Southern Baptist Al Mohler Intimates That Childless And Childfree Adults Are Not Human (2019) – and He Thinks This is a Good and Biblical Worldview

Southern Baptist Al Mohler Intimates That Childless And Childfree Adults Are  Not Human (2019) – and He Thinks This is a Good and Biblical Worldview

I am amazed that (Link): Mohler’s tweet / blog post / podcast from August 2019, where he indicates that anyone who doesn’t biologically pro-create is not fully human, did not get far more blow-back and attention than it did. Because it most certainly deserved a lot of push back.

(Please note: this post has been edited a few times since I published it, so that I could add more commentary and more links, and I may (or may not) edit it more in the future.)

At the time Mohler’s comment about this happened (August 2019),  I was too busy at the time to blog about it (or even months later). Hence, my post tackling this issue now, in June of 2020.

Mohler did (rightfully) get a lot of flack under the tweet at the time (I would ask that you (Link): click on the tweet link and read the replies he received), and one or two blogs ripped his attitude apart, but by and large, most did not tackle this.

Here is how Mohler’s tweet read (it is also embedded below):

Americans are basically, by the millions, giving up on the fact that to be human is to be a parent, eventually to take on that responsibility to get married and have children, to take on the responsibility of passing on civilization itself.
— end Mohler Tweet content —

Mohler also had a (Link): web page with either an essay or a podcast about this topic, but as of June 2020, the page does not seem to be working (you might be able to view an archived version of that page (Link): here – or view Mohler’s page on (Link): Google Cache).

At this point in time, I do not care to re-explain, for the billionth time, why the Bible and the God of the Bible does NOT support the “nuclear family,” marriage and natalism (and parenthood) to the insane degree that so many social conservatives and Christians and guys like Al Mohler assume.

I refer you to these older posts of mine which explain that no, the Bible does not endorse “the nuclear family,” marriage or parenting, not in the way conservative Christians presume it does (I have many more blog posts discussing this, I will only be sharing a few of them here – also some related posts here):

(Link): Conservatives Have Now Abandoned All Pretense of Advocating For Sexual Abstinence and They Actually Lament the Lack of Fornication – The Bradford Wilcox Piece, 2019

(Link):  “Who is my mother and who are my brothers?” – one of the most excellent Christian rebuttals I have seen against the Christian idolatry of marriage and natalism, and in support of adult singleness and celibacy – from CBE’s site

(Link):   If the Family Is Central, Christ Isn’t, by John B. Carpenter, CP Guest Contributor

(Link): Salvation By Marriage Alone – The Over Emphasis Upon Marriage by Conservative Christians Evangelicals Southern Baptists

(Link): Why Christians Need To Stress Spiritual Family Over the Nuclear Family – People with no flesh and blood relations including Muslims who Convert to Christianity – Also: First World, White, Rich People Problems

(Link): This Christmas, I’m Defining Family by My Single Friends by L. Wilbert

(Link): Family as “The” Backbone of Society? – It’s Not In The Bible

(Link):  Ever Notice That Christians Don’t Care About or Value Singleness, Unless Jesus Christ’s Singleness and Celibacy is Doubted or Called Into Question by Scholars?

(Link):  Really, It’s Okay To Be Single – In order to protect marriage, we should be careful not to denigrate singleness – by Peter Chin

(Link): Parents Who Regret Having Children Speak Honestly About Why It Was A Huge Mistake

(Link): The Bible Does Not Teach Christians to “Focus On The Family” – The Idolization of Family by American Christians (article)

(Link): Why Having Kids Won’t Fulfill You

Mohler Judging If Someone is Human Or Not Based on Their Childed Status

I’m pretty sure that the Bible says all humans are fully human because God deemed them so, and because all humans are created in the image of God.

The Bible says nothing about one’s value or worth or humanity being defined by marital or parental status.

God does not love childless or childfree people any less than he does people who have children.

And guys like Mohler oft claim to take the Bible literally and seriously – but they do not. They have agendas to promote and will ignore any and all Biblical passages, stories, or examples that undermine their agenda.

Jesus of Nazareth never married and never had children, but would Al Mohler deem Jesus as not being human for that?

Some people choose not to have children, which is fine.

Then there are those who wanted to have children but never met the right partner, so they remain single (and childless).

Then there are those who would like to have children but due to physical issues are incapable of doing so.

Secularists like to determine who they believe is human and who is not. An example (one would think that self professing Christians such as Al Mohler would stay away from this sort of world view):

(Link): Heidi Crowter, Matt Dillahunty, Down syndrome… and the disturbing consequences of getting rid of God

Excerpts:

When is a human not really a person? When do they lose their human rights?

For some the answer seems to be: “When they have Down syndrome.”

This is a stark way of putting the issue, but the reality is that babies in the womb with Down syndrome are being aborted with increasing frequency.

In Iceland, where non-invasive prenatal testing for Down’s has been introduced, almost 100 percent of women who discover their baby has the condition opt for an abortion.

The same trend is now occurring in the UK as the availability of Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing has led to a sharp increase in terminations.

Recently Heidi Crowter, a young woman with Down syndrome, has also been raising awareness of the fact that UK law allows abortion up till birth of children with Down syndrome.

The standard cut-off for everyone else is 24-weeks.

In a variety of interviews Heidi has made clear that her life is as valuable as anyone else and is calling on health secretary Matt Hancock to change abortion law when it comes to non-fatal disabilities.

Now her campaign is generating it’s own #IStandWithHeidi hashtag on social media.
— end —

Al Mohler finds himself in the same company as those who think it’s morally and legally acceptable to determine who is a “human” and who is not in the context of the abortion debate. Apparently, some people feel that a being with Down’s Syndrome is not a human and may be aborted.

Mohler’s classification is “those who pro-create are human, those who cannot, choose not to, or do not want to, or who have not, are not human.”

If Mohler does not truly feel that way, then he should have more carefully worded his blog post and tweets about these issues.

So how is Mohler any better than pro-choicers, who he would likely disagree with, who believe it is morally and legally fine to abort a fetus that has Down’s Syndrome?

How is Mohler any better than pro-choice feminists who insist that women who are pro-life are not “real” women?

(Link): Identity Politics Excommunicates Its Heretics

Excerpts:

by Alexandra Desanctis

For the past four years, I have been articulating my pro-life beliefs here at National Review.

The objections I receive from those who disagree with me take a few recurring forms, and the most common response from pro-abortion feminists is a rather striking claim: that my refusal to support unlimited legal abortion makes me less of a woman.

Male and female abortion supporters alike insist that I’m what they call a “gender traitor,” someone who, in opposing abortion, has betrayed her fellow women.

They argue that I am either an enabler of the patriarchy, which systemically oppresses women, or a member of the patriarchy myself.

In perhaps my favorite line, I once was accused of viewing myself as nothing more than “a walking breeder.”

No matter how ridiculous these claims, they are made quite fervently and routinely in response to my arguments.
— end excerpt —

Whether a human woman agrees or disagrees with the legalization of abortion, she remains a woman.

It is incorrect for either side of that debate, whether pro-life, pro-choice, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, Christian or secular, to say a woman with ~whatever~ opinion on the topic is not a “real” woman.

Mohler is doing the same thing, only in regards to childled status: even though I am pro-life and am a biological woman, Mohler would deem me “not a human” merely because I’m almost 50 years old and have never married and never had a baby.

Yet, in the Bible, when God created Eve, he called Eve and her creation “good.” The biblical text does not say or even imply Eve had to “marry” Adam or produce children to be considered human.

The moment Adam laid eyes on Eve, the moment God created Eve and then brought Eve before Adam, after God had Adam sit through a parade of animals like dogs, lions, cats, and hippos, Adam immediately recognized Eve’s humanity.

Adam could tell from just one look at the elephants, horses, and other critters that they were not of his “kind.”

Eve did not have to have sex with Adam, or produce children, for Adam to recognize she shared the same “likeness” as him.

The Bible says from the moment Eve was created, God considered Eve fully human, fully “woman,” and an equal counter-part to Adam.

God did not say that Eve had to marry and then become pregnant and give birth to be “human,” or to be considered in God’s likeness.

So why is Al Mohler applying a standard for human-ness that the Bible does not, but he claims to be a Southern Baptist Christian who believes in the Bible?

Parenthood Does Not Make All Who Become Parents More Godly, Ethical, or Responsible

There is nothing about parenthood that makes a person who is a parent more godly, mature, loving, or responsible than people who do not have children.

(These are assumptions about adults and parenthood that are often put forward by Al Mohler, and by other conservatives and Christians, who think about marriage and parenting in the same terms as he does.)

However, I have a running list of blog posts about people who are parents who have been arrested for killing, abusing, or raping their own children – so obviously, being a parent doesn’t guarantee that a person will be more law-abiding, kinder, or more ethical than someone who does not have children.

You can view that list here:

(Link):  Parenthood Does Not Make People More Loving Mature Godly Ethical Caring or Responsible (One Stop Thread)

The God of the Bible Does Not Teach that Parenthood Is Necessary to “Fix” Society

The Bible, of course, no where prescribes having babies, being parents, or getting married, as necessary to “fix” culture or to make people more mature, loving, or godly.

The Bible doesn’t say that singleness or being childless or childfree is a problem: the Bible repeatedly states from start to finish that humanity’s propensity to sin is the heart of the issue and the solution to that is for people to accept and follow Jesus.

The “cure” the Bible prescribes  for each individual (and perhaps society) is Jesus – it’s not getting married and it’s not having children.

Al Mohler and the other Christians and secular, social conservatives who continue to push this narrative that anyone who cannot, does not, or chooses not to, marry or have children is in error, or is not “human,” have obviously gone way beyond the bounds of what the Bible says about these topics.

Such persons or groups have clearly made marriage and parenthood into idols.

When it gets to the stage such Christians, social conservative individuals, and conservative think-tanks that promote “family values” and “the nuclear family” are very insultingly conflating what it means to be human with one’s parental (or marital) status, they are insultingly de-humanizing actual humans.

And they need to repent of all this, and start by issuing apologies.

The Bible does not teach anywhere that because I, an over- age- 40 woman, never married and never had children that I am not a human or am “less than” human.

Pro-Marriage, Pro-Life

I happen to be pro-life, so I don’t support “abortion on demand.” I’m willing to bet that guys like Al Mohler, who are so insanely consumed with cramming marriage down everyone’s throats, is probably pro-life too.

Mohler would probably disagree with pro-choice liberals who dismiss abortion because the growing baby in the woman is “just a clump of tissue” or “just a clump of cells.”

Writing off a developing baby in utero as “just a clump of tissue cells” (which supposedly makes it okay in the minds of pro-choicers to snuff out the forming life) dehumanizes the growing baby, so I would think Mohler and other marriage- promoting conservatives would know better than to dehumanize people on some other basis, in his case, being a person’s marital or parental status.

(Side note: you will learn in a human anatomy and physiology course that all life forms, including human adults, are “clumps of cells.”

We are all, regardless of age, constructed of atoms that form molecules that in turn form together to produce various tissue cells, which in turn form organs and then organ systems.

A 50 year old adult man or woman is therefore a “clump of cells.”

A 30, 40, or 70 year old you is every bit as much a “clump of cells” as is a three week old embryo, so I wish pro-choicers would stop using this argument that abortion is okay because a three week old in utero is “just a group of cells.”)

It’s Al Mohler and guys like him who are teaching this incredibly condescending, insulting garbage, but they think they are doing a good thing by promoting such views.

Conservative Christians and secular social conservatives are like a lot of liberals these days in some matters; they think the end justifies the means.

So, in other words, if promoting parenthood and marriage, as they enjoy doing, means insulting single adults or degrading the childless and childfree in the process, they are fine doing that.

However, it is disgusting, and again, I am surprised (and baffled) that Mohler did not receive far more fall-out from this than he did.

(this post had been edited to add additional commentary and/or links)

Related Posts, Off Site: 

(Link): Al Mohler Objectified Women As Usual, But This Time He Faced Backlash – via Patheos

(Link): Dr. Albert Mohler tweets: “. . . to be human is to be a parent.” Oh, really?? – via Spiritual Sounding Board

(Link): SBC leader sparks Twitterstorm by equating ‘being human’ with procreation

(Link): Southern Baptist Leader Criticized for Saying You Must Have Kids “To Be Human”

(Link): Southern Baptist Leader Claims You Must Have Children ‘To Be Human’

(Link):  Church Leader Slammed For Suggesting You Can’t Be ‘Human’ If You Don’t Have Kids

Related Posts:

(Link): Pro-Life, Christian Sites that Flirt With Denigrating Singleness and Childlessness In Their Quest to Argue Against Abortion / Re Eric Metaxas etc

(Link): Matt Walsh Again Insults Single, Childless Woman For Being Single, Childless and Enjoying Her Life

(Link): The Cruelty of Natalism – “A student asked if infertility is nature’s way of saying we have no value” – by A. Maier

(Link): When Marriage and Motherhood Become Idols by J. Oshman

(Link): A Woman’s Fertility is Her Own Business, not Everyone Else’s by L. Bates

(Link): Celebrity Says She Married Briefly Years Ago Because She Was Drunk and Bored – Yet Conservatives Berate Other Women for Having Good Reasons For Being Single Over 25

(Link): Mom Allegedly Killed Her Two Kids After Judge Ordered Them to Spend Christmas With Their Father

(Link): Matt Walsh’s Hypocrisy Vis a Vis the Anti Feminism Pearl Davis, Marriage, and Personal Experience – He Also Keeps Maintaining an Un-Biblical Position on Marriage

(Link): Conservative Motherhood Idolaters Once Again Upset Over People Finding Mother’s Day Painful, Re: Companies Allowing People to Opt Out of Mother’s Day Ads Has Them Incensed

(Link): Police: 150 Starving Cats Discovered in NY House Where Presumably ~Married Couple~ is Found Dead – (Time To Stop With the “Single Cat Lady Will Die Alone But For the Cats” Sexist Trope, Thanks)

(Link): Dear Prudence: “Help! My Sister Thinks I Should Give Up a Promotion to Continue Being Her Free Babysitter.”

(Link): Federalist Magazine Staff Annoyed that Other Outlets Publish the Down Side of Motherhood and Are Requesting Sunny Motherhood Propaganda Pieces – As If Conservatives Haven’t Pushed for Motherhood Enough? The Mind Boggles

(Link): Married South Dakota Couple (who are also Parents) Die of Cancer Hours Apart on the Same Day – Marriage Doesn’t Guarantee Happiness, Great Health

(Link): Critique of Federalist Editorial “There Is One Pro-Women Camp In American Politics, And It’s The Right by Elle Reynolds” – Do Federalist Magazine Members Realize There Are Single, Childless Conservative Women?

(Link): The Gross, Shaming Natalism Propaganda on Gab Platform by Its Rude Members, Including By Roman Catholics and Other Conservatives

(Link): Billboards by Leftists Imploring that Everyone Should Stop Having Kids Start Popping Up

(Link): Dad of Five Girls ‘Sliced Open Pregnant Wife’s Stomach to Check Baby’s Gender as he “Desperately Wanted Son”‘

(Link): Authors at The Federalist Keep Bashing Singleness in the Service of Promoting Marriage – Which Is Not Okay

(Link): Southern Baptists Pushing Early Marriage, Baby Making – Iranians Pushing Mandatory Motherhood – When Christians Sound Like Muslims

(Link): ‘It’s a break from the kids’: Why parents cheat more than childless couples

(Link):  More Anti-Singleness Bias From Southern Baptist Al Mohler – Despite the Bible Says It Is Better Not To Marry

(Link): Why Are So Many Single Women Leaving the Church? by K. Gaddini

(Link): Thirty Year Old Woman Kills Herself Due to Being Single and Childless – Churches contribute to this by either Ignoring adult singles or shaming them for being single and childless

(Link):  God’s Babies: Natalism and Bible Interpretation in Modern America 

(Link): Is The Church Failing Childless Women? by Diane Paddison

(Link): I’m 45, Single And Childless. No, There’s Nothing ‘Wrong’ With Me. by M Notkin

(Link): I’m Childless, Not Child-Incompetent (editorial by G. Dalfonzo) – The Christian Tendency to Worship Family, Motherhood, and Children

(Link): Christian Patriarchy Group: God Demands You Marry and Have Babies to Defeat Paganism and Satan. Singles and the Childless Worthless (in this worldview).

(Link):  The Isolating Power of Family-Centered Language (How churches exclude singles and the childless) by E A Dause

(Link): Unmarried and Childless Women Are the Happiest, Happiness Expert Claims

(Link):   Baby Making Fixation at Christianity Today Magazine Online – Shaming Women For Not Procreating, or For Delaying Motherhood, or For Limiting the Number of Children

(Link): Why I Have Zero Regrets About My Childless Life by C. Zacharek

(Link): Inside the Growing Movement of Women Who Wish They’d Never Had Kids by S. Treleaven

(Link): Single Adults – Why They Stay and Why They Stray From Church – Book Excerpts

(Link):  Getting Married Is Not an Accomplishment by N. Brooke

(Link): Matt Walsh V. Marriage Idolaters Such as Bradford Wilcox and Mark Regnerus

(Link):  Are Marriage and Family A Woman’s Highest Calling? by Marcia Wolf – and other links that address the Christian fallacy that a woman’s most godly or only proper role is as wife and mother

(Link): Baby Making Fixation at Christianity Today Magazine Online – Shaming Women For Not Procreating, or For Delaying Motherhood, or For Limiting the Number of Children

(Link): What Two Religions Tell Us About the Modern Dating Crisis (from TIME) (ie, Why Are Conservative Religious Women Not Marrying Even Though They Want to Be Married. Hint: It’s a Demographics Issue)

(Link): It’s Not Your Imagination, Single Women: There Literally Aren’t Enough Men Out There – Re: Man Shortage – Follow Up Interview 

(Link): “I’m Not Attracted to My Husband Anymore” – Christian advice column. I guess Christian married sex isn’t all it’s said to be by Christians 

(Link): Consider The Source: Christians Who Give Singles Dating Advice Also Regularly Coach Wives to Stay in Abusive Marriages

(Link):  Celibate Christian Woman Asks Christian Host (Pat Robertson) Why God Will Not Send Her a Husband

(Link):  Getting Married Is Not an Accomplishment by N. Brooke

(Link):   Single Adult Christian Pressured Into Marriage by Her Church – And Regrets It

(Link): The Nauseating Push by Evangelicals for Early Marriage

(Link): A Case Against Early Marriage by Ashley Moore (editorial)

(Link): Some Adult Singles Have No Choice But to Delay Marriage Because They Are Too Busy Acting As Caretakers to Elderly Family

(Link):  Do Married Couples Slight Their Family Members as Well as Their Friends? / “Greedy Marriages”

(Link): Fewer People Are Getting Married – And That’s A Good Thing by J. Wright

(Link): Marriage Has Become a Trophy by A. Cherlin

(Link):  Want To But Can’t – The One Christian Demographic Being Continually Ignored by Christians Re: Marriage

(Link): Church Is a Family, Not an Event by K. Kandiah

(Link):   Why We Thought Marriage Made Us Healthier, and Why We Were Wrong by Bella DePaulo

(Link):  What If Marriage Is Overrated? – A social psychologist has been chipping away at many claims about marriage changing one’s life for the better

(Link): Typical Incorrect Conservative Christian Assumption: If you want marriage bad enough, Mr. Right will magically appear

(Link): Single People Aren’t Problems to Be Fixed or Threats to Be Neutralized By Ella Hickey

(Link):  Many Single People are Quite Happy that Way Researchers Discover (2015 study)

(Link):   Top Eight Reasons Not To Marry by Bella DePaulo

(Link): Myths About Never Married Adults Over Age 40

(Link): The Stupid Advice We Give To Single Women Over 40 (from the Current Conscience Blog)

(Link): Why Are So Many Professional Millennial Women Unable To Find Dateable Men?

(Link): Over 10 Million Men of Prime Working Age Are Unemployed in the US and Experts Think It’s Causing Declining Marriage Rates

(Link): The best age to marry is when you meet the right person – editorial responding to study that says if you marry past 30 your marriage is doomed

(Link): Series: Married People Aren’t More Virtuous Than Singles 

(Link): Widower to Advice Columnist Talks about Being Stereotyped by Married Couples or Ignored by Other Marrieds Since His Wife has Died

(Link): Widows and Childless and Childfree Have Better Well Being Than Married Couples and Parents says new study

(Link): Bride Battling Cancer Dies 18 Hours After Exchanging Vows

(Link): Christian Couple Dies in Helicopter Crash Hours After ‘Fairytale’ Wedding

(Link):  Craigslist confessional: I’m in my 40s, never married, and a virgin—but I’m happy by Abigail

(Link): It’s Not Your Imagination, Single Women: There Literally Aren’t Enough Men Out There – Re: Man Shortage – Follow Up Interview 

(Link):   Single Adult Christian Pressured Into Marriage by Her Church – And Regrets It

(Link): Parents Who Regret Having Children Speak Honestly About Why It Was A Huge Mistake

(Link): The Irrelevancy To Single or Childless or Childfree Christian Women of Biblical Gender Complementarian Roles / Biblical Womanhood Teachings

(Link):  No Christians and Churches Do Not Idolize Virginity and Sexual Purity – Nor Do They Support Adult Singleness – Christians Attack and Criticize Virginity Sexual Purity Celibacy / Virginity Sexual Purity Not An Idol

(Link):  Christianity Should Be Able To Work Regardless of Culture, Childed or Marital Status / Article: Unlike in the 1950s, there is no ‘typical’ U.S. family today by B. Shulte

(Link):  Extremist Muslims Like Family Values Too – Muslims are joining ISIS / ISIL (extremist Islamic group) because they believe it supports “Family Values” – When Christianity and Islam sound alike

(Link): How Christians Have Failed on Teaching Maturity and Morality Vis A Vis Marriage / Parenthood – Used as Markers of Maturity Or Assumed to be Sanctifiers

(Link): Pro-Life, Yet Anti-Celibacy, Anti-Childless Christian Site Tweets Story about Mother Who Slit New Born Infant Son’s Throat to Save Her Sex Life (Christians equating single or childless / childfree women to women who murder their babies)

(Link): You Know Marriage Has Been Made an Idol by Christians When… (Christian guy asks: ‘do you need to be married to get into heaven’)

(Link): Mormons and Christians Make Family, Marriage, Having Children Into Idols

(Link): Editorial by H. Betts: Why would I breed? life is better without kids

(Link): Population Decline and Bay-bee Obsession – Patriarchy, Quiverfull, Traditional Family, Christian Gender Complementarian Nuts

(Link): Woman Pleads Guilty to Torturing Mentally Handicapped Son (she burned his penis and other body parts, committed other torture) – Motherhood Does Not Make Women More Godly Loving or Responsible

(Link): The Deification of Family and Marriage (re: Kyle Idleman book)

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