Hannah’s Children BYU Forum
This is the Official JG Review of Catherine Pakaluk’s forum at BYU, as previewed by our very own John Mansfield.
Why Children Became Useless: Faith and the Future of the Family
Attendance: High. The Marriot Center felt full and had greater than average attendance for a forum.
Babies in Attendance: Low. We only saw 2.
The Bad: The first half of her talk didn’t hit the right note for the audience. It was too scholarly–not too deep, but just too focused on which of a number of competing abstract theories best explained the ongoing birth crisis, and it partook of the professorial vice of getting into quarrels with absent people. In this case, with people who believe the birth decline has structural causes. (I am one of them, I don’t think we are really ‘the richest and freest’ ever.)
The Good: Her biography and the quotes she read from her educated mothers of large families. The Spirit hit like a hammer.
I recommend the forum and strongly recommend the book.
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John Mansfield
October 29, 2025
That sounds like her book. It starts out slow with several short self-referential chapters laying out repeatedly from a dozen different angles what the book is about. I then reached Part II, and the writing started to be more about the topic instead of about writing the book. I guess Part I was an academic necessity. If after I finish reading I decide to share the book with others, I will advise that they skip Part I.