From NPR:
The movement, called Quiverfull, is based on Psalm 127, which says, "Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one's youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them."
Those in the Quiverfull movement shun birth control, believing that God will give them the right number of children. It turns out, that's a lot of kids.
[...]
"I think, help! Imagine if we had had more of these children!" Campbell says, adding, "My greatest impact is through my children. The more children I have, the more ability I have to impact the world for God."
A Christian God, that is. Campbell says if believers don't starting reproducing in large numbers, biblical Christianity will lose its voice.
"We look across the Islamic world and we see that they are outnumbering us in their family size, and they are in many places and many countries taking over those nations, without a jihad, just by multiplication," Campbell says.
Still, Quiverfull is a small group, probably 10,000 fast-growing families, mainly in the Midwest and South. But they have large ambitions, says Kathryn Joyce, who has written about the movement in her book Quiverfull: Inside The Christian Patriarchy Movement.
"They speak about, 'If everyone starts having eight children or 12 children, imagine in three generations what we'll be able to do,' " Joyce says. " 'We'll be able to take over both halls of Congress, we'll be able to reclaim sinful cities like San Francisco for the faithful, and we'll be able to wage very effective massive boycotts against companies that are going against God's will.' "
Aside from the religious arguments, I dare you readers to read this from USAToday and then try and tell me why this is not a good idea.
1 comment:
My parents have 11 children. That is because they were *not* quiverfull. Being "quiverfull" means having as many children as possible. For healthy American women who marry in their late teens or early 20s (a reasonable expectation for those who believe that it is wrong to have sex prior to marriage) that can easily be 15-20 children.
It is not a good idea because it is bad for the children. There is a world of difference between having five children and having fifteen children (namely, ten children). If you have five children it is reasonably possible that you can actually spend time parenting them as individuals, loving them, and raising them as healthy persons capable of interacting well in society (and thus positively transforming culture).
That becomes inestimably difficult when you have 15 children. There is simply no way to parent them all yourself, and you must turn the parenting of the younger children over to the older children, effectively making it so that you are fully parenting none of the children.
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