Polish PM: More Gays Bad for Society

Polish PM: More Gays Bad for Society

"Nobody is limiting gay rights in Poland," Kaczynski told reporters hours after the vote.

"However, if we're talking about not having homosexual propaganda in Polish schools, I fully agree with those who feel this way," he said. "Such propaganda should not be in schools; it definitely doesn't serve youth well."

"It's not in the interest of any society to increase the number of homosexuals—that's obvious."

So spoke the Polish prime minister, and very right he is, too.

Although this AP story focuses on the controversy such remarks have engendered between Poland, an EU member, and EU politicians and bureaucrats, there is another dimension to this issue.

Europe, as the home of Western Christendom, is nearing its own death. Even with immigration included, the population of Europe as a whole is falling and is expected to decline substantially over the next generation or more.

Combine with this the fact that much of the recent immigration and that which can be expected in the near future, both legal and illegal, is from non-Christian populations - Muslims from nearly every country from Morocco to Indonesia, and Hindus from India and the Indian diaspora in former British colonies - and the result is that Europe, where even Christian religious affiliation has been in long-term decline, may cease to hold onto a Christian culture.

For those who believe all cultures are equal, this may not matter. But for those who believe, as I do, that without Christian influence some key Western values - like equality before the law, the status of women and religious toleration - may cease to be supported, this is a very troubling development.

The Polish government is to be saluted for its sensitivity to this issue.

NOTE: The US birthrate is 14.0 births per thousand. Only three countries in Europe exceed this - Islamic Albania (15.1) and Azerbaijan (20.7) and Catholic Ireland (14.4). [Source: TIME Almanc 2007] Of the 30 countries and regions with the lowest numbers of births per female - ranging from 1.13 in Bulgaria to 1.54 in Sweden - 26 are in Europe. Poland ranked #22 with 1.37 births per female; no wonder the prime minister is worried. [Source: CIA Factbook 2004 as reported in a post on physicsforum.] France has the highest rate (1.9) in the EU, and the US rate has recently gone from 1.8 to 2.0 due largely to more teen pregnancies. In industrialized countries with long life expectancies and low infant and child mortality, a rate of 2.1 births per female is generally accepted as the minimum replacement level. [Sources: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Zero Population Growth, etc.]