The Religious Roots of Terrorism - by Jan Brazill

If only…

Nowhere are these words of regret more distressing than in our current concern with terrorism. The dreadful event of 9/11, the bombings worldwide with increased security at home, even the airport searches that make air travel uncomfortable—all these could have been avoided, if only…

The tragedy of 9/11 in 2001 might never have happened had we heeded the warning of the United States Security Council in 1979 when they determined that world population growth seriously threatened the security of all nations, including our own. And had we pursued the recommendations of National Security Study Memorandum 200 (NSSM 200), to help developing nations around the world control their numbers. 

By the mid-1960s America had become increasingly aware of the world population problem. The invention of the contraceptive pill in 1960 stimulated broad public debate on birth control, as did the book, The Population Bomb, by Paul Ehrlich, and Garret Hardin’s “The Tragedy of the Commons.”

Even mainstream religious denominations recognized the problem. In 1965, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church urged “the government of the United States to be ready to assist countries who request help in the development of programs of voluntary planned parenthood as a practical and humane means of controlling fertility and population growth.” By 1971, it recognized that “the assumption that couples have the freedom to have as many children as they can support should be challenged. We can no longer justify bringing into existence as many children as we desire. Our corporate responsibility to each other prohibits this.” They wisely stated, “We who are motivated by the urgency of overpopulation . . . would preserve the species by responding in faith: Do not multiply – the earth is filled!”

President Richard Nixon had recognized this connection, and created the Rockefeller Commission which made over seventy recommendations, including birth control, to address the problem. When Rockefeller was asked later why no concrete program resulted, he responded: “The greatest difficulty has been the very active opposition by the Roman Catholic Church through its various agencies in the United States.”

After his reelection in 1974, President Nixon tried again, ordering a study by various government agencies on the “Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for U.S. Security and Overseas Interests.” Sadly, the results were stamped “classified” and buried. When population scientist Stephen D. Mumford acquired these documents in 1991, he saw that NSSM 200 had accurately predicted the effects of world population growth on the environment, living standards, and U.S. security interests. It had urged that measures to reduce fertility be started in the 1970s.

Had we done so, we would have a very different world today. Instead, President Nixon disavowed this report after the U.S. Catholic Bishops threatened him politically. Later, Catholic leaders successfully pressed President-elect Carter to de-emphasize federal support for family planning. They have grown even more powerful in the years since then and their opposition to contraception has successfully derailed most attempts to curb overpopulation. 

Now we live in a world where nearly half the world’s population — some 3 billion people — are entering their childbearing years. Overpopulation creates conditions of social unrest and instability in places already overburdened by poverty, disease, and natural resource depletion. Support for terrorism is rooted in such conditions.

Thus did one religion change the course of the world.

Published July 21, 2011 with the quotation below. 

Short of nuclear war itself, overpopulation is the gravest issue the world faces.  If we do not act, the problem will be solved by famine, riots, insurrection and war.      

Robert Strange McNamara, former World Bank President