Because I have some new readers, I thought I\u2019d take a moment to explain what Quiverfull and Christian Patriarchy are, since I throw these terms around from time to time. This post you get Quiverfull; you\u2019ll get Christian Patriarchy next.<\/p>\n
Quiverfull: The Basics<\/strong><\/p>\n The Quiverfull movement takes its name from this verse:<\/p>\n Psalm 127:3-5 \u2013\u00a0Children are a heritage from the LORD,\u00a0offspring a reward from him.\u00a0Like arrows in the hands of a warrior\u00a0are children born in one\u2019s youth.\u00a0Blessed is the man\u00a0whose quiver is full of them.\u00a0<\/strong>They will not be put to shame\u00a0when they contend with their opponents in court.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n First is the idea that children are a blessing and always something to be welcomed. The more children a man has, the more blessed he is. Children should never been seen as a burden, but always welcomed with open arms.<\/p>\n Second is the whole arrow part. What do you do with arrows? You shoot them at your prey. The Quiverfull movement holds that these arrows, or children, are to be shot out into the world to win converts and make the world more Christian.<\/p>\n So, have many children because they are a blessing, and because you can shoot them out into the world to influence it for Christ.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Military Rhetoric<\/strong><\/p>\n Now there\u2019s quite a bit of military rhetoric involved here. Don\u2019t let you throw that off. The whole \u201carmy for Christ\u201d thing isn\u2019t literal. The Quiverfull movement isn\u2019t arming its children or sending them to\u00a0jihad\u00a0camps. It\u2019s called a\u00a0metaphor.<\/p>\n As an example, Prominent Christian homeschool leader and Quiverfull advocate Michael Farris likes to tell homeschool parents<\/a> that they are the \u201cMoses generation,\u201d taking their children out of \u201cEgypt\u201d and training them up in \u201cthe wilderness,\u201d and that their children will be the \u201cJoshua generation,\u201d who will go out and conquer the land of Canaan. (Or as he also phrases it, \u201cretake America for Christ.\u201d)<\/p>\n Now Farris doesn\u2019t mean these children will retake America for Christ with guns and tanks. What he means is that they will retake it for Christ by winning converts and influencing the politics, law, education, and culture of our nation. And yes, there is dominionist influence at work here.<\/p>\n Ideological Uniformity<\/strong><\/p>\n It should be obvious that implicit in all of this is the idea that Quiverfull children will share their parents\u2019 beliefs, ideas, and values. After all, what good would it be to have arrows that go astray when you shoot them? Part of this metaphor is the idea that arrows are shaped carefully, whittled to the perfect size and balanced just so \u2013 and that parents are to do the same with children. If a child is raised properly, the Quiverfull movement holds, that child will become the ideological and lifestyle clone of his or her parents.<\/p>\n It should be obvious that this creates problems for children in Quiverfull families. It\u2019s not just young people like me growing up in Quiverfull homes feeling stifled by the expectations of conformity who have noticed that there\u2019s a problem. There are articles by Quiverfull leaders who talk about the problems of children \u201cjumping ship<\/a>\u201d or children who \u201cwent wrong<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0Of course, their solution is not to change their ideology, but to try different tactics to shape their children.<\/p>\n Birth Control<\/strong><\/p>\n There\u2019s one more thing to be mentioned, and that\u2019s birth control. Hardcore Quiverfull families reject birth control entirely, believing that it subverts God\u2019s plan for the family. They believe that if they follow God and go without birth control entirely, God will provide for them. God controls the womb, after all, and going without birth control allows God<\/em> to choose a family\u2019s size and timing.<\/p>\n But a family doesn\u2019t have to go all the way and reject birth control to be influenced by Quiverfull ideas. There are lots of families who, influenced by these ideas, have much higher than average numbers of children and raise them to be \u201carrows shot out into the world\u201d even as they use birth control to space the children out a little bit or to call it quits when they feel they can\u2019t handle any more.<\/p>\n Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n When I speak of the \u201cQuiverfull movement\u201d I really mean all of those who are influenced by Quiverfull ideas, not simply those who go all the way and reject birth control entirely. For me, the idea of raising children to be arrows shot into the world is a more important part of Quiverfull than is a complete rejection of birth control.<\/p>\n When people look at families like the Duggars, all they see is the \u201cwe don\u2019t use birth control\u201d and \u201cwe think every child is a blessing\u201d part. Would that that were all. It\u2019s the idea of raising up children to be a metaphorical army for Christ, miming their parents\u2019 beliefs and lifestyle while winning converts and influencing America\u2019s political and legal systems and its culture, that is more problematic.<\/p>\n Note: Remember that most Christians think this stuff is loony.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Because I have some new readers, I thought I\u2019d take a moment to explain what Quiverfull and Christian Patriarchy are, since I throw these terms around from time to time. This post you get Quiverfull; you\u2019ll get Christian Patriarchy next. Quiverfull: The Basics The Quiverfull movement takes its name from this verse: Psalm 127:3-5 \u2013\u00a0Children […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,11,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","category-politics","category-quiverfull"],"yoast_head":"\n