leaving no children

I'm probably going to get excoriated for this post, but whatever. Participated in an interesting discussion Monday night with two folks who believe in having families with lots of children. My definition of lots of children is "more than 2". Their definition is the exact opposite of that -- if you can't field your own baseball team, you're depriving yourself of God's blessings. Other organizations share a similar mindset. Let's get a few things straight here:

* The fact that children are a gift doesn't mean you should hoard as many as possible. Like Christmas presents, one big gift is often the equivalent of lots of smaller gifts. And you aren't more gifted because you have seven kids, and I have three. Perhaps my three are the equal of your seven, blessingwise.

* That whole quiverfull idea -- you know if you're a good hunter/warrior, you don't need to carry more than one arrow, right? And quivers vary in size by task (hunting vs war), by Indian tribe, by size of arrow, etc. I don't know how you translate the imagery of a full quiver into being a dozen kids, and not simply two kids.

* Let's count the blessings God has already given you: forgiveness of sins and eternal life, in addition to whatever material blessings or family blessings or job blessings you enjoy alongside those two great blessings. And because God equates having children with blessings, you want to take advantage of the system and have as many children as possible for the sake of getting more blessing? Greed might not be strong enough a word for this mindset.