Quiverfull

The current issue of The Nation magazine features an interesting, albeit frightening, article by Kathryn Joyce entitled, "The Quiverfull Conviction." What's it about? In a nutshell, Christian breeding. OK, so that's a simplified—perhaps even careless—way of putting it. Let's take a moment to be responsible about this.

The subtitle to Joyce's article, "Christian Mothers Breed 'Arrows for the War'," might be a better place to start. There's nothing frightening about having several children (as many as 14 in some cases)—the frightening part is what these children are being bred for: War.

The movement—called "Quiverfull," by those who practice it—is a belief system designed around not only producing as many children as possible, but around providing soldiers for Christ, warriors who will ensure future generations of practicing fundamentalists. (Psalm 127: "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. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their enemies in the gate.")

As Joyce describes them, "Quiverfull parents try to have upwards of six children. They home-school their families, attend fundamentalist churches and follow biblical guidelines of male headship—'Father knows best'—and female submissiveness" (11).

But there's also a battle of political and sociological proportions here. A deliberate effort to reverse what these fundamentalist Christians view as morally corrupt—evil.

The founding theologians, identified as Rick and Jan Hess (A Full Quiver: Family Planning and the Lordship of Christ) and Mary Pride (The Way Home: Beyond Feminism, Back to Reality) have grounded the movement in bellicose fashion. This isn’t just about populating heaven; this is about battling feminism, de-evolving the role of women in the family and in society, and attacking birth control in all its forms.

Pride writes, "What most do not see is that one demand leads to the other. Feminism is a totally self-consistent system aimed at rejecting God’s role for women. ...Family planning," Pride later continues, "is the mother of abortion."

The answer, according to the Quiverfull folk, is to demonstrate God's dominion over a woman's body by carrying to term and raising as many children as God sees fit to provide.

Yet can't something similar be argued by pro-choice ideologues? Can't we take this spectrum and lean it the other way? I think so, yes.

In fact one of the concerns pro-choice activists (be they quiet or noisy) have, is that a reversal of Roe v. Wade will signal the start of a series of increasingly more conservative alterations of rights we "take for granted." Reversing abortion has implications far beyond just that one act: it will, in fact, effect women's rights in a multitude of ways—in the home, in the workplace, and in society at large. This is something we don't usually see acknowledged by the passionate Christian movement in the United States. But it is quite relevant to the discussion.

Think not? Just ask the Quiverfull.