Posted on 03/18/2009 5:53:35 PM PDT by Hawk720
Watching Michelle Duggar manage her Herculean tasks is addictive. We like to marvel at the logistics of life in oversized reality-TV families like the Duggars or the participants of the series "Kids By the Dozen" (also on TLC), which features families with at least 12 children each. How do they do all that laundry every week? Afford all those gallons of milk or cope with a joint birthday party for 13?
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
gender equality is contrary to God’s law?
Methinks this reporter is letting his antiChristian bias enter his reporting.
I know some quiverfull folks, they certainly consider the sexes equal. And they act like it, also.
When you run into hardened libs they just assume things about Christians that arent so, like the writer I read the other day who said that Christians were against embryonic stem cell research because they felt people should really be praying for healing.
Well, I know a quiverfull family too. They freak me out and I’m a VERY conservative christian.
Why do they freak you out?
I've seen some quiverfull families' webbpages and they have freaked me out as well. On the other hand, years ago, I used to attend a church that was comprised mainly of quiverfull families, and most of these families were really great people.
I know several such families/ Only one has 12. so far. other families have 7 and 9. None of them are Quiverful. And they all support their own kids though they do have extensive family support in extended families.
Amazing how our permissive society becomes super-judgmental about these folks' lifestyle choices.
Last time I checked, reproduction was a natural thing...not contrary to how the machinery works, if you will.
Also, last time I checked, each child is a priceless, unique human being, of infinite worth. Is it strange that a woman might find satisfaction working at home for her husband and children?
Knew one such family and they ran like a machine. I asked the mom HOW she did it. One child is in charge of another, making sure they get dressed, etc. The kids did not have anything with sugar in it and she baked her own bread. She had a plaque as you walked in her home which read in very large letters: PATIENCE.
Motherhood in any case seems extreme and Herculean to me. I can’t imagine having to go through pregnancy, but then I’m a guy so that’s me. ;-)
I know several. Some are just regular folks, albeit a few different ideas than I have, and some are definitely, shall we say, QUITE “different”.
The idea of having a large family and leaving it up to God is not something I have difficulty with. But some of them go a little farther, have some regimented clothes, don’t cut the girls hair, etc. Some believe only in home churches, and owning your own business and having no debt.
Not bad ideas, but I have problems when it starts to smack of religious requirements, it’s almost like a works thing. There is a homeschooling organization known as ATIA (Bill Gothard) that has lots of quiverful families. I do like some of their teachings, but some of them I really can’t agree with. The Duggars are classic ATIA.
All that said, a child raised on ATIA certainly can’t turn out any worse than what they are teaching in the public schools nowadays. If they grow up a tad regimented, well when the PS blows it the kids end up disasters.
Viewing?
Some methods of contraception work by inducing abortions, like the IUD and sometimes the pill.
Ping
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.