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This is more on the topic of countries that are losing population, and Christianity declining in these countries.
suntimes.com/output/steyn/cst-edt-steyn25.html
Mark Steyn
**Falling birth rates not just a problem in Europe **
December 25, 2005
**BY MARK STEYN SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST **
“But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.”
If, like increasing numbers of Europeans, you have “some problems with conventional organized religion” (as Harry Potter’s J.K. Rowling puts it), you’ve probably forgotten that bit from the Christmas story. It’s Luke 1:13, part of what he’d have called the back story, if he’d been a Hollywood screenwriter rather than a physician.
Only two of the gospels tell the story of Christ’s birth. Mark plunges straight into the son of God’s grown-up life: He was writing for a Roman audience and, from their perspective, what’s important is not where Jesus came from but what he did once he got going. But Matthew was writing for the Jews, and so he dwells on Jesus and his parents mainly to connect the king of the Jews with all that had gone before: He starts with a long family tree tracing Joseph’s ancestry back to Abraham.
Like Mark, Luke was writing for a gentile crowd. But, like Matthew, he also dwelt on Jesus’ birth and family. And he begins with the tale of two pregnancies. Before Mary’s virgin birth, he tells the story of her cousin Elisabeth: Zacharias is surprised to discover his impending fatherhood – “for I am an old man and my wife well stricken in years.”
suntimes.com/output/steyn/cst-edt-steyn25.html
Mark Steyn
**Falling birth rates not just a problem in Europe **
December 25, 2005
**BY MARK STEYN SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST **
“But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.”
If, like increasing numbers of Europeans, you have “some problems with conventional organized religion” (as Harry Potter’s J.K. Rowling puts it), you’ve probably forgotten that bit from the Christmas story. It’s Luke 1:13, part of what he’d have called the back story, if he’d been a Hollywood screenwriter rather than a physician.
Only two of the gospels tell the story of Christ’s birth. Mark plunges straight into the son of God’s grown-up life: He was writing for a Roman audience and, from their perspective, what’s important is not where Jesus came from but what he did once he got going. But Matthew was writing for the Jews, and so he dwells on Jesus and his parents mainly to connect the king of the Jews with all that had gone before: He starts with a long family tree tracing Joseph’s ancestry back to Abraham.
Like Mark, Luke was writing for a gentile crowd. But, like Matthew, he also dwelt on Jesus’ birth and family. And he begins with the tale of two pregnancies. Before Mary’s virgin birth, he tells the story of her cousin Elisabeth: Zacharias is surprised to discover his impending fatherhood – “for I am an old man and my wife well stricken in years.”
