Is the Future Bleak for the Elderly?

“A YOUNG man I used to be,” said King David. “I have also grown old.” (Psalm 37:25) In Bible times the old were an esteemed minority. If present trends continue, however, the old might soon be neither a minority nor esteemed.

In the United States alone, there are an estimated 26 million people over 65 years of age. By the year 2040 this number could almost triple! According to the magazine Asiaweek, some Asian nations “expect the numbers of their elderly to double in the coming decade.” The prospect of the old nearly outnumbering the young, however, does not bode well for the elderly. Already, an alarming number find themselves destitute and homeless. Others are being left to wither away in hospitals or nursing homes​—alone, unvisited, and uncared for. Shocking cases of neglect and abuse are reported even in countries where parents have customarily been revered.

Wrote G. M. Ssenkoloto for World Health magazine: “Traditionally in most African countries, and indeed in most of the Third World, every family looked after its old women. A woman who had no children to care for her was looked after by neighbours or by the village as a whole.” He reports, however: “Age-old values are changing. Adverse economic forces, the misallocation of resources, the yearning for material things, the struggle for self-esteem and status​—all these factors are overtaking the traditional positive values as regards support for the elderly.”

The words of the Bible writer Agur are thus proving true on a large scale: “There is a generation that calls down evil even upon its father and that does not bless even its mother.” (Proverbs 30:11) Yes, the elderly are being toppled from the position of honor they enjoyed in times past. Many view them as social liabilities rather than assets. For the most part, their prospects look bleak.

How, though, do true Christians view the aged? Do they retain the “traditional positive values” regarding them?