In March of this year, Kathryn Joyce author of Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement  wrote a peice for Salon called All God’s Children.
The article featured a woman named Vyckie Garrison who left what is called the Quiverfull/patriarchy movement in the US.
Vyckie started a blog called No Longer Qivering to support herself, which was nominated for an F-award in April.
Garrison has children to support, and as part of the blog she has been telling her story with the hope of publishing a book and making a living.
Hers is a story of extremes, a childhood of rootlessness and neglect – to finding faith and finding her way into the quiverfull movement.
Garrison has been writing her book on her blog, and without an editor, there is a raw horror to her story which cannot be minimized.
While she is currently about 1/2 way through the first draft, it is apparent she has become a voice for others caught in this fundamentalist sub-culture; her blog a haven for other women attempting to undo the damage in their lives. There are dangers in becoming a poster child too soon, but writing can also be cathartic, and telling her unvarnished truth has touched a cord with thousands of readers.
Garrisons intellectual curiousity and grim determination not to see her daughters disappear into this lifestyle, snapped out of her socially and religiously abusive life. In coming to the end of her rope in trying to obey all the twisted rules of the movements ‘authorities’ and the God she submitted to, she has lost faith in the religious system she ran into for shelter, and in the God she desperately wanted to obey.
As the nurse left the room, I just sat there ~ mortified and humiliated. I couldn’t even cry ~ couldn’t muster any response at all. I had a vision in my head of an old nag horse who’d been worked and used to the point of exhaustion ~ and when she’d finally collapsed from all the abuse ~ the cruel owner kicked her side ~ “Get up!†But she could do nothing ~ and even a lash of the master’s whip could not elicit a reaction ~ the poor old horse lay waiting to be put out of her misery. That’s what I wanted ~ just a bit of mercy from someone ~ anyone who would be compassionate enough to put me out of my misery.
But alas ~ death did not come for me.
What comes through in her unfolding story is fear.
This movement which is believed to have thousands of adherents. The celebrities of pronatalist theology are the Duggar family, who have a television show and their 19th child on the way.
The Duggars extreme beliefs have been sanitized for mainstream TV.
Debi and Michael Pearl and Doug Philips of The Vision Forum (reconstructionist theology) are a couple of this sub-culture’s better known leaders. I’ve posted about the Pearls and their appeal in the far right and isolated spectrum of the home schooling movement.  Those posts remain two of the most read at BDBO.
A few years ago I did a post on a woman and her family who dared question and stand up to to Doug Philips.  You can find her story at JensGems.
You know, you’re going to get it, Bene D.
I believe, I may be mistaken, that Quiverfull and the Patriarchial movements maybe be somewhat co-opted with one another. By that, I mean that while some Quiverers support large families, Patriachials have come in and adopted the name, the movement, etc… and thus corrupted the early beginnings of a group which merely supported large families.
I may be wrong – hasn’t happened yet – but what do you think?
Any extremist movement be it religious or political can only bring harm. Too rich, too poor, too proud, too arrogant, too possessive…
Men do not own women and vice versa. We do not own our children or grandchildren.
Personally I can’t stand watching the Duggers or the Josselins – too much noise. If they want large families what does it matter if they can support them? Just don’t expect the rest of us to follow suit.
I don’t think there will be a fuss Joel, there is overlap in these movements and while I generalized because of that overlap, this is sub-culture. I don’t think they give a hoot what others think.
When I posted on The Pearl’s that drew attention because a child died and they are about child rearing not large families or patriarchy. The Vision Forum is self centred and nationalistic – a foreign blog isn’t part of their picture or worth their time.
Brances of patriarchy tend to be pocketed in specific geographical areas, tend to come from independent churches and self-indentifying Quiverfull adherants are more interested in going after Joyces book.
I think sites such as Blog on the Lilypad, Bennets, JensGems etc. which help walkaways are apt to get flack.
The TV reality show family beliefs are well documented, so it’s not like anyone has much to say about that.
Some homeschoolers might object, and that’s fair.
It’s unbelievably horrendous and tragic what happens to Christianity when it is mis-handled, if that’s even the right word. This reminds me so much of Islam – women are nothing but baby-making machines to produce more Muslims, their freedom and personhood is trodden into the ground, and yet most of them have been raised this way and accept the status quo without even realizing they are prisoners and slaves! Another commonality with cults. They are rewarded with self-righteousness for submitting to this situation. I can’t help but feel there are also hidden consequences within families (however they are structured), that what these women suppress in themselves in the way of anger or resentment must bubble up through the cracks somehow, maybe in the way they raise their children, sons especially? And this inadvertently feeds into the cycle of misogynous practices? Good for Kathryn Joyce for perceiving and heeding that voice of truth within her!