vyckie Not raising your kids to be narrow-minded hyper fundamentalist right-wing theocratic Christians?
What the heck’s the matter with you?!!
by Vyckie Garrison @ No Longer Quivering
Quiverfull believers are generally pretty easy to spot ~ they’re the submissive ladies in denim jumpers with half a dozen or more stair-step, kids ~ all of whom are clean-cut and perfectly obedient. They do not use any form of birth control, they deliver their babies at home, they homeschool, homechurch, practice “courtship” rather than dating, ~ all with the ultimate goal of raising up a quiver full of “arrows for the war.”
At first glance, the average, fair-minded person will view large, homeschooling Quiverfull families such as the Duggars of TLC’s “19 & Counting” with tolerance ~ perhaps a bit of headshaking or maybe even amusement. With women’s reproductive choice as the primary guiding principle, it seems reasonable to think, “Such a demanding lifestyle might not be for me ~ but if that’s what works for them …”
As a former Quiverfull adherent, let me tell you that these fundamentalist women are not nearly so generous in their views with regard to the chosen lifestyle and motives of those who are not “like-minded.” Here are 10 lies I believed about “worldly parents”:
1) Worldly parents only have one kid ~ two at the most (and sometimes none at all ~ gasp!) because they are selfish and lazy and cannot be bothered with the responsibilities of parenthood.
2) Worldly parents send their kids to public school because they have been duped into turning their kids over to be brainwashed by secular humanism in Satan’s government-run indoctrination centers.
3) Worldly women only care about chasing after Mammon and earthly glory so they waste their lives making greedy men (to whom they are not even married) rich by their labor ~ which technically makes them whores.
4) Worldly parents indulge their kids and refuse to train them to be “instantly, joyously obedient” and to honor their fathers because they are guilt-ridden for not caring enough about their kids to spend a quantity of quality time with them.
5) Worldly mothers are eager to hand their kids over to minimum wage-earning daycare workers who don’t give a rat’s ass about their precious children so they can spend their time shopping, getting their nails done and working out to keep their bodies “hott” for their worldly husbands who only love them superficially.
6) Worldly mothers are clueless about nutrition and growing healthy bodies ~ that is why they only feed their kids pre-packaged junk food. They are more concerned about their kids being popular and “well-rounded” (read: worldly) than they are about their health ~ which is why worldly moms pick up dinner at the McDonald’s drive-thru on their way to soccer practice or dance class almost every night of the week.
7) Worldly parents park their kids in front of the electronic babysitter for 5 or 6 hours every day so they can sit on their butts in front of the computer watching pornography because they don’t care if their kids’ minds atrophy and they are glad to have their little brats’ heads filled with ideas for cheap plastic Disney toys which they will pitch a fit in Wal-Mart and demand their parents buy as bribes or guilt-offerings.
Worldly parents have learned nothing from the shame and degradation of their own promiscuous dating relationships which is why they believe “comprehensive sex education” will protect their kids from STDs and broken hearts more than insisting on abstinence.
9) Worldly fathers have no idea what a dangerous place our society can be for women. They allow their wives and daughters to wear pants or mini-skirts or show cleavage, expose bare shoulders, etc ~ totally shirking their responsibility as men to protect their women from getting raped.
Worldly men whose wives dress immodestly are most likely porn addicts.
10) Worldly parents consider their parenting job a success if their kids make it to adulthood without getting raped, killed, drug or alcohol addicted, or committing suicide. Any good thing beyond that is just icing on the cake.
BONUS: Christian parents who use birth control, do not homeschool, homebirth and run a cottage industry, own a television, send their kids to Sunday School rather than keeping the family together for worship, allow their kids to date or have sleepovers, don’t grow their own vegis and grind their own wheat for bread, or who are okay with the wife wearing makeup or pants or working outside the home ~ are actually Worldly Parents ~ they probably aren’t even really saved and are only using church as a social club with no membership fees.
This post was prompted by a Facebook status update from an old high-school acquaintance, who has no connection to Quiverfull ~ he wrote:
One major problem with our society is that parents are raising boys and girls. They are supposed to be raising MEN and WOMEN!
When I read it, I thought, Wow ~ a person doesn’t have to be Quiverfull to be convinced that every other parent is ignorant and lazy and they’re doing it wrong!! Here’s what I wrote in response:
Another major problem with our society is that we judge one another and make presumptions about what awful failures others must be in order to feel superior and mask our own feelings of inadequacy.
I say, parents are doing our damnedest to raise sons and daughters to the best of our abilities. The deck is stacked against us and the odds are not in our favor. Nevertheless, very few of us throw in our hands and walk away from the table ~ instead we play out the game with the cards we’ve been dealt.
Later … sometimes much later, we are pleasantly surprised to realize that our kids are the winners.
