GRITtv: Kathryn Joyce: The Quiverfull Movement
We may be living in what Kathryn Joyce calls a "pop cultural moment of preoccupation with large families." We have the Duggars, a family of 18 children who quote Psalm 127:3 on their website, "Children are a heritage of the Lord…," and the Gosselins of John and Kate Plus Eight, who seem to be just about everywhere right now. You can bet that there are probably plans for new shows and new series. But what about the ideology, philosophy, and teachings that shape the lives of families like the Duggars? It has received far less attention. After Nadya Suleman gave birth to octuplets Joyce, writing in RH Reality Check had this to say about the obsession with Suleman’s experience: "In terms of reproductive matters of national concern, one woman's idiosyncratic and likely tragic choices seem to pale beside a movement that insists on similarly large and labor-intensive broods of children for women and raises daughters to see this as the only blueprint for their lives. It says something about where we are as a country that the former isolated case attracts more concern than the existence of the latter as a growing movement." Joyce, the author of Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement, discusses the men and women behind the movement, its ideological foundations, and its cultural and political significance. She has written for Slate’s Double X, The Nation Magazine, Salon, Mother Jones and numerous other publications. You can see more of her work at Kathrynjoyce.com.
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In this case the girl I knew
In this case the girl I knew ate rat poison with some prescription drugs. Did the trick. She had her handgun, that she kept in the nightstand beside her bed, ready, but the rat poison worked great -- no gun needed. If a person wants to kill anything bad enough, they will. It doesn't matter if they have a gun or not. People have been killing themselves alot longer than guns have been around.
Actually, it's the feminists doing the brainwashing.
Nadia Suleman (aka "octomom") is the epitome of what can happen when a woman "takes control of her fertility!"--and yet you put her in the same category as Quiverful Christians who welcome whatever number God gives . . . within marriage . . . the natural way (which is generally one at a time, thank God)????! Let me spell this out: there is an enormous distinction between a desparate single woman recklessly abusing her organs of fertility to produce such a massive passel through artificial methods, knowingly depriving them of a father out of wedlock and hopelessly incapable of providing for them financially, versus a Quiverful Christian family welcoming into a marriage whatever number God might give according to the natural means He created (which He usually sends only one at a time, thank God)! The distinction exists in the very area of control. Whether the parents try to take control of their fertility themselves (resulting in unnatural situations), or whether the parents yield control to their loving, wise God. If the author can't see the distinction, then she is quite dim. If she chooses to ignore the distinction, then she is manipulative and dishonest.
Disingenuous Portrayal of these Christians' views!
My husband and I are Christians who recognize the truth of Psalm 128 and seek to live it out in our daily lives. We don't see ourselves as "members of a movement," we simply see ourselves as Christians seeking to live in obedience to God's Word in all areas of life, including fertility. We've been married 10 years. I'm 32. I'm expecting baby number 2. The statement that "7 children is almost on the low end for quiverfull families" is totally disingenuous. Never have my quiverfull peers expressed anything akin to the idea that we're all in some kind of great contest to see who can have the most babies. It's simply about one thing: accepting the sovereignty of God rather than trying to manipulate and control the number of children ourselves. God alone decides the final number we have once menopause arrives. That may be 2; that may be 20. I was the happy mother of an only child. After over 2 years of infertility, my broken heart finally had to come to terms with the possibility that perhaps God did not intend my quiver to contain as many children as I expected. Then we conceived number 2. Quite a large number of quiverfull Christians on the Quiverful Digest I receive have fewer than 5 (while they welcome more if God will give more). We quiverful Christians know it's not about the numbers at all. It's about the simple fact that children are a blessing, and (if wisely raised to be well-behaved) not a burden--each and every last one of them. But feminism encourages women to see their children as a burden, and the gift of fertility as something to push away. How many women my age now regret the years they squandered their fertility? I am one. I was raised by a feminist. I felt the sting of knowing this is how my full-time working mother saw me and my sister. Burdens. Quite simply, that's just not taught in the Bible. Nor is it compassionate. Nor does it foster strength in the next generation. Can a person ever have too many blessings?
14 kids and no show
My grandmother had 14 kids and they didn't even make a comercial out of her life.
Guns and Suicide
I am not with National Firearm Advocates per se.
I am not conservative.
I am a with the progressive majority.
I am very liberal.
I have an extremely intimate knowledge of suicide amongst my peers.
I have experienced the suffering of loss of life through suicide of several classmates in high school as well as the loss of a cousin because of suicide.
I have attempted suicide.
Guns ARE NOT THE PROBLEM AT ALL.
The problem is with unconstitutional laws that deny rights to minors who are threatened with abandonment by parents, teachers, and other illiterate Majors who oppress childrens' citizenship through oppression and abuse.
The people I have known who killed themselves with guns did not do it through buying a gun. They shot themselves with their parents' guns.
The most empowering experience I ever experienced was buying ammo at 16 years of age and firing off rounds on books.
The suggestion of abolishment of the right to bear arms is unconstitutional.
Institute children's rights to citizenship and rights to inhabit their own home with ownership upon BIRTH.
On 99 percent of the issues I agree with your programming.
But in this regard your Gun Law thingy is shallow and dumb.
Please respond, I have much meaningful work underway within the government you should be more interested to publicize.
-Joel Njus
guns and suicide
I too have been touched by someone committing suicide. In this case the girl I knew ate rat poison with some prescription drugs. Did the trick. She had her handgun, that she kept in the nightstand beside her bed, ready, but the rat poison worked great -- no gun needed. If a person wants to kill anything bad enough, they will. It doesn't matter if they have a gun or not. People have been killing themselves alot longer than guns have been around. I think my guns must be defective. They havent killed anyone! I don't think I want to take them to church though as I don't beleive in hunting on Sunday.
You are an idiot I can tell.
You are an idiot I can tell. You sound troubled yourself.
idiot
A real idiot would tell someone who confesses to thinking of suicide an idiot. Such compassion from a liberal! What empathy we have here!
Choice Means More than Doing What's On _Your_ Political Agenda
So having children is evil. Having lots of children is abusive to the woman who chose to have them (changing your philosophy later in life is a consequence of choice). Rick Warren may not have a higher incidence of violence in his church but he encourages women to be beaten. Christianity is evil. We're not judgmental. The Duggers are evil and on the same level as the "octomom". Women who have children don't work and that's the only way to value their lives (look I'm a closet utilitarian Marxist!).
Did I sum up the hack job well?
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