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Regarding Rob Green's letter to the editor, "Surcharge on extra kids," Green is so right to promulgate the common sense fairness of a surcharge on families with more than three children. He believes a surcharge is a pipe dream, however, because so many churches have held as a core tenet, "be fruitful and multiply." I think he is wrong about it being a pipe dream for two reasons:

1 • We have accepted in our society adding taxes to things like alcohol and cigarettes when we recognize that there is a health issue involved, and an added tax can reduce usage while increasing health. We have come close to adopting a "cap and trade" and "carbon tax" for the same reason — reducing usage while increasing the health of the planet. We have been slow on the latter because of fear of loss of jobs and rising costs. Hopefully, examples like British Columbia, which instituted a carbon tax eight years ago, help: Their economy has thrived, while pollution has decreased.

2 • More importantly, our churches may in fact change. In the early 19th century, churches were still pro-slavery. There was a sea change from the early to the mid-19th century where our churches became our strongest forces for abolishing slavery. I can see something similar happening now. I can see our churches refining their "pro-life" definition to include smaller families.

It is predicted that by the end of this century, something between 200 million and one billion people will be trying to leave Africa as refugees from drought and famine. There is no way they are going to be successful. If people are desperate enough to leave Africa on that massive a scale, it can only mean starvation and death for millions of people. I believe as churches come to recognize the reality of this, they will realize that being "pro-life" is inconsistent with large families and they will change their position, just as they did, regarding slavery more than a century ago.

Michael A. Kalm

Salt Lake City