quiverfull

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.