The Russell Moore Show Karen Swallow Prior on Birds, Bees, and Babies
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Apr 22, 2026 
Karen Swallow Prior, writer and author known for work on vocation and cultural theology, reflects on infertility as a spiritual and communal reality. She discusses how churches often avoid the topic, reframing fruitfulness beyond biology, pastoral care for loss, ethical questions around reproductive technology, and practical ways communities can bear burdens together.
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Why The Church Finds Infertility So Hard To Discuss
- The church struggles to talk about infertility because it departs from the creational norm and involves intimate, vulnerable issues.
- Karen Swallow Prior points to sex, personal vulnerability, and social expectations as barriers to open conversation in congregations.
How Childlessness Redirected Her Calling
- Prior recounts marrying at 19 and believing children would come later, then recognizing later fruitfulness when biological options closed.
- She credits doors opened in career and mentoring that she couldn't have pursued had she been raising children.
Pray For Desires And For God To Shape Them
- Pray openly for your desires while also asking God to shape your desires toward His will.
- Prior models praying both for specific petitions (children, job) and for God to clarify His will and reorient your heart.
