Understanding Quiverfull, antifeminist, conservative Christian movement motivates the Duggars

[RamboLiberal]

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But there's one big omission from the on-screen portrayal of many of these families: their motivation. Though the Duggars do describe themselves as conservative Christians, in reality, they follow a belief system that goes far beyond "Cheaper by the Dozen" high jinks. It is a pro-life-purist lifestyle known as Quiverfull, where women forgo all birth-control options, viewing contraception as a form of abortion and considering even natural family planning an attempt to control a realm—fertility—that should be entrusted to divine providence.

At the heart of this reality-show depiction of "extreme motherhood" is a growing conservative Christian emphasis on the importance of women submitting to their husbands and fathers, an antifeminist backlash that holds that gender equality is contrary to God's law and that women's highest calling is as wives and "prolific" mothers.

Mary Pride, an early homeschooling leader whose 1985 book "The Way Home: Beyond Feminism, Back to Reality" is a founding text of Quiverfull, convinced many readers that regulating one's fertility is a slippery slope. "Family planning is the mother of abortion," she writes. "A generation had to be indoctrinated in the ideal of planning children around personal convenience before abortion could be popular." Instead, Pride and her peers argue, Christians should leave family planning in God's hands, and become "maternal missionaries": birthing as many children as He gives them as both a demonstration of radical faith and obedience, as well as a plan to effect Christian revival in the culture through demographic means—that is, by having more children than their political opponents.

Quiverfull advocates see their lifestyle, and their abundant progeny, as a living denunciation of what they call "the contraceptive mentality": demonstrating their commitment to end abortion by accepting all children as "unqualified blessings" from God. They often underscore the point by referring to their children as "blessings," as in their "eight"—or 10, or 12—"blessings at home": language that has spilled over into the mainstream among families that do not follow the Quiverfull conviction, such as the Gosselins (of TLC's "Jon and Kate Plus Eight"), Suleman and even former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. It's this ideological grounding, tying the Quiverfull conviction to growing anticontraception efforts among abortion opponents worldwide, that makes Quiverfull arguments relevant far beyond the movement's small but growing numbers. (As a movement, it likely numbers in the tens of thousands, though hard numbers are not available.)

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Quiverfull advocates Rick and Jan Hess, authors of 1990's "A Full Quiver: Family Planning and the Lordship of Christ," envision the worldly gains such a method could bring, if more Christians began producing "full quivers" of "arrows for the war": control of both houses of Congress, the "reclamation" of sinful cities like San Francisco and massive boycotts of companies that do not comply with conservative Christian mores. "If the body of Christ had been reproducing as we were designed to do," the Hesses write, "we would not be in the mess we are today." Nancy Campbell, author of another movement book from 2003 called "Be Fruitful and Multiply," exhorts Christian women to do just that with promises of spiritual glory. "Oh what a vision," she writes, "to invade the earth with mighty sons and daughters who have been trained and prepared for God's divine purposes."

http://www.newsweek.com/id/189763

This bunch & their beliefs gives me the chills. I wish TLC wouldn't glamorize them.

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Yes, they are chilling, but just think that it will be those extreme masses of people who will have

to fight and kill each other for water and food when the Earth is depleted because of their numbers.

[monmouth]

2. And, sorry to say, the Catholic Church (especially the Pope) are not

far behind this thinking....

[RamboLiberal]

3. A lot of Catholics at least don't follow his nonsense

Most Catholic women except for the real fundies use birth control.

[monmouth]

9. Yes they do and glad to say theyoung women I know think this Pope is outrageous....n/t

[Goblinmonger]

11. And, according to the teachings of the church they belong to, they

will end up in hell for committing that mortal sin.

[Javaman]

4. Man this never gets old...LOL

Javaman (1000+ posts) Tue Jun-26-07 04:26 PM

31. This just in...
Upper Volta (ap)-

Woman gives birth to entire nation. Yesterday, Mrs. Matilda Phlapswitch gave birth to the nation of Swankenstien after giving birth to an unprecedented number of babies.

Last count as of 10 PM last night was 20 million. The mother is said to be doing fine but still doesn't believe in birth control.

She was quoted as saying, "it's god will for me to be birthin' a nation".

medical scientists are still at a loss to explain the massive birth. Dr. P.F. Pealy of the New College of Medicine in the new capital of Phlipsberga in Swankenstein said, "well, we knew she was getting big when we had to use a military heavy lift helicopter to transport her to the hospital.

Mother and nation are reported doing find. She was last seen breast feeding the children via a mass cow herd milking device.

[Warpy]

5. Growing up in one of those families looks like fun unless you did it

Expect the quivers to be remarkably empty as the generations proceed.

[foxfeet]

6. I take comfort in the fact that some of their little "blessings" will be gay,

if we can just protect those kids from their own families.

[RamboLiberal]

7. Guess we could say some won't be "straight arrows" n/t

[foxfeet]

8. And that will REALLY make their parents quiver. . .

[Kalyke]

10. So - when she dies in childbirth or has a hernia or herniated uterus

Are they going to show that, too?

[juno jones]

12. Hmm, let's see.

The most recent historical examples of this phenomenon of glamourizing unchecked motherhood: Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia.

The Holder of the Guiness Record for most births (IIRC, this was from an older edition) was a Russian woman who managed something like 50-or-so before the clown car ran out.

I guess it will be actually 'fascism yet' when they start giving out medals. IMO this is a movement of a very small bunch of very white people who are uptight about other things as well. Does that code-word "Nike" perhaps extend non-acknowledgement to people outside the female gender? Or are there other code words for that?

We gotta keep an eye on these freaks, and for gods, sake, no more TV shows.