Kathryn Joyce writes:
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.
Full Story: Newsweek: Extreme Motherhood
Joyce has also written a book on the subject.
(via Religion News)
Have all the kids you want, you sick fucks. But always remember:
See Also:
March 9, 2010 at 12:21 am
Are Jim Bob and Michell Duggar Quiverfull? YES! Checkout this fantastic post!
http://nolongerquivering.com/2010/03/08/nlq-faq-are-jim-bob-michelle-duggar-quiverful
March 9, 2010 at 8:53 pm
You know, since so much of this argument revolves around the idea of abrogating the will of God, people should take the argument to its logical conclusion. If family planning is wrong because it substitutes personal choice for the will of God, then it just seems logical that people sin whenever they feel like having sex, but don’t. That missed opportunity for sex is a child that could have been born, which is just as much of a sin as contraception or abortion. So…we should have sex at every conceivable* opportunity, unless it is actually a conscious decision, in which case it is a sin.
*Sorry.
June 20, 2012 at 11:20 am
When people follow what other people say is godly might not be God’s plan for them. Each person who accepts Jesus as their savior forms a personal bond with God and then spends a lifetime trying to discern God’s plan for their lives.
. When I see everyone following the exact same path I get a little suspicious. Even though Christians are supposed to be moral and love others, everyone having 25 kids may not be exactly God’s plan for your life. But many quiverful followers say to do different is not being obedient to God.
But in the 1950’s, missionaries had few children and left them in the care of others while they went to missionary fields. Were those missionaries disobeying God by not having umteen kids then leaving them for someone else to raise? Back in that day, it was considered truly holy to leave your children to go into dangersous places to spread the message. What has changed?
When someone says that something they do as a Christian is God’s ultimate truth, then everyone else who does not follow that exact thing is not obeying God, then that person needs to reread the bible and find out what God really wants for their lives. God does not make cookie cutter christians!