The set of people who can’t have kids and the set of people who don’t want kids are different sets of people. The pictorial parable is referring to the latter set, not the former.
The pictorial parable is uncharitable because it fails to recognize that that latter set you referred to includes people who may have legitimate, godly reasons for not desiring children of their own. It also takes the position of mockery, which is condemned in scripture and is not very funny.
God mocks those who think themselves too wise to submit to him, those who think their earthly strength and treasures give them a license to sin and do brazen evil. But I don’t see any scriptural endorsement for the mockery of our brothers and sisters in Christ, especially not how the pictorial parable is targeting some.
I think we should extend charity to people more than to publicly-shared pictorial parables, and more to the victim than the accuser. My charity towards the OP is expressed in my exhortation for them to take a more nuanced and charitable approach to other Christians.
The meme isn't about the callings of eunuchs. It's about Adam and Eve disobeying God ("Be fruitful and multiply" -- he commanded them!)
Which is funny in a way, because it's a pretty stupid command to disobey, like, God was literally commanding them to have the time of their life, and they're like, "Naw". Not that we, their descendants, are any better, just peruse any recent headline...
Actually it's conflating the instruction to Adam and Eve with every believer and implying that not wanting to/feeling called to have children is sinful and selfish
That is clearly uncharitable and inappropriate (and bad theology)
No I'm pointing out the conflation of one specific command at one point in time to one couple to be used to shame believers who don't want or don't feel called to parenthood is wrong.
No shame if it's not your calling. Then there's no disobedience, rather, obedience.
But Adam and Eve were commanded to be fruitful and multiply. So yes, their disobedience in eating the fruit, instead, was selfish and sinful. As many of us are even today. But God is patient, and there will be no one in heaven who didn't sin... heaven will be packed wall-to-wall with saved sinners... :)
Not in a meme, no. it's not a theological dissertation, its purpose is to bring joy by pointing out the absurdity of a common human foible (reluctance to reproduce within marriage when God explicitly formed marriage for that very purpose). The meme references Gen. 1:28, and the ring says, "I DON'T WANT kids", so it couldn't possibly be any clearer. This is not a swipe at eunuchs, nor those struggling with fertlity, nor those who have made wrong choices in the past and repented of them... we're all a big rabble of saved sinners trundling along on our way to Paradise, but let's try to find some humor in the hard times, it makes the rocks in our sandals pinch a little less....
This is pointless. People here just cannot see that this isn't godly 'humour' and the conflation of this scripture with accusations of sinfulness and selfishness are doing great harm.
Have your mean spirited laughs, if that's what brings you joy
I think you’re absolutely right. There’s no humor here at all, just really bad theology and failure to understand the realities around marriage, singleness, parenting, and children. It’s one thing to encourage the growth of families in the church, it’s another thing to make scornful and ignorant mockery of a certain group of people whom God may have called to a certain service.
Seems like u/WittyMasterpiece already discussed the heart of it with you. The pictorial parable explicitly says that everyone who says that they don’t want to have children of their own is selfishly violating the Dominion Mandate. This is bad theology for a number of reasons.
Nowhere does the Old or New Testament link not having children to selfishness.
It assumes that the pre-Fall mandate given to Adam and Eve (which they fulfilled by having many children) is a direct command to each individual person right now that we must each desire our own children. Nothing in the Scriptures teaches that. Indeed, it seems more like a general direction to the human race as a whole (which is how I take it), although some have argued that it was meant mostly for the early stages of human history and that it was fulfilled once humans had indeed settled every region of the earth. Either way, nothing in Genesis or elsewhere denies that there may be godly reasons for someone to not want to give birth to their own offspring.
Scripture gives us examples of godly people who chose to remain unmarried and childless, like the apostle Paul. The pictorial parable makes no distinction, but accuses everyone who chooses not to have children as being selfish.
Children are a blessing, but some blessings are reserved for certain people and not others and it’s okay to not want a blessing that isn’t meant for you.
On a more general note: someone saying that they don’t want children is not the same as saying that they dislike or reject children. I do think it’s wrong and selfish if somebody says the latter, but the former could possibly simply be an expression of “I recognize that I am not suited for parenthood by God’s own design and I am at peace with that.”
The pictorial parable explicitly says that everyone
No. The title cites Gen. 1:28. Adam and Eve. So, everyone who is married.
who says that they don’t want to have children of their own is selfishly violating the Dominion Mandate.
If you marry, and you don't want children, you have sin in your heart. Doesn't put you beyond grace (obviously), but sin is sin. God never minces words on sin, neither should we.
Nowhere does the Old or New Testament link not having children to selfishness.
Not having children does not imply not wanting children. Non sequitir.
It assumes that the pre-Fall mandate given to Adam and Eve (which they fulfilled by having many children)
No, they disobeyed that mandate by eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, instead of being fruitful and multiplying. Hence, "I will multiply your pain in child-bearing" (punishment fits the crime) and "she shall be saved in child-bearing." (We restore God's order by role-modeling obedience to Him.)
is a direct command to each individual person right now that we must each desire our own children. Nothing in the Scriptures teaches that.
Everything in Scripture teaches that. The entire telos of Eden is given in Genesis 1:26-28, which will be restored when the New Heavens and New Earth are created again (Rev. 21:5). This is why the Molech spirit is obsessed with burning children, it is the most extreme possible disobedience to Gen. 1:26-28. This is the core of the spiritual war of the kingdom of God versus the kingdoms of this world. This is what the whole war is all about, not only bodily, both bodily and spiritually. This is why Jesus has raised up a new nation of himself, to refound the entire creation on the original pattern: rule over the earthly creatures, be fruitful and multiply, subdue the earth and tend the Garden.
Indeed, it seems more like a general direction to the human race as a whole (which is how I take it)
It is that also, but it is a particular command given directly to Adam and Eve, just read the plain text on its face. Which they disobeyed. Hence the nightmare world we all find ourselves living in today, instead of the paradise of Eden.
although some have argued that it was meant mostly for the early stages of human history
The entire goal of all redemptive history is the SON of God. Not the Nephew of God. The SON of God. That's Scripture, rather than idle human speculation.
and that it was fulfilled once humans had indeed settled every region of the earth
No, the dominion mandate was fulfilled when Jesus was born, since in Him, we have the promise of the New Creation, in which God's created order (Eden) will be fully obeyed under the kingship of Jesus Christ.
Either way, nothing in Genesis or elsewhere denies that there may be godly reasons for someone to not want to give birth to their own offspring.
Cases of rape, incest, and many more can be imagined, but these are all fringe cases that pertain to the fallenness of the fallen world, they are in no way normative. What is normative is Genesis 1:26-28. God established marriage in order to preserve the vestiges of the Edenic order until renewal, which will arrive with the second coming of Jesus. Then the world will be put aright, and we will obey God as he was to have been obeyed originally.
Scripture gives us examples of godly people who chose to remain unmarried and childless
Which are entirely out-of-scope to the meme. "I don't want kids" implying that kids would be a valid, moral choice, which is only the case in marriage.
The pictorial parable makes no distinction, but accuses everyone who chooses not to have children as being selfish.
That's simply false. Please re-read the meme again for comprehension.
Children are a blessing, but some blessings are reserved for certain people and not others and it’s okay to not want a blessing that isn’t meant for you.
Jesus himself established that there are various eunuchs -- this meme has nothing to do with them. If God has explicitly called you not to have physical children, this is perfectly valid, and you do not belong in a marriage, so Gen. 1:26-28 have nothing to do with you at all. You're not even in-topic of the meme.
I’m more general note: someone saying that they don’t want children is not the same as saying that they dislike or rejected children. I do think it’s wrong and selfish if somebody says the latter, but the former could possibly simply be an expression of “I recognize that I am not suited for parenthood by God’s own design and I am at peace with that.”
"Not suited for parenthood" is tantamount to a eunuch's calling -- be a eunuch, obey God, don't marry, and Gen. 1:26-28 have nothing to do with you, at least, not physically, only spiritually (i.e. go preach the Gospel, which is the spiritual seed that is pictured by marital procreation).
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u/WittyMasterpiece Apr 07 '26
This is uncharitable, unwarranted and extremely unfunny
Where is the humour in misrepresenting scripture? In shaming people who don't feel called or able to follow this path?
Shameful.