiors.
NCJEY, who
resides in the United States, mentioned the reactions of her friends
to her living situation as a stay-at-home mother. “My
friends say you are so lucky!” NCJEY shared. They said, “We have to work every day to make money, but you are
able to stay home and raise your children.” NCJEY’s cousin gave birth to a son
in 2018. After the delivery she turned
all responsibility for raising her child over to her mother. NCJEY observed,
“Her mother takes care of everything! My children and I have a good
relationship—we are closer than my cousin’s relationship with her son.”
After Conversion
In the participant pool, 94 percent affirmed
that male and female are equal in the sight of God and have the same dignity
and worth. NCFDL stated that in his family, they did not see any difference
between the sexes, and this belief came directly from their Christian faith. He
stated, “I feel like life is from God and God created every human being in his
image—male and female.”
DLM, a school administrator
with three brothers, agreed that life comes from God. Before she became a
Christian she listened to her parents quarrel, and it filled her with despair.
She considered taking her own life. Eventually her father committed suicide.
DLM’s faith in Jesus changed her heart. She believed that God is the only one
who can give or take life away.
NCASL described how her
parents’ Christian faith influenced their views on gender equality. She grew up
in extreme poverty where her family was unable to even celebrate birthdays, but
her mother and father considered boys and girls as equals. NCASL had a similar
experience with other female participants regarding educational opportunities.
While her childhood girl friends were intelligent, and would have most likely
done well in school, they were not allowed to attend. NCASL’s father gave her a
chance to attend school. She attributed that to his Christian faith.
YHM’s parents challenged the
One-Child Policy. Her brother and sister were both raised by other family
members as a consequence of her parents’ decision to have more children. YHM
commented that her Christian mother vocally opposed the family planning
policies of the government.
Based upon survey responses,
Chinese Christians are in a unique position to allow their Christian faith to
influence society with a Christian view on gender. A majority of the
participants agreed that their faith allowed them to advocate for societal
change where women also receive property and inheritance. They also choose to
give birth to daughters and value them in the same way they would value a son.
Their beliefs incorporate new customs into marriage conventions that equally
value boys and girls. Christians are also able to advocate for the dignity and
equality of women in the workplace.
A Christian Ethic of
Life and Social Justice
NCTQQ shared her feelings concerning the
One-Child Policy before she became a Christian. “When I was young,” she
remembered, “I thought the One-Child policy was normal. I thought that it was
acceptable to have one child and then to have an abortion. In fact, I had one
abortion.” When she came to the United States as a university student, NCTQQ
realized that her American classmates were interested in the topic of both
coercive and elective birth control. NCTQQ recalled, “I told them that birth
control was necessary to control the population.” One particular classmate
asked NCTQQ if she believed abortion ended the life of a person. “At the time I
did not think that,” NCTQQ said. “I did not think the fetus was a person.”
NCTQQ did not come to believe that abortion was taking the life of a person
until two years after she became a Christian. NCTQQ pointed out that as she
grew up no one ever compared abortion to taking a life. It was an accepted
reality of serving the nation.
NCJEY
also shared her experience with an abortion. At the time of her procedure, she
felt no guilt. She never remembered having any kind of education that suggested
the child growing inside her was a life. But
everything changed when she became pregnant again years later with her
daughter. She constantly wept as she remembered the child that she had aborted.
As a trained nurse in China, she questioned herself. NCJEY recollected, “I was
taught how to care for patients, but I never thought of them as human beings. I
would consider them merely an object—not a person in real life. I was not a bad
person before I became a Christian, but in my work when I saw that someone was
terminally sick, or had poor quality of life, I would think to myself: You are
not treatable and it is no use—you will not last long!” NCJEY shared a story of
her time as a nurse, “One evening when I was on night shift an elderly lady
knocked on my office door in the hospital at 2 A.M. She told me, ‘My husband
urinated on the bed!’ I replied, ‘Go away! It is 2 A.M. Now, I cannot believe
that I acted so unkindly. But in those days patients were almost seen as a
nuisance.”
When NCJEY gave birth to her daughter in the United
States, the nurses treated her like family. NCJEY
was astounded that their attitude was so completely different than her own
experience as a nurse. NCJEY continued, “I would talk to my friends in China
who still worked as nurses in the hospital,
and we reminisced over how our teachers
never told us to view patients like our own family. Most
of my friends who work still do not see the patient as family. They think, ‘Go
away! Don’t bother me!’” NCJEY suggested that the fundamental issue was that a
culture without a Christian foundation did not see or treat patients as human
beings—as people that were made in the image of God. As NCJEY reflected on
these stories she commented that these experiences were what caused her heart
to change and soften towards Jesus.
NCTQQ shared one
episode that took place in the United States before she became a follower of
Jesus. She said, “One of my classmates in my
university delivered a premature daughter with a hole in her heart. I could
tell that this little girl was not normal. As she grew, she was physically
weak, and mentally slow. One day I told my classmate that she was lucky. When
she asked me to explain I informed her that if she lived in China her daughter
would not be allowed to live.” As
NCTQQ reflected on this experience she shared, “I
was a highly educated woman, and I still thought that if a child had a
disability in the early stages of her life that she should be terminated. I had
a totally different value system than I do now.”
NCTQQ’s classmate’s love for her daughter made a
significant impact on her heart. She realized that many of her friends
treasured life, and she wondered why. NCTQQ
shared that in her formative years in China there were no facilities for the
disabled. It was even considered acceptable to make fun of those who were
handicapped. Each Chinese New Year featured sketches on television where it was
commonplace to mock those with special needs.
YHM believed that Christians were uniquely qualified to
speak for life and to understand the complex issues surrounding the topic of
social justice. She said, “Before I became a believer, I was aware of injustice
affecting those around me, but I always thought that to advocate for the
defenseless would be too difficult for me.” YHM knew that she was responsible
to speak for those who were unable to speak for themselves.
NCTQQ never was acquainted with any Christians during her
childhood. The first time she heard of Christianity was from one of her
classmates who had returned to China from the United States. NCTQQ recalled
that her classmate excitedly told her, “Lei Feng is alive in the United
States!”[448] One of Lei Feng’s most admired character traits was that
he always took the opportunity to help people. During the Cultural Revolution
people ceased to come to each other’s aid.[449] No one helped another person for the sake of being kind.
Consequently, when NCTQQ heard that Lei Feng was alive in the United States she
was instantly curious. Her classmate continued, “They are called Christians!
They will help you—even at great cost to themselves.” This was the first time
NCTQQ was exposed to a concept of Christianity and it was why, many years
later, an old Bible on her professor’s shelf fascinated her. She continued, “I
asked him if I could look at it, and he gave
it as a gift. I struggled reading it for quite a while. It was so difficult!
But every
Friday evening his wife would pick me up and bring me to
a Bible study.”
NCTQQ shared that even after
becoming a Christian, God had progressively changed her deepest affections.
Concerning the sanctity of human life and other social justice issues, she had
experienced a “gradual change of faith in her heart” to where she came to see
all life as precious in the sight of Jesus.
In contrast to NCTQQ,
NCNLH was exposed to the gospel as a young girl when missionaries visited her
town. Her aunt subsequently converted and faithfully discipled NCNLH until her niece became a
Christian. NLH described how her Christian faith has influenced her view of
life and the responsibility of Christians in advocating for social justice. She
mentioned that since she became a follower of Jesus eight years ago she felt
the love and care of God in tangible ways. The church as the body of Christ had
consistently poured out love in her life and provided her help through many
transitions and difficult circumstances. Before she became a Christian, NCNLH
shared how she participated in constant gossip with her friends. She constantly
judged others, but after conversion she knew that God was the only one who
judges. Not only did she recognize God as the only just judge, but Jesus also
changed the way that she viewed people. Her Christian faith led her to believe
that all of humanity was created in the image of God, and they were equal in the sight of God. Consequently, there
was never any justification for the termination of life and no individual had
more value than another.
CTU, a stay-at-home mother
in eastern China, shared that Psalm 139 spoke to the mystery of humans in the
image of God. “For you formed my inward parts,” she recited, “you knitted me
together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully
made” (Ps 139:13–14a). Abortion, in CTU’s mind, was the taking of a human life
which was given by God. WIX shared her story of becoming pregnant out of
wedlock. Although she was a Christian, she considered having the baby aborted.
Her parents begged her not to give birth since she was not married. She shared,
“It was a hard struggle for me! But then I went to my pastor and his wife. They
opened the Bible and reminded me of the biblical view of life and I decided to
keep my baby.” WIX looked back on that time and realized that even if the
government had ordered her to have an abortion she would have refused because
life is precious to God.
While three of the
participants acknowledged that on occasion the death penalty might be
warranted, NCJMZ admitted to having second thoughts on this issue. He had
witnessed too many incidents where the government had mistakenly executed an
innocent man. With that one possibly exception, NCJMZ believed there was never
a reason to take a human life. Consequently, his ethic of life had transformed
since he became a Christian. His philosophy was “to do no evil,” and treat
others in the same way that the Heavenly Father had treated him. NCJMZ argued
that the difference between Christianity and all other religions is that
Christians went the extra mile to serve their enemies as well as their friends.
NCNLH was of the same mind and added that she believed Christians should be
involved in social justice issues and in playing a role in restoring peace to a
nation. She stated, “We are blessed so that we can bless others.” NCJIY
observed that before she became a follower of Christ, she was only concerned
with issues that impacted her family. She did not care how people experienced
injustice in society. However, NCJIY’s Christian faith had changed her
perspective and she believed that Christianity was crucial in addressing
systemic injustice.
CTU referenced the
admonition in James 1:27 to care for the orphans and widows in their
affliction. She spoke of the pattern of God’s faithfulness throughout the Bible
to care for the oppressed. She said, “Christians at all levels of society must
be primarily concerned with bringing glory to God by keeping his commands to
love him with all of our heart and soul and strength, and to love our neighbor
as ourselves.” CTU believed that Christians must be willing to involve
themselves when “injustice is rewarded and righteousness is punished.”
Followers of Jesus should be known as the most faithful servants and workers in
society.
NCMNN shared how her faith
impacted her view concerning the marginalized and the oppressed in society. In
China, she was never exposed to people with disabilities. They were usually
hidden away because society provided no considerations for those with
handicaps. After she became a Christian and
moved to the United States, she was awakened to the distorted reality in which
she grew up—namely, that in a society without a concept of the image of God,
those who were deemed “unproductive” or “disabled” were not given the same
value as those who were “normal.” NCMNN recognized that the marginalized and
oppressed were precious to God, and that Christians should be the first to care
for those whom society rejected.
NCASL also decried the
injustice inherent in a culture that did not believe that humans were created
in the image of God. Growing up in the 1960s and the 1970s, NCASL witnessed a
total disregard for those born with special needs. Not only were baby girls
left to die, but children with special needs were also exposed. Before she
became a Christian in 2009, NCASL never thought much about these practices, but
then her faith in Jesus opened her eyes. She learned to respect all people, and
her small group at church adopted several handicapped children. NCASL lamented
that those with special needs in China continued to be considered the “bottom
of society.”
NCLGG shared that before he
became a Christian at fifty-seven, he did not care about the oppressed. He felt
that it was the government’s responsibility to take care of the poor and
provide justice for the marginalized. But over the previous five years God
changed his heart. NCLGG quoted Matt 25:40, “And the King will answer them,
‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers,
you did it to me.’”
NCLGG desired to view people the way that
God saw them—with love and compassion. NCJDE also affirmed the obligation of
Christians to care for the oppressed. He stated that Christians were the means
in this present age by which God brings justice to the earth.
NCMLL stated, “I think we
should always do something when we or others face injustice. The image of God
requires justice for everyone. If a Christian witnesses a situation in which an
individual or group is being treated unjustly they should help. Helping others
should not be a matter of law or obligation, but rather an overflow of love,
which God has poured out in the lives of his followers.” Because everyone was
made in the image of God, NCMLL believed, there was never a justification to
end someone’s life. Every person had the right to live. NCKLL concurred, “The
image of God in men and women concerns justice for all.” For NCKLL, his
relationship with Jesus influenced all of his decisions, actions, and
motivations. He said that he always strived to live in a manner worthy of the
Gospel. This included the core conviction that it is never permissible to
terminate life. NCKLL believed that the first priority of a man is to lead
his family in following Jesus. This priority
was an overflow of love poured out in a person’s life.
NCLYS applied this
overflow of God’s love to how parents view children.
Christian parents have the privilege to take
care of their children and lead them to God. NCLYS stated, “Children are a gift
from God.” It was the responsibility of mothers and fathers to love their
children well. NCLYS acknowledged that miscarriages occurred frequently in
pregnancies, but her Christian faith had helped her to see that it was never
acceptable to end a child’s life intentionally.
NCJOZ shared how her
Christian faith changed the way she viewed life and her responsibility to speak
for the exploited. Ten years ago, a friend invited NCJOZ to join her on a
spiritual retreat. NCJOZ did not know what a “retreat” was, but she attended
nonetheless. The camp pastor shared the good news of Jesus, and NCJOZ responded
in faith and repentance. She began attending a local church, but struggled
because it was difficult for her to understand the teachings. Eventually, her
husband became a believer as well. NCJOZ shared, “I am so blessed. God has
changed my heart. When I lived in
China I loved to read novels and so I would encounter the
name of Jesus in my books.
But they were just a few words and never
revealed much about him. After I became a Christian and began to attend church,
my pastor would share from the Bible on the topic of the sanctity of human
life.” NCJOZ related that as she began to grow in her faith, her new Christian
friends consistently demonstrated the love of Jesus and treated her as “a
precious child of God.” NCJOZ revealed how this love changed everything for
her, “It was the first time in my life that I felt loved by someone that I did
not know. Growing up, I thought that my parents loved me, but not anyone else.
I was just a normal person— there was nothing special about me.” NCJOZ shared
that she realized every life was precious to God, and that he unconditionally
loved women and men. Before conversion,
NCJOZ used to rely on self-confidence to
carry her through life, but then she realized that “Jesus treasures everyone
and every person should be treated with the same unconditional love from the
day that they are born until the day that they die.”
It was the Christ-like love
of her community that also changed the lives of NCJOZ’s family. NCJOZ, who grew
up in the countryside, remembered how her mother and father worshiped a local
god. In the village there were many temples and an assortment of “fake gods.”
NCJOZ stated, “My parents and the other villagers wanted god, but they did not
know who a real God was. There were gods in charge of all aspects of life—the
kitchen, money, health, and many more. In our village everyone believed that
ghosts walked the streets. We did not know at that time that there was only one
true
God.”
NCJOZ related how years
later her parents visited when her son was born in the United States. When she
shared with her father that she had become a Christian, he laughed at her and
was incredulous. “I even took him to church once,” she said, “but he told me
that I had come to the United States to attain an advanced education, not to be
indoctrinated by a western religion.” Then her parents began to meet other
Christians and listened to the teaching of the Bible. “And their minds began to
change dramatically,” NCJOZ laughed. All her parents had ever known was the
hopeless lie that they were on their own and had to fight for their survival.
NCJOZ acknowledged, “This was what I was told as I grew up. But I knew God
could change their hearts! My parents saw how my friends loved on my family
when my son was born. They could not believe that these strangers would care
about our family in such a profound way. One day my parents watched The Jesus
Film, and they confessed Jesus as Lord and Savior! They were baptized soon
after. My mother decided that she wanted to give up the false gods that our
family had worshiped for so many years. But we had so many of them! We did not
know what to do with all of the idols? When my parents returned to China my
mother gathered all of the handmade idols in a large rice sack and threw them
in the dump!”
NCJOZ shared that her mother
and father had to pay a substantial fine when they gave birth to her younger
brother, but she believed that every child is worth the money and that there was never cause to abort a child. She recounted
the story of her aunt, her mother’s younger sister, who became pregnant out of
quota. The baby was virtually full term, and her aunt was taken in a truck
along with every other pregnant woman in the village to the hospital. There was
no place to hide and no way to refuse. NCJOZ’s cousin was aborted, and she
remembered those days as terrible and cruel.
By 2018, NCJOZ’s family
found a family church to attend. Her father had retired from work and was
studying music so that he could help lead the church in worship. NCJOZ
concluded the story of her parents, “God saved my family! We were always
optimistic about life even in all of its hardships, but now we have confidence
in Jesus.”
NCMNN shared her story of
life before she became a follower of Jesus. Upon graduation from college at the
age of twenty-three she worked for the government. It was a job arranged for
her by family, and they were proud of her accomplishments. She was employed by
the local family planning committee, and it seemed like the perfect career.
The pay was remarkable, but most of the
money “came under the table.” In her new role NCMNN wielded considerable power
throughout the city. For example, if an individual serving in the local
municipal government had out of quota children, NCMNN would remove the leader
from office. She was able to influence people’s careers. Because of this
control, NCMNN and her department were consistently showered with “gifts.”
NCMNN related, “We were able
to do many different things, and I never had to pay. I would even give all of
my salary back to my mother because the government paid for everything—my
housing, clothes, and vacations. They even hired a gourmet chef to come and
cook meals for us each day. I never had to eat regular food while I worked this
job.”
Despite the financial and
social privileges, NCMNN submitted her resignation after one year of work.
NCMNN said, “I saw terrible things so I had to quit. I was only twenty-three
years old, and even though I was not yet a Christian I felt like my soul was
innocent. Though at first my work seemed like a dream, I realized that it was
bad for me.”
Several times a week, NCMNN
and her colleagues traveled to various hospitals in the city to check on birth
quotas. Mothers who desired multiple children would go into hiding after
becoming pregnant. NCMNN’s team hired men “like the mafia” whose job was to
locate these expectant mothers. Even if the “mafia” was unable to track down
the mothers, NCMNN still had other options. She would go to the family and make
threats.
NCMNN recalled, “We would tell parents that
if they did not divulge where their daughters were hiding we would destroy
their house or sometimes kill their cows. Many of these people were poor and
only had a few cows for their livelihood. Most of the time families would
protect their children and we would carry out our threats.” NCMNN’s team even
had a professional car that everyone in the city recognized. If they found
women violating family planning policy, then would take the women away in the car
and “destroy” the children. Sometimes the mothers also died as a consequence of
late term abortions.
When NCMNN quit her job her
parents were devastated. They had exercised an enormous amount of guanxi and paid a large sum of money for
NCMNN to secure a lucrative career.[450]
NCMNN shared with her parents what she had experienced, but they either did not
believe her or just did not care. NCMNN concluded, “Even today, sometimes when
I sleep I still dream of the women weeping for their children. They are hopeless,
and I am responsible. I still can see their houses being destroyed. I saw many
terrible things that year. My colleagues were so kind to one another and to me.
But they were like devils to the poor and to anyone who dared to oppose them.”
NCDLH disclosed that for
many years Chinese families would use ultrasound technology for sex screening.
It was not until 1995, fifteen years after the official commencement of the
One-Child Policy, that China’s government banned the use of ultrasounds in prenatal
care.[451]
Before he became a Christian, NCDLH shared that his self-image and self-esteem
was extremely poor. He was in a particularly competitive class in middle school
and felt like he could never adequately perform. His value was found solely in
his schoolwork, and consequently he felt worthless. After he became a follower
of Jesus in 2009, he discovered that his worth was not measured in his
performance, but in his identity as a son of God.
Regarding social justice
NCDLH believed that Christian faith should always impact society in ways that
point to the goodness of God. He quoted Matt 5:13–14, “You are the salt of the
earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It
is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under
people’s feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be
hidden.” Christian behavior was characterized by care for those who cannot
speak for themselves, and there was never justification for taking the life of the
unborn. The mandate given to Christians by Jesus was to live as salt and light
in society.
NCFDL affirmed that life is
a gift from God and that God created every human being in his image, thereby
declaring each life as sacred. While NCFDL agreed that the Bible taught that
Christians have the responsibility to help the poor and oppressed, he suggested
that compassion should be a choice—an overflow of the heart—and not an act
legislated by government. In his opinion, legislated social justice was equivalent
to communism, which forced individuals to act in a certain way. Instead, NCFDL
suggested, Christians are to live with a different ethic. They were to serve
others unconditionally, even at great cost to themselves, because this was the
grace that had been extended to them through Jesus.
According to the surveys,
the participants in the study overwhelmingly agreed that Christian faith causes
believers to live out a different value system than the rest of Chinese
society. Christians are to advocate for an ethic of life in which every human
being is treated with dignity and significance. This includes the unborn as
Christians refuse to abort their children and are able to educate others that
life begins at conception. Christians can also show compassion to those who are
sick and to those with special needs and take part in the transformation of
patient care in the medical industry. Christian parents have the privilege and
responsibility to disciple their children who have been fearfully and
wonderfully made in the image of God.
The Relationship
between Religion and Government
According to NCTQQ, Christians cannot
separate their faith from social issues. She realized that this is a sensitive
topic, and that some people in the church consistently voted in one manner and
did not think through the consequences. “How can we say that we are against
abortion,” NCTQQ asked, “but on the other hand we do not consider the issue of
abortion when we vote?”
MLP, an environmental scientist,
suggested that the government was fearful of Christians because it believed
Christians had the power to enact change. It was because of this concern that
the government actively sought to suppress Christianity. MLP gave an example of
government control, and what she believed could be an effective way for
Christians to engage with political leaders. MLP recollected, “After the 2008
earthquake in Sichuan many Christian organizations came together to offer
humanitarian aid to the families of the deceased, the injured, and the families
of the missing. They generously provided medical care, food, and clothing. The
government, though, feared that the Christians were proselytizing so they
enforced strict controls that limited the help that was being given to the
people.”[452]
MLP believed that if Chinese Christians could continue to help those in need
and sacrificially gave to those who suffered, it would allow the government to
see how beneficial Christianity could be for the nation.
Concerning the rights that
citizens have in relating to local municipal leaders, NCTQQ did not believe
that people have any way to relate to leaders. They simply have to obey as
there was no election system. Instead, local leaders were assigned from the
highest levels of government down to the village level. NCJEY agreed and added
that Chinese leaders considered themselves as belonging to the upper echelon of
society. Just like the Pharisees, they would not talk to “normal people” who
were not like them and would only socialize with others in government. NCJEY
thought that this social discrepancy explained why many Chinese came to the
west. She stated, “In China people are not able to have their own life, but
when they come to the west they can. For example, if the mayor of a city in
China had a son who decided he wanted to marry a particular girl, and the girl
refused his advances, then the girl would be in serious trouble!” NCJEY believed that the elite could
take advantage of others indiscriminately.
She shared an example of her brother-in-law
who was a government employee. Similar to NCMNN’s story, almost all of his
needs were taken care of by his place of work. Even his mother was looked after
and received boxes of fruit and produce every week. While “normal people” had
to pay when they visited restaurants, her sister’s family only had to sign
their name. The same was true when they went on vacation or visited spas and
resorts.
NCMLL suggested that only
higher party officials had the right to remove leaders from municipal
positions. He gave an example from his hometown. The mayor received bribes and
did a poor job of covering up his crimes. His actions tainted other leaders,
and they rallied to remove him from his position. They had no desire to be
associated with him because he had been caught. NCMLL suggested that they too
were guilty of the same corruption.
NCJEY shared the example of
how her uncle, a CEO for a local business, was able to meet the mayor of their
city, but only when he appeared on the same television show. She said, “They
never had any personal meetings. And the mayor never asked my uncle personal
questions about our family. It was all set up for TV.” NCJEY asserted that in
order to be involved with the government an individual must belong to the
Chinese Communist Party. Only then could an individual be nominated for a
position of leadership.
NCTQQ proposed that local
leaders could be removed from their position. She stated, “If a leader does not
belong to the right group then they will rid themselves of that leader. For
example, when Xi came to power he said he was going to stop rampant corruption
throughout all levels of government. And he did send many people to prison. But
in reality, he was ridding himself of leaders who opposed him!” NCLYS added
that in the large city where she grew up it was possible for changes to take
place in leadership because of scandal or corruption, but many times the higher
authorities would simply find a different geographic locale to which the
disgraced leader could be transferred and retain the same powers. NCLGG
described local municipal leaders, particularly in rural areas, as “little
emperors” who held tremendous power over the population.
NCJEY advocated for
Christians to be involved in local government. When Christians were involved,
there was the opportunity for “much good to be done.” NCFDL agreed, “We should
participate in the political system because we live in this world.”
NCFDL pointed out that the political sphere
overlaps the Kingdom of God, and therefore Christians should be re-directing it
toward its true purpose—servants who provided the people with justice. CTU
added that Christians must be respectful in their interactions with leaders.
She referenced Titus 3:1–2, “Remind them to be submissive to rulers and
authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of
no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward
all people.”
NCJIY had a different
opinion regarding Christian involvement and believed that Christians should not
be engaged in the government. Her reasoning was that involvement led to
compromise with Christian faith. She insisted that Christianity should influence
the way people behave and the way they view others, but that this was almost
impossible to accomplish in a government position. NCJIY gave the example of
the complicated
history of the Roman Catholic Church (RCC)
in China.[453]
The RCC was under the control of the CCP and not Rome. NCJIY explained,
“Catholics are required to function in obedience to the Communist Party. The
government tells us that we have freedom of religion, but if you associate
yourself with a particular religion you are required to register with the
government. Everyone must obey the rules of the Communist Party.” SHT, an
attorney in northern China, disagreed. He thought that as a Christian he was
more obedient to the government than before he became a believer. However, he
also felt a greater desire to inform the government of any immoral action taken
against the people. The Bible was the only source of authority, SHT affirmed.
YHM’s story was similar to SHT in that she felt that before she became a
Christian she was more apt to rebel against the government. Now she sensed an
obligation to respect, honor and obey her leaders unless they were in direct
conflict with the Bible.
LHQ
referenced the story of Jesus’ encounter with the Pharisees in the Gospel of
Matthew, “Then Jesus said to them, ‘Whose
likeness and inscription is this?’ They said, ‘Caesar’s.’ Then he said to them,
‘Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things
that are God’s’” (Matt 22:15–22). Christian faith could play a significant role
in an individual’s relationship with the government, but believers must be
careful to never equate political power with favor from God.
NCTQQ described China’s political system as a complicated
network of guanxi.
She commented, “Very few people understand the concept of ‘citizen.’ They
don’t know their rights! I did not know
about this until living in the United States for many years.” NCLYS concurred,
“Growing up in school we knew that we had some rights, but whatever these rights
were, we were never clear. I think women have the right to apply for the same
job as a man, and we have a right to speak up to the government, but of course
no one does that.”
NCTQQ believed that most
Chinese Christians were not aware of the responsibilities of citizens because
they were raised in a context where the government was like the emperor. She
pointed out that many Chinese people thought that if President Xi Jinping died,
then his children should inherit his position. NCTQQ remembered that when Mao
passed away in 1976, she despaired because he did not have a son, and she
thought the world would end. She was young and inexperienced and believed that
many Chinese were still naïve when it came to politics.
NCNLH shared her experience with the complex
relationship of government and religion. Many parents in the Boomer generation
did not care about religion in China, she suggested. Instead they advised their
children to only believe in themselves. For example, her grandparents were only
concerned with having their identity in the Chinese Communist Party. NCNLH’s
hometown in western China was a particularly “sensitive” area. Foreigners were
not allowed in the village and no more than 15–20 people were ever allowed to
gather in one place. She remembered one family church that gathered each Sunday
at a different location and at a different time to avoid the police. In 2018,
NCNLH believed that the government still placed pressure on Christians. NCMNN
agreed, “Our lives are controlled by the government, so at times I felt very
afraid. It is impossible for a normal person to have a relationship with
leaders. If the government treats you unfairly you may not speak out because if
you criticize then it means the leader is not doing good work. You can only say
that everything is perfect. If I talk negatively then I will disappear.”
NCJOZ shared her involvement working
in the local government. She remembered, “Every year we would receive a note
from our department, and it would ask one question: ‘Are you a Christian? If
not, what is your religion?’ If you answered in the affirmative, then the note
would go into your personnel file.” NCJOZ’s husband counseled her to leave the
survey blank, but NCJOZ was not so sure. Several friends who worked as
journalists agreed with NCJOZ’s husband and told her that it would be
acceptable to not answer the question. As a Christian, however, she desired to
live boldly for her faith and had confidence in God. She knew that if she
marked “Yes,” there could be trouble and her social credit could suffer, but
that her future was in God’s hands and that he
was capable of working all things together for her good. NCASL also worked for
the government and confirmed that it was dangerous to confess faith in Jesus in
a political setting as China’s leaders were particularly wary of “western
influence,” including Christianity.
NCJMZ spoke of the prevalence of
“social credit reviews” in society. If an individual had spoken out against the
government or had fallen out of favor with local leaders, then he or she
received “bad social credit.” The consequences were severe: an inability to
purchase airplane or train tickets, leave China, or for children to attend
certain schools. NCJMZ pointed out that many times an individual’s social credit
stemmed from what they posted on social media like WeChat.[454]
NCFDL admitted that the
question of how an individual responded to government policies with which he
disagreed had been a struggle for many Chinese Christians. On the one hand, he
read the Bible and knew that he should live out his faith in certain ways. On
the other hand, he recognized that in order to survive socially, he had to make
hard choices. CTU counseled that in response to unjust policies Christians
should respond with honesty and humility. Followers of Jesus should speak the
truth plainly, gently and respectfully without stirring up unnecessary division
or hostility.
According to NCTQQ, it was
very difficult for Christians to openly oppose policies. She gave the example
of posting on WeChat. If someone uploaded a post criticizing the government,
censors immediately deleted the content.[455]
Group moderators on WeChat were held responsible for what members of the group
posted. NCTQQ mentioned a university classmate who secured a government post.
This friend warned her family that they had to be cautious about what they
posted online, and that they also needed to pass this warning on to their
friends. If any posts crossed the line, NCTQQ shared that the local police
would summon the offender to the station to “have tea.”
NLH agreed and stated that
individuals are not that important in society. Her family never had any
relationship with government leaders. NCNLH believed that many Chinese were
tempted, because of their mild manner, to respond to laws with which they
disagree with passive resistance. She disagreed with NCTQQ, however, regarding
the inefficacy of posting on WeChat. NCNHL suggested that people would publish
dissenting opinions despite knowing that such posts would be quickly removed.
Social solidarity placed pressure on the government. She believed that even
Christians had the ability to oppose unbiblical policies. NCNHL summarized,
“Christians know that even if the government acts against them, their brothers
and sisters in Christ will support them and meet their needs. As Christians we
must be brave because we know that God goes before us. Christians should change
society. Society should never change Christians.”
NCJIY also
affirmed the positive pressure Christians could exert on the government through
information technology. She stated, “These days, we
can write and publish pieces online. Through social media citizens can express
their opinions. We do not write formal papers and hand them to the authorities,
but we are able to publish our own work.” NCJIY gave an example of the power of
social media, “Yesterday, a man refused to give up his seat on a high speed
train to a woman who had purchased a ticket for that seat. The woman tried to
reason with him, but he gave many excuses. Even the conductor and security
guards came and asked him to vacate the seat, but he still refused. He told
them that he was ill and could not move. Well, someone recorded the entire episode
and published it to WeChat. Now, the entire nation is aware of this man’s rude
behavior, and many people began to
investigate this man’s background. They discovered that he had participated in
many bad behaviors in the past, and published all of these indiscretions for
people to see. In one day, this man’s reputation was ruined!” NCJIY suggested
that this episode was just a small example of how people were able to express
their opinion and how quickly information could be spread. Every individual had
the means to make their voice known.
NCMLL agreed with passive
resistance as a realistic tactic. If the government issued an edict he would
outwardly obey to protect himself and family and friends, but he would look for
ways to subtly subvert the law. When a hospital employed him in southern China
his supervisor frequently issued instructions with which NCMLL disagreed. While
realizing that he would likely lose his job if he did not comply, NCMLL
consistently worked to make conscientious compromises in how he carried out the
policies. NCJOZ shared that she knows many mothers who went into hiding when
they conceived an illegal child. She compared their plight to that of Exodus 2
when Moses’ mother placed him in a basket in the reeds by the riverbank to
escape Pharaoh’s edict.
EJ, a married teacher in northern
China, disclosed that despite the shift from a
One-Child Policy to a Two-Child Policy, there was still significant
government control and pressure in matters relating to family planning. EJ
shared, “Recently my wife went for a prenatal checkup, and the doctor asked her
if she wanted to have an amniocentesis to screen for any developmental
abnormalities in the baby. The hospital wanted to do this procedure so that we
could choose to abort our child if any defects were found. My wife at first
politely declined, but the doctor strongly encouraged her to allow the test and
told her that it was free—it was financed by our local government!” EJ’s wife
refused the amniocentesis and courteously informed the doctor that she believed
God was in control. EJ commented that doctors in China were ordered by family
planning offices to strongly encourage these procedures so that they could
abort the infant in cases of suspected birth defects.
NCFDL suggested that sometimes
Christians resigned themselves to the belief that they were thinking too
idealistically, but at other times they disagreed with policies “in a hidden
way.” NCFDL stated, “Some Christians begin with a veneer of compliance, but
then they gradually increase their disobedience as they feel out the
situation.” NCFDL insisted that China was very similar to the United
States—some Christians lived according to a biblical standard while others
decided to live their own way.
Several of the participants
mentioned that the generally mild personality of the Chinese people contributed
to the complexity of disobeying government policy. NCLYS attributed this to
group think, summed up by the Chinese proverb, “The fewer should follow the
many.” She stated that many non-Christians would follow others’ opinions,
particularly if they were generated from a position of power because citizens
were not confident in their own beliefs.
The majority of
participants in the study agreed that the political situation in
China in 2018 was more tightly controlled than any period in
the past thirty years.
NCTQQ commented, “Everyone believes that we
are not too far from another Chinese Cultural Revolution.” NCJOZ agreed, “In
previous years we were able to buy Bibles online, but now we are unable to do
so.” NCDLH observed, “These days the government has more control over religion
than when I was growing up. Under the current leadership, policy is changed
frequently. The government is fearful of having too many people meet together
in one place.” EJ remarked that the government is confiscating more property
and houses than ever before.
NCLGG lamented the limited
options of Chinese Christians to influence policy decisions. He referenced
President Xi Jinping’s reversal of Chinese law in March 2018 to provide
unlimited terms for Chinese presidents.[456]
LGG exclaimed, “What can people do about this? They cannot do anything!” While
decrying the power of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), NCLGG referenced Rom
13:1, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is
no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by
God.” He acknowledged that all those in authority make mistakes, but NCLGG also asserted that
Christians should not obey any laws that violate
Christian ethics.
NCJMZ suggested that
Christians could be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matt 10:16) as
they sought for ways to affect change from within without criticizing the CCP
openly. NCJEY remarked that Chinese Christians were extremely shrewd when it
came to figuring out how to maneuver around policies with which they disagree.
NCJMZ also referenced the control that the Religious Affairs Bureau had over
TSPM churches. He stated, “At church services government monitors will write down
your name if you attend—or if you say anything deemed out of line.”
JDE took a more
proactive stance regarding passive resistance. “Chinese
Christians are free!” he insisted.
Christians can be involved with the government and even communicate with the government,
but they should always do so respectfully, in a
manner that is “low key.” Of course, they should never claim that they desire
to overthrow the government. NCJDE said, “Christians should be nameless
preachers.” JDE believed in the necessity of a separation between church and
state, and that the state should not require everyone to convert to
Christianity; rather, the state should seek justice for all of its citizens. NCFDL also affirmed
the separation of church and state. He suggested that in China the church and
the state are unified as the official religion of the state is atheism.
NCJOZ also spoke on monitors
present in TSPM services. For many years she attended a TSPM church in a large
city in northern China. While the congregation was quite large, they were aware
that government employees recorded their words. She shared a report that she
received from her family, “Just yesterday I heard from my brother about a
church that was closed by the authorities and the cross on the building was removed.
They were told that they had too many people and had to cease meeting.”
NCDLH expressed how both
family churches and TSPM churches pray for the government. They both recognized
that God has given authority to the government to serve the citizens. DLH’s
issue with the TSPM was that like many other participants in the study, he did
not believe that government should either limit the church or limit what an
individual could believe about God. While he recognized that the Bible
admonishes Christians to respect authority, the actions of China’s leaders
often made that very difficult for him.
While the question of
engagement with government policy is a complex issue for Chinese Christians, it
is reasonable to conclude from the interviews that the participants in the
study consider the Bible as their ultimate authority and are willing to comply
with public policy only as far as it aligns with Christian values. A majority
of participants (65 percent) specifically mentioned that even in disagreement
they should be respectful when addressing their leaders following Paul’s
admonition to Titus. Additionally, 57 percent of participants affirmed that
Christians can be involved in local government when given the opportunity, but
should be careful not to compromise their faith.
Conclusion
This study
examined how the Christian faith of Chinese men and women impacts the ways in
which they view family, gender equality, social justice and their responsibility
vis-à-vis the government. The four themes demonstrated that the human ethic of
life valued by these Chinese Christians is derived from their Christianity and
that this ethic can have an effect on the growth of Christianity in a
totalitarian society regarding
fertility.
The
research findings in this study suggested that Chinese Christians have unique
opportunities to live out their faith as they disciple their families. Taking
advantage of the rapid change in family dynamics Christians in urban
centers can be intentional in ministering to their neighbors who are experiencing
social isolation as a consequence of coercive family planning. Husband and
wives could demonstrate the gospel as they mutually make decisions for the
family in submission to one another and to the authority of the Bible.
The
study also illuminated the difference that Christian ethics can make in regard
to gender equality.[457]
Christians were able to advocate for the worth of both men and women,
and affirmed that women were made in the image of God and received their
identity and dignity in him. Unlike other Chinese, Christians continued to
choose to give birth to daughters and provided them with the same opportunities
that were available to their sons. Christians could promote the equality of
women throughout society including the workplace and the home.
Chinese
Christians actively displayed an ethic of life through their moral
choices in which every human being was treated as a unique creation. This
included the unborn as Christians refused to abort their children. Rather than
viewing their children as assets they were able to see them as gifts from God.
Christians could show kindness to the marginalized and oppressed to restore a
culture of life and peace in China. Chinese Christians were in a distinctive
position to meet the needs of those who were suffering or were experiencing
injustice.
Finally, this study showed
that Chinese Christians considered the Bible as their ultimate authority and
were unwilling to comply with immoral public policy. Christianity was not
merely what Christians believe but governed their choices. By remaining
faithful to the truth of the gospel, Christians were able to persevere in
obedience and simultaneously, albeit slowly, affect change.
CHAPTER 5
A CHRISTIAN RESPONSE
AND PERSPECTIVE
The thesis of this dissertation was that
the Early Church’s response to abortion and gendercide and the Chinese
Christian family unit’s response to abortion and gendercide in the context of
the One-Child Policy had similarities, and perhaps
far reaching implications and lessons for the church today, particularly in its
ministry to families. The research question that this dissertation addressed is
what effect a Christian ethic of life has on the growth of Christianity in a
totalitarian society.
Implications and Conclusions
This study attempted to connect the importance of
sociological issues with the growth of
Christianity in a particular culture.
Chapters Two and Four detailed how Chinese Christians have been forced to
respond to social engineering in the form of a family planning policy that has
resulted in the destruction of millions of lives, despite its stated intent to
foster economic and social stability.[458]
Christians who have opposed coercive birth control have faced shame, ostracism,
loss of employment, and sometimes death.
Analogous to the
circumstances of the first three centuries of Christian growth, the Christian
population has significantly increased in a relatively short period of time
while the overall birth rate in China has declined.[459]
While the current Christian population is disputed, the numbers of Chinese
converting to Christianity is substantial. Government reports tend to
miscalculate total numbers due to ignoring members of unregistered house
churches, and external Christian organizations tend to overstate numbers due to
imprecise reporting. Official Chinese estimates record between 23 million and
40 million Christians.3 A conservative estimate of Christian
expansion from an external source is an annual growth rate of 7 percent that
saw the Christian population grow from ten million in 1980 to sixty million in
2007.[460]
In 2010, Pew Research Center estimated 58 million
Protestants and 9 million
Catholics.[461]
However, Fenggang Yang, Professor of Sociology at
Purdue University and Director of the Center on Religious and Chinese Society,
suggests that Christians have grown by an annual average of 10 percent since
1980 (The One-Child Policy took effect on September 25, 1980).[462] He estimates that with current trends there will be
approximately 250 million Christians in China by 2030, making China’s Christian
population the largest in the world. Yang compares the current growth rate in
China to the rate of growth seen in the Roman Empire before the conversion of
Constantine.[463]
He summarizes,
Protestant Christianity has been the fastest growing
religion in China. When the
CCP took power in the mainland (excluding Taiwan, Hong
Kong, and Macau) in 1949, there were no more than one million Protestant
Christians. Following decades of suppression and eradication, the CCP admitted
in an official document released in 1982 that there were about three million
Protestant Christians. Since then, estimates have varied. The Party-State has
insisted on some very low-end estimates, suggesting about 23 million Protestant
Christians in 2010; others— including missionary organizations outside China
but also a reported internal document of the CCP—have made higher estimates,
suggesting as many as 100 to 130 million in 2010.[464]
If Yang’s estimates prove accurate, Christians will constitute 16.1 percent of the Chinese
population, based on a cautious approximation by 2040.[465] If annual growth continues at its current rate,
Christians could be 32.5 percent of the Chinese population by 2040 and 66.7
percent by 2050.[466]
In Chapter Three, this study
proposed that the social and political costs of conversion to Christianity in
the Greco-Roman period were significant. Disgrace, ostracism, defamation, and
even death were all distinct possibilities for Christians in the first three
centuries of Christianity. Despite the risks associated with conversion, and in
spite of the Roman Empire experiencing a decrease in population overall, a
conservative estimate of Christian growth estimates that the Christian
population increased from 40,000 in A.D. 100 to 1.17 million in A.D. 250.[467]
Chapter Three presented evidence that it is quite reasonable to assume that a
“nontrivial” portion of early Christian growth was due to a Christian ethic of
human life and family and the subsequent superior fertility among Christians.
Christian families valued the lives of their children, regardless of gender, in
a manner that the pagan world could not, and their faith fostered healthy
marriages. They generally refused to abort or to expose their children.
Chapter Four demonstrated
how the study’s Chinese participants found their own system of beliefs
regarding abortion, social justice, and other human rights issues changed after
conversion to Christianity. This new ethic of human life was informed by their
Biblical worldview, which values the lives of children, regardless of gender,
and views a God-honoring marriage relationship as foundational to society.
Chinese Christians could be equipped to lead the way in advocating for and
participating in a reversal of the damage done to Chinese society over the
course of the past four decades of family planning policies. It was worth
noting that non-Christian Chinese were also involved in righting societal
wrongs, but their involvement was primarily from a pragmatic and economic
perspective. The response of Chinese Christians in this study served to
demonstrate that they possessed a different foundation for moral decisions as
compared to their non-Christian neighbors.
Similarities
between the Early Church and Chinese Christian Context
Stark, in The Rise of
Christianity, makes the following claim concerning the Roman
Empire, which is apropos considering the current demographic
crisis facing China,
In the final analysis, a population’s capacity to reproduce
is a function of the proportion of that population consisting of women in their
childbearing years, and the Greco-Roman world had an acute shortage of women.
Moreover, many pagan women still in their childbearing years had been rendered
infertile by damage to their reproductive systems from abortions or from
contraceptive devices and medicines. In this manner was the decline of the
Roman Empire’s population ensured.[468]
Norman Cheng, demographer and professor in
China, sees a strong similarity between the Greco-Roman world and China. He
states, “A population’s capacity to reproduce is not only the function of the
proportion of women in their childbearing years, but also the desire to have
more children.”[469]
Cheng notes that the two causes of population decline in the Roman Empire were
an acute shortage of women, as well as abortion and contraceptives—the latter
factor due to their “subjective desire” to stop having more children.
Similarly, in China the
proportion of childbearing women has steadily decreased since family planning
policies began in the early 1970s. Cheng states that the total fertility rate
declined from 5.4 in 1970 to 2.2 in 1980 to 1.18 in 2010.[470]
One significant difference from the circumstances of the Greco-Roman period is
that in China a central governing authority enforced abortion and the use of
contraceptives. While there was certainly social pressure in the Greco-Roman
world, there was an absence of coercive government force in the area of
childbirth. Cheng concludes, “Even though the results of fertility decline
between the ancient Greco-Roman world and China are similar, the causes are
totally different.”15
In
The Rise of Christianity, Stark also
makes the case that the church grew into the dominant influence in Western
culture because, among other factors, pagans practiced infanticide while
Christians valued the lives of their children. In addition, Christians built
strong families while pagans did not. Similarly, Chinese Christian
families have applied an ethic of human life grounded in the Bible to impact
population growth. This study has explored several accounts of Christians who
are being obedient to God’s command to love and care for their children and has
connected the obedience of Christians with the growth and health of their
families.16 The overflow of religious
belief into an ethic of human life and family is unique in Christian faith. New
Testament scholar, Larry
Hurtado, explains,
The early Christian emphasis on, and teaching about,
everyday behavior as central to Christian commitment is yet another distinctive
feature that has had a profound subsequent impact. In the ancient Roman period
and down through human history, what we call “religion” tended to focus more on
honoring, appeasing, and
seeking the goodwill of deities through such actions as
sacrifices and the
regions.” While it seems doubtful
that accurate demographic information was obtained in China, higher fertility
rates for Christians around the world could be translated as a possibility in
China as well. See
“Christians,” Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life Project, 2 April
2015, http://www.pewforum.org/2015/04/02/christians/.
See
author’s interview with Norman Cheng from April 4, 2017 in Appendix 1.
See Chapter
Four.
performance of related rituals. “Religion” did not
typically have much to say about we call “ethics,” how to behave toward others,
how to conduct family or business, and the formation of character.17
For Chinese Christians, their faith is not
merely an intellectual exercise, but is an essential system of morality
governing behavior grounded in a transcendental source. This study’s
participants affirmed that a Christian system of morality is not viewed as law,
but rather as an overflow of obedience established in grace given by God.
Implications
Chinese Christian leaders are cognizant of
the breakdown of the nuclear family in China over the past four decades, and
that one of the church’s roles and opportunities is to champion healthy
marriages and the sanctity of human life. The implications for influence and
change in Chinese society as Christians continue to live in obedience to God’s
Word are extraordinary due in part to the spiritual vacuum left behind by the
failed socialist policies of Mao and his successors, which is made manifest
through widespread corruption, public health disasters, and “environmental
degradation.”18
MLP, the study participant
who referenced the compassion shown by Christian organizations in the aftermath
of the Sichuan earthquake, evaluated the concept of compassion in traditional
Chinese society. She stated that compassion focused on receiving recognition or
acclaim is ultimately self-serving and hollow. In contrast,
`17 Larry W.
Hurtado, Destroyer of the Gods: Early
Christian Distinctiveness in the Roman World, Reprint edition (Waco: Baylor
University Press, 2017), 188.
18 Gerda
Wielander, “Beyond Repression and Resistance–Christian Love and China’s
Harmonious Society,” China Journal.65
(2011): 122.
Christian agap?[471]
is transformative to the lives of generations raised in Confucian values,
including “hierarchical love” where love is conditional based on the relative
social value of a relationship.[472]
The idea of agap? is a universal love
without discrepancy— demonstrated by Christians after the earthquake as they
cared for those in need regardless of class, race and social boundaries. The
anecdotal confirmation provided by the study’s participants indicated
disinclination towards moral principles from the general population and a
singular motivation of consumerism and attaining wealth. This materialistic
ethos is manifest throughout rural and urban contexts. In contrast, the Chinese
church offers the hope of transformation from selfishness to selfless. Gerda
Wielander comments,
While the common Chinese understanding of love is based on
human relationships and is therefore conditional, Christian love is
unconditional…. Based on Jesus Christ’s self-sacrifice, this love is
interpreted in terms of selfsacrifice and service to the people and has led
Chinese Christians to promote social service and to share their social concerns
and social responsibility in China.[473]
Brent Fulton, President of ChinaSource,
shares how the idea of unconditional love manifested itself in several
Christian gatherings he attended in China during 2016–2017. One refrain
repeatedly expressed by these predominantly first-generation urban believers is
the importance of raising up gospel-centered families. These Christians are
aware of the social breakdown of families over the past four decades, and their
responsibility in bringing culture change. Li Ma writes, “The purpose of this
law-gospel is to give life to mankind, not just so that people will live,
reproduce and multiply, but more importantly, that their family ties will be
living, healthy relationships that glorify God.”[474]
Another implication from the
similarities between the Early Church and Chinese Christians relates to the
significantly imbalanced sex ratio at birth in China. Considering the social
reality of a proportionally larger number of female converts, many single
Chinese women are faced with the same
dilemma that faced Christian women in the Roman Empire.[475]
Should single Chinese women remain single, or is better to marry a nonbeliever
and seek to convert their spouse? Do they pursue the financial security of a
marital relationship or risk the prospect of social marginalization? One
resource that the Chinese church has offered to these women, especially as
China has granted a limited amount of freedom online, is the existence of
online dating sites. An example is “Jesus Free Wind.”[476]
The service is free and only for “true Christians.” The website also provides
marriage counseling and referrals to other counseling resources. In China these
sites have provided an opportunity for young Christian women to be obedient to
Paul’s admonition to the church in Corinth, “Do not be unequally yoked with
unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what
fellowship has light with darkness?” (2 Cor 6:14)
Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry,
author and fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, acknowledges that
Christianity might be the only hope for China’s demographic crisis. Gobry
concludes,
Most Westerners see China as a strong rival, but China’s
actual leaders see the country as always teetering on the brink of collapse,
which is why their grip on power is so white-knuckled. More deeply, decades of
Communism have stripped China of so much of its cultural heritage and left its
society and culture aimless. Christianity’s enormous cultural and spiritual
heritage, its emphasis on the rule of law, and its traditional focus on
fertility are just what China may need to manage the next few decades without
collapsing into civil war, revolution, or something equally terrible.[477]
With a precarious gender imbalance and a
rapidly aging population due to gendercide and coercive family planning
combined with consumerism, corruption and discrimination, “the country is a
powder keg.” Gobry suggests that Christianity could be China’s best chance at
survival.[478]
Civil
Disobedience or Constructive Noncompliance?
If Chinese Christians hope to continue to
increase as well as play a significant role in a needed fertility shift, they could persist in finding ways to respond to
unjust government policies not merely with “passive resistance,” but also with
respectful advocacy. American moral and political philosopher, John Rawls,
defines civil disobedience as “a public,
nonviolent, conscientious yet political act contrary to law usually done with
the aim of bringing about a change in the law or policies of the government.”[479]
Ethicist Nicholas Dixon further clarifies that a distinguishing mark of civil
disobedience is the “willingness to openly accept punishment.”[480][481]
Chinese Christians have certainly participated in such actions in the past, but
perhaps a better description of Christians’ response to social engineering is known
as constructive noncompliance. In contrast with civil disobedience,
constructive noncompliance is defined by Lily L. Tsai, Associate Professor of
Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as
noncooperation with “state policies and regulations that is justified by
citizens as a way of communicating constructive criticism about policy
performance and factual information about local conditions to decision-makers.”[482]
In authoritarian states such as China, constructive noncompliance is perhaps a
more appropriate response.
The participants in this
study agreed that any coercive family planning policy from the government is an
immoral law, and the morality of constructive noncompliance is contingent upon
the morality of the law. The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. states,
“There are two types of laws: there are just and there are
unjust laws. I would agree with
Saint Augustine that ‘An unjust law is no law at all.’”[483]
Constructive noncompliance
takes place on an individual basis and requires familiarity with the everyday
realities of one’s community. Tsai comments,
Constructive noncompliers thus see themselves as
efficacious and not completely incapable of affecting the macro political
environment. They are aware that their political power as individuals may be
limited and that their noncompliance may only change policies at higher levels
if enough other people also engage in noncompliance, but they are explicit
about their hope that their individual acts of noncompliance will bring them
that much closer to the necessary threshold.[484]
As seen in the study, China, which lacks
formal channels for democratic participation, is an appropriate context that
lends itself to constructive noncompliance. Participants in the study who were
unaware or unable to verbalize rights possessed by individuals comprised 42
percent of the participant pool. This lack of “rights-consciousness” and
“political know-how” was articulated by TPP, “Before I came to the United
States I was uninformed that I possessed any rights as a citizen of the People’s
Republic of China. I did not know what a ‘citizen’ was. I think this is common
among most Chinese
Sociologists, Li Ma and Jin
Li, conducted a three-year ethnographic study of unregistered evangelical
groups in China, integrating sociological and oral history methods—a “thick
description” of cultural factors.[486]
They discovered a “paradoxical reality” where Christian population has grown,
but the perception of Christian presence is limited from the average citizens’
view. Nevertheless, they encountered practices best described as constructive
noncompliance, which the Chinese authorities criticized.[487]
Ma and Li observe, “From the
organization of unregistered churches, they have moved on these other actions,
such as quitting party membership as an open testimonial of conversion and
breaking the one-child policy.”[488]
A 2014 report described a Christian official in an urban center who was told
that her faith was not compatible with the party and she would have to “give it
up.” This official informed her superiors that she would not comply, and that
her freedom of belief was protected by the Chinese constitution. She was not
terminated, but was sent to a “remedial course at a party school.”36
Ma and Li describe a
twenty-seven year old member of an urban house church, Yuan, who mentioned the
one-child policy when asked to describe the impact of his conversion to
Christianity. Yuan states, “[The one-child family planning policy] never
occurred to me as definitely wrong, until I became a Christian…. Looking back,
many things we took for granted are actually, by God’s standards, wrong…. My
belief taught me to think things through.”37 Dr. Zhao Xiao, an
economist and former CCP member, agrees that Christians do not seek to gain
power or even to challenge the Communist Party. However, he also sees clashes
with public policies, including family planning policies, as inevitable and
necessary.[489]
As Chinese Christians engage in constructive noncompliance they become dynamic
agents in society, as opposed to being passively controlled by outside forces.[490]
Obedience to a Christian ethic of human life for the
Chinese Christian could accelerate a flourishing society in
the future.
The Future of the Church in Chinese Society
The church in China finds itself at a
crossroads as church leaders recognize the central role that the Chinese church
can play in affecting culture. In A Star
in the East, Rodney Stark and Xiuhua Wang describe the rise of Christianity
in China from a sociological perspective and pose the question: “If Christians
become a major presence in China, what difference will it make?”[491]
While Stark and Wang are primarily concerned with the influence of Christianity
on the first half of the 21st century it is also possible to look at
recent events to ascertain the impact of Christian faith upon the Chinese
people.
Although proportionally
Christians were a minority in 1980, there were still 10 million believers at
the advent of the One-Child Policy, according to Stark and Wang’s research.[492]
While the number of Christians was relatively small, Christian dissident Yu Jie
describes their opposition to government policies in the language of Dietrich
Bonhoeffer, “Waging war as an ant on an elephant.”[493]
Yu Jie continues, “Genuine grace empowers us to face our sin and fight against
it. Or to recognize and combat society’s injustice.”[494]
Jie advocates that Christians act like leaven in society and concludes, “The
Chinese must undertake a profound spiritual
transformation in order to restore the freedom and dignity God has bestowed on
them when creating them in his image. The way forward requires a turn away from
ourselves and toward the divine.”[495]
The correlation between the obedience of Christians in the face of coercive
family planning policies and the growth and health of families in the future of
the Chinese church is exemplified through the experiences of Chai Ling.
Ling, one of the prominent female
leaders of the student democracy movement at Tiananmen in 1989, became a
follower of Jesus in 2009. She founded the faith-based organization All Girls
Allowed in 2011 and has sought to restore God-given life, dignity and value to
women by seeking societal transformation.[496]
Ling traces her spiritual story back to Tiananmen, and during an interview with
Timothy C. Morgan she describes the transformation of the evil perpetuated on
June 4, 1989 as a significant turning point in the history of China’s church.
Ling elaborates,
Before, when I was walking in darkness, I didn’t understand
the meaning. All I saw was the triumph of evil forces and injustice—China
killing so many people and still getting away with it. But now I’m seeing a
different side of it. I see the country being transformed into a new nation.
God used the massacre to pronounce the death of communism. We thought we were a
political movement. What was really happening was a spiritual movement. God
used the massacre to wake people up and prepare hearts and minds for a new
spiritual awakening. Tiananmen will be a part of the history of China’s church.
Many church leaders say it was a major turning point in how the churches
evolved from rural to urban and became able to have a profound impact on
China’s society. It feels like Acts 29. The church in China is a very strong
body of Christ that’s growing.[497]
The ripple effects of Tiananmen were felt
throughout Chinese society as a third of the Tiananmen generation became
Christian, a third went into business, and a third are still searching.[498]
This defining moment has affected the Chinese church’s willingness to response
to policies antithetical to the Christian faith.[499]
Ling explains the opposition of the
Chinese church to the One-Child Policy and the high priority of advocating for
the lives of children, writing,
It’s urgent when every single day there are 35,000 lives
lost. That’s what gets me up and running every day. No second should be wasted.
Five hundred Chinese women commit suicide every day. Women are so traumatized.
Only God can heal these people. It’s very hard for humans to try to heal them.
This one issue influences every single Chinese family—it’s one way the Chinese
government controls people’s fundamental freedoms.[500]
Ling describes the response of the Chinese
church in the city of Putian where there are at least 100,000 trafficked child
brides in a city of 3 million residents. The local church is working to save
lives both physically and spiritually and reunite trafficked children with
their families.[501]
Since China began enforcing
the One-Child Policy in 1980, over 37 million girls have disappeared due to
unreported births, and over 336 million forced and coerced abortions have
occurred.[502]
In 2012, 86 percent of all Chinese women had at least one abortion in their
lifetime, and 52 percent had two or more in their lifetime.[503]
The Chinese church is focused on
rescuing “born and unborn girls,” supporting abandoned girls, and supporting
victimized women.[504]
While the Communist Party has established a culture that devalues life, the
church could be a contrast community that affirms the dignity of every human.
The Chinese church has been
active on International Children’s Day (celebrated on June 1) in strategically
encouraging couples to not abort. Gospel Times reports, “On May 27, 2013 a 13
second public service announcement also appeared on Sina Video which said ‘What
is the weight of life? What do you think about the fact that there are 13
million abortions in China each year? Follow @Don’tAbortOnChildrensDay on Sina
Weibo.”[505]
The public service announcement not only appeared on Sina Video, but was also
broadcasted on Chengdu Bus-TV.[506]
Additionally, Christians living in Chengdu, located in Sichuan province, lived
out Yu Jie’s admonition to be active agents in society when they visited
well-known abortion clinics in Chengdu and distributed anti-abortion leaflets.56
Marriage as a
Reflection of the Gospel
In addition, the Chinese church has affirmed
the value and institution of marriage as a reflection of the gospel. Urban
churches have responded to oppressive government policies and to cultural
trends of a declining sense of moral responsibility with initiatives to
strengthen the marriages of their members. Zhou Ming, a member of the Olive
Tree Church in Beijing, writes, “The true meaning and significance of marriage
must be taught in the churches: one husband and one wife, one man and one
woman, for your whole life. There are all kinds of problems in society, but
whatever kind of social problem there is, you need stable marriages to be the
foundation.”[507]
Christian families
acknowledge their responsibility for their behavior and character and this has
influenced their response to China’s family planning policies over the decades.
Fulton comments, “According to one educator who has worked extensively with families
in China, the greatest difference between Christian and non-Christian couples
is the faith that difficulties in marriage can be worked out, and that they can
personally change to become better spouses and parents.”[508]
The traditional concept of fate in Chinese society is an obstacle for Christian
spouses who deal with issues such as infidelity. A Christian perspective on
relationships serves to admonish husbands and wives to personally take
responsibility for actions, while acknowledging that through the Gospel there
is hope for change.[509]
Parenting as a
Reflection of the Gospel
Columnist Li Jin traces the
factors leading to the pressures that Christian husbands and wives face,
Since the 1980s, families have gradually broken away from
the slowly collapsing, workplace system and become independent societal and
economical units. Family planning policy defined family as a household of
three. Due to materialistic education over a long period of time and the wave
of commercialization that followed, an economic foundation was often treated as
the condition for marriage…. All these continue to buffet Chinese families.[510]
Chinese Christians with young families were
living in a culture with a myriad of social challenges. Accelerated pace of
life, escalating work demands, rising costs of living, and a multitude of
entertainment choices in a progressively urban context proved difficult
dilemmas for families desiring to raise their children according to Christian
values. Parents “lived in the tension” of recognizing that the family unit is
the fundamental context where Christian faith was imparted to their children,
while navigating complex societal issues of economically driven cultural norms.[511]
Questions regarding moral choices, relational conflict resolution, and
evaluating priorities found their beginning in the home.[512]
One of the consequences of
an altered family structure in society due to the OneChild Policy was that all
the expectations of several generations of a family were placed on one child.
These children faced varied circumstances—some were send back to rural
hometowns to be raised by grandparents (“left behind children”); some were
neglected by parents because of their work demands, and most were profoundly
burdened with familial pressure as they received inordinate amounts of material
possessions and high-priced supplementary tutoring.[513]
The Chinese church in the future can continue to help parents navigate the
balance between abdicating parental responsibility and over-parenting as they
endeavor to live out Eph 6:4, “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger,
but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”
Li Jin, columnist for
Caixin.com and co-founder of Four Seasons Book Review, applies Dutch Reformed theologian Herman Bavinck’s
reflections on the doctrine of the Trinity to the tension felt by Christian
families in China. Jin suggests that a foundation where human relationships are
based on the relationship between the three persons of the Trinity provides the
opportunity to respond to cultural challenges. Concerning the doctrine of the
Trinity as the foundation of all relationships, Bavinck writes, “The unity
among the world, humanity, ethics, justice and beauty all depend upon the unity
of the Triune God. If there is any denial to the three-in-oneness or ignorance
in acknowledging such truth, cultures will open their door to polytheism.”[514]
Christian Chinese families could therefore seek to reflect three-in-oneness to
a hierarchical Chinese culture in order that God’s authority is evident in
family life. Jin concludes,
The traditional order of a Chinese family is based on the
authority of the father. After this was demolished in the socialist movement,
the workplace system caused people to treat families as part of the economic
society. However, if we stand on the foundation of the doctrine of the Trinity,
the characteristic of love within the family and orderly fellowship will be
renewed. Both will benefit the church and provide Christian ethics—a
desperately needed resource so that Christian ethics will replace socialistic
value ideology.[515]
The Chinese church can continue to help
families foster the most intimate of relationships that find their foundation
in the Trinity.
Zhou Ming
recognizes the importance of family ministry in Chinese society,
The church needs to increase the level of importance it
places on guarding marriages. The true meaning and significance of marriage
must be taught in the churches: one husband and one wife, one man and one
woman, for your whole life. There are all kinds of problems in society, but
whatever kind of social problem there is, you need stable marriages to be the
foundation.[516]
Mary Li Ma, author and Research Fellow at
the Henry Institute of Christianity and Public Life at Calvin College, offers
the following principles for strong foundations in family life that combat the
spiritual vacuum in Chinese culture characterized by “crumbling relationships,
feelings, morals, and values.”[517]
Li Ma advocates: 1) The relationship between a husband and wife that reflects
the sacrificial love of the Gospel is the foundation of the family. This
relationship functions as a model for the children in a family and their own
future marital relationships; 2) Parents are the primary disciple makers of
their children. While the church plays a vital role as a partner, parents are ultimately
responsible for the spiritual discipleship of their children; 3) Raising
children includes imparting to them a devotion to the Bible and a love for the
Gospel. Children should understand that the Gospel affects every aspect of life
and that every sphere of human existence is to be re-directed to bring glory to
God; and 4) Investing in children’s hobbies and making time for family
entertainment, as appropriate, serves to foster a healthy familial atmosphere.[518]
Though the family unit has traditionally served as
the nucleus of society in China, its structure and function has been
significantly altered through social engineering and family planning. The
church has sought to maintain healthy family values through marriage retreats
and increased focus on ministry to children and students.[519]
The
China Gospel Research Alliance conducted a survey of Chinese Christian leaders
from September 2015 to May 2016 containing 1,200 written surveys and 432
face-to-face interviews concerning the state of the church in China.[520] Respondents
identified the discipleship of the next generation as a major priority
and suggested that young urban Christian families are “increasingly looking for
alternatives to the state-run education system which is largely built around
preparation for test-taking, culminating in the nationwide university entrance
exam, and which is overtly atheistic.”[521] The research findings in this study suggested that
Chinese Christians have unique opportunities to live out their faith.
Sociologists, Li Ma and Jin Li, comment on how China’s urban Christians are
actively involved in remaking society, “What we have found is that the
religious activities undertaken and values transmitted by Christian
individuals, congregations, and faith-based associations have reshaped the
local civic space in significant ways.”[522] Currently, Christians
are registering NGOs, providing family services, running short-term mission
trips, caring for the marginalized, looking for ways to provide social
services, and providing Christian educational alternatives for families.[523]
The Chinese church also has
the opportunity to engage culture in strategically contesting social
engineering consequences. Preschool care for
families with young children and demanding jobs was an opportunity for Chinese
Christians to meet practical needs. Journalist Joyce Cheng writes, “Otherwise
there will be one less incentive for people to raise children, as it may mean a
cut in income. Any new family policy should be geared toward addressing the
needs of smaller families, from housing, medical care, career and education, to
social security.”[524] In addition, the aging population and declining
TFR necessitated support and care for the elderly. Younger family members will
not be able to arrange for adequate financial resources, which in previous
generations large extended families could provide.
Churches are able to fill in that gap. Yang Mingdao, from China
Partnership, concludes, “We have to let the gospel control the discourse,
control the narrative, interpreting our life and driving our ministry. The
gospel always subverts and changes us and that is the passion of the
gospel-movement in China.”[525]
Suggestions for Further Research
The author has attempted in this study to
address the research question and investigated possible similarities related to
the thesis. Based upon this research there are further areas of study the
author has identified that were beyond the scope of this dissertation. These
four areas of study could further develop a
comprehensive interpretation of the relationship between Christian faith and
the growth of Christianity in unjust contexts. The first area of study
addresses the cultural similarities between 1st century Greco-Roman
culture and contemporary Chinese culture. Specifically, further research
regarding the importance of honor/shame and collective community identities in
the Greco-Roman world and how these identities are also related to similar
features in modern Asian cultures would serve to advance the discussion.76
The
second area concerns a comparison between the fertility rates of Chinese
Christian families compared to the fertility rate of the general population.
While the fertility rate of the general population is easily obtained, 1.624 in
2016, a comparison between the two population pools could strengthen the case
of similarities between the Early Church period and Communist China. Likewise,
research conducted in Chinese churches could serve to compare birth rates as
well as family size.[526]
Considering
that religion plays a crucial role in constructing identity among Chinese,
further research on the relationship between Christianity and Chinese
traditional culture could also enhance the understanding of Christian life in
China. In particular, will a new version of Confucianism synthesize with the
Christian understanding of agap?? In
a relationship-oriented value system it seems that there are possibilities for
Chinese theologians to explore connections and possible bridges to Christian
faith. Samuel Ling, author and President of China Horizon asks, “What ideas
will truly guide the search for modern China? What is the place of the
Christian gospel, the worldview based on the Old and New Testaments, in China’s
search for an all-comprehensive national ideology?”[527] If Yang’s projections on the growth of Christianity
prove true, how will China fit in the world order as a global superpower in the
coming decades? How will its foreign policy, particularly in Asia, be affected
by a Christian ethic and will it be a responsible and just society? Philip
Jenkins has explored this topic to some extent, but an in depth analysis of how
a Christianized China will exist in relation to other nations is needed.[528] Further study is needed on the intersection of
traditional Chinese philosophies and Christianity as it relates to a contextual
Christianity in China faithful to the Scripture.
A
third area of possible research concerns the topic of secondary conversions
discussed in Chapter Three. Rodney Stark, albeit not a theologian, suggests that
early Christians were able to tolerate, at least to some extent, exogenous
marriage.[529] Church leaders were able to recognize the
numerical and moral advantage of children being raised in the faith. Michael
Walsh agrees with Starks interpretation and shares the example of Ignatius of
Antioch’s decision that Christians could marry only with the permission of the
local bishop.[530]
This acceptance of mixed marriage certainly seems to indicate a pragmatic
response from the church in relation to population issues rather than a
biblical position.
Historian Alan Kreider examines the
question of how was a young Christian woman to live when married to a pagan? He
writes, “A mixed marriage was a sign that something unusual had happened:
either a woman had committed the surprising and unsettling act of becoming a
Christian, or a Christian woman … had married a pagan.”[531]
Conversely, there is evidence from the writings of Tertullian that marrying
pagans was a grave mistake.83 An in depth study into the writings of
the Early Church regarding the topic of exogenous marriage would serve to
illuminate the discussion.
Conclusion
This study
began by examining if a Christian ethic of life had any effect on the
growth of
Christi[532]anity
in a totalitarian society. Specifically, were there similarities between the
Early Church’s response to Greco-Roman cultural norms of abortion and
gendercide and a Chinese Christian response to similar cultural norms in the
context of the One-Child Policy? The author believed that this study provided
some corroboration presented in the ethnographic surveys that, in comparison to
the general population, Christians in China possessed a higher view of family,
marriage and life. While there are similarities between the Early Church
response and the Chinese Christian response, there are not as many as the
author first anticipated when this study began in 2013.[533] This
dissertation has been particularly thought-provoking because of the shifting
nature of family planning policy in China. When the author first entered the
Ph.D.
program at SEBTS in 2011, the One-Child
Policy was stringently enforced with only a few exceptions. In 2013, when the
author first began to study this topic, China began to reduce one-child family
restrictions and permitted spouses to have two children if one of the spouses
was a “single child.” By 2015 the policy had changed again and the Communist
Party officially announced that all married couples were allowed to have two
children. In late August 2018 while the author was finalizing the study,
family-planning related clauses were dropped from a draft of an updated
marriage section of the civil code.[534]
While the National People’s Congress in Beijing has been hesitant to speculate
on what form future family planning will take, it does seem likely that the
policy in its current iteration will be lifted in the foreseeable future.[535]
While this study began with the
assumption that the One-Child Policy would continue indefinitely policy change
has had some impact on the conclusions. However, the author sought in this
dissertation to compare two distinct periods—the first three centuries of the
Early Church with the thirty-five years of the One-Child Policy. Subsequent
modifications to family planning in China after 2015 have not affected the comparison of Christian response during these
two historical eras, and the basic thesis that Christian response during this
thirty-five year period had similarities to the Early Church response was still valid.
From
the Early Church’s emphasis on the affective impact of a Christian ethic of
human life grounded in a theology of God in Chapter Three, to the Christian Chinese
survey participants’ validation in Chapter Four of the Bible as the authority
for all individual and political action, the author believed that this study
highlighted the influence Christians could have in the face of injustice or
immoral government policy. It was the author’s hope that this dissertation
served as a stimulus to further develop research concerning a Christian
response to family planning policies in oppressive regimes.
APPENDIX 1
NORMAN CHENG INTERVIEW
A: I’ve recently read a book by Rodney Stark (sociologist at
Baylor University) and this is one of his claims: “In the final analysis, a
population’s capacity to reproduce is a function of the proportion of that
population consisting of women in their childbearing years, and the Greco-Roman
world had an acute shortage of women. Moreover, many pagan women still in their
childbearing years had been rendered infertile by damage to their reproductive
systems from abortions or from contraceptive devices and medicines. In this
manner was the decline of the Roman Empire’s population ensured.” Do you see
any correlation between the ancient Greco-Roman world and China today?
N: A population’s capacity to reproduce is not only the
function of the proportion of women in their childbearing years but also the
desire of them to have more number of children. The two causes of the decline
of population of Roman Empire were acute shortage of women and abortion,
contraception and medicines, the latter is due to their subjective desire to
stop having more number of children.
In regard to China, the proportion of childbearing women is
decreasing now since China started the family planning program since the early
of 1970s. Since then the total fertility rate declined from 5.4 in 1970 to 2.2
in 1980. The big difference from Greco-Roman is that the action of abortion and
contraception in China were enforced by the government, rather than by the
women themselves. Even though the results of fertility decline between the
ancient Greco-Roman world and current China are similar, the causes are totally
different.
A: Less than 40% of the population (in 2007) is restricted by
the family planning policy to having one child (actual number of families
affected is 35.9%).
(http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-07/11/content_5432238.htm)
To your knowledge was that number accurate?
N: The number is closed. Below is the result I used at my
class, that is, 35.4%. This result is only dealing with the policy from 1986 to
2013. As the policy changed since the late of 2013, the situation is
different.
A: The same article also claims 52.9% of the population could
have a second child if the first was a girl in 2007. Is that accurate as well?
N: We called this as One-and-half-child policy. The result is
like above.
A: Will families take advantage of being able to have two
children? Is there any data over the past year that suggests an uptick in
pregnancies/births?
N: Before the policy released (allowing to have the second
child if one of couple comes from one-child family) at the end of 2013, the
government was afraid of uptick of the fertility once the policy changed.
However, the reality was just opposite. The expected number of the two-child
increased was 11 million, the real result was just 1.5 million two-child births
after 1.5 years of policy released, much less than the expected number. As the
birth rate was still low, the government released the policy further, that is,
any couple could have the second child, without any condition.
A: I have heard from some friends that most Chinese people
don’t want more than one child anyway. Is this true? Any data available to
examine?
N: Even though the birth rate is still lower, it doesn’t mean
that Chinese people don’t want to have more than one child. I think, most of
couples want to have two children. Because the high pressure of their lives and
almost no public policies for releasing the pressure of young people, they are
unable to have more children. There are some data in the attached paper.
A: A follow up question: Is a Two-Child Policy enough to
restore the gender imbalance?
N: The two-child policy could mediate the gender imbalance in
the future, but it is not enough because the high sex ratio at birth was high
in some countries without family planning program, such as South Korea and
Taiwan. Changing the gender imbalance would depend on the change of culture and
gender equality.
N: I’ve read a little bit of the New Population Theory put
forward by Ma Yinchu where he argues a smaller population is always more
beneficial to the nation’s prosperity, environmental protection and
construction of a harmonious society. He said many of the world’s problems,
such as deforestation, global warming, acid rain and the disappearance of
glaciers, are all related to fast population growth.
Regarding what Ma Yinchu wrote, has the family planning
policy helped (or not been a factor at all) to advance the tremendous economic
growth in China over the past few decades?
N: Please refer to the paper attached. The ideas of Ma Yinchu
was correct when China was under planed economy or shortage economy. When China
changed to market economy since the middle of 1990, population control may not
have positive effect on the economic development.
A: Related question: Would a greater population drive up
unemployment and poverty?
N: No exactly. The unemployment and poverty highly depends on
the economic development, rather than the greater population.
A: I’ve read some research that has suggested a relationship
between the One-Child Policy and higher Sex Ratio at Birth, suggesting that
stricter fertility control and higher fines lead to higher ratios of males to
females. In your opinion, would you say that is accurate or there is no
correlation?
N: Yes, even though the high sex ratio at birth happened to
some countries where no enforced family planning, the stricter birth control
must cause the much higher sex ratio at birth. There is no country in the world
where their sex ratio at birth is higher than that of China.
A: What is the average population replacement rate today in
China?
N: The replacement rate now is 2.1 (TFR)
A: What is the estimated gender imbalance? (what is the
surplus of males? I’ve heard these males are called “bare branches”) What do
you do with all these males? Are there any ideas in how to remedy it?
N: The current SRB is around 113. The peak was more than 120
in 2008. It has been decreased since then.
A: Was the original implementation of the One-Child Policy in
1980 the result of scientific research about over population?
N: The research done dealing with one child policy at that
time could not be called scientific research, as it was conducted by some
cybernetic researchers, who knew nothing about population studies. As there was
almost no demographer in China at that time, the research quality was quite
poor.
A: Are there any other nations that have a One-Child policy
today? Any other examples in history that you know of?
N: No, no country in the world has one-child policy, and no
country for implementing family planning through such strict administrative
enforcement. Some countries wanted to do like this, such as India and South
Korea, but they are failed finally.
APPENDIX 2
AGREEMENT TO
PARTICIPATE FORM
The research in which you are about to participate is
designed to explore the Christian response to abortion and gendercide in China
in the context of the One Child Policy. The author for purposes of dissertation
research is conducting this research. In this research, you will answer
questions in three categories—family structure, social structure, and religious
structure. Any information you provide will be held strictly confidential, and
at no time will your name be reported, or your name identified with your
responses.
Agreement to Participate
The research in which you are about to participate is
designed to explore the Christian response to abortion and gendercide in China
in the context of the One Child Policy. This research is being conducted by Nathan
Stam for purposes of dissertation research. In this research, you will answer
questions in three categories—family structure, social structure, and religious
structure. Any information you provide will be held strictly confidential, and
at no time will your name be reported, or your name identified with your
responses. Participation in this study is
totally voluntary and you are free to withdraw from the study at any time.
By your completion of this ethnographic interview, you are
giving informed consent for the use of your responses in this research.
Name ___________________________
Signature ___________________________
Date ____________
APPENDIX 3
ETHNOGRAPHIC SURVEY
Marriage Status:
Children:
Occupation:
Age:
Level of Education:
Church Association:
Christian History:
Family
Structure ????
What
are the authority lines in your family? Who makes decisions—how, when and why? ??????????????????——?????????????????????????
What
are the child-rearing practices and traditions in your family? ???????????????????????????????????????
How
are boys and girls viewed differently by families, if at all? ?????????
?????????????
How
are the dynamics of the family changing in China? ???????????
How
does religion influence an individual’s relationship with the government? ???
????????????
How
does religion regard the family unit? ???????????????????????????????
Social
Structure ????
How
do people relate to local municipal leaders? ???????????????
What
are the basic values within society that give it cohesion and security? ???????????????????????????
Are
there ever justifications for the termination of life? If so, what? ???????
?????????????
How
are women valued, in contrast to men, in society? ????????????
??????
What
rights do individuals have? Men and women? Children? Families? ???????????????????????????????????
How
do individuals respond to policies with which they disagree based on
conviction?
?????????????????????
?????????????????????You can choose to answer questions below
or not:
What
are the responsibilities and rights of local municipal leaders? ????????
????????
How
do local municipal leaders lose the right to lead? ????????????????
APPENDIX 4
SURVEY DATA SAMPLES
Survey #6 (YHM)
Brief stats
Name: Yi Hong Mei
USE PSUEDONYM “YHM”
Age:
47
Female
Christian
Married
(to a previously divorce man)
i. One step son
4 people in family: Husband, wife, step son, father in law
Education: Master’s degree
Income: less than 2000 yuan per month
2. Survey PART 1: FAMILY STRUCTURE
Q1
–
In her
immediate family: the husband has authority, so the family is patriarchal.
In her parent’s family: the structure
was matriarchal. Her mother had desire
to control all things pertaining to the family.
Her mother held the view that she was better able to take care of the
family. Her mother felt that the husband
did not have the best ability to lead and provide for the family. Her father was accepting of this family
structure. Participant commented she was aware that he father loved her (YHM) a
lot. There were times the father
disagreed with the mother, but he did not challenge established authority lines.
Q2-
Immediate
family: Husband has authority and
generally makes decisions. Participant
commented this makes it (life) easier for her.
Participant commented that husband had knowledge and responsibility to
make important family decisions and economic decisions for family. Participant shared that that was a division
of responsibility in some decisions. She
made decisions concerning daily household issues such as: what to eat, what
food to buy, buying clothes, purchasing household necessities, etc., Her husband, as a pastor decide biblical
issues, church issues, son’s education.
Why this structure:
Bible says
Parents family: Mother has authority. She will make
decisions. Mother wanted to make all decisions and saw this as an expression of
love and concern for family. Participant commented that at times she did like
the control her mother exerted and at times would rebel.
Q3
(this question essentially divided heritage into two parts physical (property)
and ideology / traditions
Immediate
family: Participant did not comment
because her husband also did survey and she commented her answers would be the
same as his. (see survey
#1 SHT)
Parents family: Participant initially said this situation
different because this involved not only her parents but her each set of
grandparents were directly involved in the family. This was hard for participant to limit answer
because each (parents and both sets of grandparents) had different ideas and
ways
YHM’s
family was father, mother, oldest sister, older brother and YHM. Her parents were influenced by changes in
China in 1949 (People’s Republic of China, “New China”) where participant
commented men and women were seen more as equals. Both of her parents worked.
In discussing the heritage of physical assets her mother left all physical
resources to the oldest sister because she was the oldest child. The older brother did not get along well with
parents. When father died he left his
physical assets to his second wife. He remarried after YHM’s mother died. YHM said children did not know why he did
this. iv. Ideology
–
YHM’s mother’s family– YHM’s
grandfather was very traditional. He had
a Buddhist background. He influenced the
family with a strong belief in valuing and helping others and with encouraging
family to become educated. YHM commented her grandfather was poor in his old
age because he gave away all his money to help the poor. YHM commented giving to the poor was not a
normal practice at that time. YHM’s
mother strongly encouraged YHM to have the same ideas: to help the poor and to
study hard and get as much education as possible. YHM’s mother highly respected
her father and encouraged YHM to be like her grandfather. YHM commented she felt that the idea of
helping others to the same extent as her grandfather was too difficult. YHM’s grandfather and mother both valued the
Communist Party and her mother encouraged YHM to become a party member. YHM was
persuaded by her mother and joined the Communist Party.
YHM’s father’s family was very
traditional also. YHM commented that
there was a strong emphasis on studying hard and getting a good education. A good education would mean a better job. Her father did not verbally pass heritage but
modeled his ideals such as education by reading many books and writing poetry.
Q4
Parents
family- Her mother was the primary care giver. YHM and her mother spend a lot of time
together. Her mother often took YHM to
work with her. YHM’s older sister and
older brother were not raised in the by immediate family. Essentially, they were raised by other family
members. This was a consequence of the violation
of the one child policy and YHM commented because her mother was very vocal
against the government. (ME- yet she
wanted YHM to join Communist Party). So
YHM, was the only one of the three children who was actually raised by her
mother and father. YHM commented she
felt like she was the favored child and her mother did a lot of things for her
such as: took her to movies, encouraged
her to draw and paint pictures, and taught her Chinese calligraphy. YHM commented her mother had great influence
on her. YHM commented that her father
gave her the majority of her emotional comfort.
When she cried or was upset her father was the main one who comforted
her. ii. Immediate family: Grace
is involved in step-sons daily life concerns.
She is not he one who generally tells the son what to do. The father/ husband is the authority
figure. Both parent’s help in education
(son is home-schooled). YHM commented
she tries to focus on loving the son.
Both parents teach the son about the Bible. She commented they have a very good family
relationship.e. Q5
i. Parent’s
family– on the surface boys and
girls are equal, but felt mother was very strict with her brother and this
revealed son / boys maybe viewed as more important. Father, likewise, on surface boys and girls
are equal, but YHM commented that when she was born father commented to wife,
“you are so old and yet you have a daughter!”
YHM suggested that this revealed son may have been more important to her
father. YHM commented that her father
always loved her and never verbally expressed boys are better than girls, so
she really had no negative impressions about any differences. ii. Immediate family: They only have a son, so he is
important. She commented if they had a
daughter they would (the whole family, not YHM necessarily) think boys are more
important. YHM commented she also might
like boys too. She said, “I haven’t had
a child, but I thought if I had a child I would like to have a boy.”
Q6
In her current family, only the husband
works. This is different from her
parent’s family where both parents worked.
YHM commented that she feels that now men do more house hold activities
such as: household chores, cooking, buying groceries, etc.,
YET, I asked about a more general societal view,
she commented that she thinks in most families both parents work (so for her
personal experience this is not a change).
YHM
said now families generally want only one child and some families are ok if
they do not have any children. This is a
difference. YHM told story that when her mother become pregnant with YHM (3rd
child) she wanted to have an abortion, but her doctor told her she should not
have an abortion. That because of her age this might be her last chance to have
a baby. YHM said she is a survivor of
the early ‘one child policy!’ she commented that if the doctor had not
suggested this here mother would probably have aborted YHM.
YHM
commented that there is a shift in older family members living separately from
children as opposed to living in same house with children. YHM commented this may be due to younger
generation having increased ability and desire to travel, attain jobs in other
places, and live in other places.
YHM commented that in Christian families, the
wife is less likely to work
(outside home/ have job)
Q7
Her family lives in Beijing, but they have good
relationship and visit as much as able.
Husband’s family lives in same city and have good relationship. They visit the husband’s family very
often. YHM commented that when she
became a Christian this strengthened her relationship and her love for her
family in
Beijing and Wuhan ii. I
asked a follow-up question. How much
influence does husband’s family have on their immediate family? Initially, the extended family tried to have
some influence when YHM and husband were first married, but now that they have
been married for about three years they, (husband’s family) give less advice. (Example:
no pets in the house, YHM should dye her hair so YHM’s hair is not grey)
iii. 2nd follow-up question, does
YHM’s immediate family have influence on husband’s family? They always try to share about
Christianity. So, other family members
begin to avoid them a little bit. YHM
suggested they not put such a strong emphasis on verbally sharing but by just
loving them. Overall, their relationship
with other family members is good.
3. Part II Religious
Structure
a. Q1
i. YHM – there are two main religious
systems (note: definition of
religion as: any set of beliefs that are recognized as a source of truth and
authority that a person places faith in and lives by the concepts of that
ideological system. Nathan, I broadened
this definition a bit because in one interview we were asked to specifically
define. My intent was to use a bigger
umbrella to include philosophical systems, secular systems as well as religious
systems)
1)
“Lu jia” (Chinese philosopher) very
important as the founder of ancient Chinese governmental system. YHM stated current government still based on
“Lujia” system. YHM also stated that “Lu Jia” system is better known among more
educated people. The less educated may
not be familiar with this system.
2)
Communist Party, YHM said she thinks that the CP was losing some influence at
present time. Yet, the Communist Party
has some general appeal for the people of China.
YHM’s
faith is Christian – she did not say
this but I know this is her faith b. Q2
i. Lu Jia – a series of books “Lun Yu” written by Confucius and others (The
Analects of Confucius) ii. Communist Pary – “dangzhang” the
Communist Party Constitution
Q3
About God – (He) is truth, light, justice, all
good
About
good – the expression of God
About
evil – ‘all’ from Satan (Satan author
of) iv. About life – given by God, a beautiful thing, declared good by
God
About mankind – initially good, but now fallen
About women – image of women is from God, so
very beautiful, an expression of God’s glory.
God designed to be helper for man. Being a woman is a good thing because
God gift the woman to do some special things.
Women need love from God and man.
About
children – are the most beautiful things in the world. YHM commented children
sometimes look like angels and sometimes look a little evil (Me– she is commenting on the idea of
innocence yet having a sin disposition).
Children are the hope of mankind.
Parents are commanded by God to care for the children. Teaching children
requires patience
Q4
About the image of God – YHM pictures God in a
similar to the way she sees universe; vast, mysterious, and beautiful. God is powerful and just. ii. Sanctity
of life – the value of human life is found / determined by living for God. If a
person does not live for God, His honor,
they will not have / experience their true value. (NOTE:
sanctity was a word that was not easily translated into Chinese. Two words were used 1) shèngjié —holy and
pure 2) z?nyán – dignity; honor.
Initially survey used shèngjié, but decision was made that z?nyán best
defined ‘sanctity.’ The impression of
the interviewer is that the concept of ‘sanctity’ was not easily understood by
the participants) e. Q5
As
a Christian, Christians are uniquely qualified to understand, consider, and
participate in social justice issues.
YHM explained that in her personal experience that when not a Christian,
without God, she may consider issues of social justice, but to effect change
was considered to be too costly for her personally. After she became a
Christian she was willing to help.
Buddhists
in some ways inform or help with social justice. iii. Other systems may
make small contributions to social justice. “Lu Jia” encourages beneficial
acts. The Communist Party on surface
seems to support social justice by helping the poor. The CP policy mandates
helping poor. iv. Restoring peace
– Christianity uniquely qualified,
Christians are able to have the greatest effect for peace. Other religions can
have some small effect. YHM commented that countries that are not Christian
(less Christian) always seem to have war.
v. (Note:
this question required some explanation because the term ‘social
justice’ was not easily understood by participants. YHM’s responses focused primarily are the
issue of being ‘poor.’)
Q6
As a Christian, YHM felt there was an obligation
to respect, honor, and obey the
government unless in direct conflict with
Bible. YHM commented before becoming a
Christian she was more apt to rebel against government. If government acts in harmful ways towards
the people YHM will seek ways to help oppressed people and voice concern to
government. In times when in conflict
with government the YHM would seek ways to use legal means to voice belief and
seek resolution.
Q7
As Christian family is very important. So
important, that without family you cannot do anything.
“Lu Jia”
family important, but family is a tool to help government.
Buddhist
not sure about, but maybe Buddhist not want family.
Q8
As a Christian, in the church the pastor is the
leader. The pastor is chosen by the
members of the church. The members like
the person and recognize the person’s ability to teach the Bible. If the pastor has a family that is good. The wife can help the pastor to serve the
church. The pastor is recognized by the
members and they vote to make the person their pastor.
i. Q9
i. As a Christian the authority is the
Bible. A Christian should read and study
to Bible. Jesus and God are the
authorities, but the Bible is the way to learn about God and Jesus. YHM also
learns from listening to her pastor / husband. j. Q10
i. In society, Qu Yan is an ancient Chinese teacher who is a
model person. He sacrificed his life in
service to the King. His trait was “loyalty” to the king / empire. ii. Léi
F?ng – a famous soldier who modeled “self sacrifice” or “being a servant” to people.
He was put forward by the Communist Party as a model of ‘altruism’ and
‘dedication’
4. Part III Social Structure
Q1
YHM
generally there is very limited direct or active relationship with municipal
leaders. She stated that generally there
is limited interaction between people and municipal leaders unless some
specific issue or business or unless there is some personal connection such as
being classmate, family member, or neighbor.
YHM commented the relationship is neither good nor bad. YHM also
commented that where there is more interaction between municipal leaders and
others it is sometimes based on corruption and bribery.
Q2
Lu
Jia, a philosophical system is recognized as a valuable moral guide for
society. A guide for how people relate to family, others, and government. c. Q3
i. YHM gave four specific taboos
One
must not disrespect the deceased / ancestors.
No negative comments towards or actions that can be perceived as
dishonoring the dead.
No
public criticism against government officials.
No
negative public comments against the nation of China. “You cannot say you do not love this
country.” That is not good!
No
public comment concerning the desire to have freedom or liberty. “That is not good.”
d. Q4
Society
– Abortion is accepted. Corporal punishment is acceptable. YHM also
commented that people are willing to accept someone being killed if there is a
perception that the person was bad. (I
took to mean the idea corporal punishment or in some cases “justified”
homicide)
YHM
– there is no justification for the termination of life. God created life. e. Q5
i. Traditionally women are limited to
activities within the role of family.
Now, there have been gains in equality between men and women. YHM are now able to work in many jobs and
China so they are seen to have more value.
YHM still sees limits in women having positions of authority (government
and business). YHM commented that this
progress in equality has actually increased the responsibility of women. Now they are to a degree expected to work
outside the home and still take care of the home. YHM commented, “it is very tiring to be a
modern woman in China.”
Q6
Law states people have rights, but YHM feels in
many instances this is not necessarily true!
1. Children have a right to a free
education, but a “hukou” is mandatory without this education is not free (can
be very expensive or even impossible).
There are quite a few children who do not have a hukou due to one child
policy or because where the parents chose to live.
Men and women
Society
– Law says same rights, but leadership
still limited primarily for men
Grace
– right to marry, to buy house (unless no hukou then not able to buy house or
car)
Right
to live in any city as long as you have enough money
Right
to justice in the legal system – BUT YHM says this may not be true.
a. Judges can be influenced in many ways.
Children
Before
number of children limited by government to one child
Now
government is actually encouraging people to have more children but YHM
commented people do not want to have more children.
Q7
Before YHM was a Christian felt she can complain
some, obey, or immigrate to another country.
Now as a Christian, YHM will first say something or voice
opinion. If the issue is not related to God YHM will obey. If deals with a matter pertaining to belief
and activity for God YHM will seek God to determine if should obey or
rebel. If related to church,
specifically family churches, together they will make decision. YHM gave an example that in Beijing house
churches are now being required to register with government. YHM commented that so far 28 hc’s have
decided to register (to obey). This is being
done on a church by church decision. YHM
commented that in this instances God must direct and help. h. Q8
i. Local leaders are chosen by upper
leaders in the area. ii. National leaders chosen by the Communist Party, the 7 member
leadership group. The top 7 leaders are
chosen by 100-member voting block
Eligibility
– only eligible if high ranking within the party already or from a very
powerful famous family. A person cannot
just choose to seek a leadership position.
Leaders
chosen every 4 years
Q9
Term limit is 8 years. (unless law changed)
National
leaders only replaced at the end of the term.
Q10
YHM not aware of specific responsibilities or
rights or leaders. If a specific leader
is viewed as doing well or able to show tangible benefits for his constituents
that leader is often promoted.
Q11
There is a certain amount of tension with the
national government. There are
essentially 3 sections in the government and there can be tension and
competition among the parties. In some
instances, one party may have an advantage and can have leader of another party
removed. If a specific leader is viewed
as underperforming they can lose their position. The most common cause for removal from office
is when a leader is found to be involved in corruption.
Survey #8 (EJ)
Brief
Stats
Name: Yao Yi Jie
USE PSUEDONYM “EJ”
Age:
33
Male
Religion:
Christian
Married
Family: 3
people in immediate family: Husband
(EJ), wife, son
Education:
Bachelor’s degree
Type
of Job: teacher
Income: 2,000 – 4,000 yuan per month
Survey
Part I: FAMILY STRUCTURE
Q1
The family is patriarchal
Q2
In EJ’s family the husband has the line of
authority
EJ also commented that the ultimate authority in
the family is God
This is because God is the Lord and we are to
obey God.
Q4
The mother is the primary care giver.
EJ’s
mother raised him and worked
Father’s
generally limited participation in raising child because they work.
Children before the age of three are only taught
the basics are life: how to eat, communicate, etc.,
After three years old children can attend
preschool.
EJ
commented at this point (children begin some level of school) parents give the
country authority to teach the child.
Traditions
EJ’s
family tradition is to teach the
children the Christian faith: God
created the world and the Gospel
The
importance of family
(Me – I asked about discipline issues: who, how,
when?)
Both
parents discipline, wife maybe more so than EJ because she is around the child
most of the time.
Discipline
method:
Stop
child when doing wrong
Instruct
the right way
On
second or third offenses may raise voice and possible physical correction
EJ
commented he is more strict than most Chinese parents
Q5
Societal:
boys are more important than girls
EJ himself feels boys are slightly more
important
EJ
gave this reason. Girls will marry and
become part of another family
Q6
In the past women’s primary responsibility was
to manage and care for the household: clean, cook, buy household necessities,
sew clothes, etc.,
NOW, That has changed because more economic
prosperity, the desire to make money and greater accessibility to the
necessities of the household.
NOW, generally families want fewer children
More
children create more responsibility and greater financial cost
NOW, EJ
commented that societally families have lowered their moral standards
EJ
sees more divorce, adultery, sexually immorality etc.,
Survey
Part II RELIGIOUS STRUCTURE
Q3
About God:
God is the creator, eternal,
righteous, awe inspiring
About good: thoughts and acts as determined as
‘good’ by God’s word
About evil: thoughts and acts as determined as
‘evil’ according to God’s word.
About life:
it is a test to evaluate people’s faith
About mankind: important to God. God loves people. In a pitiful state because ignorant about God
About women: important, great help for men
About
children: born with a sin nature. They need Jesus and the Gospel. Most important need of children is to know
Jesus and the Gospel.
Q4
EJ understand the image of God as holy,
powerful, radiant, glorious, God’s face is serious yet God is gracious. ii. EJ
believes the sanctity of life involves knowing that God as creator made man to
reflect God’s character. Man should
realize their true identity as God’s creation.
Q6
EJ stated the Chinese government believes there
is no god, so they are somewhat resistant / in opposition to the Christian
faith. ii. There can be an adversarial relationship between the government
and
Christians iii. The
Bible tells Christians to obey the government.
iv. In times when there is conflict Christians are called to obey
God.
Q7
EJ’s faith holds that the family is very
important to God. The family is God’s
idea / symbol to reveal His (God’s) love for people.
God’s love causes (exhorts) the need to care for
the family .
Q9
God is the authority, the Bible is the guide, a person is live without fear of the world,
to live in the recognition of God’s sovereignty, and in obedience. f. Q10
i. Societally, Lei Feng (Chinese soldier who is held up as a model
of
“altruism” and ‘self
sacrifice.”) ii. Jesus is EJ’s model
Jesus
models how to love God!
Jesus
models the importance of sharing the Gospel.
Survey
Part III SOCIAL STRUCTURE
Q1
people relate to local leaders
Generally people obey, but there is a lot of
verbal complaining about local leadership.
Q2
values that give society cohesion and security
EJ listed two basic values
Confucian
teaching that still has influence on society.
A
general fear (not necessarily as in respect) of the government and its power.
Q3
basic taboos
To violate traditional Confucian culture / ideas
(Me-
the general principle is “don’t do to others what you don’t want them to do to
you. I find this very interesting like
the
‘golden rule’ from a negative action perspective)
EJ
commented that money (making money) is the primary motivating factor for
Chinese people in general now.
a. Within that perspective EJ tried to
explain that any negative moral judgment against a person doing what they can
to make money is seen as a taboo.
i. His example: in the past prostitution
was definitely deemed an immoral act.
NOW generally people are no longer critical of prostitution. It is viewed as an acceptable way to make
money, succeed, and even prosper.
b. This was a little difficult to see as a
taboo in society, but this is his comment.
Q4
termination of life
EJ in his belief system there is none.
Chinese society allows for termination of life
He
gave the following example
a. His wife went for prenatal check and the
doctor asked the wife is she wanted to have and amniocentesis to determine any
birth defects in the baby so they could chose to abort if there the baby had
defects. The doctor strongly encouraged
her to do the test telling her it is free, paid by the government. EJ commented
that doctors are ordered by the
government to push hard for this test so as to abort in case of suspected birth
defects. His wife denied the test and
told the doctor God is in control.
iii. EJ did have a struggle with the issue of
doctor assisted suicide in the case painful terminal illnesses or irrecoverable
injuries or illnesses. He expressed
compassion for the pain of the patient, the emotional hardship and the medical
costs for the family.
e. Q5 how women are valued
EJ commented that he feels women have more power (value) in society than men.
EJ
attributed this to the one child policy and the gender imbalance, more boys
than girls, that resulted from the one child policy. Marriageable women are more scarce and now
there is great pressure on men to have an acceptable level of financial success
in order to attract a marriage partner.
Women have become very selective.
EJ
said that from a governmental perspective (not including political positions)
women and men are equal.
There
is now an official saying posted in hospitals and other prominent areas that
says
a. “zh? sh?ng y? ge h?o nán n? d?u y?yàng”
b. Only birth one baby good, boy or girl
both the same.” f. Q6 rights
EJ said generally people have no real
rights.
Government determines what “rights” people
have
EJ
commented that he feels government is taking away more rights or adding more
limits on what people can and can’t do.
1. EJ explained that the confiscation of
property land and houses by the government is increasing in China.
i. People are generally compensated for
their property but there is no guarantee and there is no recourse if the government’s
pledge is not honored.
Children
have a right to education and generally to protection and basic
well-being.
Q7 individuals in conflict with policies
EJ said in instances where there is conflict he
will do what he believes is right.
He also he would make an effort to explain why
he has conflict and why he believes the policy is wrong
If
the situation was serious he would consider possible legal acion.
Q8 leaders chosen
Leaders chosen
People
can vote for local leaders
People
cannot vote for national leaders
Eligibility
Must
be a party member
When
eligible
Local
– EJ did not know
National
– leader must be at least 45 years old
i. Q9 leaders changed
i. EJ said that in the past leaders serve 4
year terms. ii. That can serve a maximum of 3 consecutive terms
Xi
Jin Ping has changed the rules so that he can serve until he doesn’t want to
anymore
1. EJ commented Xi Jin Ping is very smart! Many leaders have tried to change the policy,
but only XJP has been able to do it.
EJ
said leaders can be changed when they do wrong things.
They can be changed if the President develops a
different standard 1. (ME
– no sure if EJ meant different ideologies / agendas or if he meant leadership
regulations such as: term limits, age, party affiliations, experience
etc., There was no follow-up for
clarification)
NC Survey 5 (JEY)
Marriage Status: Yes
Children: 2 children (17 and 13)
Occupation: Nurse (now stay at home mother)
Age: 45
Level of Education: Da Lian College for Nursing
Church Association: Raleigh Chinese Christian Church Christian History:
I have been in the U.S. 1998. My husband came here as a
student. After a year I came as well. My husband designs computer chip. Both of
my children were born here.
When I was present with my son—my friends shared Jesus
with me.
Hometown is DaLian
My sister and family think one child is good enough now.
They are busy with work and it so expensive to raise a child! They are
concerned with food, preschool, daycare. If they want to go to a preschool
there is a 2-4 year wait list and you have to pay a lot of money.
They may let you in.
People don’t want a second child in the rural side, they
just want a boy!
My in laws first child was a daughter. They want a
grandson and not a grand daughter!!!
Family Structure ????
What
are the authority lines in your family? Who makes decisions—how, when
and why? ??????????????????——?????????????????????????
My mom always made decisions in my family. Almost every
family the Mom makes decisions in China. (my husband is not a Christian) My
kids ask me for things, not my husband. My husband makes big decisions.
What
are the child-rearing practices and traditions in your family? ???????????????????????????????????????
No traditions. I have a sister. Only the young gerneation
does the 100 day party!!!! They have 1 child only so they have parties for them
with 4 garndparents.
How
are boys and girls viewed differently by families, if at all? ???????
???????????????
The boy has the family name. I didn’t change my family
name after I was married. In China, they would always call you Mrs. (last name
of husband) not your real name! My in laws they have a big family name. They
have the sons names ready way ahead of time—they have the middle and family
name already. Girls are not included in this at all. ?4?How are the dynamics of the family
changing in China? ??????????
For my Mom, I called my Mom this morning. She has 5
siblings and they get together every week and play cards and eat. My generation
doesn’t do that—we are busy with our kids! When I travel back to China I hardly
ever see my own generation, my own cousins are too busy. My mother is the
oldest so the first day of the New Year all of my aunts and uncles will come to
my Mom’s house. But my generation will not come. They will visit friends. For
my generation it is kind of lonely.
Religious Structure ????
??????????????????????????????????????????????
?1?What are your
beliefs concerning image of God, sanctity of human life? ????
???????????????????
I had lunch with my friend yesterday and she told me our
church last week said they would excommunicate two members. For me, everyone is
a sinner and makes mistakes. For U.S. Chinese people they have high
education—they are top students or top workers. That’s why they came here. They
are proud of themselves. They think they are the best so there is a lack of
humility. They cannot see people who disagree with them. There is always
fighting in the church here! Pastor had to leave as well.
?2?How does religion
inform social justice issues? Does religion play a role in
restoring peace (shalom) to a nation? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Before I became a Christian I would wonder if people were
Christians. She is a Christian, but she doesn’t act like it. After I became a
Christian I see the best part, not the worst parts. I tell my children you
learn from the good parts, but don’t learn from the bad examples.
Before I came here they say Americans pay lots of taxes to
support the poor. When I became a Christian we are not rich, but we always
participate in Christmas that we have so much that these others might need
something so we should give to them.
I just think we should help them!
?3?How does religion
influence an individual’s relationship with the government? ?
??????????????
Of course we should be involved in government. If we are
involved then there can be good done.
Social Structure ????
How
do people relate to local municipal leaders? ???????????????
There is no way they can approach local leaders. In China,
if you are in government you are a highter level of people and don’t talk to
normal people. They only socialize with others in government or with people
that have in common.
My uncle is CEO. They mayor met him several times, but
only on the television. But no personal meetings. They don’t ask personal
questions about your family, it is set up only for TV.
You can only be in the CCP and then you can work hard at
government and then they will nominate you for a position.
What
are the basic values within society that give it cohesion and security? ???
????????????????????????
This is a big problem in China. That’s why a lot of top
people came to the U.S. They don’t think its fair. They cant have their own
life, but when they come here they can. For example, if the mayor’s son found
some girl and the girl didn’t want to date the son the girl will be in big
trouble. The government or rich people can do everything. The normal people
think that’s not fair or safe. Top government can have many mistresses! That’s
why we are thinking we don’t want to stay there.
Even if you work for a good company they will give you a
bonus every holiday. My sister’s husband works for the government and they get
lots of things! Even my Mom can benefit. She gets lots of boxes of good food.
There are many other perks!!! They don’t have to pay to go to restaurants—they
just have to sign. Normal people have to pay.
They can go to the spa or resort and don’t have to pay.
They have the power.
?3?Are there ever
justifications for the termination of life? If so, what? ????????????????????
For me, I had an abortion in China. At that time I didn’t
feel guilty. But when I was pregnant with my daughter I cried a lot.
We don’t have that education to think that’s a life.
I always ask this question. I was a nurse in China. I was
told how to take care of patients, but I never think about them as a person. I
think of them as a patient—not real life person. I wasn’t a bad person, but I
see people that are really sick, then I think you are not treatable then it is
no use—you can’t last long. When I was on my night shift an old lady knocked on
my door at 2 AM. My husband peed on the bed and I said go AWAY it is 2 AM. Now,
I can’t believe I acted like that. Back then, no one think about it this way.
When I gave birth to my daughter the nurse treated me like
family! Their attitude was so different than mine! I talked to my frinds in
China who work in the hospital and said our teacher never told us to view
patients like our own family. Most of my friends who work still don’t see the
patient as family. They think, go away, don’t bother me! They don’t see that
this is a LIFE. IMAGO DEI. This is what makes the change in my heart! I treat
them differently as a nurse.
If you are sick and on life support maybe this is ok?
How
are women valued, in contrast to men, in society? ???????????
???????
In my Mom’s generation I feel like they are the same. My
friends in China say oh you are lucky you don’t have to work! We have to work
everyday in China to make money. In China, the woman always has to work. My Mom
said you raise your child by yourself! For my cousin, they are pregnant and
then deliver the baby and that’s it. Her Mom takes care of everything else!
My kids and I have a good relationship. We are closer than
my cousin’s relationship with her children. She maybe will have one day with
her children.
How
do individuals respond to policies with which they disagree based on
conviction? ?????????????????????
For normal peole in China the rule is the rule for the
normal people. They just follow— they have nothing to do. Here, in the U.S.,
you can sign a petition or something. In China you are not allowed to gather
together. Normal people, they can complain about it, or nothing more. This is
true today!
It also depends on where you live. City people will follow
the rules. Some other people can have more kids. Celebrities can have other
kids. They send their wives to other
places. The policy is only for the normal people. The Chinese people are
very smart in figuring out how to get around the policy.
In California, they had hospitals to help with this—having
more children! Fly into California and we will take care of you. San Francisco.
?????????????????????You
can choose to answer questions below or not:
?6?How do local
municipal leaders lose the right to lead? ???????????
?????
Yes. The top branches, if they fall down, then all the
other branches will go down!!! Normal people can’t vote.
APPENDIX 5
SOUTH KOREA CASE STUDY
Is the research in this study
transferable to other settings? South Korea, like China, has experienced
tremendous growth in its Christian population over the past four decades.
Unlike China, South Korea has simultaneously been able to reverse a dangerously
low birth replacement rate in recent years, which correlates with the growth of
Christianity in its population. It is perhaps the only nation in modern times
that has been able to successfully reverse population trajectory to such a
significant degree.[536]
By 2007 South Korea’s SRB was again at a healthy level of 105:100 after peaking
at 117:100 in the early 1990s.
Gendercide
As is true in China, gendercide in South
Korea was widespread throughout the last two decades of the 20th
Century. The advent of ultrasound technology in the 1980s resulted in
sex-selective prenatal screening and contributed to the high abortion rate. The
gender imbalance threatened to irrevocably harm the nation’s future. The
dominant preference for sons was a result of the desire for an heir that would
provide for the family and carry on the family name. While infanticide and
abortion had traditionally been used as means
to eliminate unwanted children in Korea, abortion became the principal means
of terminating life.[537]
In 1977, “doctors in Seoul were performing 2.75 abortions for every birth—the
highest documented rate of abortion in human history.”[538]
By 1992, “the male to female ratio for the birth of a first child was
117.9:100, a clear indication that parents were using prenatal technologies to
ascertain the sex of their child—and in many cases to abort their girls.”[539]
However, in less than twenty years, South Korea’s SRB dramatically shifted to
fall within normal ratios.
Theories
The literature containing theories for
South Korea’s reversal is extensive, and several demographers affirm parts of a
variety of theories, including low fertility rates, to explain such a sudden
turnaround. For example, law enforcement and public awareness campaigns played
a vital role, but so did increased participation by women in the workplace.[540]
The availability of higher education for women certainly contributed to the
shift as did legal reform, in particular the Gender Equality Employment Act.[541]
While each of the aforementioned theories
have merit, the shift from a Confucian based patriarchal family structure,
which placed restrictions on women’s conduct and reinforced women’s inferior
worth to a man, to a Christian perspective on family helps to make sense of such a dramatic reversal in
Korean society. Kelly H. Chong writes, “One of the first attractions and roles
of evangelical faith for Korean women is as a means of coping with and seeking
relief from domestic problems, especially by way of healing and empowerment
provided through spirituality and institutional participation.”[542]
Summary: A Mother of Two Daughters is the
Envy of Every Woman Two new Asian proverbs help to illuminate the shift in
Korean society: 1) “To have two daughters wins you a gold medal”; and 2) “A
mother of two daughters or more is the envy of every woman.” Is the Korean
shift applicable to China?
For the purpose of this study it is important to note that Christians
comprise approximately 29 percent of South Korea’s population.[543]
The majority of these Christians are Protestant and according to an article
from Pew Research, “Religious restrictions in South Korea are lower than in the
U.S., and significantly lower than the median level of religious restrictions
in the Asia-Pacific region.”[544]
The shift from a traditional philosophy of family to a Christian value system
has coincided with the growth of Christianity in South Korea. Mothers no longer
find their identity in the success of their children, but in their relationship
with God. Parents consider themselves as stewards of their children— entrusted
with them for a time in order to pass on the deposit of faith. A Christian
ethic of life and family has impacted Korean society in such a way that it has
played a significant role in a demographic shift. Families traded their
traditional values for a value system that valued all life and considered males
and females equal in the sight of God.
[1] See David Aikman, Jesus in Beijing: How Christianity is Transforming China and Changing the Global Balance
of Power (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2003).
[2] Rodney Stark and Xiuhua
Wang, A Star in the East: The Rise of
Christianity in China (West Conshohocken: Templeton Press, 2015).
[3] For more on these factors
see Stark and Wang, A Star in the East.
Rodney Stark also describes a sociological description of the growth of early
Christianity, “The projections reveal that Christianity could easily have
reached half the population by the middle of the fourth century without
miracles or conversion en masse.” Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity: How the Obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement
Became the Dominant Religious Force in the Western World in a Few Centuries (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1996), 14. While Stark’s conclusions regarding
early Christian growth have been met with a mixture of acceptance and
skepticism from both sociology and biblical scholarship, his conclusions
regarding the reality of abortion and infanticide in the Greco-Roman world is
generally accepted. See Larry W. Hurtado, Why
on Earth Did Anyone Become a Christian in the First Three Centuries?
(Milwaukee: Market
University Press, 2016);
Jan Bremmer, The Rise of Christianity
through the Eyes of Gibbon, Harnack, and Rodney Stark, (Groningen:
Barkhuis, 2010); and E. R. Dodds, Pagan
and Christian in an Age of Anxiety, Reprint edition (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1991).
[4] Secondary conversion is a
religious conversion that results directly from a relationship with another
convert. In this case, Stark refers to conversions resulting from the marriage
of Christian women to non-Christian men. See Stark, The Rise of Christianity, 111.
[7] For example, Zhang Yimou,
the celebrated film director and producer of the 2008 Summer Olympics Opening
Ceremony in Beijing. Zhang, who has fathered seven children with four different
women, received a “social support fee” of 7.48 million yuan. See Ma Jian,
“Opinion | China’s Brutal OneChild Policy,” The
New York Times, 21 May 2013, sec. Opinion,
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/22/opinion/chinas-brutal-one-child-policy.html.
[8] The BBC reported via the
official Xinhua News Agency the official statement from the Communist Party’s
Central Committee. According to the report, the alteration of the policy was
“to improve the balanced development of population.” “China to End One-Child
Policy,” BBC News, 29 October 2015,
sec. China, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-34665539.
[9] See Josh Chin, “Chinese
Scholars Call for Revision of One-Child Policy,” Wall Street Journal, 6 July 2012, sec. World News,
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303962304577509062660508548.
[10] “One-Child Policy
Abolished: Today Is the Day the Lord Has Made! | All Girls Allowed,” n.d.,
http://www.allgirlsallowed.org/news/one-child-policy-abolished-today-day-lord-has-made.
[11] This, despite the state
media reporting a baby boom in Beijing, with long lines reserving beds at
hospitals and maternity wards booked months in advance. See “Second Child
Policy Fuels Hospital
[12] /30/content_26639808.htm.
“But those accounts were misrepresenting the facts,” said Wang Feng, of the
University of California at Irvine. The Washington Post reports, “The lines at
the capital’s top hospitals are a function of bottlenecks in China’s
overstretched health system: many of the women who have elected to give birth
this year are older than average, and they have
been encouraged to head for Grade A hospitals in case of complications.” “China
Drops One-Child Policy, but ‘Exhausted’ Tiger Moms Say One Is Plenty,” Washington Post, n.d.,
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/china-drops-one-child-policybut-exhausted-tiger-moms-say-one-is-plenty/2016/10/14/336f1890-8ae7-11e6-8a68b4ce96c78e04_story.html.
[13]
Stuart Gietel-Basten, “Why Scrapping the One-Child Policy Will Do Little to
Change China’s Population,” The
Conversation, n.d.,
http://theconversation.com/why-scrapping-the-one-child-policy-willdo-little-to-change-chinas-population-49982.
[14] Howard W. French, “China’s
Twilight Years,” The Atlantic, 11 May
2016,
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/06/chinas-twilight-years/480768/.
[15] Ethnographic interviews
are a category of qualitative research that combines one-on-one interviews with
immersive observation. The approach and method for this study’s ethnographic
interviews is based in part on Chapter 9, “Qualitative Research Methods,” in
Paul Leedy, Practical Research: Planning
and Design (London: Pearson, 2012) and on Herbert J. Rubin, Qualitative Interviewing: The Art of Hearing
Data (Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, 2011).
[16] The Three Self Patriotic
Movement (TSPM) is the Chinese state-sanctioned body for the organization of
all Protestant churches.
[17] The networks in Hebei
province have been chosen due to availability of contacts and personal
references known to the author. Due to security concerns, two participants were
chosen in Shanghai.
[18] Some examples of church
association will be in country, out of country, house church, cell church,
underground church, and TSPM.
[19]
This information is based upon ethnographic
interview content presented in THE9930 Anthropology and the Social Sciences by
Dr. Al James in Winter Term 2013 at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
in Wake Forest, N.C.
[21]
See Alan Kreider, The Patient Ferment of
the Early Church?: The Improbable Rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire
(Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2016).
[22] See Justin A. Smith,
“Ethical Value of Pagan Religions,” Old
Testament Studies (1886): 17–21.
[23] See John Bryan Starr, Understanding China: A Guide to China’s
Economy, History and Political Structure (New York: Hill and Wang, 1997),
191.
[25] Stark, The Rise of Christianity, 118. Mary Ann
Warren, who originally coined the term defines gendercide as “those wrongful
forms of sexual discrimination which reduce the relative number of females or
males, whether through direct killing or in more indirect ways.” Mary Anne
Warren, Gendercide, UK ed. edition.
(Totowa, N.J: Rowman & Allanfield Publishers, 1985), 1.
[26] See “World Health
Organization, Sex Ratio,” SEARO,
n.d., http://www.searo.who.int/health_situation_trends/data/chi/sex-ratio/en/.
[28] See Howard Clark Kee, Miracle in the Early Christian World: A
Study in Sociohistoric Method (New York: Yale University Press, 1983).
[29] Jonathan D. Spence, The Search for Modern China, 1st
Paperback edition (New York: W. W.
Norton & Company, 1991), 683
[30]
Spence notes, “According to Thomas Malthus the
population of a given country was doomed to be checked by famine, disease, war,
or other catastrophes when it pushed too hard against the limits of available
resources.” Spence, The Search for Modern
China, 683.
[31]
Avraham Ebenstein, “The ‘Missing Girls’ of China and the Unintended
Consequences of the
One Child Policy,” Journal of Human Resources 45.1 (2010): 89
4 Spence, The Search for
Modern China,685.
[32]
John King Fairbank and Merle Goldman, China:
A New History, Second Enlarged Edition, 2nd
Revised & enlarged
edition (Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University
Press, 2006), 368–370. The massive famine did indeed materialize. Fairbank
writes concerning the greatest famine recorded in human history, “In 1958–1960
some 20 to 30 million people lost their lives through malnutrition and famine
because of the polices imposed upon them by the Chinese Communist Party.
Measured by the statistics showing an increase of mortality, this was one of
the greatest of human disasters.” Fairbank records the factors leading to this
disaster: 1. “State authorities had unquestioned control over the populace in
the villagers…. The bifurcation of society into rulers and ruled, the managers
and producers, could now be used by the CCP leaders more intensively than ever
before.” 2. “The docility of the Chinese peasantry, who were remarkably enured
to following the dictates of authority because it represented the peace and
order on which their livelihood depended.” 3. “The CCP’s shocking recognition
in late 1957 that the Stalinist model of industrial growth was not suited to
Chinese conditions.” 4. “Urbanization, having outstripped industrialization,
produced urban unemployment, which was added to the underemployment in the
populous countryside.” 5. “The central statistical bureau was broken up and
localized together with functions of economic planning. This was the context in
which the overambitious targets of the Great Leap were formulated in each
locality, not by economists but by cadres inspired by emulation who were
contemptuous of experts but intensely loyal to the cause.”
[33] Frank Dikötter, “Looking
Back on the Great Leap Forward,” History
Today 66.8 (2016): 23–24.
[34] Wang Feng, Martin King
Whyte, and Yong Cai, “Challenging Myths About China’s One-Child Policy,” China Journal 74.1 (2015): 147.
[35]
Wang Feng, King Whyte, and Yong Cai, “Challenging Myths About China’s One-Child
Policy,” 147.
[36] Wang Feng, King Whyte,
and Yong Cai, “Challenging Myths About China’s One-Child Policy,” 147.
[37]
It was Mao’s opinion that a large population was an asset. Every person added
to the labor force, which would in turn contribute to national defense and
economic development. See John Bryan Starr, Understanding
China: A Guide to China’s Economy, History, and Political Culture, 3rd
edition (New York: Hill and Wang, 2010), 194.
[38] See the author’s
interview with Norman Cheng on April 4, 2017 in Appendix 1. Norman Cheng is a
pseudonym for security purposes. See also Ma Yinchu, A New Theory of Population, (London: Palgrave MacMillan, 1989).
[39]
For more on Mao’s motivation, see Jung Chang’s revealing narrative of Mao’s
hold on the Chinese populace. Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, Mao: The Unknown Story (New York: Anchor, 2006).
[40] “History of the One-Child
Policy | All Girls Allowed,” n.d.,
http://www.allgirlsallowed.org/onechild-policy.
[41]
“History of the One-Child Policy | All Girls Allowed.”
[42] “Can China Afford to
Continue Its One-Child Policy?,” East-West
Center | www.Eastwestcenter.Org, 23 March 2005,
https://www.eastwestcenter.org/publications/can-china-affordcontinue-its-one-child-policy.
Entitled An Open Letter to Members of the
Chinese Communist Party and Chinese Communist Youth League on Controlling
Population Growth, the letter was published by the Central Committee. It
made the following points concerning the disaster of rapid population growth:
1) increased consumption and reduced capital accumulation and investment; 2)
rapid growth made it difficult to increase the standard of living for the
population; 3) even smaller per capita arable land and reduced food supply; 4)
an overuse of natural resources including energy, water, and forests; and 5)
aggravated environmental pollution and decreased production.
[43] Karin Evans, The Lost Daughters of China: Adopted Girls,
Their Journey to America, and the Search Fora Missing Past, Revised,
Updated edition (New York: TarcherPerigee, 2008), 98.
[44]
The UNFPA is formally known as the United Nations Population Fund and is the
United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency. The author recognizes
that the acronym does not match the title of the agency.
[45] See testimony in “Human
Rights in China: Improving or Deteriorating Conditions?,” n.d.,
http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/intlrel/hfa27067.000/hfa27067_0f.htm.
[46] Steven W. Mosher,
“China’s One-Child Policy: Twenty-Five Years Later,” The Human Life Review 32.1 (2006): 82.
[47]
Continued support by the UN for population control policies in China resulted
in the NPR reporting on April 4, 2017 that the Trump Administration was cutting
funding to the UNFPA over this issue. Journalist Nurith Aizenman writes, “The
Trump Administration will withhold $32.5 million in funding that had been
earmarked this fiscal year for the United Nations’ lead agency on family
planning and maternal health…. The administration says it’s doing so because it
has determined that UNFPA helps to support a Chinese government family planning
program that forces people to get abortions and sterilizations.” “Citing
Abortions In China, Trump Cuts Funds For U.N. Family Planning Agency,” NPR.Org, n.d.,
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/04/04/522040557/citing-abortions-inchina-trump-cuts-funds-for-u-n-family-planning-agency.
[48] “Human Rights in China:
Improving or Deteriorating Conditions?” 22 Mosher, “China’s
One-Child Policy,” 83.
[49]
“Human Rights in China: Improving or Deteriorating Conditions?”
[50] “Human Rights in China:
Improving or Deteriorating Conditions?”
[51] Richard L. Jackson, “Ma
Yinchu: From Yale to Architect of Chinese Population Policy,” American Journal of Chinese Studies.1
(2012): 51.
[53]
“The Ghost Children: In the Wake of China’s One-Child Policy, a Generation Is
Lost,” n.d., https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/the-ghost-children-in-the-wake-of-chinas-one-child-policya-generation-is-lost/article23454402/.
[55] See Richard L. Jackson,
“Ma Yinchu,” 52. Ma was completely vindicated in 1979 by Deng
Xiaoping and was recognized for his contributions
to “Chinese development and population policy.”
[56]
“Song Jian: A Leading Scientist,” n.d.,
http://cpcchina.chinadaily.com.cn/201101/25/content_13916846.htm. Cf. The
author’s interview with Norman Cheng. Cheng argues that the research conducted
before the implementation of the One-Child Policy could not be called
scientific research as it was conducted by cybernetic researchers who knew
nothing about population studies. There were almost no demographers in China at
the time and, consequently, the research quality was poor.
[57]
“The Equation That Inspired the One-Child Policy – Kinea,” n.d.,
http://kinea.media/en/sciencetechnology/song-jian-equation-one-child-policy.
[58] “The Equation That
Inspired the One-Child Policy – Kinea.”
[59]
“The Equation That Inspired the One-Child Policy – Kinea.”
[60]
“The Equation That Inspired the One-Child Policy – Kinea.”
[61] Susan Greenhalgh, Governing China’s Population: From Leninist
to Neoliberal Biopolitics (Stanford University Press, 2005) 93.
[62] Wenqian Gao, Lawrence R.
Sullivan, and Peter Rand, Zhou Enlai?:
The Last Perfect Revolutionary: A Biography (New York: PublicAffairs,
2007), 88.
[63] Harold C. Hinton, “The
Eighth Congress of the Chinese Communist Party,” Far Eastern Survey
[69] Kristof writes, “By the
early 1970s China had adopted a highly successful voluntary family planning
program called “Later, Longer, Fewer.” Its slogan was “One child isn’t too few,
two are just fine, three are too many.” And within about a decade it managed
without coercion to reduce the average number of births per woman from six to
three, a remarkable achievement. It’s rarely acknowledged that the biggest drop
in Chinese fertility came not from the one-child policy, but earlier during
this voluntary birth control campaign.” Kristof, “‘China’s Worst Policy
Mistake’?”
[72] Stuart Gietel-Basten,
“Why Scrapping the One-Child Policy Will Do Little to Change China’s
Population,” The Conversation, n.d.,
http://theconversation.com/why-scrapping-the-one-child-policy-willdo-little-to-change-chinas-population-49982.
[73]
Alarmingly, for the central government, in 1.7 million families with five or
more children, a new baby was born in the past year. Spence, The Search for Modern China, 686.
[78] Ebenstein,
The “Missing Girls” of China and the
Unintended Consequences of the One Child Policy,” 101.
[79] “2011 Annual Report |
Congressional-Executive Commission on China,” n.d.,
https://www.cecc.gov/publications/annual-reports/2011-annual-report. 113. For example, in March 2011, the Maojing township
government in Qingyang city, Gansu province, issued a report on the
‘‘outstanding results’’ of the government’s ‘‘rectification activities.’’ The
report calls for officials to ‘‘spare no efforts’’ in implementing population
policies and notes that village cadres face a penalty of 1,500 yuan (US$230)
[80] “2009 Annual Report |
Congressional-Executive Commission on China,” n.d.,
https://www.cecc.gov/publications/annual-reports/2009-annual-report. Consider an example of abortion quotas: In 2009, Yunnan
officials developed a implementation plan that outlined abortion targets for
specific groups: The
Commission notes, “Strictly
prohibit the birth of multiple children; for women who have multiple
out-of-plan children and become pregnant again, the abortion rate must reach
100 percent; for women who have two out-of-plan children and become pregnant
again, the abortion rate must exceed 90 percent; for women who have one
out-of-plan child and become pregnant again, the abortion rate must exceed 85
percent.”
[81]
“2009 Annual Report | Congressional-Executive Commission on China.”
[82] Nicholas D. Kristof and
Sheryl WuDunn, China Wakes: The Struggle
for the Soul of a Rising
Power, Vintage Books edition (New York: Vintage, 1995) 238–239.
Kristof, the former bureau chief of the New York Times in Beijing, details the
account of Li Qiuliang in 1992: “Family planning officials showed up at her
home when she was seven months pregnant and frail. Li had permission for her
pregnancy and had done nothing wrong. But officials had birth slots for 1992
that would go unused, and they feared that they might have excess births in
1993. Since they would be punished with salary cuts or demotions if births
exceeded the quota in 1993, they formed an ‘early birth shock brigade’ to round
up very pregnant women and induce the births before the new year. ‘My
daughter-in-law’s health isn’t good, and she may not be able to get pregnant
again,’ Li Qiuliang’s mother-in-law pleaded. ‘Let her have one baby, someone to
look after her and my son when they grow old. It doesn’t matter if it’s a boy
or a girl. After it’s born, she’ll go get sterilized.’ The officials paid no
attention. They took Li to a clinic and ordered a doctor to induce labor. The
doctor protested that Li was too weak, but the officials ordered him to
proceed. Li hemorrhaged, fell unconscious, and almost died; her life was saved
in a hospital, but she was left crippled. The baby died after nine hours.”
[85] “2012 Annual Report |
Congressional-Executive Commission on China,” n.d.,
https://www.cecc.gov/publications/annual-reports/2012-annual-report. 92–93,
states, “In
accordance with national measures, local governments direct officials to punish
non-compliance with heavy fines, termed ‘‘social support fees’’ (shehui fuyang fei), which force many
couples to choose between undergoing an unwanted abortion and incurring a fine
much greater than the average annual income.”
[86]
Pastor Max Wong is critical of these fines. The penalties, he believes, are a
convenient way for officials to supplement their income. For him, that helps
explain why the policy has been so persistent. “That money becomes grey income
for the local government,” he says. Furthermore, The Globe and Mail contacted
the Health and Family Planning Commission regarding this “grey money.” The
Commission replied that “local officials must make public their rules about
one-child-policy fines, as well as information about how much money they
collect. The law requires local officials to submit those fines – which China
calls a “social maintenance fee”–to the national treasury, although they are
then returned to local budgets.” Vanderklippe comments, “As a result, there
remains an incentive for neighbourhood officials to use second children as a
revenue source. It’s not small change: In 2012, a report that tallied such fees
in two-thirds of China’s provinces found that they had brought in $2.6 billion
in fines from violators of the policy.” “The Ghost Children.”
[88]
“2012 Annual Report | Congressional-Executive Commission on China,” 90–91. Mandatory abortion, which is often referred to as
“remedial measures” (bujiu cuoshi) in
government reports, is endorsed explicitly as an official policy instrument in
the regulations of 18 of China’s 31 provincial-level jurisdictions.
[90] Elizabeth L. Gerhardt, The Cross and Gendercide: A Theological
Response to Global Violence Against Women and Girls (Downers Grove,
Illinois: IVP Academic, 2014), 44.
[91]
“2008 Annual Report | Congressional-Executive Commission on China.”
[92] Nicholas N. Eberstadt, “A
Global War against Baby Girls: Sex-Selective Abortion Becomes a Worldwide
Practice,” Handbook of Clinical Gender
Medicine (2012): 18–36.
[94]
“2011 Annual Report | Congressional-Executive Commission on China.” 113.
[95] “‘Better to Be a Criminal
in China than a Pregnant Mother,’” PRI,
15 April 2014, https://www.pop.org/better-to-be-a-criminal-in-china-than-a-pregnant-mother/.
[96] “Constitution Of The
People’s Republic Of China, 1982 | US-China Institute,” n.d.,
https://china.usc.edu/constitution-peoples-republic-china-1982.
[97]
“Better to Be a Criminal in China than a Pregnant Mother.”
[98] Ma Jian, “Opinion |
China’s Brutal One-Child Policy,” The New
York Times, 21 May 2013, sec.
[99] “China (Includes Tibet,
Hong Kong, and Macau),” U.S. Department
of State, n.d., http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2010/eap/154382.htm.
[100] “Encountering China’s
Trafficked Daughters | All Girls Allowed,” n.d.,
http://allgirlsallowed.org/blog/posts/encountering-chinas-trafficked-daughters.
By comparison, the abortion rate in the United States in 2014 was 12.1 percent
with the 20–29 year old demographic accounting for 59 percent of all abortions.
The abortion rate in the United Kingdom was 20.21 percent. See “Abortion Rates
in US Hit Historic Low, CDC Report Finds,” Text Article, Fox News, 23 November 2017, http://www.foxnews.com/health/2017/11/23/abortion-rates-in-us-hit-historic-low-cdc-report-finds.html.
[101] “Audio: Family Confirms
Death of Mother After Forced Abortion | All Girls Allowed,” n.d.,
http://allgirlsallowed.org/news/audio-family-confirms-death-mother-after-forced-abortion.
[102] “God Is Ending Forced
Abortion in China | All Girls Allowed,” n.d.,
http://www.allgirlsallowed.org/blog/posts/god-ending-forced-abortion-china.
[103]
“2009 Annual Report | Congressional-Executive Commission on China.” In 2008, Chongqing out-of-quota residents were imposed
fines of between 5,000 yuan ($731) and 10,000 yuan ($1,464) if they refused to
perform an abortion, in addition to the ordinary social compensation fee of
2,000 yuan ($293) to 5,000 yuan ($731).
[104]
See Starr, Understanding China,
189–190. Starr points out that even these fines were not generally sufficient
since the family security a son provides his family over his lifetime is worth
the short term financial loss. In 2008, Shanxi
couples were assessed a social compensation fee equal to 20 percent of a
couple’s combined income once each year for seven years; for a third child, the
fine rose to 40 percent of combined income for 14 years. See “2009
Annual Report | Congressional-Executive Commission on China.”
[105]
Jian, “Opinion | China’s Brutal One-Child Policy,” notes, “Zhang Yimou, the
celebrated film director and arranger of the 2008 Summer Olympics’ opening
ceremony in Beijing, was accused last week
[117] “China to End One-Child
Policy,” BBC News, 29 October 2015,
sec. China, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-34665539. The BBC reported
via the official Xinhua News Agency the official statement from the Communist
Party’s Central Committee. According to the report, the alteration of the
policy was “to improve the balanced development of population.”
[118] “One-Child Policy Abolished:
Today Is the Day the Lord Has Made! | All Girls Allowed,” n.d.,
http://www.allgirlsallowed.org/news/one-child-policy-abolished-today-day-lord-has-made.
[119]
“China’s Two-Child Policy Is Having Unintended Consequences,” The Economist, 26 July 2018, https://www.economist.com/china/2018/07/26/chinas-two-child-policy-is-having-unintendedconsequences.
[120]
According to the advocacy group, Human Rights Watch, “While the women’s labor
for participation was 83% in 2007, it had dropped to 81% of the male rate by
2017.” James Griffiths and Serenitie Wang CNN, “Faced with Falling Birth Rates,
China Urges Citizens to Have More Babies,” CNN,
n.d., https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/08/health/china-one-child-intl/index.html.
[121]
“But those accounts were misrepresenting the facts,” claims Wang Feng of the
University of California at Irvine. “The lines at the capital’s top hospitals
are a function of bottlenecks in China’s overstretched health system: Many of
the women who have elected to give birth this year are older than average, and
have been encouraged to head for Grade A hospitals in case of complications.”
“China Drops One-Child Policy, but ‘Exhausted’ Tiger Moms Say One Is Plenty,” Washington Post, n.d.,
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/china-drops-one-child-policy-but-exhausted-tigermoms-say-one-is-plenty/2016/10/14/336f1890-8ae7-11e6-8a68-b4ce96c78e04_story.html.
[122] Gietel-Basten, “Why
Scrapping the One-Child Policy Will Do Little to Change China’s Population.”
[123] Howard W. French,
“China’s Twilight Years,” The Atlantic,
11 May 2016,
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/06/chinas-twilight-years/480768/.
[124] Gietel-Basten, “Why
Scrapping the One-Child Policy Will Do Little to Change China’s
Population.”
[125]
See W. S. J. Staff, “Chinese Balk at Child-Rearing Costs,” WSJ, 16 November 2013,
https://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2013/11/16/chinese-balk-at-child-rearing-costs/.
[126] “China Drops One-Child
Policy, but ‘Exhausted’ Tiger Moms Say One Is Plenty.”
[127]
From 18.46 million births in 2016 to 17.23 million births in 2017. “China Drops
One-Child
Policy, but ‘Exhausted’ Tiger Moms Say One Is
Plenty.”
[128]
Benjamin Haas, “China’s Birth Rate Rises but Falls Short of Government
Estimates,” The Guardian, 23 January
2017, sec. World news,
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/23/chinasbirth-rate-soars-after-relaxation-of-one-child-policy.
[129]
Staff, “Chinese Balk at Child-Rearing Costs.” This was a non-scientific study
conducted on Sina Weibo, a popular Chinese microblogging and social media site.
[130]
Josh Chin, “Xi Jinping Gets Mocked Going After New Zealand on Food Safety,” WSJ, 7 October 2013,
https://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2013/10/07/xi-jinping-gets-mocked-going-after-newzealand-on-food-safety/.
[132] See Gietel-Basten, “Why
Scrapping the One-Child Policy Will Do Little to Change China’s Population.”
[133]
W. S. J. Staff, “In Two-Child China, a New Dilemma,” WSJ, 26 February 2014,
https://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2014/02/26/in-two-child-china-a-new-dilemma/.
From 2013 through 2014 the government gradually eased restrictions on births
until officially enacting the Two-Child Policy in 2015. Speelman interviewed a
national who was affected by these early shifts in policy.
[134]
The hukou is a resident permit that
grants access to better health care and other social services. Nathan
Vanderklippe explains, “The foundation of Chinese civic life is the hukou, a
maroon-and-gold household-registration document. It is a form of identity used
to control people’s movements inside the country, set up by the Communist
regime, and similar to systems used in Soviet Russia and imperial China. With
it, a person can secure a national-identification card, attend school, access
basic medical services, find a place to live, board a bus or train, open a bank
account, get a job, and secure a passport.” “The
Ghost Children.”
[136] “Many Not Satisfied with
China’s New ‘Two-Child Policy’ | All Girls Allowed,” n.d.,
http://www.allgirlsallowed.org/blog/posts/many-not-satisfied-chinas-new-two-child-policy.
[137]
CNN, “Faced with Falling Birth Rates, China Urges Citizens to Have More
Babies.”
[138] “China Considers Ending
Birth Limits as Soon as This Year,” Bloomberg.Com,
21 May 2018,
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-21/china-said-to-consider-ending-birth-limits-as-soonas-this-year.
[139]
“China Drops One-Child Policy, but ‘Exhausted’ Tiger Moms Say One Is Plenty.”
[140] “China Drops One-Child
Policy, but ‘Exhausted’ Tiger Moms Say One Is Plenty.”
[141] See “China Moves to End
Two-Child Limit, Finishing Decades of Family Planning-CNN,”
[142] “Forced Abortion Still
Mandated Under China’s ‘Planned Birth’ Laws,” PRI, 15 January 2018,
https://www.pop.org/forced-abortion-still-mandated-chinas-planned-birth-laws/.
[143] “Country Reports on
Human Rights Practices for 2016,” n.d.,
https://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2016humanrightsreport/index.htm?year=2016&dlid=265328#wrapper.
[144] See Article Twenty-Five
“Health and Family Planning Commission of Zhumadian,” n.d.
[146]
See “Forced Abortion Still Mandated Under China’s ‘Planned Birth’ Laws.”
[147] Spence, The Search for Modern China. 683. The
1982 census was the first to be monitored with any precision (United Nations
experts on populations lent their expertise) and the first census of any kind
since 1964.
[148] Ebenstein notes, “Following a famine associated with Mao’s Great Leap
Forward (1958–60), total fertility exceeded six births per mother throughout
the 1960s. The rapid population growth alarmed Chinese officials, and the
Communist Party subsequently enacted a series of fertility control policies.”
Ebenstein, “The ‘Missing
Girls’ of China and the Unintended Consequences of the One Child Policy.”
Deng’s reforms were generally categorized into four modernizations:
agriculture, industry, science and technology, and defense. Although the
effects of the reforms were felt well into the 1990s, the era generally
associated with these developments was 1978–1988. See Ezra F. Vogel, “Opinion |
Deng’s China,” The New York Times, 7
November 2012, sec. Opinion,
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/08/opinion/chinachanges-leaders-deng-xiaopings-china.html.
[149] Michael Freeberne,
“Birth Control in China,” Population
Studies.1 (1964): 5.
[150]
“PRI Review Podcast–Catholic Bishops Write Secretary of State; China IUD
Uproar; Norway Funds International Abortions,” PRI, n.d., https://www.pop.org/podcast/pri-review-podcast-catholicbishops-write-secretary-of-state-china-iud-uproar-norway-funds-international-abortions/.
[151]
“2009 Annual Report | Congressional-Executive Commission on China.”
[152]
Between 1980 and 2012 local family planning offices inserted 308 million IUDs.
See “China Offers Free IUD Removal to Cries of Outrage,” PRI, 28 February 2017,
https://www.pop.org/china-offersfree-iud-removal-to-cries-of-outrage/.
[153] Ma Jian, “China’s
Barbaric One-Child Policy,” The Guardian,
6 May 2013, sec. Books,
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/may/06/chinas-barbaric-one-child-policy.
[154]
“China Offers Free IUD Removal to Cries of Outrage,” 55.
[155] The China National
Health and Family Planning Commission reported in 2016 that family planning officials
carried out over 308 million IUD insertion procedures between 1980 and 2012.
“China Offers Free IUD Removal to Cries of Outrage.”
[156]
“China Offers Free IUD Removal to Cries of Outrage.”
[157]
Sui-Lee Wee, “After One-Child Policy, Outrage at China’s Offer to Remove IUDs,”
The New York Times, 7 August 2018,
sec. World,
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/07/world/asia/after-one-childpolicy-outrage-at-chinas-offer-to-remove-iuds.html.
[158] See “China Offers Free
IUD Removal to Cries of Outrage.”
[159] John Gittings,
“Ultrasound Ban to Tackle Boy Baby Bias,” The
Guardian, 12 December 2000, sec. World news,
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/dec/12/johngittings1.
[160]
“Gendercide | All Girls Allowed,” n.d., http://allgirlsallowed.org/gendercide.
[161]
Eberstadt, “A Global War against Baby Girls.”
[162] Ebenstein, “The ‘Missing
Girls’ of China and the Unintended Consequences of the One Child Policy,” 112.
[163] Ebenstein, “The ‘Missing
Girls’ of China and the Unintended Consequences of the One Child Policy,” 93.
[164]
Emiko Jozuka CNN, “Study Finds Millions of China’s ‘missing Girls’ Actually
Exist,” CNN,
[170]
That number is equivalent to the total population of men under 20 in the United
States.
“Communiqué of the National Bureau of Statistics
of People’s Republic of China on Major Figures of the
[171] Population Census[1]
(No. 1),” n.d.,
http://www.stats.gov.cn/english/NewsEvents/201104/t20110428_26449.html. The
number in 2010 was 34 million.
[172] “Old, Lonely, and Male:
Unpacking China’s Demographics | All Girls Allowed,” n.d.,
http://www.allgirlsallowed.org/blog/posts/old-lonely-and-male-unpacking-chinas-demographics.
[173] “The Security Risks of
China’s Abnormal Demographics – The Washington Post,” n.d.,
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/04/30/the-security-risks-of-chinasabnormal-demographics/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.eeb8afb68d82.
[174]
“Old, Lonely, and Male: Unpacking China’s Demographics | All Girls Allowed.”
[175] Huang, “Don’t Expect a
Baby Boom Just Because China Ends Its Two-Child Policy.” Also, see demographer
Stuart Gietel-Basten from Oxford University. Gietel-Basten, “Why Scrapping the
One-Child Policy Will Do Little to Change China’s Population.” Also, economists
Chang Liu and Gareth Leather.
“China’s
One-Child Policy Is over, but It Might Be Too Late to Fix What It Broke,” Public Radio International, n.d.,
https://www.pri.org/stories/2015-10-29/china-s-one-child-policy-over-it-might-be-toolate-fix-what-it-broke.
[176]
“The Security Risks of China’s Abnormal Demographics–The Washington Post.”
[177] Nicholas Eberstadt, “The
Demographic Future,” Foreign Affairs,
1 November 2010,
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2010-11-01/demographic-future.
[178] To avoid prying
questions from inquisitive parents, some are even resorting to hiring “fake”
girlfriends to present to their parents using apps such as Hire Me Plz. Reports
suggest hiring a girlfriend can cost up to 10,000 yuan ($1,450) a day.
“BBC–Capital–Why Millions of Chinese Men Are Staying Single,” n.d.,
http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20170213-why-millions-of-chinese-men-are-staying-single.
[179]
Alison Lynch, “Man Successfully Sues Dating Agency for Failing to Find Him a
Wife,” Metro, 9 June 2015,
https://metro.co.uk/2015/06/09/chinese-man-sues-dating-agency-for-failing-to-find-him-apure-sweet-wife-5237019/.
Originally reported by the BBC.
[180] “Chinese Man Buys 99
IPhone 6s to Propose to Girlfriend on Single’s Day – Only to Be Rejected | The
Independent,” n.d.,
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/chinese-man-buys-99iphone-6s-to-propose-to-girlfriend-on-singles-day-only-to-be-rejected-9853953.html.
[181]
“BBC-Capital-Why Millions of Chinese Men Are Staying Single.”
[183] “China’s 430 Million
Families Shrink and Age-Bloomberg,” n.d.,
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-05-23/chinas-430-million-families-shrink-and-age.
[184]
“China’s 430 Million Families Shrink and Age-Bloomberg.” In comparison, the
average family size in the United States has decreased from 3.33 in 1960 to
2.54 in 2017. See “Average Size of Households in the U.S. 1960-2017 |
Statistic,” Statista, n.d.,
https://www.statista.com/statistics/183648/average-size-of-households-in-the-us/.
[185] “Population Aging in
China: A Mixed Blessing | The Diplomat,” n.d.,
https://thediplomat.com/2013/11/population-aging-in-china-a-mixed-blessing/. In
comparison, there were 47.8 million people in the United States 65 years or
older in 2015, accounting for 14.9 percent of the total population. The United
States Census Bureau projects that population to grow to 98.2 million by 2060.
See US Census Bureau, “FFF: Older Americans Month: May 2017,” n.d.,
https://www.census.gov/newsroom/facts-for-features/2017/cb17-ff08.html.
[186] See “Senior Living
Evolves in China,” n.d.,
https://www.mcknightsseniorliving.com/news/senior-living-evolves-in-china/article/745561/.
[187] “Chinese Family Unit
Getting Smaller and Smaller – Tribunedigital-Chicagotribune,” n.d.,
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2014-05-22/opinion/ct-china-family-smaller-perspec-052220140522_1_family-planning-commission-development-report-chinese.
[188]
“Racing Towards the Precipice,” n.d.,
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/racing-towards-theprecipice/.
[189] “The Security Risks of
China’s Abnormal Demographics-The Washington Post.” 165 French,
“China’s Twilight Years.”
[191]
Synonyms for hidden children include “ghost children” and “black children.”
[192] “China’s ‘Black Children’
Will Come Out of the Shadows,” PRI,
22 December 2015,
https://www.pop.org/chinas-black-children-will-come-out-of-the-shadows/.
[193] “China’s ‘Black
Children’ Will Come Out of the Shadows.” 170 “The Ghost Children.”
[194] “Children Denied an
Identity under China’s One-Child Policy–BBC News,” n.d.,
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-25772401.
[196] Mosher writes, “For
millions more, the policy change comes too late to do them much good. Denied
the opportunity to go to elementary school, much less middle school and high
school, they are functionally illiterate. They work as manual laborers in
dead-end jobs. Even with a hukou,
there is no way for these young people, especially those in their late teens
and twenties, to go back to school and make up their lost studies.” “China’s ‘Black Children’ Will Come Out of the
Shadows.”
[197] “Children Denied an
Identity under China’s One-Child Policy–BBC News.” 175 The author
was unable to determine the resolution to this case.
[198]
“16-Year-Old ‘Over-Quota’ Chinese Girl Drinks Fatal Poison | All Girls
Allowed,” n.d.,
http://www.allgirlsallowed.org/news/16-year-old-%E2%80%9Cover-quota%E2%80%9D-chinese-girldrinks-fatal-poison.
[199]
“16-Year-Old ‘Over-Quota’ Chinese Girl Drinks Fatal Poison | All Girls
Allowed.”
[200]
“Racing Towards the Precipice.” Feng Wang writes, “Mitigating the negative
impact of this will require reforming China’s hukou system, which links social security and public welfare
entitlements to citizens’ place of registration. China’s “floating population”
of rural migrants now stands in excess of 220m, but the hukou system remains a significant barrier to migration. If rural
migrants were given access to urban education, health care and other welfare
services, more rural residents would move to the cities on a permanent basis.”
[201]
“16-Year-Old ‘Over-Quota’ Chinese Girl Drinks Fatal Poison | All Girls
Allowed.”
[204] “Black children” is a
synonym for “hidden children.” “China’s Hidden Children | The Diplomat,” n.d.,
https://thediplomat.com/2015/03/chinas-hidden-children/.
[208] “The Brutal Truth,” The Economist, 23 June 2012,
https://www.economist.com/china/2012/06/23/the-brutal-truth. ($288 billion)
[209] Howard French details a
few of these strides, “China has until very recently appeared to be a global
juggernaut—hugely expanding its economic and political relations with Africa;
building artificial islands in the South China Sea, an immense body of water
that it now proclaims almost entirely its own; launching the Asian
Infrastructure Investment Bank, with ambitions to rival the World Bank. The new
bank is expected to support a Chinese initiative called One Belt, One Road, a
collection of rail, road, and port projects designed to lash China to the rest
of Asia and even Europe. Projects like these aim not only to boost China’s
already formidable commercial power but also to restore the global centrality
that Chinese consider their birthright.” French, “China’s Twilight Years.”
[211]
Wang Feng, King Whyte, and Yong Cai, “Challenging Myths About China’s One-Child
Policy,” 156–158.
[212] The interview took place
via email on April 17, 2017. It has been edited to enable the language to flow
more efficiently. The interview is provided in Appendix 1.
[213] Wei Xing Zhu, Li Lu, and
Therese Hesketh, “China’s Excess Males, Sex Selective Abortion, and One Child
Policy: Analysis of Data from 2005 National Intercensus Survey,” BMJ 338 (2009): b1211.
[214]
Cheng points out that no other nation has a One-Child Policy and no other
nation implements family planning through “strict administrative enforcement.”
There are nations that have attempted to do
[215]
Fecundity refers to the ability to produce an abundance of offspring. “China’s
Demographic Divisions Are Getting Deeper – The Balkanisation of the Bedroom,”
n.d.,
https://www.economist.com/china/2017/09/21/chinas-demographic-divisions-are-getting-deeper.
[216] “China’s One-Child
Policy Leaves Bereaved Parents in Despair,” South
China Morning Post,
[217]
Fan notes, “The government first raised the issue of subsidies for shidu parents in 2001, under the
Population and Family Planning Law. Since 2007, the national minimum has been
raised from 100 yuan per person per month to 340 yuan.” “China’s One-Child Policy
Leaves Bereaved Parents in Despair.”
[218] See “China’s Family
Planning Officials Feeling the Absence of ‘Social Support Fees’ From Defunct
One Child Policy,” n.d.,
https://www.theepochtimes.com/chinas-family-planning-officials-feelingthe-absence-of-social-support-fees-from-defunct-one-child-policy_2081845.html.
[219] See Edward Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire (6 vols., London: W.
Strahan and T. Cadell, 1776) and Adolf von
Harnack, The Expansion of Christianity in
the First Three
Centuries (London: Williams and Norgate, 1904–1905). Gibbon offers
five causes for the success of Christianity: its organizational structures, its
system of morality, its inflexibility, its miracles, and its focus on the
resurrection. Harnack focuses on the external and internal conditions of the
worldwide expansion of the Christian religion. External conditions include the
Hellenization of the East and West, the world empire of Rome and its political
unity, the security of international traffic, the decomposition of ancient
society into a democracy, and the religious policy of Rome. Internal conditions
for growth include the clash of Christianity with polytheism, morality vs.
vice, and with syncretism that represented the final stages of Hellenism.
[220] Jan Bremmer makes this
point. Brent Nongbri, review of Jan Bremmer, The Rise of Christianity through the Eyes of Gibbon, Harnack, and
Rodney Stark, n.p. [cited 12 August 2018]. Online:
[221]
Hurtado gives the examples of miracle working, close relationships, the care of
widows and orphans and status inconsistency. Miracle working was not confined
to Christianity alone. Miracles came from various sources, and there was no shortage of magicians and
wonder-workers. Hurtado also contests
[222] Rodney Stark estimates
that by A.D. 300 there were somewhere between 5 and 7 million Christians in the
Greco-Roman world. Stark’s arithmetic begins with 1,000 Christians in A.D. 40
and proceeds as follows: “Suppose we assume that the Christian rate of growth
during this period was similar to that of the Mormon rate of growth over the
past century, which has been approximately 40 percent per decade. If the early
Christians were able to match the Mormon growth rate, then their “miracle” is
fully accomplished in the time history allows. That is, from a starting point
of 1,000 Christians in the year 40, a growth rate of 40 percent per decade (or
3.4 percent per year) results in a total of 6,299,832 Christians in the year
300. Moreover, because compounded rates result in exponential growth, there is
a huge numerical increase from slightly more than 1 million Christians in the
year 250 to more than 6 million in 300. This gives further confidence in the
projections since historians have long believed that a rapid increase in
numerical growth occurred at this time.” Rodney Stark, “Reconstructing the Rise
of Christianity: The Role of Women,” Sociology of Religion 3 (1995): 229–244.
[223] Rodney Stark. The Rise of Christianity: How the Obscure,
Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force in the Western
World in a Few Centuries (Princeton: HarperOne, 1996), 127.
[225] Arthur E. R. Boak, Manpower Shortage and the Fall of the Roman
Empire in the West, Reprint of the 1955 edition (Westport: Greenwood Pub
Group, 1974), 18.
[227] See Boak, Manpower Shortage and the Fall of the Roman
Empire in the West, 9–21.
[228] Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus
Movement Became the World’s Largest Religion, Reprint edition (New York:
HarperOne, 2012), 43.
[229] Cherry’s paper seeks to
explore the differences between traditional Christian bioethics and secular
moral reflections. His description of secular morals as placing “persons,
rather than God, in authority to define the right, the good, and the virtuous,”
is characteristic of the pagan ethic prevalent in the Greco-Roman world. Cherry
also directly traces secular morals to the practices of abortion and
infanticide found in the Roman Empire and describes the consequences, “The
perceived utility of abortion and infanticide, to get rid of less than
physically perfect or otherwise unwanted children, together with the social
devaluing of females led historically to a decrease in women and a generally
low female-to-male ratio.” Mark J. Cherry, “Sex, Abortion, and Infanticide: The
Gulf between the Secular and the Divine,” Christian
Bioethics: Non-Ecumenical Studies in Medical Morality 17.1 (2011): 35.
[230]
Not to be confused with “fecundity,” which refers to the ability to have
children.
[231] “Cultural Indicators:
The Fertility Rate,” The Gospel Coalition,
n.d.,
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/cultural-indicators-the-fertility-rate/.
[232] For example, this
assumes that there are no major wars or diseases and that there is no net
migration in a population.
[233]
“Cultural Indicators.” Currently, the replacement rate in the United States is
only 1.80, which means that the United States is only on track to replace
eighty-seven percent of the population.
[238]
Tacitus is arguing that the Jewish command is revolting, not the killing of
children. Tacitus also comments in the Germania
that Germans also considered it immoral to kill their offspring.
Ironically, Tacitus clearly contrasts the noble savagery of the Germans with
the “civilized life” of the Romans. Lee M. Fratantuono, “A Most Dangerous Book:
Tacitus’ “Germania” from the Roman Empire to the Third Reich,” The Historian 3 (2012): 618–620.
[239]
Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Anger, Mercy,
Revenge (trans. Robert A. Kaster and Matha C.
Nussbaum; University
of Chicago Press, 2010), 1.15.
[240] W. V. Harris,
“Child-Exposure in the Roman Empire,” JRS
84 (1994): 17.
[241] Although it is
impossible to give exact numbers the consensus remains that the practice was
prevalent. See Emma-Jayne Graham, “Wombs and Tombs in the Roman World,” Material Religion 12.2
(2016):
251–54; and Naglaa Abu-Mandil Hassan et al., “Ancient DNA Study of the Remains
of Putative Infanticide Victims from the Yewden Roman Villa Site at Hambleden,
England,” Journal of Archaeological
Science 43.1 (2014): 192–97.
[242] See W. V. Harris, “Child-Exposure in the Roman Empire,” JRS 84. (1994): 1–22; and W. V.
Harris, “The Theoretical Possibility of Extensive
Infanticide in the Greco-Roman World,” CQ
1 (1982):
[244] William V. Harris, “The
Theoretical Possibility of Extensive Infanticide in the Greco-Roman World,”
114.
[245]
Thomas W. Africa, The Immense Majesty: A
History of Rome and the Roman Empire (Arlington Heights: Wiley-Blackwell,
1991), 5.
[246] Andrew Lintott, Violence in Republican Rome, Revised
edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 3.
[247] Larry W. Hurtado, Destroyer of the Gods: Early Christian
Distinctiveness in the Roman World, Reprint edition (Waco, Texas: Baylor
University Press, 2017), 145.
[248]
W. V. Harris, “Child-Exposure in the Roman Empire,” 17.
[249] If infants did survive,
slave traders generally collected them. W. V. Harris notes, “Even among those
who saved the lives of abandoned infants, most were interested in exploitation
more than in rescue, and most of the rescued children inconspicuously joined
the population of slaves…. Exposure was well integrated into the Roman economy,
for it contributed on a substantial scale to the supply of slaves. In the first
century A.D. the demand for slaves was enormous, probably of the order of half
a million or more, on average, every year. Other sources, principally slaves
born to slaves, importation across the frontiers, and warfare, are unlikely to
have met the demand adequately after Augustus’ time; yet there is no sign of a
shortage. The deficit is likely to have been made up by enslaved foundlings” W.
V. Harris, “Child-
Exposure
in the Roman Empire,” 3–4, 18. Regarding the economics of such a system it is
worth noting that the general moral consensus of families was that the exposure
of infants was less repugnant than selling the infant into slavery.
[250]
Harris lists four groups of reasons for infant exposure: 1) The deformity or
other physical inadequacy of the newborn infant; 2) its illegitimacy; 3)
perceived economic need; and 4) evil omens and despair. W. V. Harris,
“Child-Exposure in the Roman Empire,” 11–12.
[251] Ray Laurence, “Childhood
in the Roman Empire,” HT 55.10
(2005): 22.
[252]
See Margaret Atkins and Robin Osborne, eds., Poverty in the Roman World, 1st edition (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2009); and Henry Hazlitt, Conquest of Poverty (Irvington-onHudson: Foundation for Economic
Education, 1996).
[253]
W. V. Harris, “Child-Exposure in the Roman Empire,” 16–17.
[254]
As cited by John Boswell, The Kindness of
Strangers: The Abandonment of Children in Western Europe from Late Antiquity to
the Renaissance (University of Chicago Press, 1998), 102.
[255] See W. V. Harris,
“Child-Exposure in the Roman Empire,” 3. See also Michael Obladen, “From Right
to Sin: Laws on Infanticide in Antiquity,” Neonatology
109.1 (2016): 56–61; Walter Scheidel, Greco-Roman
Sex Ratios and Femicide in Comparative Perspective, SSRN Scholarly Paper
(Rochester:
Social Science Research
Network, April 1, 2010); and Marina Faerman et al., “Determining the Sex of
Infanticide Victims from the Late Roman Era through Ancient DNA Analysis,” Journal of Archaeological Science 25.9
(1998): 861–65.
[256] W. V. Harris,
“Child-Exposure in the Roman Empire,” 11. Cf. Donald Engels, “The Problem of
Female Infanticide in the Greco-Roman World,” CP 75 (1980): 112–120. Engels argues that a high rate of female
infanticide in antiquity was demographically impossible. He believed that the
birthrate in the Roman Empire was in equilibrium with the non-infanticidal
death rate and that any significant level of infanticide would have pushed the
population into a demographic “contraction.” As Mark Golden points out,
however, Engels assumes a slow rate of population growth for all societies in
antiquity and ignores preventive checks on population growth such as polygamy,
contraception, prolonged breast-feeding, concubinage, and more. William Harris
comments on the quality of Engel’s proposal, “He [Engels] completely ignores
the ancient texts concerning child exposure—a remarkable piece of scholarly
bravura. He also ignores a great amount of comparative information that has
been collected by anthropologists and historians. Instead the author relies on
a demographic argument about what was ‘impossible’, an argument which is in
fact fallacious.” William Harris, “The Theoretical Possibility of Extensive
Infanticide in the Greco-Roman World,” CQ
32 (1982): 114.
[257] Mark Golden, “Demography
and the Exposure of Girls at Athens,” Phoenix
4 (1981): 316. Golden’s article is in response to Donald Engels’ claims that
there is no evidence for sex selective infanticide in the ancient world. See
Donald Engels, “The Problem of Female Infanticide in the GrecoRoman World,” Classical Philology.2 (1980): 112–120.
While Golden’s article specifically denotes an earlier time period in Athens
his response to Engels generally addresses the situation found in the
GrecoRoman period while using specific Greek examples and is, therefore,
relevant to the current discussion.
[258] See John M. Riddle, Contraception and Abortion from the Ancient
World to the Renaissance (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992).
[259] Etienne Van De Walle,
“Contraception and Abortion From the Ancient World to the Renaissance,” Population & Development Review 20.1
(1994): 221–24.
[260]
Cf. Etienne van de Walle writes, “The evidence on contraceptives and
abortifacients that has come down from the past is tainted by the particular
agenda of those who provided it. Physicians would present the therapeutic case
for abortion, lawyers might be interested in defending the rights of a very
untypical husband, and botanists were elucidating the properties of plants;
clerics, of course, would have their own ax to grind. Inferring from this the
existence of a female-centered popular culture is a difficult task. Riddle
makes a very good try, but the main merit of his work is the painstaking
presentation of the evidence; the demographic case remains unproven.” Etienne
van de Walle, “Contraception and Abortion from the Ancient World to the
Renaissance,” 224.
[261]
W. V. Harris, “Child-Exposure in the Roman Empire,” 13.
[262] On average, worldwide
the SRB is 105:100. The best estimate is that there were 131 males per 100
females in Rome, rising to 140 males per 100 females in the rest of Italy, Asia
Minor, and North Africa. Stark, The
Triumph of Christianity, 43.
[263]
Birdsell posits that males would need to marry around the age of forty and
females between the ages of 11 and 14. J. B. Birdsell, Human Evolution: An Introduction to the New Physical Anthropology
(Chicago: Rand McNally, 1972), 354.
[265]
Harnack, The Expansion of Christianity,
161.
[266]
Stark, “Reconstructing the Rise of Christianity,” 236.
[267] M. K. Hopkins, “The Age
of Roman Girls at Marriage,” Population
Studies 3 (1965): 309.
[268]
Hopkins, “The Age of Roman Girls at Marriage,” 309.
[269]
Stark, “Reconstructing the Rise of Christianity,” 237.
[270]
Mark Golden, “Demography and the Exposure of Girls at Athens,” 325.
[271] Mark Golden, “Demography
and the Exposure of Girls at Athens,” 325.
[272]
Simon Mays, “Infanticide in Roman Britain,” Antiquity
67.257 (1993): 883.
[273]
Mark Golden, “Did the Ancients Care When Their Children Died?,” GR 35.2 (1988): 154.
[274]
Mark Golden, “Did the Ancients Care When Their Children Died?,” 154.
[275] Mark Golden, “Did the
Ancients Care When Their Children Died?,” 154. See also Rodney
Stark,
“Live Longer, Healthier, & Better?: The Untold Benefits of Becoming a
Christian in the Ancient World,” Christian
History Feb 1998 (1998). Stark suggests that mortality rates climbed as
high as 30
[276]
Marcus Tullius Cicero, Cicero: On the
Commonwealth and On the Laws, trans. James E. G.
Zetzel,
2 edition. (Cambridge, United Kingdom?; New York, NY: Cambridge University
Press, 2017), 3.8.19., writes, “Then after it
had been quickly killed, as the Twelve Tables direct that terribly deformed
infants shall be killed.”
[277] Aristotle, Politics, trans. C. D. C. Reeve
(Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1998) Book 7, 133b.
[279] Plato, Plato: Republic, Volume I: Books 1–5,trans.
Christopher Emlyn-Jones and William
Preddy, Bilingual
edition (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2013), Book 5,
460e461e. Limiting the population also included exposing newly born infants to
death. Plato writes, “A woman is to bear children for the city from the age of
twenty to the age of forty, a man from the time that he passes his peak as a
runner until he reaches fifty-five. At any rate, that’s the physical and mental
prime for both. Then, if a man who is younger or older than that engages in
reproduction for the community, we’ll say that his offense is neither pious nor
just, for the child he begets for the city, if it remains hidden, will be born
in darkness, through a dangerous weakness of will, and without the benefit of
the sacrifices and prayers offered at every marriage festival, in which the
priests and priestesses, together with the entire city, ask that the children
of good and beneficial parents may always prove themselves still better and
more beneficial. That’s right. The same law will apply if a man still of
begetting years has a child with a woman of childbearing without the sanction
of the rulers. We’ll say that he brings to the city an illegitimate,
unauthorized, and unhallowed child. That’s absolutely right. However, I think
that when women and men have passed the age of having children, we’ll leave
them free to have sex with whomever they wish, with these exceptions:
[280] See Lawrence Stager,
“Eroticism and Infanticide at Ashkelon,” Biblical Archaeology Review 17 (1991):
34–53.
[281]
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Dionysius of
Halicarnassus: Roman Antiquities, Volume I, Books
[282]–2, trans. Earnest Cary (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1937)
Book 2, 15, 1–2. 1–2, 72 W. V. Harris, “Child-Exposure in the Roman
Empire,” 5.
[283] David P. Gushee, The Sacredness of Human Life: Why an Ancient
Biblical Vision Is Key to the World’s Future (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans
Publishing, 2013), 125.
[284]
W. V. Harris, “Child-Exposure in the Roman Empire,” 3.
[285] As cited by Stark. Stark
makes a special note here that soap had yet to be invented. Stark, The Triumph of Christianity, 44.
[286]
Aulus Cornelius Celsus, De Medicina
(trans. Walter George Spencer: Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1979) 7.29.
[288]
Elder Pliny, Pliny’s Natural History: In
Thirty-Seven Books, Vol. 1 (Forgotten Books, 2012) Books 20, 25 and 28.
Pliny also recorded that late term abortions were quite common up until the
seventh month of gestation although these procedures nearly always resulted in
the death of the mother.
[289] Various, Hippocratic Writings, ed. G. E. R.
Lloyd, trans. J. Chadwick, Reprint edition.
(Harmondsworth: Penguin Classics, 1984), 325–326.
[290]
See Steven H. Miles, The Hippocratic Oath
and the Ethics of Medicine, 1st edition (Oxford:
[292] Soranus, Gynecology, trans. Dr. Oswei Temkin
(Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1956), 63.
[293]
Soranus, Gynecology, Book 2 6.10. He
writes, “In summary: the infant’s mother must have enjoyed good health during
pregnancy, the birth must not be premature, the infant must cry vigorously, all
its limbs and organs must be sound, its sense organs must work, its orifices must
all open, the movements of each part of the body must be neither sluggish nor
weak, and the articulation of the limbs must be correct.”
[294]
Joan Booth, trans., Ovid: Amores: Book II,
1 edition (Oxford: Liverpool University Press, 1991) 14:25–31.
[295] Ovid, Anthony J. Boyle,
and Roger D. Woodard, Fasti, Revised
2004 edition (New York:
Penguin Classics, 2000), 28.
[296] As cited by Stark, The Rise of Christianity, 119.
[297] Cf. Bruce Frier,
“Natural Fertility and Family Limitations in Roman Marriage,” CP 89 (1994): 318–333. Frier argues that
Roman fertility was not low based on the assumption that “no general
population” has ever limited its fertility prior to modern times. Rodney Stark
contests this claim, however, on the grounds that it conflicts with ample anthropological
evidence of societies that have limited their fertility, and that Frier’s study
was based on a questionable sample size: 172 women living in rural Egypt during
the first three centuries A.D. See Stark, The
Triumph of Christianity, 44.
[298] Stark documents, “A
frequent approach involved ingesting slightly less than fatal doses of poison
in an effort to cause a miscarriage. But, of course, poisons are somewhat
unpredictable and tolerance levels vary greatly; hence in many cases both the
mother and the fetus were killed. Another method introduced poisons of various
sorts into the uterus to kill the fetus. Unfortunately, in many cases the woman
failed to expel the dead fetus and died unless she was treated almost
immediately by mechanical methods of removal. But these methods, which were
most often used as the initial mode of abortion as well, were also extremely
dangerous, requiring great surgical skill as well as good luck in an age that
was ignorant of bacteria.” Stark, The
Rise of Christianity, 119.
[299]
Cherry, “Sex, Abortion, and Infanticide,” 35.
[300]
See Michael J. Gorman, Abortion & the
Early Church: Christian, Jewish & Pagan Attitudes in the Greco-Roman World
(Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1982). Harris makes the same point while
connecting this reality to the high rates of infanticide: “Abortions were
notoriously dangerous (but normal childbirth was also, of course, very perilous
by modern standards). No woman would have needed a text by Ovid or Plutarch to
bring this fact home, abortions were naturally all the more dangerous if a
woman
[301]
Cicero, For Aulus Cluentius Habitus: Pro
Cluentio, trans. C. D. Yonge (Independently published, 2017), 32.
[311]
Hurtado writes, “So far as we know, the only wide-scale criticism of the
practice, and the only collective refusal to engage in infant exposure in the
first three centuries A.D., was among Jews and then also early Christians.” Hurtado,
Destroyer of the Gods, 148.
[312] Stark, The Rise of Christianity, 124. W. V.
Harris notes, “The opposition of first-century Judaism to child-exposure was
transmitted to the Christians, and a legion of Christian texts can be cited in
addition to those already mentioned. Presumably this teaching had some effects
on behaviour within the limited circles that were receptive to Christian
teaching, and exposing infants is not among the failings and deviations with
which Christians reproach one another.” W. V. Harris, “Child-Exposure in the
Roman Empire,” 17.
[313] Flavius Josephus, Complete Works (trans. William Whiston;
Kregel Publications, 1960) Against Apion, Book 2, 25.
[314] Regarding the regularity
of infanticide in the first three centuries Harris writes, “There is no
theoretical obstacle to the following figures, which are given by way of
example: average life expectation at birth < 25 years, birth and death rates
40 per 1,000 per annum. The latter figure results from imagining that an
average of 10 per cent of all infants were fatally exposed or otherwise killed.
It may well have happened that some regions of the Roman Empire witnessed rates
of infanticide notably higher than this without suffering abrupt population
decline.” W. V. Harris, “Theoretical Possibility,” 115.
[318]
Gushee, “Sacredness and Christian Tradition,” 21.
[319] Gushee, “Sacredness and
Christian Tradition,” 22.
[320]
Hurtado notes, “The Greek term early Christians preferred, however, to depict
their God’s love, and the love that they were to show as well for God and
others, even their enemies, was agap?
and its cognate verb agapa?. These
words appear very infrequently in pagan texts of the time but copiously in
early Christian texts. For example, in the New Testament, agap? appears some 143 times, and the verb agapa? 116 times. These words also appear prominently in some
Jewish Greek texts. So the early Christian preference for agap? and the cognate verb agapa?
may be another instance of the influence of the Jewish matrix of the early
Christian movement.” Hurtado, Destroyer
of the Gods, 64–65. Regarding the use of philia and agap? see also
Takaaki Haraguchi, “Philia as Agap? The Theme of Friendship in the Gospel of
John,” Asia Journal of Theology 28.2
(2014): 250–62; Anders Nygren, “Augustine on Human Love for
God: Agape, Eros, or
Philia?,” American Catholic Philosophical
Quarterly: Journal of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 86.2
(2012): 203–222; and Haddon W. Robinson, “Two Traits of Agape Love,” Journal of the Evangelical Homiletics
Society 15.2 (2015): 60–63.
[322]
Hurtado, Why on Earth Did Anyone Become a
Christian in the First Three Centuries?, 125.
[323]
Gushee, “Sacredness and Christian Tradition,” 29.
[324]
Craig Bartholomew and Michael Goheen describe the mandate given to humanity in
Gen 1:26,
“The
passage that begins in Genesis 1:26 is often helpfully referred to as the
‘cultural or creation mandate.’ It enjoins us to bring every type of cultural
activity within the service of God. Indeed, there is a dynamic element to ‘the
image of God.’ God himself is revealed or ‘imaged’ in his creation precisely as
we are busy within the creation, developing its hidden potentials in
agriculture, art, music, commerce, politics, scholarship, family life, church,
leisure, and so on, in ways that honor God.” Craig G. Bartholomew and
[325] Justin Martyr, The First Apology of Justin Martyr: An Early
Christian Writing (trans. William S. Crockett Jr.; CreateSpace Independent
Publishing Platform, 2017), 42.
[326] J. B. Lightfoot and J.
R. Harmer, The Apostolic Fathers, ed.
Michael W. Holmes (Grand Rapids: Baker Pub Group, 1989), 2:2.
[327]
Michael Gorman, Abortion & the Early
Church, 37.
[328] Minucius Felix Marcus, The Octavius Of Minucius Felix (trans.
John Henry Freese; Denver:
Sagwan Press, 2018), 33.
[329]
Michael W. Holmes, ed., The Apostolic
Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations, 3rd ed.
[333]
After reflecting on the Apostle Paul’s exhortations to the church in
Thessalonica, Hurtado adds, “Participation in Christian faith entails a
significant commitment to the collective effort that is required of believers.”
Hurtado, Destroyer of the Gods, 160.
[334] Athenagoras of Athens, A Plea for the Christians (Beloved
Publishing LLC, 2016), 35.
[335]
C. Kavin Rose. World Upside Down: Reading
Acts in the Greco-Roman Age (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 5.
[340] G. W. Clarke, The Octavius of Marcus Minucius Felix,
New edition (New York, NY: Paulist Press, 1974), 3–12.
[341] Clarke, The Octavius of Marcus Minucius Felix,
65.
[342]
Clarke, The Octavius of Marcus Minucius
Felix, 220.
[343]
Clarke, The Octavius of Marcus Minucius
Felix, 107–108.
[344]
G. W. Clarke suggests this section is an effective instance of the Roman
practice in forensics, which Felix would have been well acquainted with due to
his vocation, of using as many proofs as could be mastered in response to
Caecilius’ claims. Clarke, The Octavius
of Marcus Minucius Felix, 332–333.
[345] Clarke, The Octavius of Marcus Minucius Felix,
108.
[346]
Clarke, The Octavius of Marcus Minucius
Felix, 108.
[347]
Clarke, The Octavius of Marcus Minucius
Felix, 108.
[348]
Clarke, The Octavius of Marcus Minucius
Felix, 109.
[349]
Laurence, “Childhood in the Roman Empire,” 24.
[350] Cherry, “Sex, Abortion,
and Infanticide,” 28.
[351]
Geytenbeek, Musonius Rufus and Greek
Diatribe, 3.
[352]
Geytenbeek, Musonius Rufus and Greek
Diatribe, 3.
[353] Geytenbeek, Musonius Rufus and Greek Diatribe,
60–61.
[356]
W. V. Harris, “Child-Exposure in the Roman Empire,” 15.
[357]
Geytenbeek, Musonius Rufus and Greek
Diatribe, 86.
[358] Cynthia King and William
B. Irvine, Musonius Rufus: Lectures and
Sayings, Revised edition (S.l.: CreateSpace Independent Publishing
Platform, 2011).
[361]
Rodney Stark makes the following “reasonable assumptions” on sex bias and
conversions: “Let us begin with a Christian population with equal numbers of
men and women. Let us assume a growth rate from conversion alone of 30 percent
per decade. That is, for the moment we will ignore any natural increase and
assume that births equal deaths. Let us also suppose that the sex ratio among
converts is two women for every man. As noted above, this is entirely in line
with recent experience. Given these reasonable assumptions, we can easily
calculate that it will take only fifty years for this Christian population to
be 62 percent female. Or if we assume a growth rate of 40 percent per decade,
the Christian population will be 64 percent female in fifty years.” Stark, The Rise of Christianity, 101.
[362] Stark notes that the
favorable status of women in Christian communities was demonstrated in those
communities’ condemnation of incest, divorce, adultery and polygamy. Stark,
“Reconstructing the Rise of Christianity,” 235.
[363]
Robin Lane Fox, Pagans and Christians,
Book Club edition (Harper & Row, 1986), 308.
[365] Josiah Cox Russell, Late Ancient and Medieval Population,
Transactions of the American Philosophical Society: New Series, v. 48, Pt. 3
(Philadelphia?: American Philosophical Society, 1958), 14.
[366] Stark, “Reconstructing
the Rise of Christianity,” 232.
[371] Cf. Elizabeth L.
Gerhardt, The Cross and Gendercide: A
Theological Response to Global Violence Against Women and Girls (Downer’s
Grove: IVP Academic, 2014). Gerhardt presents several modern day case studies
including that of Nakusa Ashmita in India. Gerhardt writes, “Families often go
into debt arranging marriages and paying for dowries. The 2011 census revealed
that the nation’s sex ratio had dropped over the past decade from 927 girls for
every 1,000 boys under the age of six to 914 girls. Some districts report an
even greater discrepancy. In the district of Satara, for example, it is even
lower, at 881 to 1,000. Such ratios are the result of abortions of female
fetuses or sheer neglect, resulting in a higher death rate among girls.”
Elizabeth L. Gerhardt, The Cross and
Gendercide, 22.
[372]
W. V. Harris, “Child-Exposure in the Roman Empire,” 17–18.
[373] See Keith Hopkins, Death and Renewal: Volume 2: Sociological
Studies in Roman History (Cambridge University Press, 1985), 69–116.
[374] It is important to note
that there are many factors that determine population, and which determine
fertility in a society. According to W. V. Harris these include “ … the age at which its
female members begin to practice coitus, coital frequency, fecundity, the
extent of use of effective contraception, and foetal mortality from voluntary
and involuntary causes.” W. V. Harris, “Child-Exposure in the Roman Empire,” 14
–15.
[375]
As cited by Stark, The Rise of
Christianity, 117.
[377]
Concerning a general alternate ethic of Christianity C. Kavin Rowe writes, “The
challenge posed by early Christianity to the cultural foundations of the pagan
world is directly theological, which is to say that the possibility of cultural
demise is rooted in a counter-cultural explication of the break between God and
the world. To speak in this way is to affirm, with Luke as well as some more
contemporary theorists, the constructive or ‘objective’ role of religion in the
formation of a total culture. But it is also to say more: because ‘God’ in
Luke’s sense corresponds not to a particular point within the widest of human
horizons but to that which constitutes—makes possible and stands over
against—the entirety of the human horizon, the call to (re)turn to God carries
with it an entire pattern of life.” Rowe, World
Upside Down, 142.
[378] John M. G. Barclay, “The
Spread of Christianity in the First Four Centuries: Essays in Explanation,” The Journal of Roman Studies (2007):
372–373.
[379]
As cited by Cherry, “Sex, Abortion, and Infanticide,” 35.
[380]
See Larry W. Hurtado, Why on Earth Did
Anyone Become a Christian in the First Three Centuries? (Milwaukee:
Marquette Univ Pr, 2016), 124–126.
[381]
Clarke, The Octavius of Marcus Minucius
Felix, 31.
[382] Stark, “Reconstructing
the Rise of Christianity,” 236.
[392]
Hurtado mentions the example of Paul in 1 Corinthians 8 and 10 as another
complex cultural clash. Hurtado writes, “Recall that, on the one hand, Paul
flatly opposed believers accepting any invitation to join in the open worship
of the various pagan deities—for example, by taking part in meals held as part
of a sacrificial rite in honor of a deity…. On the other hand, Paul permitted
his converts to purchase and and eat whatever meat was available in the city
market ‘without raising any question’ as to whether the meat might have
originated from some animal sacrifice to a pagan deity (1 Cor 10:23–26)….
Paul’s summarizing statement with which he concludes the matter in 1
Corinthians shows the combination of religious commitment and a desire to avoid
social conflict: ‘So, whether you eat of drink, or whatever you do, do
everything for the glory of God. Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the
church of God’ (1 Cor 10:31).” Hurtado, Destroyer
of the Gods, 151–152.
[397] Stark, “Reconstructing
the Rise of Christianity,” 233.
[398]
Hurtado, Why on Earth Did Anyone Become a
Christian in the First Three Centuries?, 87.
[399] Exogenous marriage is
marrying an individual outside of the community or network. Stark argues that a
high rate of exogenous marriage was a necessary mechanism for growth in the
Early Church. He writes, “As discussed earlier, conversion is a network
phenomenon based on interpersonal attachments. People join movements to align
their religious status with that of their friends and relatives who already
belong. Hence, in order to offer plausible accounts of the rise of
Christianity, we need to discover mechanisms by which Christians formed
attachments with pagans. Put another way, we need to discover how Christians
managed to remain an open network, able
to keep building bonds with outsiders, rather than to have become a closed
community of believers.” Stark, “Reconstructing the Rise of Christianity,” 242.
[400] Stark, “Reconstructing
the Rise of Christianity,” 241. Many biblical scholars, including this author,
would disagree with any interpretation of 1 Pet 3 that would encourage
exogenous marriage, but Stark and Hurtado’s description of an acceptance of
exogenous marriage seems to indicate a pragmatic response from the church in
relation to population issues, and not a biblical position. See Thomas R.
Schreiner, The New American Commentary:
1, 2 Peter, Jude (Nashville: Holman Reference, 2003); and Wayne A. Grudem, 1 Peter, Reprint edition (IVP Academic, 2009).
[401]
Stark, “Reconstructing the Rise of Christianity,” 241.
[402]
Stark, “Reconstructing the Rise of Christianity,” 240.
[403] One example is
Callistus, Bishop of Rome in A.D. 200. Stark, “Reconstructing the Rise of
Christianity,” 240.
[404] Michael Walsh, The Triumph of the Meek: Why Early
Christianity Succeeded (San Francisco:
[406]
See Walsh, The Triumph of the Meek,
216. Walsh’s research demonstrates that marriages between pagans and Christians
were common. The church did not discourage the practice because of the potential
for spouses converting as well as the potential for children to be raised in
the faith.
[412] Cherry, “Sex, Abortion,
and Infanticide,” 37.
[413] Yvonna S. Lincoln and
Egon G. Guba, Naturalistic Inquiry,
Eighth edition (Beverly Hills: Sage Publications, 1991), 91.
[414]
See Lincoln and Guba, Naturalistic
Inquiry, 91.
[415] See Anselm Strauss and
Juliet M. Corbin, Basics of Qualitative
Research: Grounded Theory Procedures and
Techniques (Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc, 1990).
[416] “Criterion sampling” is
selecting participants who match the criteria of the study. See Kjell Erik
Rudestam and Rae R. Newton, Surviving
Your Dissertation: A Comprehensive Guide to Content and Process, Fourth
edition (Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc, 2014), 92.
[417] Each of these believers
either live, or still has family residing, in China. Due to the restrictive
nature of government control and sensitive nature of the surveys, a certain
level of anonymity is required.
Each participant is identified with a pseudonym
and exact locations have been generalized. For clarity,
Chinese Christians residing in North Carolina have
pseudonyms beginning with “NC.”
[418] Rudestam, Professor of
Psychology at Fielding Graduate University, and Newton, Professor of Sociology
Emeritus at California State University, suggest 20 to 30 participants as a
reasonable sample size for a qualitative study. See Rudestam and Newton, Surviving Your Dissertation, 93.
[419] The Three Self Patriotic
Movement is the Chinese state-sanctioned body for the organization of all
Protestant churches and is controlled by the Religious Affairs Bureau. See
Khiok-Khng Yeo, “The Rise of Three Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM): Chinese
Christianity in the Light of Communist Ideology in New China,” The Asia Journal of Theology 6.1 (1992):
1–9.
[420] The networks in Hebei
province have been chosen due to availability of contacts and personal
gatekeepers known to the author. Due to external factors outside of the
author’s control in Hebei, two of these interviews were relocated to
Shanghai.
[421] Ten of these interviews
were with Chinese Christians and have been included in the demographic data and
survey results.
[422]
The term “gatekeeper” refers to an individual with insider access to a social
network.
[423] Rudestam and Newton
write, “The sampling is done to ‘saturate’ a concept, to comprehensively
explore it and its relationship to other concepts so that it becomes
theoretically meaningful.” Rudestam and Newton, Surviving Your Dissertation, 93.
[424] Ethnographic interviews
are a category of qualitative research that combines one-on-one interviews with
immersive observation. The approach and method for this study’s ethnographic
interviews is based in part on Chapter 9, “Qualitative Research Methods,” in
Paul Leedy, Practical Research: Planning
and Design (London: Pearson, 2012), and on Herbert J. Rubin, Qualitative Interviewing: The Art of Hearing
Data (Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, 2011).
[425] The opening statement
and an example of the Agreement to Participate Form is included in Appendix 2.
All Agreement to Participate Forms are in the author’s possession.
[426]
Some examples of church association were in country, out of country, house
church, cell church, underground church, and TSPM.
[427] This information is based upon ethnographic interview content presented
in THE9930 Anthropology and the Social Sciences by Dr. Al James in Winter Term
2013 at SEBTS.
[428] As the ethnographic
surveys were conducted it became apparent to the author and to the gatekeepers in
country that several of the original questions in the survey were superfluous.
For the sake of efficiency, there are twenty-five questions asked of
participants, not including subsequent clarifying inquiries. The survey is a
snapshot of Chinese Christians’ responses to worldview questions in August
2018. The ethnographic survey is included in Appendix 2.
[429] A standardized pen and
paper test qualifies as high fidelity and high structure. See Rudestam and
Newton, Surviving Your Dissertation,
97.
[430] See Strauss and Corbin, Basics of Qualitative Research, 220–238.
[431] 1) The changing dynamics
of Chinese families relating to economics and freedom; 2) Christian faith and
gender equality; 3) A Christian ethic of life and social justice; and 4) The
relationship between religion and government.
[432] A sample from the raw
data is available from the surveys in Appendix 3. The author is in possession
of the remainder of the data.
[433]
See Rudestam and Newton, Surviving Your
Dissertation, 98–99.
[434] See Rudestam and Newton,
Surviving Your Dissertation, 99.
[435] See M. Q. Patton,
“Enhancing the Quality and Credibility of Qualitative Analysis,” in BMC Health Serv Res (1999):1192–1193.
[436] Patton suggests
qualitative inquiry include criteria for judging credibility. In discussing the
issue of author credibility, he writes that credibility depends on “training,
experience, track record, status, and presentation of self.” See M. Q. Patton,
“Enhancing the Quality and Credibility of Qualitative Analysis,” in BMC Health Serv Res (1999): 1190.
[437]
The current replacement rate in China is 1.624. In comparison, the replacement
rate in the United States is 1.87. The level at which a generation can replace
itself is generally considered to be 2.1.
See “NCHS Data Brief,” 25 July 2018,
/nchs/products/databriefs.htm.
[438] Economic development
refers to China’s economic growth rates averaging 10 percent over the past
thirty years and its shift from a centrally planned to market based economy
resulting in rapid urbanization. Social engineering, in this context, refers to
coercive family planning policy. Cultural diffusion refers to the spread of
western ideas, particularly democratic ideals, as China has opened its borders
to some degree in the attempt to modernize.
[439]
Based on other participants’ responses this claim seems to vary based on
location and situation as 20 percent of participants claimed that their family
was matriarchal.
[440]
JIY, an expert in linguistics, noted that these children of rural migrant
laborers were known as “left behind children.” She argues that this development
had serious economic and familial consequences. The children grew up not
knowing their parents, and were left unsupervised because their grandparents
were too old to take of them. The New York Times reported 280 million Chinese
had left villages over the past three decades to search for work in urban
centers. Approximately 30 million children were living in the countryside
without their parents in 2013 and in 2016 360,000 of those children were
completely alone. See Lijia Zhang, “Opinion | The Orphans of China’s Economic
Miracle,” The New York Times, 7
August 2018, sec. Opinion,
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/27/opinion/china-left-behind-children.html.
[441]
As referenced in Chapter 2, it is extremely rare for parents or grandparents to
be sent to a retirement home or assisted living center. For a child to ask
parents to move to such an institution is a significant loss of face, according
to NCFDL.
[442] The “4–2–1 pattern”
consists of three generations—four grandparents (maternal and fraternal), two
parents, and one child.
[443] See “China’s ‘Little
Emperors’ Lucky, Yet Lonely In Life,” NPR.Org,
n.d.,
https://www.npr.org/2010/11/23/131539839/china-s-little-emperors-lucky-yet-lonely-in-life.
[444] John Bryan Starr
comments, “The birth of a son is cause for celebration; the birth of a daughter
is only a ‘small happiness.’ In part, this is simple gender bias: a son carries
on the family line, a daughter does not. But in part, it is based on an
economic reality: when a daughter is married, she leaves her parents’ home and
becomes a member of her husband’s family, contributing to her in-law’s family
exchequer, not to her parents’, while a son is responsible for his parents as
they retire and age. In the absence of a public pension scheme, giving birth to
a son means providing for one’s retirement security.” John Bryan Starr, Understanding China: A Guide to China’s
Economy, History, and Political Culture, 3rd Revised edition (New York:
Hill and Wang, 2010), 188.
[445] Despite NCMNN’s claim to
the contrary, there is one woman among the top sixteen leaders in China under
President Xi Jinping. Sun Chunlan is one of four Vice-Premiers. See The Straits
Times, “China’s New Leadership: All President Xi’s Men … and Woman,” Text, The Straits Times, 26 March 2018,
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/all-the-presidents-men-0.
[446] See “How China Is Ruled:
Politburo,” BBC News, 8 October 2012,
sec. Asia-Pacific, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13904441.
[447] “DiDi” provides
transportation services and is similar to Uber or Lyft in the United
States.
[448] Lei Feng was a soldier
in the People’s Liberation Army. He eventually became an icon in Chinese
society because of his selfless devotion to the Communist Party and adoration
of Mao. He is a legend in China—every child is familiar with his humility and
good deeds. Feng desired to be “a rustless screw” in the “revolutionary cause.”
See Evan Osnos, “Fact-Checking a Chinese Hero,” The New Yorker, 29 March 2013,
https://www.newyorker.com/news/evan-osnos/fact-checking-a-chinese-hero.
[449]
The Cultural Revolution is best described as a “spasm of terror” that lasted
from 1966–1976. It was a decade of political chaos designed to expose Mao’s
enemies. See Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, Mao:
The Unknown Story (New York: Anchor, 2006).
[450]Guanxi refers to a fundamental network of mutually beneficial
interpersonal relationships in Chinese society. See “The Most Misunderstood
Business Concept In China – Business Insider,” n.d.,
https://www.businessinsider.com/the-most-misunderstood-business-concept-in-china-2011-2.
[451] The law permitted the
exception of medical emergencies. See “New Chinese Law Prohibits SexScreening
of Fetuses,” The New York Times, 15
November 1994, sec. World,
https://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/15/world/new-chinese-law-prohibits-sex-screening-of-fetuses.html.
[452] The Sichuan earthquake
resulted in 87,587 deaths, 374,643 injuries, and 18,392 missing. Alan Taylor,
“10 Years Since the Devastating 2008 Sichuan Earthquake-The Atlantic,” n.d.,
https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2018/05/10-years-since-the-devastating-2008-sichuanearthquake/560066/.
[453] See William T. Liu and
Beatrice Leung, The Chinese Catholic
Church in Conflict: 1949–2001 (Boca Raton: Universal Publishers,
2004).
[454] WeChat is a Chinese app
utilized for gaming, messaging, posting on social media, and much more. It is
comparable to Facebook.
[455] CNN issued a report in
2013 claiming that the Chinese government employed 2 million censors to monitor
keywords and firewalls. See Katie Hunt and CY Xu, “China ‘Employs 2 Million to
Police
[456] The National People’s
Congress approved the constitutional change. Out of 2,964 votes, two voted
against the change and three abstained. See “China Approves ‘president for
Life’ Change,” BBC News, 11 March
2018, sec. China, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-43361276.
[458] One difference in these
two cases is that there was an absence of coercive social engineering in the
Greco-Roman world. The outside pressure on families was generally economic and
societal.
[459]
See Bill Birtles, “China’s Birth Rate Drops despite End of One-Child Policy,”
n.d.,
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-19/chinas-birth-rate-drops-despite-end-of-one-child-policy/9344634.
3 These numbers are taken mainly from TSPM fellowships records. See
“China Family Panel Studies,” n.d., http://www.isss.pku.edu.cn/cfps/en/.
[460]
See “Why Is Christianity Growing so Quickly in Mainland China?,” n.d.,
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/why-is-christianity-growing-so-quickly-in-mainland-china57545.
[461] Pew Research Center
reports, “Many demographers accept that there are probably more
Christians than there are members of the Communist
Party (87 million).” See Appendix C, “Global
Christianity–A
Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Christian Population,” Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public
Life Project, 19 December 2011,
http://www.pewforum.org/2011/12/19/globalchristianity-exec/.
[462] See “China Will Have the
World’s Largest Christian Population in 2030,” n.d.,
http://www.kukmindaily.co.kr/article/view.asp?page=&gCode=7111&arcid=0010724477&code=7111110.
[463]
See “Cracks in the Atheist Edifice-Religion in China,” n.d.,
https://www.economist.com/briefing/2014/11/01/cracks-in-the-atheist-edifice.
[464]
See “China Will Have the World’s Largest Christian Population in 2030.”
[465] Stark and Wang write,
“Assuming a conservative estimate of growth to 60 million Christians in 2007,
the growth rate over a twenty-seven year period would average 7 percent per
year.” Stark and Wang, A Star in the East,
114.
[466] See Alana Yzola, “This
Fascinating Map Shows the New Religious Breakdown in China,” Business Insider, n.d.,
https://www.businessinsider.com/new-religious-breakdown-in-china-14.
[467] Stark proposes that by
A.D. 350, the Christian population could very well have exceeded 33 million.
Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity:
How the Obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force in
the Western World in a Few Centuries (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco,
1997), 4.
[469]
See author’s interview with Norman Cheng on April 4, 2017 in Appendix 1.
[470]
The current replacement rate (TFR) in China is 2.1. The author has been unable
to determine any significance between the fertility of Chinese Christian
families and that of the general population. However, Pew Research Center
released a study in 2015 documenting the population growth estimate for
Christianity
around the world. Concerning Christian fertility the report states, “With a
Total Fertility Rate (TFR) of 2.7 children per woman in the 2010–2015 period,
Christians worldwide have fertility levels slightly higher that the world’s
overall population (2.5), and significantly higher than the replacement level
of 2.1 children per woman (the number considered necessary to maintain a stable
population, all else being equal). Christian fertility rates are lowest in Europe
(1.6), but at or above the replacement level in all other
[472] See Wielander, “Beyond
Repression and Resistance–Christian Love and China’s Harmonious Society,” 123.
[473] Wielander, “Beyond
Repression and Resistance–Christian Love and China’s Harmonious Society,” 127.
[474] “The Decay of the
Chinese Family,” Chinasource, 11 July
2016,
http://www.chinasource.org/resource-library/articles/the-decay-of-the-chinese-family.
[475]
See Appendix B in “Women More Likely than Men to Affiliate with a Religion,” Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public
Life Project, 22 March 2016,
http://www.pewforum.org/2016/03/22/womenmore-likely-than-men-to-affiliate-with-a-religion/.
[476] See “???????????????www.IFreeWind.Com????|???|??|????|????|??|,”
n.d., http://www.ifreewind.net/.
[477] See Pascal-Emmanuel
Gobry, “Can Christianity Save China?,” n.d.,
http://theweek.com/articles/635668/christianity-save-china.
[483] Martin Luther King, Letters from a Birmingham Jail, I Have a
Dream: Writings and Speeches That Changed the World (San Francisco: Harper
Collins, 1992), 90.
[485] Even more unexpected in
the study were the number of participants who were willing to say that they
would certainly not obey the government when it made policy decisions that were
contrary to a Christian ethic of life. It should be noted, however, that given
the risks of contravening policy in a totalitarian regime, the data in this
study should not be solely understood as precise estimates of noncompliance but
rather as “indicators of hypothetical noncompliance.” And it is important to
note that not all of the participants in the study are committed to political
change; in fact, 11 percent of participants made it a priority to avoid
political issues altogether. See Tsai, “Constructive Noncompliance,” 268.
[486] See “RWJF – Qualitative
Research Guidelines Project | Thick Description,” n.d.,
http://www.qualres.org/HomeThic-3697.html.
[487] Wielander writes, “The
CCP remains much more comfortable with Christian love as a doctrine than as
active engagement.” Wielander, “Beyond Repression and Resistance–Christian
Love and China’s Harmonious Society,” 139.
[488] Ma and Li, “Remaking the
Civic Space,” 18. 36 “Cracks in the Atheist Edifice–Religion in
China.” 37 Ma and Li, “Remaking the Civic Space,” 18.
[489] See Ma and Li, “Remaking
the Civic Space,” 18.
[490] See “China’s Christian
Future | Yu Jie,” First Things, n.d.,
https://www.firstthings.com/article/2016/08/chinas-christian-future.
[491] Rodney Stark and Xiuhua
Wang, A Star in the East: The Rise of
Christianity in China (West Conshohocken: Templeton Press, 2016), 113.
[496] The mission of All Girls Allowed is threefold: 1)
Expose the injustice of China’s One-Child Policy; 2) Rescue girls and mothers
from gendercide in society; and 3) Celebrate women by embracing them as equal
image-bearers of God. See “Who We Are | All Girls Allowed,” n.d.,
http://www.allgirlsallowed.org/about/who-we-are.
[497] Interview by Timothy C.
Morgan, “Q & A: Chai Ling,” ChristianityToday.Com,
n.d.,
https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2011/october/chai-ling-women-china.html.
[498] See “Tiananmen Square, A
‘Watershed’ For Chinese Conversions To Christianity,” n.d.,
http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2012/06/04/tiananmen-square-christianity.
[501] Chai Ling, A Heart for Freedom: The Remarkable Journey
of a Young Dissident, Her Daring Escape, and Her Quest to Free China’s
Daughters (Carol Stream: Tyndale Momentum, 2012).
[505] Sina Weibo is China’s
most popular social media platform that incorporates the major features of
social media channels like Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. “ChinaSource | An
Anti-Abortion PSA and a Call for the Church to Repent,” n.d., https://www.chinasource.org/blog/posts/an-anti-abortion-psa-and-acall-for-the-church-to-repent.
[506] “Chengdu Bus,” n.d.,
http://www.gochengdu.cn/travel/traffic/chengdu-bus-a4398.html. 56
“ChinaSource | An Anti-Abortion PSA and a Call for the Church to Repent.”
[507] “Strengthening Marriages
in the Chinese Church,” Chinasource,
n.d.,
http://www.chinasource.org/blog/posts/strengthening-marriages-in-the-chinese-church.
[508]
“Strengthening Marriages in the Chinese Church.”
[509] See Brent Fulton, China’s Urban Christians: A Light That Cannot
Be Hidden (Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2015), 59.
[510] “ChinaSource | A
Theology of Family for the Chinese Church,” n.d.,
https://www.chinasource.org/resource-library/articles/a-theology-of-family-for-the-chinese-church.
[518] See “The Decay of the
Chinese Family.” Li Ma bases her understanding of family foundations in Moses’
instructions to the people of Israel, “And these words that I command you today
shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and
shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way,
and when you lie down, and when you rise.You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as
frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your
house and on your gates.” (Deut 6:6–9)
[519]
See “Strengthening Marriages in the Chinese Church.”
[520] See “A Journey of
Opportunity: Following God’s Direction in China,” n.d.,
https://missionexus.org/a-journey-of-opportunity-following-gods-direction-in-china/.
[521] See “Perceptions and
Priorities of Christian Leaders in China,” Chinasource,
20 March 2017, http://www.chinasource.org/resource-library/articles/perceptions-and-priorities-of-christian-leaders-inchina.
[522]
Li Ma and Jin Li, “Remaking the Civic Space: The Rise of Unregistered
Protestantism and Civic Engagement in Urban China,” in Christianity in Chinese Public Life: Religion, Society, and the Rule of
Law, ed. Joel A. Carpenter and Kevin R. den Dulk, Palgrave Studies in
Religion, Politics, and Policy (New York: Palgrave Macmillan US, 2014), 15.
[523]
See Russell Flannery, “Why The Private Education Market In China Will
Outperform In The Next Decade,” Forbes,
n.d.,
https://www.forbes.com/sites/russellflannery/2018/03/25/why-the-privateeducation-market-in-china-will-outperform-in-the-next-decade/.
Also see, Fulton, China’s Urban
Christians, 63.
[524] See “Metamorphosis of
Chinese Family Structures,” GBTIMES,
n.d., https://gbtimes.com/changing-family-structures-china-0.
[525]
“Reformation 500 – The Gospel Always Subverts and Changes Us,” China Partnership, n.d.,
http://www.chinapartnership.org/blog/2017/3/reformation-500-the-gospel-always-subverts-and-changes-us.
76 See David A. deSilva, The
Hope of Glory: Honor Discourse and New Testament Interpretation
(Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 2009); Bruce J. Malina, Social Science Commentary on the Book of
Acts
(Minneapolis: Fortress
Press, 2008); Jayson Georges and Mark D. Baker, Ministering in Honor-Shame Cultures: Biblical Foundations and Practical
Essentials (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2016).
[526]
In 2016, the birth rate percentage was 12.95 for the general population, compared
to a global rate of 18.5.
[527]
Samuel Ling and Stacey Bieler, eds., Chinese
Intellectuals and the Gospel (Vancouver: P & R Publishing, 2000), 1–3.
[528] Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global
Christianity, 3rd edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2011).
[529] Rodney Stark,
“Reconstructing the Rise of Christianity: The Role of Women,” Sociology of Religion.3 (1995): 242.
[530] Michael J. Walsh, The Triumph of the Meek: Why Early
Christianity Succeeded (San Francisco:
Harpercollins, 1986), 216.
[531] Alan Kreider, The Patient Ferment of the Early Church: The
Improbable Rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire (Grand Rapids: Baker
Academic, 2016), 87.
[532] See Georg Schöllgen, Ecclesia sordida?: zur Frage der sozialen
Schichtung frühchristlicher Gemeinden am Beispiel Karthagos zur Zeit Tertullians
(Aschendorff, 1984), 210.
[533] Specifically, is there a
significant differential between the fertility rate of Christians in China and
the general population?
[534] See “Experts: Civil Code
Plans Don’t Mean Family Planning Is over-Chinadaily.Com.Cn,” n.d.,
https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201808/28/WS5b8511a7a310add14f3883c3.html.
[535] See “China Moves to End
Two-Child Limit, Finishing Decades of Family Planning – CNN,”
[536]
Mara Hvistendahl, Unnatural Selection:
Choosing Boys Over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men,
Reprint edition (New York: PublicAffairs, 2012), 133.
[537] See Andrea Parrot and
Nina Cummings, Forsaken Females: The
Global Brutalization of Women (Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield
Publishers, 2006), 56.
[539] Valerie M. Hudson and
Andrea M. den Boer, Bare Branches: The
Security Implications of Asia’s Surplus Male Population, ed. Steven E.
Miller and Sean M. Lynn-Jones, 1st edition (Cambridge, Mass; London: The MIT
Press, 2005), 56.
[541]
Seung-Kyung Kim and Kyounghee Kim, “Mapping a Hundred Years of Activism:
Women’s Movements in Korea,” Women’s
Movements in Asia: Feminisms and Transnational Activism, eds. Mina Roces
and Louise Edwards (New York: Routledge, 2010), 200.
[542]
Robert E. Buswell and Timothy S. Lee, eds., Christianity
in Korea (Honolulu: University of Hawai?i, 2006), 351.
[543] See Phillip Connor, “6
Facts about South Korea’s Growing Christian Population,” Pew Research Center, 12 August 2014,
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/08/12/6-facts-about-christianity-insouth-korea/.
[544] Connor, “6 Facts about
South Korea’s Growing Christian Population.”
Governor Roy Cooper’s Executive Order No. 24 and the “Consent Decree” proposed by Governor Roy Cooper, Attorney General Josh Stein and the ACLU
What is to be done about the Governor’s Executive Order No. 24 and his proposed “Consent Decree” with the ACLU? A copy of each is attached to this memorandum. This is my opinion:
I. The “Consent Decree”
The President ProTem of the Senate and the Speaker of the House are well represented in the pending federal civil case. Their attorney has moved to dismiss which, if successful, would moot the question of the “consent decree.” The Governor is trying to change the very law (HB 142, SL 2017-4 attached) which he promoted and signed March 30, 2017, by a collusive consent decree that will perpetually bind future governors to his radical new interpretation of the law. The brief of Governor Cooper, Attorney General Stein and the ACLU suggests that there is significant clarity (but some ambiguity) in current North Carolina law as to the regulation of access to multiple occupancy restrooms and changing rooms such that they are merely asking the Court to join them to clarify existing law. This is preposterous!
In his order of 2016, Federal District Judge Thomas Schroeder rejected UNC’s position that HB2 could not be enforced because HB2 had no enforcement provisions. Judge Schroeder listed four different enforcement mechanisms.
Second-degree trespass, GS 14 – 159.13. In the case of SMS 196 N.C. App 170 (2009) the Court of Appeals held that a 15 year old boy in the girls’ locker room was guilty of second-degree trespass.[1] The label on the door was sufficient notice to him that he should not be there. This is undercut in some school systems by principals (and chancellors) who give permission to students to violate the law. It is probably a good defense to trespass if the person in charge of a facility authorizes a trespass. Judge Schroeder referred to this as “openly defying the law.” By his Executive Order Governor Roy Cooper is “openly defying the law.” But he has possibly created a sufficient defense to a trespass charge by his role as custodian of the facilities within his jurisdiction.
University discipline of students who violate federal, state or local law.
In addition to these four enforcement mechanisms, there are two others:
The state building code requires separate restroom facilities for each sex in most commercial buildings with signage “designating the sex” 2012 NC Building Code 101.2 (Intl Code Council, Inc 3d prtg 2014.)[4] “Sex” is biological. “Gender” is a literary concept with fluid meaning. Whatever ambiguity there is in the term “gender” there is no ambiguity in the state building code.
Under title VII it would create a “hostile work environment” for an employer to maintain restroom or locker room facilities that are not differentiated by biological sex. That would usually be enforced by a private claim for damages in civil court.[5]
II. Governor Roy Cooper’s Executive Order No. 24. of October 18, 2017
On page 8 of this memo I include a memo that I wrote on April 17, 2017 in the aftermath of House Bill 142 (SL 2017-4). There is little in Executive Order No. 24 that could not have been predicted from the Governor’s statements after he signed HB 142 on March 30, 2017.
On October 18, 2017 Governor Cooper issued Executive Order No. 24. The operative provisions of the Executive Order include the Governor’s false claim that “existing federal and state law” on discrimination include “sexual orientation” and “gender identity or expression” as protected classifications. Section IA. State law includes these classifications only in the context of K-12 bullying law. GS 115C-407.15(a). But that law specifically states that it does not apply outside that context. GS 115-C-407.18(f).[6]
Federal law on discrimination does not include these classifications but instead only race, religion, color, nationality and sex. Title VII and Title IX of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964. 42 USC 2000e et seq. There is a reference in the Prison Rape Elimination Act 34 USC 30301-30309, which does include these classifications, but that is limited to its context and recognizes that inmates have a constitutional right to not be observed by members of the opposite sex while using the restroom or changing clothes. There are also references to “gender” and “gender identity” in “hate crime” legislation, 18 U.S.C. § 249 (a)(2), campus crimes reports, 20 U.S.C. § 1092 (f) and the Violence Against Women Act, 42 U.S.C. § 13925 (b)(13), but these categories are NOT included in Title VII or Title IX. Congress knows how to designate “gender identity” or “sexual orientation” even though they lack a definition.
The Fourth Circuit (of which North Carolina is a part) has held that under Title VII and Title IX “sex” means biological sex and does not mean “sexual orientation” or “gender identity”. Wrightson v. Pizza Hut of America, Inc., 99 F.3d 138, (4th Cir. 1996); see also Murray v. N.C. Dept of Pub. Safety, 611 Fed. App’x 166, 166 n* (4th Cir. 2015) (per curiam); Dawkins v. Richmond Cty. Schs., 2012 WL 1580455, at *4 (M.D.N.C. May 4, 2012). Kirby v. N.C. State Univ., 2015 WL 1036946, at *5 (E.D.N.C. Mar. 10, 2015).[7]
The Governor then uses his false premise to command the following: In Section 1C (1) he states that entities under his jurisdiction shall not discriminate, harass, or retaliate on the basis of these prohibited grounds in hiring. This is the only part of his order that is actually within his power and is similar to Governor McCrory’s Executive Order of April 12, 2016. As the hiring officer he “cannot discriminate” on whatever criteria he wants to not discriminate. When he finally realizes the breadth of the meaning of “sexual orientation” and “gender identity”, which he never defines, he may realize that he has seriously overstated his case. See page 12-14 of this memo.
Under Section IC2 he states that these “prohibited grounds” may not be the basis of discrimination in the provision of government services or in the administration of government programs, including, but not limited to, programs and services concerning public safety, health and welfare. As a consequence he will have to immediately change the policy of his Department of Public Safety, Adult Corrections and Juvenile Justice and let correctional officers require inmates of the opposite sex to expose themselves to the correctional officer or to each other when the officer or the inmate claims a new “gender identity.”
The first sentence of Section 2 of House Bill 142 (SL 2007-4), attached, specifically preempts the “office” of the governor from “regulating access to multiple occupancy restrooms, showers, or changing facilities” except in accordance with an act of the General Assembly. Section IC2 of his Executive Order contradicts this statute.
The Order cites as authority (Section IIIA) and indeed is subject to Article III, Section 5(10) of the Constitution which states that:
“The General Assembly shall prescribe the functions, powers, and duties of the administrative departments and agencies of the State and may alter them from time to time, but the Governor may make such changes in the allocation of offices and agencies and in the allocation of those functions, powers, and duties as he considers necessary for efficient administration. If those changes affect existing law, they shall be set forth in executive orders, which shall be submitted to the General Assembly not later than the sixtieth calendar day of its session.”
The governor did not submit this Executive Order within the first sixty days of a session. If he had, either the Senate or House could have disapproved this order by a simple resolution.[8] This constitutional provision is entitled “10 Administration Reorganization” but captions and titles do not control over the text. This constitutional provision was recently cited in the October 31, 2017 Order of the Three Judge Superior Court in Cooper v Berger. 17 CVS 5084 (Wake).
Section IC3 provides that the entities under the Governor’s jurisdiction shall not “discriminate” on the basis of these “prohibited grounds” in awarding state contracts and state grants. This has the same statutory and constitutional defect as stated above. The rules concerning the awarding of state contracts and state grants are set out in full in GS chapter 143- 48 etseq. Article 3, Purchases and Contracts, and in the Current Appropriation Law, SL 2017-57. The Governor has no authority to unilaterally change criteria set by statute.
In Section IC4 the Governor prohibits the entities under his jurisdiction from adopting policies and regulations “barring, prohibiting, blocking, deterring or impeding any individual who lawfully uses public facilities under their control or supervision and in accordance with an individual’s gender identity.”
Setting aside for the moment the inherent ambiguity in the fluid concept of “gender identity,” this portion of the order violates the constitutional provision stated above and Section 2 of HB 142, SL 2017-4. To understand the constantly changing terms of reference for “gender identity”, see page 12-14 of this memorandum.
Section II of the Executive Order addresses Access to State Services. It elaborates on the preceding and takes it down to sub-grantees. This contains the same constitutional and statutory defects as stated above.
In Section III the Governor addresses “policy development.” The Office of State Human Resources is ordered to adopt internal policies to effectuate the same anti-statutory and unconstitutional provisions stated above. He charges OSHR with adopting measures that would identify what consequences state agencies may impose on grantees and sub-grantees … based upon prohibited grounds, “including grant revocation and exclusion from consideration for future state grants” and to take any additional steps necessary to prevent and stop discrimination.
In his Executive Order, Section V, the Governor addresses counties, municipalities, political subdivision, local government agencies. In subsection 1 the Governor states that, “consistent with existing federal and state law” local governments are free to establish their own policies regarding discrimination. But this is directly contrary to Section 3 of HB 142 SL 2017-4 which prohibits ordinances regulating private employment practices and regulating public accommodations until December 1, 2020. And after that date they are beyond the statutory power of local government, Williams v. Blue Cross/Blue Shield of N.C., 357 NC 170 (2003).
In Section V(2) of his Order he encourages private entities to adopt his policies. He is entitled as a citizen to freedom of speech. But he is encouraging actions which in many cases will create a hostile work environment by private entities, violations of the state building code and other laws of the state.
What to do?
The General Assembly should support a legal challenge by a contractor, grantee, sub-grantee or taxpayer either by intervention, amicuscuriae brief or otherwise.
If the contractor has religious objection to compliance with the Executive Order, and if the contract or grant is funded in part with federal funds, then the challenge may include the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000 bb etseq. The relevant portions of the United States Attorney General’s Memorandum providing guidance on Federal Law Protections of Religious Liberty are included at pp 6-7. The entire memorandum may be found at https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1001891/download.
—–
[1] In re S.M.S., 196 N.C. App. 170, 675 S.E.2d 44 (2009), held that evidence was sufficient to show that juvenile committed second-degree trespass when he entered girls’ locker room at high school so as to support adjudication of delinquency. The Court noted that a sign marked “Girl’s Locker Room” was reasonably likely to give the boy notice that he was not authorized to go into the girls’ locker room, and that his admission that he violated school rules by entering the girls’ locker room supported a reasonable inference that he knew he was not permitted in the locker room.
[2] § 14-190.9. Indecent exposure details several crimes related to exposure of private parts in both public and private places (with varying elements). A claim brought under this statute may depend on the facts of the case.
[3] 14 202. Secretly peeping into room occupied by another person – prohibits secret peeping into rooms (including bathrooms and restrooms). One of the elements of the crime is that the “peeping” is “secret”, though that term is not defined by statute, so, the facts of the case may determine if the elements of the statute are met.
[4] See also https://codes.iccsafe.org/public/getpdf/2012_NC_Plumbing.pdf – Sec. 403.1 Minimum number of fixtures. In new construction or building additions and in changes of occupancy as defined in the North Carolina Building Code, plumbing fixtures shall be provided for the type of occupancy and in the minimum number shown in Table 403.1. Types of occupancies not shown in Table 403.1 shall be considered individually by the code official. The number of occupants shall be determined by the International Building Code. Occupancy classification shall be determined in accordance with the International Building Code. The Plumbing Code uses the terms male and female and requires that a certain number of toilets be provided for males and a certain number for females, based on the type of facility.
[5] The elements for an employment discrimination claim based on a hostile work environment are 1) unwelcome conduct 2) based on a legally protected characteristic 3) that the conduct was so severe or pervasive it affected the terms of employment. Sex is a legally protected characteristic under Title VII.
[6] GS 115C-407.15, describes types of bullying behavior: “Bullying or harassing behavior includes, but is not limited to, acts reasonably perceived as being motivated by any actual or perceived differentiating characteristic, such as race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, socioeconomic status, academic status, gender identity, physical appearance, sexual orientation, or mental, physical, developmental, or sensory disability, or by association with a person who has or is perceived to have one or more of these characteristics.” G.S. 115C-407.18(f) “(f) Nothing in this act shall be construed to create any classification, protected class, suspect category, or preference beyond those existing in present statute or case law.”
[7] North Carolina is within the Fourth Circuit. Other circuits have split on how to interpret the term “sex” in Title VII and Title IX cases. Until recently, most jurisdictions that reviewed this issue had held that discrimination because of sex means on the basis of being male or female, but does not extend to cover transgender or gender identity status, or to cover sexual orientation.
Some other jurisdictions have applied the analysis first presented by the US Supreme Court in Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, 490 U.S. 228 (1989) to allow claims to be brought on the basis of sex stereotyping, that is, discrimination based on deviation for gender norms for that sex, that would not otherwise be recognized solely on the basis of discrimination because of sex. Some courts have noted, however, that the line between discrimination based on sex stereotyping and discrimination based on other categories not recognized as a basis for a claim, such as sexual orientation, is blurry at best. See Christiansen v. Omnicom Grp., Inc., 2016 WL 951581 (S.D.N.Y. Mar. 9, 2016).
Although the United States Supreme Court has not recognized claims based on sexual orientation as a protected classification under Title VII, the Court in Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Servs., Inc., 523 U.S. 75 (1998) held that Title VII’s prohibition on discrimination on the basis of sex included discrimination by members of the same sex as well as discrimination by the opposite sex.
Cases from other federal circuits around the country are collected in the Appendix at pages 15-23.
[8] There is limited case law regarding the Governor’s authority to issue executive orders. The November 1, 2017 decision of the Louisiana Court of Appeals (First Circuit) No. 2017 CA 0173 in “The Louisiana Dept of Justice vs. John Bel Edwards, Governor” held that a remarkably similar Executive Order violated separation of powers and was properly enjoined. A copy of that case is attached.
I would like you to help LINDA DEVORE in her bid for election to the North Carolina House of Representatives.
For decades Linda has been a stalwart champion of the principles that we hold dear. She has been very effective. For about 20 years I have relied on her to lead the conservative movement in Fayetteville.
When I ended my 16 years in the House in 2016 I was concerned. Would there be sufficient numbers of committed conservatives to prevail on critical issues? If Linda is there she will be one of them.
Linda’s district is much of Fayetteville down to Hope Mills. If you have friends or relatives there, please forward this to them. Her opponent is Billy Richardson.
Please send her a campaign contribution. All the information that you need from her is attached here.
Best regards,
Paul Stam
P.S. I am sending Linda my own contribution today. If hundreds of us do the same Linda will be in the House of Representatives to help lead the conservative team.
Have you visited www.paulstam.info lately? I have continued to add content to the Articles section. One of the most informative items is 432 pages of transcripts of debates in the General Assembly for 2009-2016. This collection is available online at www.paulstam.info/debate-transcripts. And the 2018 Articles are timely.
RIGHT TO FARM? An Analysis of Senate Bill 711, Section 10
By Paul Stam
June 13, 2018
Section 10 of Senate Bill 711 is a serious and direct threat to the private property rights of homeowners throughout the state.
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 4-1 incorporates the common law as of 1776 into the law of North Carolina. That common law was stated by Blackstone in his Commentaries on the Laws of England:
Also if a person keeps his hogs, or other noisome animals, so near the house of another, that the stench of them incommodes him and makes the air unwholesome, this is an injurious nuisance, as it tends to deprive him of the use and benefit of his house. A like injury is, if one’s neighbor sets up and exercises an offensive trade; as a tanner’s, a tallow-chandler’s, or the like; for though these are lawful and necessary trades, yet they should be exercised in remote places; for the rule is, “sic utere tuo, ut alienum non loedas:” this therefore is an actionable nuisance. So that the nuisances which affect a man’s dwelling may be reduced to these three; 1. Overhanging it; which is also a species of trespass, for cujus est solum, ejus est usque ad coelum: 2. Stopping ancient lights: and 3. Corrupting the air with noisome smells: for light and air are two indispensable requisites to every dwelling. (Blackstone’s Commentaries – Book III, Ch. XIII, *739, emphases added.)
First, the principal effect of the bill, as now written, is to make punitive damages impractical in nuisance cases. In 1995 the Assembly passed tort reform, drastically limiting punitive damages. In recent litigation a jury assessed $50 million in punitive damages against Smithfield. The judge reduced these damages to $2,500,000.
Section 10(b), amending G.S. 106-702 adds (a1) that requires for punitive damages there had to have been a previous conviction or a state civil enforcement action by the Department of Environmental Quality (“DEQ”) within three years prior. But since N.C. Gen. Stat. § 106-701(a)(3) requires the nuisance action to be brought within one year of the establishment of the nuisance, this will almost never be the case. Convictions in criminal court or DEQ enforcement actions just do not happen that quickly.
The longstanding purpose of punitive damages is to deter and punish wrongful conduct, primarily when the state does not have the resources or the will to enforce its own laws. Within the last year a different federal court has had to order Smithfield to clean up operations that it had promised to do in 2006. Waterkeeper Alliance, Inc. v. Smithfield Foods, Inc., No. 4:01-CV-27-H, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 198537 (E.D.N.C. Dec. 4, 2017), at https://www.southernenvironment.org/uploads/words_docs/Murphy_ Brown_hog_farm_order_enforcing_consent_decree.pdf. Since the purpose of punitive damages is deterrence the financial picture of the defendant is relevant. In May 15, 2018, Bloomberg released a report on the highest compensated man in the entire world in 2017. Bruce Einhorn, This Chinese Pork CEO Was Paid More Than Tim Cook or Elon Musk, Bloomberg (May 25, 2018, 12:00 PM), https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-15/this-chinese-ceo-got-paid-more-than-tim-cook-or-lloyd-blankfein.
Second, it is imperative that the law protect “accrued” claims for relief rather than only claims for relief “commenced” on or before the effective date. It is settled state constitutional law that accrued claims for relief for compensatory damages (but not punitive damages) are vested property rights and cannot be taken by legislation. Rhyne v. K-Mart Corp., 258 N.C. 160, 594 S.E.2d 1 (2004) (citing Osborn v. Leach, 135 N.C. 628, 47 SE, 811 (1904)). As a consequence, Section 10(c) is unconstitutional as applied to landowners who already have an accrued nuisance claim (but not yet filed).
Third, one of the oddest provisions is the deletion of subsection (a2) of 106-701 on lines 19-21, and similar language deleted in subsection (d). The effect is that negligent operation of the agricultural operation does not prevent it from claiming the right to farm protections from a nuisance claim of a private owner, nor of a local government.
Fourth, the first, fourth, and fifth whereas clauses are not true and, if passed, will reflect badly on the integrity of the Assembly. They will not have any operative legal effect except to irritate the judges of the Fourth Circuit who will handle appeals.
Fifth, I recommend completely deleting Section 10 as it is a direct attack on the private property rights of hundreds of thousands of North Carolinian property owners. Failing that, amendments are essential.
The basic rights of private property include the land, the air above it and the earth below. No matter how well-intentioned, Section 10 is partially not constitutional and is completely unjust. It is a serious matter when legislation deprives homeowners of their property rights to own and enjoy their homes.
MYTHS and FACTS about the CORPORATE INCOME TAX and Why the Rate Should Be Zero!
June 9, 2018
Paul Stam
INTRODUCTION
On New Year’s Day the corporate income tax rate at the federal level dropped from 35% to 21%. The corporate income tax rate in North Carolina is 3%. It will drop to 2.5% in 2019. As recently as 2011 the North Carolina corporate income tax rate was 6.9%. This article explains the reasons for these reductions. Several of these reasons have been discussed extensively at the national and state level and these reasons are discussed very briefly in section C and D. But there are other important reasons stated in sections A and B.
BACKGROUND
In North Carolina this tax began in 1921 at a rate of 3%[1] and in the United States in 1909 at a 1% rate.[2] In Fiscal Year 2011-12 the corporate income tax was only 6.1% of the N.C. general fund. Despite the significant reductions in the rate over the years, in Fiscal Year 2016-17 the corporate income tax was 3.5% of the N.C. general fund, which is about 1.75% of the total state budget.[3]
Corporations only collect taxes which they then pay on behalf of shareholders. A corporation is an aggregation of individual humans (or other businesses that are aggregations of individual humans) that invest their money for profit.[4] Many, if not most, businesses do not pay corporate income tax at all because they are “pass through” entities like Subchapter S corporations, Limited Liability Companies, partnerships, trusts, or estates. These entities report information to the IRS, but the income is “passed through” to the owners who then pay income tax on the income that is passed through. Forty million American taxpayers report “pass through” income.
MYTHS AND FACTS
A. It is a myth that the corporate income tax, state or federal, is a tax on the wealthy that helps to “Level the Playing Field.” Cutting the corporate income tax rate to zero would put those who invest in these businesses, not in a preferred footing against “pass through” business entities but, almost on an equal footing with those who invest in other businesses. Most businesses in America are “pass through” entities and their profits are taxed once. The corporate income tax is double taxation. The same economic activity is taxed once at the corporate level and then taxed a second time when distributed to shareholders as dividends.
Consider a taxpayer before 2017 tax reform at the federal level and before 2011-2017 tax reform at the state level. Compare two investors in different income brackets for 2011 and 2019.[5]
In 2011 a wealthy North Carolina taxpayer whose economic investment in a corporation earned $1000 would have paid or accrued a combined tax of over $600 on those earnings. In 2018 that will drop to about $500.
In 2011 a working poor North Carolina taxpayer whose investment in her retirement fund earned $1000 would have paid or accrued a combined tax of $350. In 2018 that will drop to about $200.[6]
Whether you are rich or poor, earnings from a corporate investment are taxed to the individual human at a higher, not lower, rate.
B. It is a Myth that Wealthy People are the Ones Who Bear the Incidence of the Corporate Income Tax. The effect of the corporate income tax is not even predominately on the wealthy. Those opposing reductions in rate argue that the tax paid by a large corporation is a tax on wealthy individuals. For several reasons this is not true:
First, a reduction in the rate is partially a reduction in the price of goods and services to those who consume them. If I bought a cheeseburger in 2011 for $5.00, say 35 cents of that is used to pay the federal corporate income tax and about 7 cents to pay the North Carolina corporate income tax for a total of 42 cents per cheeseburger at the previous higher rates. Under the new rates the share of that 2018 cheeseburger for federal corporate income tax is say 21 cents and 3 cents at the state level for a total of 24 cents. It does not matter whether the person who eats that cheeseburger is rich or poor. It is the same tax embedded in each cheeseburger. That is an extremely regressive tax. It is also a tax that is hidden from the burger buyer. The 18 cent reduction in that hidden tax on each cheeseburger means more to the poor than to the rich.
Second, to the extent that there is a competitive market for labor (which is now the case) wages and other compensation can rise faster to the extent that the corporate income tax is reduced. Immediately after tax reform passed Congress, several major corporations announced bonuses or other significant benefits for employees: Bank of America, Comcast, AT&T, Boeing, Fifth Third Bank, BB&T, PNC and Wells Fargo, each crediting the tax reform bill. A new OECD study found that between thirty percent (30%) and seventy percent (70%) of the corporate income tax is effectively paid by workers.[7]
Most public utilities are provided by privately owned, regulated utilities that pay corporate income tax. The North Carolina Utility Commission has required lower utilities rates for consumers as a consequence of tax reform. Lower utility bills for electricity, water, and sewer mean more to the poor than to the rich.
Third, a part of the effect of a corporate income tax rate reduction is on the distribution of net profits. Some of that net profit of the corporation does go to the wealthy. If the corporate income tax rate is reduced, then, all other things being equal, dividends will increase. Half of American households are invested in mutual funds, retirement funds, or otherwise in the stock market. The largest corporations have millions of shareholders, both rich and poor. Dividends ultimately are taxed at the individual’s own tax rate, a high rate for the wealthy, and a low (or even zero) rate for the working poor.[8]The corporate income tax is not a progressive tax. It is a regressive “add on” tax to the progressive individual income tax rates.
C. Competitiveness. Effective January 1, 2018, the nominal federal corporate income tax rate went from 35% to 21%. 35% was the highest in the industrialized world; 21% is in the middle of the pack. Opponents of reductions often state that the nominal rate is not the same as the effective rate. True, but irrelevant. See Section D.
Money flows easily across national and state borders. While the United States has many inherent competitive advantages, its extremely high corporate income tax rate was a major impediment to investment here. Many Americans were prompted to invest overseas and investors from abroad were discouraged from investing here.
Similarly, when North Carolina’s corporate income tax rate was 6.9% in 2011 its rate was the highest of all our bordering states. North Carolina’s rate of 2.5% in 2019 is the lowest in the nation (of the states that impose a corporate income tax). This change has been a major competitive advantage for North Carolina for economic development and is one of the reasons why North Carolina ranks at the top in national business rankings (e.g., # 1 by Forbes and Site Selection magazine) and near the top in tax rankings. As the National Tax Foundation stated in its introduction to the 2017 State Business Tax Climate Index:
North Carolina continues to phase in reforms from its successful 2013 effort. The corporate income tax was further reduced this year, raising the state to 4th on its corporate tax component ranking. North Carolina now ranks 11th overall, an astonishing improvement from 41st just three years ago.[9]
The Tax Foundation also cited a study to the effect that “a state’s corporate tax rate is the most relevant tax in the investment decisions of foreign investors.”[10] As of April 15, 2015, six states had no corporate income tax: Nevada, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming.
D. Targeted Tax Incentives. The incessant competition of big firms with each other and with state governments to receive special treatment on their tax bills impose significant costs on the economy. I have written on that extensively at www.paulstam.info (see Articles for 2005). To the extent that the corporate income tax rate is very low or zero then targeted tax expenditures are less costly and less of a distortion to the economy in the making of business decisions.[11]
While reducing the corporate income tax rate, the reforms at the federal and state level also eliminated many unjustified deductions, credits and exemptions that made the nominal corporate income tax rate so high, complicated, unfair, and rife with political gamesmanship.
Much of the rhetoric at the federal and state level attacking these reforms mentions the elimination of a deduction, credit or exemption without mentioning, in the same sentence, paragraph, or article, that the taxpayer also pays at a much lower rate. This sophomoric rhetorical device is unfair and deceptive.
CONCLUSION
The corporate income tax rate should be zero. Elimination of this tax or reductions in its rate do not favor the wealthy over the poor. Lowering the rate, while eliminating some deductions, credits, and exemptions, helps the economy by reducing distortions and improving the economic competitiveness of the State and nation.
Questions, challenges and nuances arise after Kirby v. NC DOT, 368 NC 847 (2016) construing the Map Act, Article 2E of Chapter 136. While the Map Act had the goal of reducing excessive cost of land acquisition for future highway projects, it ran afoul of fundamental constitutional rights.
I address some of these issues in my recent article, which was published by the Real Property Section of the North Carolina Bar Association. The full article is available at: https://ncbar.org/media/858286/rpmay2018map.pdf.
This story begins and ends in Mongolia, a landlocked country between Russia and China. One third of its people are nomads. Attila the Hun and Genghis Khan exploded out of Mongolia several centuries ago.
In 1921 the USSR was on the march. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics absorbed Mongolia into its political orbit, imposing its political and religious ideology, Communism and atheism, upon Mongolia. In consequence Mongolia severely persecuted all religious activity, burned monasteries, killed monks and ended the open practice of the Buddhist religion in Mongolia. For millennia Mongolia had been a Buddhist society (along with occultic shamanism). Even though Mongolia and Tibet are separated by thousands of miles of the mountains and deserts of western China, the Mongolian variety of Buddhism is the same as the Tibetan variety – Vajrayana Buddhism, sometimes called Lamaism.
Buddhist monks of Mongolia who were not killed fled. Many of them went to Tibet, which is southwest of China and just north of India, Nepal, and Bhutan. For more than a thousand years the Dalai Lama has been the spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet. The Panchen Lama wielded some political power, including a role in selecting the next Dalai Lama. When the Dalai Lama or Panchen Lama died his associates would select a child to be trained as the new Lama and would declare that he was a reincarnation of the previous one.
The current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is the 14th Dalai Lama. He was vested with full powers as head of state in 1950 at the age of 15. The center of power was at the Potala Palace in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet.
Chinese Communists, led by Mao, won their civil war against the Kuomintang (Nationalists) and proclaimed the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on October 1, 1950 at Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Chinese Communists (CCCP) were aggressively atheistic and wanted to stamp out all “superstitious” religion, along with the “landlord” class and anyone else who stood in their way. About 30 million Chinese were killed by the Communist Party and government from 1950 through 1975 under pogroms, purges and government-induced famine.
The Chinese Communist also aggressively asserted rights to all the lands around the core of the PRC: Xinjiang, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and especially Tibet. In 1950 the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) invaded Tibet, asserting that Tibet always had been a part of China and demanding subservience. Tibet had been an independent sovereign state from 1912-1950 but was overwhelmed by the PLA. Persecution of Tibetans was intense and immediate, especially of Buddhist monks. 6,000 monasteries were destroyed. From 1950-1980 about one million Tibetans lost their lives to the Chinese and about 100,000 escaped over the Himalayas to northern India.
The Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama continued to function in Tibet until 1959. Persecution became so intense that the Dalai Lama and many of his followers fled at night over the Himalayas to Dharamshala, the location of the Central Tibet Administration, the Dalai Lama’s government in exile. Refugees from Tibet to India in 1959 included Buddhist monks who had previously fled from Mongolia to Tibet in 1921.
China and India have had violent border wars several times in the Himalayas. One of the grievances of the Chinese government is that India harbors the Dalai Lama and his “government in exile”, which claims autonomous rights for Tibetans, especially in matters of religion. In 1989 the Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. Let’s leave the geopolitical story there for a while. We will come back to it later.
In 1925 Ruth Lois Stam was born to Harry and Alma Stam. Three brothers were Paul Jacob Stam, Jonathan Stam, and James Cornelius Stam, and a sister, Rachel, who died as a child. Ruth’s parents were missionaries with the Africa Inland Mission at Rethy in the northeastern corner of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then the Belgian Congo). They spent 40 years in that area evangelizing and spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. Ruth knew that her uncle and aunt, John and Betty Stam, had served in Anhui, China until 1934. She knew the need for Christian missions in China and set her heart on following that call. To complete her education she attended Wheaton College (Illinois) from 1943 to 1947. By the time she graduated from Wheaton, Christian missionaries were being expelled from Mainland China. Those who were not expelled were severely persecuted. She decided to minister to some of the refugees from China so that they could bring the gospel back to China.
Ruth Lois Stam served with TEAM, The Evangelical Alliance Mission, in northern India to work with Tibetan refugees. Her particular assignment was to help the refugees at Dharamshala get a good education, and a Christian education in particular. She was able to have some of her students admitted to universities in Europe and America. She maintained friendship and communication with them for decades. One of her students was the sister of the Dalai Lama. For a time this sister lived with Ruth Lois. Ruth Lois was a friend of the Dalai Lama and talked often with him about the education of Tibetan children.
Ruth Lois Stam had been in India for 23 years and was still single. Because of the political sensitivity of the government of India to the status of the Dalai Lama and his government in exile, and because of the sensitivity of the Indian government to American missionaries, the security services monitored Ruth’s activities. One investigator was Sam Thiagarajan, a Christian man from the city of Bangalore in South India. The legend is that the apostle, Thomas, had traveled to South India and founded the Church of South India. Today that church has approximately 2 million members. The population of India is 1.3 billion and the Christian population of India is about 6 percent (74 percent is Hindu and about 15 percent Muslim).
Sam Thiagarajan had several adult sons and was a widower. Sam told Ruth that he had investigated her for a long time and that he liked what he saw. He proposed marriage. Shortly after their marriage they emigrated to New York City. They worked for ISI (International Students Inc.), a Christian missionary organization for college students. Ruth and Sam’s assignment was evangelization of Buddhist and Hindu students in New York City.
Back to the geopolitical situation: In 1989 the Berlin wall fell. The dissolution of the 16 republics of the USSR followed quickly. By 1990 Mongolia had been freed from domination by the USSR and was relatively open. In 1989 there had been only four known Christian believers in Mongolia. All other Mongolians were either Buddhist, shamanist, atheist, or a few Muslims. One day Ruth received a call from one of the students whom she had placed decades earlier in a university. She was the daughter of one of the Buddhist monks who had fled from Mongolia to Tibet in 1919 and had then fled again in 1959 from Lhasa to Dharamshala, India. Her former student invited Ruth and Sam to come with her to Mongolia. Ruth and Sam spent several summers in Mongolia. They took the “Jesus Film” with them. The “Jesus Film” has been translated into 1500 languages and is almost verbatim the book of Luke.
The capital city of Mongolia is Ulan Bator. Half of all Mongolians live there. A large part of the country is the Gobi Desert. There are no other large cities. Nomads roam the rest of Mongolia carrying their “yurts” (tents) on horseback. Ruth and Sam followed the nomads with their film. I do not know the result of their individual work. The latest version of Operation World estimates forty-six thousand Christians now in Mongolia with 200 churches in Ulan Bator and tiny groups of believers in every province. The Jesus film is widely used.
God took the preparation of a girl who grew up in the Congo, redirected her vision for China, and her ministry in India, to the people of Tibet. Along with a Christian man whose lineage in the faith dated back two thousand years. Ruth and Sam helped to evangelize Mongolia, then one of the least Christian nations on earth. Ruth and Sam are not listed in any book of heroes, but should be.
Please advise the author of corrections or additions
All errors of fact are my own. Thanks to Ruth Stam Stevens, Mary Stam and Doris Perry Stam for reading this and correcting some of my errors. Other sources include:
In The Aftermath of the “Reset” of HB2 Paul Stam April 13, 2017
In the aftermath of the “reset” of HB 2 Gov. Roy Cooper has made four claims, on Capital Tonight, Spectrum Cable, April 10, 2017.
1.) Under the law, as HB 2 was repealed and replaced by HB 142, those persons claiming to be transgendered will still be able to use the changing room/restrooms of their own choice. This will doubtless be a surprise to the managers of HB 142 who assured the public that HB 142 preserved the privacy and security of women and children. An April 12, 2017 blog post by Professor Robert Joyce of the UNC School of Government advises local governments that while they may not adopt “policies” individual managers may allow biological males into women’s changing rooms and, if they don’t they may be liable to that biological male.
Governor Cooper’s claim may also surprise state employees since Governor Cooper has not rescinded Governor McCrory’s Executive Order dated April 12, 2016 on the usage of changing rooms and restrooms in state offices under the Governor’s control.
2.) Governor Cooper claims that HB 142 now allows local government (cities and counties) to enact protected classes for their own employees. This is really a surprise since HB2 specifically provided that this was already allowed. HB 142 made no change there. See Section 3.1(c) (last clause) of HB2.
3.) Governor Cooper claims that under HB 142 cities and counties can now enact ordinances requiring their bidders to have additional protected classifications for the contractors’ employees and vendors. This position was taken by the University of North Carolina School of Government the day after HB 142 became law. This would be a surprise to the managers of HB 142 since House leadership did not intend this change.
To continue reading about the aftermath, click here.
Enforcement of the Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act (HB2) S.L.2016-3
I have received inquiries about enforcement of Part I of this law. These inquiries echo media and pundits who completely misunderstand and claim that the law is unenforceable.
Most new laws do not contain within themselves their own enforcement provisions. If they did, the General Statutes would require twice as many volumes on the shelf. Confusion would reign. New laws typically integrate change into existing enforcement provisions.
Federal District Judge Thomas Schroeder rejected the argument of the President of the UNC system, Margaret Spellings, that UNC would not enforce HB2 because it had no enforcement provisions. Judge Schroeder cited four different enforcement mechanisms. (1) second-degree trespass, GS 14 – 159.13. In the case of SMS 196 N.C. App 170 (2009) the Court of Appeals held that a 15 year old boy in the girls locker room was properly adjudicated of second-degree trespass. The label on the door was sufficient notice to him that he should not be there. This is undercut in some school systems by principals (and chancellors) who give permission to students to violate the law. It is probably a good defense to trespass if the person in charge of a facility authorizes a trespass. Judge Schroeder referred to this as “openly defying the law.” (2) the indecent exposure statute, GS 14-190.9(a); (3) the peeping statute GS 14 – 202(a)(d) and (4) university discipline of students who violate federal, state or local law.
In addition to these four enforcement mechanisms which Judge Schroeder mentioned, there are two others: (5) The state building code requires separate restroom facilities for each sex 2012 NC Building Code 101.2 (Intl Code Council, Inc 3d prtg 2014.) (6) I contend that under Title VII it would create a “hostile work environment” for an employer to maintain restroom or locker room facilities that are not differentiated by biological sex. That would be enforced by a claim for damages in civil court.
Representative Paul Stam
Speaker Pro Tempore
919-362-8873
This online publication is unlike any you have ever seen. It consists of transcripts of many of the debates in the North Carolina House of Representatives from 2009-2016. Some debates in the Senate and some debates in committees are included. I have prefaced each section with my comments for context.
I enjoy primary sources. When an historian or analyst tells me what somebody said, I am not as convinced unless I can actually read or hear the words.
Aside from the public interest in the subjects of these debates there is also a bit of legislative history here from which lawyers might argue legislative intent. For rules on how legislative debate is used in law you might want to see pages 5 – 9 of a law review I authored, 28 Issues in Law and Medicine 3 (2012), entitled “Woman’s Right to Know Act: A Legislative History” and an article that I co-authored with Amy O’Neal entitled “The 2011 Tribal-State Gaming Compact: A 2012 North Carolina Legislative History,” 6 Charlotte Law Review 17 at 20-27 (2015).
It is no surprise that my own debates are featured in this collection and that House debates predominate. Beginning in 2009 House floor debates have been archived electronically on the Internet at www.ncleg.net. For House floor debates we provide links to the audio. Senate debates are recorded but they are not archived on the Internet. House Committee debates are recorded but they are not on the Internet and the recordings are usually discarded after the minutes have been prepared.
These debates cover the waterfront: Budgets, Incentives, Property Rights, Criminal Procedure and the Death Penalty. They include extensive debates on each of the pro-life bills that have been passed since 2011. Since there are always threats to sue over every pro-life measure, see this articlefor the legal end result on each. I also include parts of the debates on the marriage amendment, SB 2 (magistrate recusal) and HB 2 Privacy and Security Act of 2016.
Opponents of legislation will often say there was little or no debate or that there was no separate vote. In the Opportunity Scholarships litigation, opponents told the Superior Court there had been little debate and no separate recorded votes. The full transcripts of those 2013 debates were ninety-eight pages with four separate recorded votes–two in committee and two on the floor–on the precise issue of Opportunity Scholarships.
Grammar: I did not realize until beginning this project how different grammar and syntax are for oral speeches than when the same thought is written. Few members speak from a written text. After a sentence is begun we often change our mind as to where it is headed. Those sentences are difficult to diagram. I have made grammatical corrections so that the transcripts will be clear and so that those who taught us English in “grammar school” will not be ashamed. These “corrections” have not changed the meaning. Check the audio.
Enjoy,
Rep. Paul Stam
North Carolina House of Representatives
Speaker Pro Tem, 2013-2016
House Republican Leader, 2007-2012
Member 1989-90 and 2003-2016
Last week CoStar Group announced that it chose to locate a 730-job expansion in Richmond, VA instead of Charlotte, NC. The Charlotte Observer reported on October 28th that the incentives package for Virginia totaled $10.6 million, while North Carolina’s was $9.7 million. CoStar CEO Andrew Florance was quoted in the Washington Postas saying that HB 2 was “more controversy than we want to engage in right now.”
Published articles imply that CoStar’s decision was made primarily because of HB 2. For whatever role HB 2 played in the decision against Charlotte, we offer the following comparison between Charlotte, NC and Richmond, VA. The company has chosen a venue where the actual laws relating to discrimination are no more “protective” of LGBT rights than those currently in effect in Charlotte.
Left-wing groups claim that Religious Freedom Restoration Acts are also discriminatory for legalizing denial of service. Remember Indiana, Mississippi and Arkansas. We do not agree that this claim has any validity. We note that North Carolina has no Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Virginia does: Virginia Code Ann. § 57-2.02 (2009).
For the reasons stated under Legends #5 and #6 of Legends vs. the Truth about HB2, we do not agree that “sexual orientation” or “gender identity” are reasonable categories for special legal rights. But for discussion purposes we offer this comparison of anti-discrimination laws in Charlotte, NC and Richmond, VA.
“The Breathtaking Hypocrisy of the NCAA” was distributed on September 13th, before the NCAA (and ACC) chose alternative locations for championships. In several cases the boycott of North Carolina resulted in the relocation of championships from Greensboro, NC to other venues where the actual laws relating to discrimination are the same, virtually the same, or even less “protective” of LGBT rights than those in effect in Greensboro. This demonstrates why these sports organizations’ boycotts will have to take on much of the nation.
Left-wing groups claim that Religious Freedom Restoration Acts are discriminatory for legalizing denial of service. Remember Indiana, Mississippi and Arkansas. We do not agree that this claim has any validity. But for the NCAA and ACC we note that North Carolina has no Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Both South Carolina and Virginia do: South Carolina Code Ann. § 1-32-40 (1999) & Virginia Code Ann. § 57-2.02 (2009).
The policies of North Carolina are reasonable. Boycotts by the NCAA and the ACC are harmful to athletes (especially women) as was shown in the original “Breathtaking Hypocrisy” article.
The City of Greensboro has now lost several tournaments. As shown in these charts, Greensboro has provisions for non-discrimination in government employment at the state, county and city level that include the categories of sexual orientation and gender identity. These policies are expressly not preempted by HB2. House Bill 2, Section 3.1(c) amended G.S. 143-422.2 to preempt local requirements on employers “except such regulations applicable to personnel employed by that body that are not otherwise in conflict with State law.”
In conclusion: The boycott of North Carolina by the NCAA and the ACC is:
Planned Parenthood recently posted this video on YouTube ominously claiming that the Governor is stockpiling women’s sonograms in his filing cabinet in Raleigh. The claim is nonsense. See this advisory for the actual facts about the reporting requirements in House Bill 465, “Women and Children’s Protection Act of 2015.”
On Tuesday, September 27th I received a very special package in the mail containing my new North Carolina “Choose Life” license plate! It is now proudly displayed on my car. I want to express special thanks to Rep. Mitch Gillespie whose tireless work for so many years made this possible. Planned Parenthood fought it for five years in the courts.
If you would like to get your plate, an application is now available from DMV online. Just search for “Choose Life.” $15 of the fee goes to support Carolina Pregnancy Care Fellowship (CPC). Last year CPC distributed money to 28 different pregnancy support centers around the state and will continue to do so. The new revenue from license plate sales may be used for counseling and other services that meet the physical needs of pregnant women.
Thank you for your support for pregnant women and unborn children in North Carolina!
Citing a commitment to “fairness and inclusion,” the NCAA announced September 12 that it will move seven championship events out of North Carolina during the 2016-17 school year. The hypocrisy of the NCAA’s “commitment” is breathtaking. The organization selectively boycotts North Carolina for policies it claims are unique to our state-but actually are common throughout the nation-and for daring to disagree with a sweeping federal mandate by the Obama Administration-a mandate that is currently being challenged in court by 24 other states. The NCAA is in violation itself of the civil rights provision of Title IX as interpreted by the Obama Administration. See this analysis for a good look at the facts…
Teacher compensation packages are a combination of a teacher’s state salary, benefits and local supplements (where applicable). Check out this detailed analysisof teacher compensation in 39 counties across the state.
SL 2011-60: Unborn Victims of Violence Act/Ethen’s Law: Creates criminal offenses for acts committed against pregnant women without consent that cause the death or injury of an unborn child. NOT CHALLENGED IN COURT.
SL 2011-145: Appropriations Act of 2011, Sec. 29.23(a)-(c): Limits state abortion funding in the state health plan. No state funded abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother. Previously funding was only limited for welfare abortions on a year-to-year basis. NOT CHALLENGED IN COURT.
SL 2011-392: Authorize Various Special Plates (Choose Life): Division of Motor Vehicles to issue “Choose Life” plates. The money raised will go to Carolina Pregnancy Care Fellowship. The injunction has been dissolved and license plates are now available online through NC DMV. CHALLENGED IN COURT BUT UPHELD.
SL 2011-405: Woman’s Right to Know: Requires a 24 hour (now 72 hour) waiting period and the informed consent of a pregnant woman before an abortion may be performed. CHALLENGED IN COURT. LOST ONE SECTION CONCERNING ULTRASOUND. THE REMAINDER OF THE LAW WAS CHALLENGED BUT UPHELD.
SL 2013-307: Health Curriculum/Preterm Birth: Requires instruction in school health education on preventable causes, including induced abortion, of preterm birth in subsequent pregnancies. NOT CHALLENGED IN COURT.
SL 2013-360: Appropriations Act of 2013, Sec. 12J.1.(a): Maternal and child health block grants provides $250,000 to the Carolina Pregnancy Care Fellowship (Sec. 12J.1.(a)). Increased to $300,000 in 2014 and continued through 2016-17. NOT CHALLENGED IN COURT
SL 2013-366: Health and Safety Law Changes: Limits abortion coverage to rape, incest, or to protect the life of the mother under the federal health benefit exchange or insurance offered by a county or city. Prohibits sex selection abortions. The Department of Health and Human Services is directed to amend rules pertaining to abortion clinics. Prohibits abortions if a doctor is not present. Conscience Protection extended to all health care providers, not just doctors and nurses. NOT CHALLENGED IN COURT
SL 2015-62: Women and Children’s Protection Act of 2015: Changes the 24 hour waiting period to 72 hours for informed consent before an abortion. Protects health care providers who object on moral, ethical or religious grounds in situations not covered in 2013. Increases statistical reporting requirements to the Department of Health and Human Services and enhances clinic standards and inspections. Abortionists must be an OB-GYN or equivalent. Tightens standards for post 20 week abortions. 20-WEEK PROVISION HAS BEEN CHALLENEGED IN COURT. CASE WAS FILED NOV. 30, 2016. (BRYANT ET AL. V. WOODALL ET AL.)
SL 2015-265: Disposition of Unborn Childrens’ Remains: Prohibits the sale of the remains of an unborn child resulting from an induced abortion. In the case of a miscarriage, the mother may donate the remains for research. NOT CHALLENGED IN COURT
In addition to these laws passed since Republicans took a majority of both the House and Senate, the courts upheld two other pro-life laws enacted when Republicans had a majority only in the House in 1995:
In Rosie J. v. N.C. Department of Human Resources, 347 N.C. 247, 491 S.E.2d 535 (1997), the North Carolina Supreme Court held that there was no state constitutional right to state funded abortions. In 1995, the General Assembly restricted eligibility for the state abortion fund to cases where the pregnancy resulted from “cases of rape or incest, or to terminate pregnancies that, in the written opinion of one doctor licensed to practice medicine in North Carolina, endanger the life of the mother.”
In Manning v. Hunt, 119 F.3d 254 (4th 1997), the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals sustained the position of that State and the amicus brief submitted by Stam & Danchi PLLC, for North Carolina Right to Life in support of North Carolina’s Parental Consent law.
CONCLUSION:
Eleven significant Laws.
Five court challenges.
One partial loss in the ultrasound section of one law. The ultrasound provision not allowed in North Carolina is almost identical to the Texas Law upheld by the federal courts and in effect since 2011.
One case just filed that challenges a single provision of the 2015 legislation.
Prayers in the North Carolina House of Representatives – 2015 to 2016
This link takes you to the collected prayers offered in the North Carolina House during the 2015-2016 biennium. The impetus for this project was not spiritual but legal. With the legal reasons for this collection no longer relevant I share them with you as a review of the heartfelt prayers of my colleagues in the North Carolina House. I hope you enjoy them.
Rep. Stam recently spoke on Voter ID laws at the Annual American Bar Association Meeting in San Francisco, CA on Saturday, August 6th, 2016. Below is a glimpse of some of the information he provided during his talk.
A recent poll (April 19, 2016) out of Elon University confirms that North Carolinians “overwhelmingly support” voter ID legislation- 75% support voter ID provisions and 80% think it is fair. The breakdown reveals that 89% of white voters and 68% of African-American voters support voter photo ID while 96% Republicans, 86% unaffiliated voters and 73% Democrats support voter photo ID. Here is the link for the full article and polling data.
RACIAL POLARIZATION
Racial polarization means “a consistent relationship between [the] race of the voter and the way in which the voter votes, or to put it differently, where black voters and white voters vote differently.” United States v. Charleston County, 318 F. Supp. 2d 302, 308 (D.S.C. 2002).
A state cannot have racially polarizing laws if by those laws, minority candidates receive more than 50% of the votes.
In 2006, Justice Patricia Timmons-Goodson was elected to the state Supreme Court over a former judge and white male candidate, Eric Levinson. Each candidate was equally qualified.
In 2012, NC Court of Appeals Judge Wanda Bryant, a female African American, won by 56.5% over a white male candidate, Marty McGee. Each candidate was well qualified.
In 2012, Linda Coleman, a female African-American candidate for Lieutenant Governor received 49.92% of the votes. Although she did not win, it was statistically tied.
In 2014, NC Court of Appeals Judge Cheri Beasley, a female African American, won a seat on the State Supreme Court by 5,410 more votes than a white male candidate, Mike Robinson. Each candidate was well qualified.
This bill provides a means of identification for all voters parallel to that required of some voters by the Federal Help America Vote Act; to require voters to sign before voting at the polls and at early voting sites; and otherwise to bring North Carolina into compliance with the Help America Vote Act.
This 2011 bill passed each chamber, but was vetoed by Democrat Governor Perdue. It would have required all eligible voters to present a photo ID before voting. The House failed to override the veto.
This bill, filled by Republican Senators, would have amended G. S. 163-227.2, providing that one-stop voting occur no earlier than the second Thursday (currently, the third Thursday) before the election. Clarifies that a county board of elections may not conduct one-stop voting on any Sunday. Clarifies that a county board of elections may provide for one or more locations offering one-stop voting in the county, provided all sites other than the county board of elections office are open at the same time for voting. Also prohibits the State Board of Elections from approving a plan that provides for one-stop voting sites to be open at different times. Repeals GS 163-82.6A, which allows in-person registration and voting at one-stop sites, and makes conforming changes to various provisions in GS Chapter 163.
This bill, filed by Republican Senators on March 26, 2013, would have repealed in person registration and voting at one-stop sites and established that no earlier than the second Thursday before an election can a person appear in person to request and file an absentee ballot (the current law was no earlier than the third Thursday).
Enacts new GS 163-166.13 providing that a legally registered voter may certify his or her identity by one of two methods: (1) by signing a voter photo affidavit or by (2) presenting proper photo identification. Proposed subsection (b) provides that a voter photo affidavit is a photograph taken by a designated election official that is signed by the voter to affirm that the voter is in fact the registered voter in whose name the ballot is requested.
What Could Be Wrong with SB 817 Limiting Income Tax to 5.5%
Representative Paul Stam
July 2016
The NC GOP platform (Article II) states, “The government should tax only to raise money for its essential functions. We support a thorough review of expenditures each year, and we support a tax payer’s bill of rights.” “Tabor” is the usual acronym for a “Taxpayer Bill of Rights.” A goal I share with proponents of Senate Bill is a mechanism that will restrain state government from overspending.
But does SB817proposing a constitutional amendment to limit the rate of state income taxation effectuate these principles? Does it expand taxpayer rights or constrict them? And why is it a constitutional amendment?
Each of them has filed suit against the United States of America because of President Obama’s bizarre interpretation of the word “sex” in Title VII (employment) and Title IX (education funding) relating to “discrimination.” The first was North Carolina GovernorMcCrory and Secretary Perry v. USA and U.S. Department of Justice and Senator Berger and Representative Moore v. U.S. Department of Justice, 23 other states have joined the battle. In addition, G.G. v. Gloucester County School Board of Virginia in on appeal in the Supreme Court, whose issue is the same. We now have 24 states plus North Carolina, to total 25.
Be sure to read this newsletterHEREfrom North Carolina Family Policy Council.
Gene Nichol, a “Distinguished Professor” at UNC Chapel Hill, recapitulated his published rants against the Governor and the General Assembly on June 25, 2016, in The News and Observer. He refers to actions of the Governor and the General Assembly as “insanity,” “tragic,” “cruel and indefensible,” “Foundational un-American,” “stealing,” “Totalitarianism,” “threatening,” “coercion,” “degradation.,” and perjury.” He is quite a wordsmith. His charges are so many that to answer them all would take a book. A sample of his charges will demonstrate his reckless disregard for the facts and the law. Read more HERE.