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Quiverfull Movement

01011010

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Morning Edition, March 25, 2009 · Among some conservative Christians, a movement is giving new meaning to the biblical mandate to "be fruitful and multiply."

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.

'We Actually Didn't Want Children'
While cooking a typical predawn breakfast in the Swanson household in Shelby, Mich., 10-year-old Lydia Swanson cracks a dozen eggs laid by the family chickens. Her mother, Kelly, fries 3 pounds of sausage from the family's own pig and toasts a 12-inch loaf of homemade bread.

If they didn't raise their own food, Kelly Swanson says, they'd spend $1,000 a month on groceries for her gaggle of growing children, including 15-year-old Josiah and 13-year-old Elisha. But in listing their ages, Kelly gets Elisha's age wrong.

"At least I remembered your name," she says.

Kelly can perhaps be forgiven the lapse. The 40-year-old mom has seven children; the youngest is 6 months. And she'd like to have more.

The Swansons subscribe to the Quiverfull movement.

"When we first got married, we actually didn't want children," Kelly's husband, Jeff Swanson, says.

But then the Swansons began to notice that the Bible was very high on big families. And Kelly says that she and Jeff decided that God knew how many children they could handle.

"We just started thinking, 'God is sovereign over life and death. God opens and closes the womb,' " Kelly says. "That's what his word says, so why we're trying to fiddle around and controlling ourselves, we need to stop doing that."

Eighteen years and seven children later, the Swansons live on Jeff's dairy farm salary of less than $50,000 a year. And they've gotten used to the comments from outsiders, such as, "Do you know what causes this?"
"That's always my favorite one when I'm pregnant," Kelly says. "And my husband has a lovely response. Of course we know what causes it — we practice all the time."

Their friends do, too. The average family at their evangelical church has 8.5 kids. They are children who the Swansons hope will spread the message of Christ.

'Womb Is A Powerful Weapon'
That's also the hope of Nancy Campbell, a leader of the Quiverfull movement and author of Be Fruitful and Multiply.

"The womb is such a powerful weapon; it's a weapon against the enemy," Campbell says.

Campbell has 35 grandchildren. She and her husband stopped at six kids, and it is her great regret.

"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.' "

No Regrets
In a suburb of Grand Rapids, Mich., Misty and Seth Huckstead, both 31, are straightening up the living room for a birthday party. No small task with six kids and one on the way. With such a large family, they get by with one car. They shop at thrift stores and occasionally rely on the local seminary's food bank.

Seth says it's difficult having so many kids, but he and Misty have no regrets.

They didn't always have this attitude, Seth says. When they were 23, already with four children, he had a vasectomy. But they searched the Bible and concluded that sterilization was an affront to God.

"He presents children as a blessing," Seth says. "And so we started to evaluate whether our decision was ethically right. And we came to regret our decision."

They turned to a ministry that raises money and finds doctors to reverse vasectomies at a bargain price. And their family grew. Misty says she'll have as many children as possible. She loves having babies and believes it's the proper role for women.

"It's not individual, it's not 'I'm a woman, hear me roar, I'm going to go take on the world,' " Misty says. "Family has always been the foundation of church and society. It's God's design; it's beautiful."

Moments later, another Quiverfull family drops by, and for a few moments, they entertain themselves as would a large family 100 years ago.

They sing Psalm 127 — a song that seems written just for them.
In Quiverfull Movement, Birth Control Is Shunned : NPR
 

Kalach

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'Womb Is A Powerful Weapon'

That's also the hope of Nancy Campbell, a leader of the Quiverfull movement and author of Be Fruitful and Multiply.

"The womb is such a powerful weapon; it's a weapon against the enemy," Campbell says.

Mao thought so too.

It's a pity there's the One Child Policy now. The Commies and the Christians could have a birth-off. Sort of like election night, you could have on-screen tallies on CNN:

"Woohoo! Mary in Cedar Rapids just popped out another one! In your face, red devils! Uh oh!--Yu Xiao Fang in Anhui just had twins! Unholy heathens! Believers: missionary position, right now, go, go, go! Make love, make war!"
 

01011010

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"Woohoo! Mary in Cedar Rapids just popped out another one! In your face, red devils! Uh oh!--Yu Xiao Fang in Anhui just had twins! Unholy heathens! Believers: missionary position, right now, go, go, go! Make love, make war!"

Nothing says old time religion like furthering a political agenda with pawns. I mean kids.
 

Owl

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I recently wrote an e-mail to my pastor explaining my choice not to marry or have kids--at the moment. I wrote: "The church is losing the intellectual war on all fronts. What we need now is intellectual Navy Seals, not forced conscripts for cannon fodder." (He was not happy. His response was in red.)

Notice, the article mentions how QuiverFull wants to take over politically (both halls) and economically (boycotts), but it says nothing about taking thoughts captive.

Alas.

"One of you shall chase a thousand, and two of you shall put ten thousand to flight."

This war has nothing to do with numbers, or how big your army is, or how much money you have--but this is exactly what most Christians focus on. "We'll love them into the kingdom. When that fails we'll overwhelm them with political and economic force!" If we focus on the psychological and the practical at the expense of the philosophical, is it any wonder that we're the tail of the culture?

What ever happened to loving God with all the mind? What ever happened to being able to give a reason for the hope that we have? What happened to demolishing arguments that are raised against the knowledge of God?

Children are a gift, but what are you teaching your children? How do you prepare them to engage with those who don't agree with them, who actively work against their vision of what is good? The goal is to beat our swords into plowshares, to not learn of war anymore. Can that ever be accomplished if the very weapons you use to fight the spiritual war are physical?

I could go on, but I'll spare y'all.
 

Kalach

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My Pop was fond of saying Christianity is an adult religion. He meant the act of faith at its heart is an adult choice. Children can do it without thinking, but it takes an adult to know what they've done.

Among other things, consider: "quiverfull movement"? Was no one thinking when they came up with that one?

Or are Christian orgasms sedate?

See, these guys, this movement, they're basically out there... climaxing. That's what they're saying. That's what the subliminal message is: yay, we're Christians and we're having children and... --wait for it--... it's a quiverfull movement! Be a Christian and shoot your load.


I can't help but see the hand of the Devil in this.
 

Virtual ghost

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I will probably come as commie in this post. Probably because I am a commie by US mainstream. But I don't consider myself to be one.



I am highly against baby booming.
Maybe they think that they are fulfiling God great plans. But I think that they are creating nothing more then cannon foder. Especially since they kid will probably never get better level of education.


If the God wanted to much childrend he would have placed 3 wombs into the stronger/larger female body.


Also I think that we need one child policy implemented on global level.
But even that will not be enough to prevent the global population growth right away. Because there will still be more birth then death. But with time the numbers will change.
So far, the China is the only one which has really managed to something about this. To some degree Europe had some succes as well with low birth rates.

I will stop here to see if there opinions about this.
 

ceecee

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This makes my head feel like exploding. There is absolutely no sensible basis in this movement. Having more children for the takeover of San Francisco? I don't see God anywhere near this idiocy.
 

Magic Poriferan

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I'm not going to lie, the very first sentence that came into my head was "kill them all".

Human race has more people than it needs already. Population needs to slow down. Now these people intend to have tons of kids, just because they think part of some book tells them too, even if they originally didn't want or plan for children. No good will come of this.
 

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I recently wrote an e-mail to my pastor explaining my choice not to marry or have kids--at the moment. I wrote: "The church is losing the intellectual war on all fronts. What we need now is intellectual Navy Seals, not forced conscripts for cannon fodder." (He was not happy. His response was in red.)

IMO, it's laughable that your pastor would imagine he has any say in whether you choose to marry or have children. Seems like a pretty egregious overstepping of boundaries to me.

And Magic, I won't lie, your response scares the ever-loving shit out of me.
 

iwakar

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IMO, it's laughable that your pastor would imagine he has any say in whether you choose to marry or have children. Seems like a pretty egregious overstepping of boundaries to me.

And Magic, I won't lie, your response scares the ever-loving shit out of me.

Don't panic. His feeling will kick in. It's just delayed on account of the logic.

Right Magic? RIGHT MAGIC?!
 

Ivy

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:sick:

People raising kids who didn't even want them, just what the world needs.

They changed their minds. That's okay, isn't it? I know lots of people who didn't want kids in their early 20s, but changed their minds down the road.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not personally in favor of this movement, but I do think people should be able to have as many children as they want to and can support. I don't think their reasons are any of my business.
 

Magic Poriferan

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And Magic, I won't lie, your response scares the ever-loving shit out of me.

It was just the first thought that crossed my mind. I'm not honestly suggesting we go on a culling, because that idea is always way more complicated than it sounds at first. Never works out.

I do still believe all my reasons for saying these people shouldn't be around.

They changed their minds. That's okay, isn't it? I know lots of people who didn't want kids in their early 20s, but changed their minds down the road.

But 7 kids all of the sudden? I guess the other reason bothers me is that it doesn't sound like they realized they wanted kids, rather, they just started taking orders from an authority.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not personally in favor of this movement, but I do think people should be able to have as many children as they want to and can support. I don't think their reasons are any of my business.

The bolded part gets slippery, especially if we bring abstract issues into the definition of support.
 

Kangirl

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My response to the Quiverfull movement is: have at it. It's not a lifestyle I would choose, or can even claim to completely understand, but they're free to live according to their beliefs/values, as we all are. Overpopulation isn't something I worry about, so that doesn't come into it for me, either (i.e. in the sense that it might make a person view the Quiverfull movement as negative).
 

Ivy

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It was just the first thought that crossed my mind. I'm not honestly suggesting we go on a culling, because that idea is always way more complicated than it sounds at first. Never works out.

I do still believe all my reasons for saying these people shouldn't be around.

If I may be so bold: one of my reasons for your statement giving me pause is that my parents, while not a part of any official movement, DID use the "quiver full" justification for having 5 children over 20 years. They would have had more except my mother breastfed us for a long time and it probably inhibited the return of her fertility. So when you're saying "these people shouldn't be around," you're saying I shouldn't be around. You seem to take it for granted that the children of a quiverfull family will blindly accept the religious doctrine of their parents; I can tell you that it hasn't been the case in my family. Although, as I said before, my parents are not blind followers of any movement, either. But they did take their lead from the Bible.
 

Virtual ghost

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My response to the Quiverfull movement is: have at it. It's not a lifestyle I would choose, or can even claim to completely understand, but they're free to live according to their beliefs/values, as we all are. Overpopulation isn't something I worry about, so that doesn't come into it for me, either (i.e. in the sense that it might make a person view the Quiverfull movement as negative).


Just because something does not worry you that does not mean that the problem does not exist.



However I think that we don't have a key information. Which is:
How many members do they have?
 

Magic Poriferan

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If I may be so bold: one of my reasons for your statement giving me pause is that my parents, while not a part of any official movement, DID use the "quiver full" justification for having 5 children over 20 years. They would have had more except my mother breastfed us for a long time and it probably inhibited the return of her fertility. So when you're saying "these people shouldn't be around," you're saying I shouldn't be around. You seem to take it for granted that the children of a quiverfull family will blindly accept the religious doctrine of their parents; I can tell you that it hasn't been the case in my family. Although, as I said before, my parents are not blind followers of any movement, either. But they did take their lead from the Bible.

Well, obviously, I say again that I'm not actually suggesting anyone be terminated.

Further more, my assumption was not that offspring would automatically accept the ideology. My assumption was that the more this ideology catches on, the more people will have kids they can neither materially nor emotionally care for. The world then gets filled up with disaffected and unhealthy riffraff in what I do believe is an already over-populated world. I'd feel bad for those kids, and I'd feel bad for what effect they'd have on everyone else in society.

Incidentally, I don't like my mother's approach to having kids. She isn's religious at all, but the problem with her behavior was the same. She thought she just wanted to have kids as some kind of goal, and tackled it to a degree beyond her capabilities, resulting in a lot of stupid things, including her having her kids to men (but mainly one man) she hates who isn't cut-out for being a father. I would recommend nobody does what she did, even knowing that if she didn't, I wouldn't exist.

Exceptions are nice, but I play the odds.
 

Metamorphosis

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They changed their minds. That's okay, isn't it? I know lots of people who didn't want kids in their early 20s, but changed their minds down the road.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not personally in favor of this movement, but I do think people should be able to have as many children as they want to and can support. I don't think their reasons are any of my business.

Yeah, I totally understand that. I think my issue is more just with the fact that it doesn't seem like they had kids because they wanted kids. They had kids because they wanted soldiers.

I also think it's a problem when people have more kids than they can reasonably support (although I see you addressed that).
 
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