Content deleted Content added
saying that he's written a work about Holocaust denial is not a BLP issue |
Rescuing 1 sources and tagging 0 as dead.) #IABot (v2.0.9.5 |
||
Line 1:
{{short description|Pro-natalist Christian movement}}
{{Redirect-multi|3|Quiverful|Quiver full|Full quiver|the container|Quiver|the 1980 anthology|A Quiver Full of Arrows|the fictional character|Barchester Towers|other uses|Quiver (disambiguation)}}
'''Quiverfull''' is a [[Christian]] theological position that sees large families as a blessing from God.<ref name="hess"/><ref name="rainey_ref_2">{{cite web |title=The Value of Children (11 July 2002 FamilyLife Today Radio Broadcast) |publisher=FamilyLife Today |year=2002 |author=Dennis Rainey |format=Transcript of radio broadcast |url=http://www.familylife.com/fltoday/default.asp?id=5868&page=72&search=&strMonth=&strDay=&strYear=&guests=&keywords=&showType= |access-date=2006-09-30 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051001144025/http://www.familylife.com/fltoday/default.asp?id=5868&page=72&search=&strMonth=&strDay=&strYear=&guests=&keywords=&showType= |archive-date=October 1, 2005}}</ref><ref name="campN">{{cite book |title=Be Fruitful and Multiply: What the Bible Says about Having Children |last=Campbell |first=Nancy |year=2003 |publisher=[[Vision Forum]] |___location=San Antonio |isbn=0-9724173-5-4}}</ref> It encourages procreation through the abstention from all forms of [[birth control]], and [[human sterilization (surgical procedure)|sterilization reversal]].<ref name="joyce">{{cite journal |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/arrows-war/ |title=Arrows for the War |access-date=2010-09-18 |journal=[[The Nation]] |date=9 November 2006 |author=Kathryn Joyce}}</ref> The movement took its name from [[Psalms|Psalm]] 127:3–5, where many children are metaphorically referred to as the arrows in a full [[quiver]].
Some sources have referred to the Quiverfull position as [[providentialism]],<ref name="open_embrace">{{cite book |title=Open Embrace: A Protestant Couple Rethinks Contraception |last=Torode |first=Sam and Bethany |year=2002 |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing |isbn=0-8028-3973-8 |display-authors=etal |url=https://archive.org/details/openembraceprote0000toro}}</ref> while other sources have simply referred to it as a manifestation of [[natalism]].<ref name="cbn">{{cite web |url=https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1437791/posts |title=Back to the Future: The Growing Movement of Natalism |access-date=2006-10-07 |publisher=[[CBN News |Christian Broadcasting Network]] |year=2006 |author=Strand, Paul}} (originally published by CBN News, [https://web.archive.org/web/20080924145624/http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/news/050331a.aspx archived] September 24, 2008)</ref><ref name="nytimes">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/07/opinion/07brooks.html?ex=1260162000&en=ebdde83f03fe6d2e&ei=5090 |title=The New Red-Diaper Babies |access-date=2006-10-07 |work=New York Times |author=Brooks, David |date=2004-12-07}}</ref>
It is most widespread in the [[United States]] but it also has adherents in [[Canada]],<ref name="QF-Canda">{{cite journal |author=Joe Woodward |title=The godliness of fertility: A growing Protestant movement is rediscovering the sanctification available in large families |journal=Calgary Herald |date=Mar 31, 2001 |pages=OS.10 |id={{ProQuest |244455568}}}}</ref> [[Australia]], [[New Zealand]], the [[United Kingdom]], and elsewhere.<ref name="hess">{{cite book |title=A Full Quiver: Family Planning and the Lordship of Christ |last=Hess |first=Rick and Jan |year=1990 |publisher=Hyatt Publishers |___location=Brentwood, TN |isbn=0-943497-83-3}}</ref> One 2006 estimate put the number of families which subscribe to this philosophy as ranging from "the thousands to the low tens of thousands".<ref name="joyce"/>
==Historical background==
{{See also|History of birth control}}
As birth-control methods advanced during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many [[Christian right|conservative Christian]] movements issued official statements against their use, citing their incompatibility with biblical beliefs and ideals.
In addition, there are those who contend that Quiverfull's "internal growth" model is a manifestation of a broader trend which is reflected in the lifestyles of such groups as [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox Jews]] (particularly [[Haredi Judaism|Haredi]] and [[Hasidic Judaism|Hasidic Jews]]) and certain Christians including Orthodox [[Calvinism|Calvinists]] of the [[Netherlands]], traditional [[Anabaptists]] (such as [[Old Order Amish]], [[Old Colony Mennonites]], and certain [[Conservative Mennonites]]), some traditional Methodists of the [[conservative holiness movement]], and [[Laestadianism|Laestadian Lutherans of Finland]].<ref name="Epp2011">{{cite book |last1=Epp |first1=Marlene |title=Mennonite Women in Canada: A History |date=15 July 2011 |publisher=University of Manitoba Press |isbn=978-0-88755-410-0 |language=English}}</ref><ref name="Bottos2008">{{cite book |last1=Bottos |first1=Lorenzo Cañás |title=Old Colony Mennonites in Argentina and Bolivia: Nation Making, Religious Conflict and Imagination of the Future |date=31 January 2008 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-474-3063-6 |page=81 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author=Adams C, Leverland M |title=The effects of religious beliefs on the health care practices of the Amish |journal=Nurse Pract |volume=11 |issue=3 |pages=58, 63, 67 |year=1986 |pmid=3446212 |doi=10.1097/00006205-198603000-00008}}</ref> The former may also be a case of a manifestation of a movement of opinion within some ethnic, linguistic, religious, regional, or other identifiable groups whose members have expressed concern about their continued existence for historical or other reasons. Such philosophies and groups are diverse amongst themselves—being found in all segments and sectors of the political spectrum—and they usually represent, to varying extents, the diversity within their group. The manifestations of such movements and opinions include everything from comparatively high rates of in-group marriage being applauded and gently suggested, to more explicit calls for [[endogamy]] such as is the case with the [[Druze]],{{Citation needed|date=July 2020}} to concerns which were expressed by [[Protestantism|Protestants]] in [[Northern Ireland]] about a higher birth rate amongst [[Catholic Church|Catholics]], to [[Decree 770]] which was issued by [[Nicolae Ceaușescu]]'s government in [[Socialist Republic of Romania|Romania]] with regard to contraception, and other [[population]] topics as part of its local variant of the [[North Korea]]n ideology of [[Juche]].{{Citation needed|date=July 2020}}
===Anglican allowance of birth control===
In 1930, the [[Lambeth Conference]] issued a statement permitting birth control: "Where there is a clearly felt moral obligation to limit or avoid parenthood, complete abstinence is the primary and obvious method", but if there was morally sound reasoning for avoiding abstinence, "the Conference agrees that other methods may be used, provided that this is done in the light of Christian principles". Primary materials on the contemporary debate indicate a wide variety of opinion on the matter.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://anglicanhistory.org/misc/contraception/ |title=Contraception}}</ref> In the decades that followed, birth control became gradually accepted among many other mainline Protestants, even among some conservative evangelicals.<ref name="flann">{{cite journal |author=Campbell, Flann |title=Birth Control and the Christian Churches |journal=Population Studies |date=Nov 1960 |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=131–147 |doi=10.2307/2172010 |jstor=2172010}}</ref><ref name="allen">{{cite journal |author=Allen, James E. |title=Family Planning Attitudes of Seminary Students |journal=Review of Religious Research |year=1976 |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=52–55 |doi=10.2307/3509598 |jstor=3509598}}</ref><ref name="affiliation">{{cite journal |author1=Goldschneider, Calvin |author2=William D. Mosher |name-list-style=amp |title=Religious Affiliation and Contraceptive Usage |journal=Studies in Family Planning |year=1988 |volume=19 |issue=1 |pages=48–57 |doi=10.2307/1966739 |pmid=3363605 |jstor=1966739}}
</ref><ref name="consvprots">
{{cite journal
|author1=Ellison, Christopher G. |author2=Patricia Goodson
|name-list-style=amp |title=Conservative Protestantism and Attitudes toward Family Planning in a Sample of Seminarians
|journal=Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion |year=1997 |volume=36 |issue=4
|pages=512–529 |doi=10.2307/1387687 |jstor=1387687
}}</ref>
===Early Quiverfull authors===
{{Main|Mary Pride}}
{{See also|Feminism|Antifeminism|Birth control}}
[[File:Mary pride thewayhome.jpg|thumb|upright|Mary Pride's first book, ''The Way Home: Beyond Feminism, Back to Reality'' (1985), promotes the Quiverfull movement.]]
[[File:Fullquiverofarrows.jpg|thumb|upright |The Christian Quiverfull movement derives its name from [[Psalms|Psalm]] 127:3–5, where many children are metaphorically referred to as the arrows in a full quiver.]]
In the 20th century, Quiverfull as a modern [[Christian movements|Christian movement]] began to emerge.<ref name="explaindiffs">{{cite journal |author=Marcum, John P. |title=Explaining Fertility Differences among U.S. Protestants |journal=Social Forces |year=1981 |volume=60 |issue=2 |pages=532–43 |doi=10.2307/2578449 |jstor=2578449}}</ref>{{request quotation|date=June 2018}} Nancy Campbell began publishing her magazine ''Above Rubies'', which promotes and glorifies stay-at-home mothers who have as many children as possible, in 1977.<ref name=campbell>{{cite book |title=Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement |url=https://archive.org/details/quiverfullinside00joyc |url-access=limited |last=Joyce |first=Kathryn |publisher=Beacon Press |year=2009 |isbn=9780807096222 |___location=Boston |pages=[https://archive.org/details/quiverfullinside00joyc/page/n61 47]}}</ref> While Campbell is in measure responsible for formulating Quiverfull ideas,{{citation needed|date=June 2018}} the movement sparked most fully after the 1985 [[publication]] of [[Mary Pride |Mary Pride's]] book ''The Way Home: Beyond Feminism, Back to Reality''.
In her book, Pride chronicled her metaphorical journey away from what she labeled [[feminist]] and [[antinatalism|anti-natal]] ideas of [[happiness]] (within which she had lived as an [[activist]] before her [[Christian conversion|conversion]] to [[Christian right|conservative]] [[Evangelicalism|evangelical Christianity]] in 1977) toward her discovery of happiness surrounding what she portrayed as the biblically mandated role of wives and mothers as bearers of children and workers in the home under the [[traditional authority|authority]] of a [[husband]]. Pride wrote that such a lifestyle was generally biblically required of all married Christian women, but feminism had duped most Christian women without their awareness, especially in their acceptance of birth control.<ref name="consvprots"/><ref name="pride">
{{cite book
|title=The Way Home: Beyond Feminism, Back to Reality
|last=Pride
|first=Mary
|year=1985
|publisher=Good News Publishers
|___location=Wheaton, IL
|isbn=0-89107-345-0
|url=https://archive.org/details/wayhomebeyondfem00prid
}}
</ref>
As the basis for her arguments, Pride selected numerous [[Bible verses]] in order to lay out what she saw as the [[women in Christianity|biblical role of women]]. These included verses which she interpreted as perpetuating her advocacy of compulsory childbearing and her opposition to the use of [[birth control]] which (in her view) was promoted by "the feminist agenda" by which she had formerly lived. Pride's explanations then became a spearheading basis of Quiverfull.
The name of the Quiverfull movement comes from {{Bibleverse|Psalm|127:3–5|KJV}}, which Pride cited in ''The Way Home'':<ref name="pride"/>
{{Poem quote|Lo, children are an heritage of the {{LORD}}:
and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man;
so are children of the youth.
Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them:
they shall not be ashamed,
but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.|[[King James Version|KJV]]}}
Pride stated in her book: "The church's sin which has caused us to become unsavory salt incapable of uplifting the society around us is selfishness, lack of love, refusing to consider children an unmitigated blessing. In a word, [[family planning]]."<ref name="pride"/>
===Consolidation and growth of the movement===
After the publication of Pride's ''The Way Home'', her ideas spread through informal [[social network]]s. Around this time, numerous church [[pastor]]s issued [[sermon]]s which were in accord with Pride's ideas and various small publications and a few Quiverfull-oriented books appeared.{{Citation needed|date=January 2020}}
As the [[Internet]] expanded several years later, the informal networks gradually took on more organized forms as Quiverfull adherents developed numerous Quiverfull-oriented organizations, books, [[electronic mailing lists]], [[website]]s, and digests, most notably ''The Quiverfull Digest''. The largely decentralized "Quiverfull" movement resulted.<ref name="joyce"/><ref name="nightline2">{{cite book |title=The More the Holier? |date=January 3, 2006 |publisher=ABC News Nightline}}</ref>
From their onset, Quiverfull ideas have sometimes had a polarizing effect among Christians who hold to them and Christians who are skeptical of or disagree with them.<ref name="consvprots"/><ref name="protsandfp">{{cite journal |author=Goodman, Patricia |title=Protestants and Family Planning |journal=Journal of Religion and Health |year=1997 |volume=36 |issue=4 |pages=353–366 |doi=10.1023/A:1027437310363 |s2cid=5886144}}</ref>
==Motivations==
===Obedience to God===
Quiverfull authors and adherents express their core motivation as a desire to obey God's commandments as stated in the Bible. Among these commandments, "[[cultural mandate|be fruitful and multiply]]",<ref>{{bibleverse|Gen|1:22;8:17;9:1}}</ref> "behold, children are a gift of the Lord",<ref>{{bibleverse|Psalm|127:3}}</ref> and passages showing God acting to open and close the womb<ref>{{bibleverse|Gen|20:18;29:31;30:22}}, {{bibleverse|1Sam|1:5-6}}, {{bibleverse|Isaiah|66:9}}</ref> are interpreted as giving a basis for their views. Quiverfull adherents typically maintain that their philosophy is first about an open, accepting and obedient attitude toward the possibility of bearing children. Within the view, this attitude may result in many, few or even no children, because God himself maintains sole provenance over conception and birth. The duty of the Quiverfull adherent is only to maintain an "open willingness" to joyfully receive and not thwart however many children God chooses to bestow. [[Contraception]] in all its forms is seen as inconsistent with this attitude and is thus entirely avoided, as is [[abortion]].
===Missionary effort===
Quiverfull's principal authors and its adherents also describe their motivation as a [[missionaries|missionary effort]] to raise up many children as Christians to advance the cause of the Christian religion.<ref name="hess"/> Its distinguishing viewpoint is to eagerly receive children as blessings from God,<ref name="hess"/><ref name="campN"/> eschewing all forms of [[contraception]], including [[natural family planning]], and [[human sterilization (surgical procedure)|sterilization]].<ref name="joyce"/><ref name="pride"/>
===Population and demography===
According to journalist Kathryn Joyce, writing in the magazine ''[[The Nation]]'': "[T]he Quiverfull mission is rooted in faith, the unseen," even if "its mandate to be fruitful and multiply has tangible results as well."<ref name="joyce"/> Others remark that Quiverfull resembles other world-denying fundamentalist movements that grow through internal reproduction and membership retention such as [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox Jews]] (particularly [[Haredi Judaism|Haredi]] and [[Hasidic Judaism|Hasidic Jews]]), and certain Christian denominations (such as the [[Amish]] and [[Mennonites]], and [[Laestadianism|Laestadian Lutherans]] in Finland). Many are thriving as seculars and moderates have transitioned to below-replacement fertility.{{Clarify|reason=The meaning (and relevance) of this sentence is not clear.|date=January 2020}}<ref>Kaufmann, Eric. 2011. [https://www.amazon.com/Shall-Religious-Inherit-Earth-Twenty-First/dp/1846681448/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324053524&sr=1-1 Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth: Demography and Politics in the Twenty-First Century]. London: Profile Books. Also see [https://www.sneps.net www.sneps.net]</ref><ref>Toft, Monica Duffy. 2011. "Wombfare: The Religious and Political Dimensions of Fertility and Demographic Change." in [http://www.paradigmpublishers.com/books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=280257 Political Demography: identity, conflict and institutions ed. J. A. Goldstone, E. Kaufmann and M. Toft. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Press] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170226182539/http://www.paradigmpublishers.com/books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=280257 |date=2017-02-26}}</ref>
==
[[
The principal Quiverfull belief is that Christians should maintain a strongly welcoming attitude toward the possibility of bearing children. With minor exceptions, adherents reject birth control use as completely incompatible with this belief.
===Majority doctrine===
Most Quiverfull adherents regard children as unqualified blessings, gifts that should be received happily from God. Quiverfull authors Rick and Jan Hess argued for this belief in their 1990 book:
<blockquote>"Behold, children are a gift of the Lord." (Psa. 127:3) Do we really believe that? If children are a gift from God, let's for the sake of argument ask ourselves what other gift or blessing from God we would reject. Money? Would we reject great wealth if God gave it? Not likely! How about good health? Many would say that a man's health is his most treasured possession. But children? Even children given by God? "That's different!" some will plead! All right, is it different? God states right here in no-nonsense language that children are gifts. Do we believe His Word to be true?<ref name="hess"/></blockquote>
Quiverfull authors such as Pride, Provan, and Hess extend this idea to mean that if one child is a blessing, then each additional child is likewise a blessing and not something to be viewed as economically burdensome or unaffordable. When a couple seeks to control family size via birth control they are thus "rejecting God's blessings" he might otherwise give and possibly breaking his commandment to "be fruitful and multiply."<ref name="hess"/><ref name="pride"/><ref name="provan">{{cite book |title=The Bible and Birth Control |last=Provan |first=Charles D. |year=1989 |publisher=Zimmer Printing |___location=Monongahela, PA |isbn=99917-998-3-4}}. Quote and its chapter available at http://www.jesus-passion.com/contraception.htm</ref><ref name="bythedozen">{{cite journal |author=Robben, Donetta |title=Blessings by the Dozen |journal=American Life League Magazine |year=2006 |volume=Sept.-Oct. |url=http://www.clmagazine.org/backissues/2006septoct_10-13blessingsbythedozen.pdf |access-date=2006-10-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928104942/http://www.clmagazine.org/backissues/2006septoct_10-13blessingsbythedozen.pdf |archive-date=2007-09-28 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
Accordingly, Quiverfull theology opposes the general acceptance among mainline Protestant Christians of deliberately limiting family size or spacing children through birth control. For example, Mary Pride argued, "God commanded that sex be at least potentially fruitful (that is, not deliberately unfruitful). ... All forms of sex that shy away from marital fruitfulness are perverted."<ref name="pride"/> Adherents believe that God himself controls via [[Divine providence|providence]] how many and how often children are conceived and born, pointing to Bible verses that describe God acting to "open and close the womb" (see [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2020:18;&version=49; Genesis 20:18], [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2029:31;&version=49; 29:31], [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2030:22;&version=49; 30:22]; [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Samuel%201:5-6;&version=49; 1 Samuel 1:5-6]; [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2066:9;&version=49; Isaiah 66:9]).<ref name="hess"/><ref name="scott">{{cite book |title=Birthing God's Mighty Warriors |last=Scott |first=Rachel |year=2004 |publisher=Xulon Press |___location=Longwood, FL |isbn=1-59467-465-5}}</ref> Hess and Hess state that couples "just need to trust God to provide them with the perfect number of children for their situation."<ref name="hess"/>
Some Quiverfull adherents base their rejection of birth control upon the belief that the [[Genesis creation narrative|Genesis creation]] and post–[[Noah|Noahic flood]] Bible passages to "be fruitful and multiply" (see [http://bible.cc/genesis/1-22.htm Genesis 1:22]; [http://bible.cc/genesis/9-7.htm 9:7]) are un-rescinded biblical commandments. For example, [[Charles D. Provan]] argues:
<blockquote>"Be fruitful and multiply"... is a command of God, indeed the first command to a married couple. Birth control obviously involves disobedience to this command, for birth control attempts to prevent being fruitful and multiplying. Therefore birth control is wrong, because it involves disobedience to the Word of God. Nowhere is this command done away with in the entire Bible; therefore it still remains valid for us today.<ref name="provan"/></blockquote>
Quiverfull advocates such as Rick and Jan Hess and [[Rachel Giove Scott]] believe that the [[Devil in Christianity|Devil]] deceives Christian couples into using birth control so that children God otherwise willed to create are prevented from being born.<ref name="hess"/><ref name="scott"/> In addition, a Quiverfull adherent was quoted in the 2001 ''[[Calgary Herald]]'' as making this statement: "Children are made in God's image, and the enemy hates that image, so the more of them he can prevent from being born, the more he likes it."<ref name="QF-Canda"/>
====Infertility====
Adherents view [[barrenness]], referred to as an "empty quiver", as something to be accepted from God as his choice, which then becomes a matter of prayer in the hope that God may decide to miraculously intervene. Quiverfull adherents also see [[infertility|infertility treatments]] as a usurpation of God's [[Divine Providence|providence]] and accordingly reject them.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.raisingarrows.net/2008/05/enjoying-your-quiverfull/ |title=Enjoying YOUR Quiverfull |date=2008-05-09}}</ref> Adoption is viewed as a positive option through which couples can also rely on God's providence to send children. Biblical references to God's love for the orphan and the belief that people are saved through adoption into God's family are often noted.
Some circles do accept medical interventions, since improving opportunities for pregnancy is not seen to guarantee it any more than with any healthy couple. Also, some reproductive health problems may be seen as symptomatic of other health problems which need to be addressed generally.{{Citation needed|date=July 2015}}
===Minority doctrine===
Not all Quiverfull families and authors agree with each statement which was made by the movement's principal authors.
Samuel Owens considers the possibility that some aspects of a fallen universe may sometimes justify the option to use a [[beginning of pregnancy controversy|non–potentially abortive birth control method]]. These aspects of a fallen universe include serious illnesses, inevitable [[Caesarean section|Caesarean sections]], and other problematic situations, such as disabling mental instability and serious marital disharmony. Owens additionally argues that birth control may be permissible for married couples who are called to a "higher moral purpose" than having children, such as caring long-term for many [[orphan]]s or serving as career [[missionary|missionaries]] in a dangerous ___location.<ref name="Owen">{{cite book |title=Letting God Plan Your Family |last=Owen, Jr. |first=Samuel A. |year=1990 |publisher=Crossway Books |___location=Wheaton, IL |isbn=0-89107-585-2}}</ref>
Despite some variances, all Quiverfull families and authors agree that God's normative ideal for happy, healthy and prosperous married couples is to take no voluntary actions that will prevent them from having children.<ref name="hess"/><ref name="campN"/>
==Practices==
===Non-use of contraception===
{{See also|Fertility|Infertility|Christian views on contraception#Protestant Christianity|l3=Protestant views on contraception}}
Quiverfull adherents maintain that God "opens and closes the womb" of a woman on a case-by-case basis, and that any attempts to regulate fertility are usurpation of divine power. Thus, the defining practice of a Quiverfull married couple is not to use any form of birth control and to maintain continual "openness to children," that is to say, engaging in routine [[sexual intercourse]] with no attempt to limit the possibility of [[conception (biology)|conception]]. This practice is irrespective of the time of the month during the menstrual cycle, and is considered by Quiverfull adherents to be the principal—if not the primary—aspect of their Christian calling in submission to the lordship of [[Christ]].<ref name="joyce2">{{cite web |url=http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2006/11/30/quiverfull-more-children-for-gods-army |title=Quiverfull: More Children For God's Army |access-date=2007-01-09 |publisher=RH Reality Check |author=Kathryn Joyce |date=30 November 2006}}</ref>
Proponents of the Quiverfull movement also regard [[combined oral contraceptive pill|contraceptive pills]] and other similar contraceptives as unacceptable abortifacients.<ref name="abortifacient_ref_1">{{cite web |url=https://www.quiverfull.com/birth_control/pill_abortifacient.html |title=QuiverFull Pill Fact Sheet |access-date=2013-05-17 |publisher=Pharmacists For Life International |author=Patrick McCrystal}}</ref>
Some Quiverfull adherents advocate for [[birth spacing]] through [[breastfeeding]], so that the return of fertility after childbirth could be delayed by [[lactational amenorrhea method|lactational amenorrhea]].<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Trussell J |title=Contraceptive failure in the United States |journal=Contraception |volume=83 |issue=5 |pages=397–404 |date=May 2011 |pmid=21477680 |pmc=3638209 |doi=10.1016/j.contraception.2011.01.021}}</ref>
===Family organization, homeschooling, homesteading===
{{See also|Dominionism|Patriarchy}}
Quiverfull authors and adherents advocate for and seek to model [[nativism (politics)|a return to]] [[biblical patriarchy]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=admin |date=2011-10-08 |title=How can a wife help preserve her marriage? |url=https://iblp.org/questions/how-can-wife-help-preserve-her-marriage |access-date=2022-03-29 |website=Institute in Basic Life Principles |language=en |archive-date=2022-03-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220329142545/https://iblp.org/questions/how-can-wife-help-preserve-her-marriage |url-status=dead }}</ref> Mary Pride has more recently attempted to distance herself from the patriarchy movement and from a focus on the father's role in training daughters. In a column published in her magazine ''Practical Homeschooling'' in 2009, as well as in the afterword to the 25th-anniversary edition of ''The Way Home'', Pride clarified her position that it is primarily mothers, not fathers, who should teach girls about women's roles and duties.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.home-school.com/Articles/phs89-marypride.html |title=Homeschool World: Practical Homeschooling Articles: Patriarchy, Meet Matriarchy |publisher=Home-school.com |access-date=2011-09-19 |archive-date=2011-09-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110923031528/http://www.home-school.com/Articles/phs89-marypride.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Way Home: Beyond Feminism, Back to Reality |last=Pride |first=Mary |publisher=Home Life Books |year=2010 |isbn=9781453699300 |edition=25th anniversary |___location=Fenton, Missouri |orig-year=1985}}</ref> As Emily McGowin notes in her 2018 book ''Quivering Families'', however, "[Pride] differentiates herself from these approaches without denying the underlying gender hierarchy and pronatalism."<ref>{{cite book |title=Quivering Families: The Quiverfull Movement and Evangelical Theology of the Family |last=McGowin |first=Emily Hunter |publisher=Fortress Press |year=2018 |isbn=9781506446608 |___location=Minneapolis}}</ref>
Quiverfull authors typically organize family governance to reflect an "umbrella of protection" with the mother as a [[homemaker]] under the [[authority]] of her [[husband]] and the children under the authority of both. Parents seek to largely shelter their children from aspects of culture deemed adversarial to their religious beliefs.<ref>{{Cite web |last=admin |date=2011-10-11 |title=What is an "umbrella of protection"? |url=https://iblp.org/questions/what-umbrella-protection |access-date=2022-03-29 |website=Institute in Basic Life Principles |language=en |archive-date=2022-02-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220224050957/https://iblp.org/questions/what-umbrella-protection |url-status=dead }}</ref> Additionally, Quiverfull families strongly incline toward [[homeschooling]] and toward [[homesteading]] in a [[rural]] area. However, exceptions exist in substantial enough proportions that these latter two items are general and are often idealized correlations to Quiverfull practices and not integral parts of them.<ref name="patri">{{cite journal |author1=Biggar, R.J. |author2=M. Melbye |name-list-style=amp |title=Debating the Merits of Patriarchy: Discursive Disputes over Spousal Authority among Evangelicial Family Commentators |journal=Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion |year=1997 |volume=36 |issue=3 |pages=393–410 |doi=10.2307/1387857 |jstor=1387857}}</ref>
===Sterilization reversal surgery===
Quiverfull adherents Brad and Dawn Irons run ''Blessed Arrows Sterilization Reversal Ministry''. The couple advocates for Quiverfull ideas while providing funding, physician referrals, and support to Christians wishing to undergo [[human sterilization (surgical procedure)|sterilization]] reversal surgery.<ref name="reverse">{{cite web |url=http://www.blessedarrows.org/ |title=Blessed Arrows: A Sterilization Reversal Ministry |access-date=2006-10-14 |publisher=Brad and Dawn Irons |author=Brad and Dawn Irons}}</ref>
[[Institute in Basic Life Principles]] founder [[Bill Gothard]] advocates for reversals, saying that sterilized couples have "cut off children" and should devote themselves instead to "raising up godly seed".
==Criticism==
The movement has been criticized by journalists from ''[[Glamour (magazine)|Glamour Magazine]]'' for [[sexism]] and a demeaning approach to women.<ref name="Graham">{{cite journal |url=https://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/article/sex-cults-and-the-quiverfull-movement-november-issue |title=Inside the world's most women-hating cult |access-date=24 November 2015 |journal=Glamour |date=24 November 2015 |author=Kate Graham}}</ref>
===Criticism from other Christians===
[[James B. Jordan]] maintains that, while children are indeed blessings, they are only one among a wide range of blessings God offers, and prayerfully choosing foci among them is part of prudent Christian [[stewardship (theology)|stewardship]].<ref name="JBJ">{{cite journal |author=James B. Jordan |title=The Bible and Family Planning: An Answer to Charles Provan's "The Bible and Birth Control" |journal=Contra Mundum |year=1993 |url=http://www.contra-mundum.org/cm/cm09.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081031084211/http://www.contra-mundum.org/cm/cm09.pdf |archive-date=2008-10-31 |issn=1070-9495 |pages=2–14}}</ref>
[[John Piper (theologian)|John Piper]]'s Desiring God Ministries has published some comments that relate to Quiverfull:
<blockquote>Just because something is a gift from the Lord does not mean that it is wrong to be a steward of when or whether you will come into possession of it. It is wrong to reason that since A is good and a gift from the Lord, then we must pursue as much of A as possible. God has made this a world in which tradeoffs have to be made and we cannot do everything to the fullest extent. For kingdom purposes, it might be wise not to get married. And for kingdom purposes, it might be wise to regulate the size of one's family and to regulate when the new additions to the family will likely arrive. As [[Wayne Grudem]] has said, "it is okay to place less emphasis on some good activities in order to focus on other good activities."<ref name="piper">{{cite web |url=http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/QuestionsAndAnswers/ByTopic/45/1440_Does_the_Bible_permit_birth_control/ |title=Does the Bible permit birth control? |access-date=2006-10-27 |publisher=Desiring God |year=2006 |author=Desiring God Staff |work=Questions and Answers |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061026010215/http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/QuestionsAndAnswers/ByTopic/45/1440_Does_the_Bible_permit_birth_control/ |archive-date=2006-10-26}}</ref></blockquote>
===Criticism from former Quiverfull adherents===
Some women who have left the Quiverfull movement are now vocally critical of it.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/quiverfull-christian-women-leaving-evangelical/ |title=The Women Fighting Back Against the Christian Cult that Forbids Birth Control |last=Brethour |first=Dylan |date=2016-10-21 |website=Vice |language=en |access-date=2020-01-02}}</ref> [[Vyckie Garrison]] spent 16 years living the Quiverfull lifestyle and had seven children before leaving her husband and ultimately becoming an atheist. She told ''Vice'' that her health was negatively affected by so many births and that over time, her husband became "a tyrant."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/we-talked-to-an-quiverfull-escapee-about-helping-women-leave-the-movement/ |title=What It's Like to Escape the Christian Fundamentalist 'Quiverfull' Movement |last=Thompson |first=Tiffy |date=2016-07-16 |website=Vice |language=en |access-date=2020-01-02}}</ref> Garrison founded the blog ''No Longer Quivering'' to share her own story and the stories of other women who had been harmed by the Quiverfull lifestyle.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.andrewpurcell.net/?p=1070 |title=Raising an army for Christ {{!}} Andrew Purcell|access-date=2020-01-02}}</ref> The blog is now maintained by Suzanne Titkemeyer, another former Quiverfull adherent who describes her years in the movement as "disastrous."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.patheos.com/blogs/nolongerquivering/about/ |title=About NLQ |website=No Longer Quivering |language=en |access-date=2020-01-02}}</ref>
Likewise, some children who were raised in Quiverfull homes have grown up to speak out against the movement. In 2018, Eve [Hännah] Ettinger and Kieryn Darkwater started a podcast called ''Kitchen Table Cult'' in which they discuss their experiences of being raised Quiverfull and connect the ideology to events such as the election of [[Donald Trump]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://kitchentablecult.com/about/ |title=About the Podcast |date=2018-07-11 |website=Kitchen Table Cult |language=en-US |access-date=2020-01-02}}</ref> In a 2015 interview about their upbringing, Ettinger said that in Quiverfull families, "the parents are just as confused as the kids, and often are struggling with deep-set psychological issues and need as much therapy and compassion as the kids do to recover from the dehumanizing reality of trying to have a perfect Quiverfull family to please a demanding and holy God."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/books/q-and-a/a41047/growing-up-quiverfull-interview/ |title=What It Was Like to Grow Up Quiverfull |last=Mathieu |first=Jennifer |date=2015-05-27 |website=Cosmopolitan |language=en-US |access-date=2020-01-02}}</ref>
[https://www.cfctoo.com/ CFCtoo], an advocacy group for survivors of the Quiverfull community [https://www.cfconline.org/ Christian Fellowship Center], is advocating for New York to amend their mandated reporting laws to include clergy.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Post |first1=Kathryn |title=Former 'Quiverfull' church members push the needle on New York's CARE Act |url=https://religionnews.com/2023/05/17/former-quiverfull-church-members-push-the-needle-on-new-yorks-care-act/ |access-date=4 October 2023 |publisher=Religion News Service |date=17 May 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Post |first1=Kathryn |title=New York debates whether clergy should be required to report abuse |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2023/02/03/new-york-debates-whether-clergy-should-be-required-report-abuse/ |access-date=4 October 2023 |newspaper=Washington Post |date=3 February 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Grindon |first1=Lucy |title=Ex-Christian Fellowship Center members call for clergy to be mandated child sexual abuse reporters in Potsdam protest |url=https://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/46540/20220908/ex-christian-fellowship-center-members-call-for-clergy-to-be-mandated-child-sexual-abuse-reporters-in-potsdam-protest |access-date=4 October 2023 |publisher=North Country Public Radio |date=September 8, 2022}}</ref> CFCtoo argues that such laws are necessary to combat the Quiverfull movement's propensity for "incest, child sexual abuse, and systematic abuse coverups based on a twisted understanding of biblical forgiveness."<ref>{{cite web |title=The Quiverfull Families Next Door: Part 1 |url=https://www.cfctoo.com/blog/the-quiverfull-families-next-door-part-1 |website=CFCtoo |access-date=3 October 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Post |first1=Kathryn |title=An insular 'Quiverfull' church in New York's North Country faces a reckoning |url=https://religionnews.com/2022/08/25/an-insular-quiverfull-church-in-new-yorks-north-country-faces-a-reckoning/ |access-date=4 October 2023 |publisher=Religion News Service |date=August 25, 2022}}</ref>
==Notable adherents==
<!--DO *NOT* ADD THE TURPIN FAMILY WITHOUT CITING A RELIABLE SOURCE--->
* [[Doug Phillips (speaker)|Doug Phillips]], a [[Calvinist]] [[Christians|Christian]] and the son of [[U.S. Constitution Party]] leader [[Howard Phillips (activist)|Howard Phillips]]. From 1998 to 2013, Doug Phillips was the president of [[Vision Forum Ministries]], a now-defunct organization which advocated [[biblical patriarchy]], [[creationism]], [[homeschooling]], and Quiverfull. Phillips and his wife, Beall, have seven children.<ref name="campN"/><ref name="vf">{{cite web |url=http://www.visionforumministries.org/home/about/about_the_president.aspx |title=About the President |access-date=2007-01-23 |publisher=Vision Forum Ministries |year=2006 |archive-date=2007-01-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070124105219/http://www.visionforumministries.org/home/about/about_the_president.aspx |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* [[Charles D. Provan]], whose book ''The Bible and Birth Control'' is routinely cited by Quiverfull adherents as providing an important theological justification for their movement. Provan was mentioned in a November 27, 2006, article about Quiverfull in ''[[The Nation]]''.<ref name="joyce"/> He also authored books and articles on other [[Christianity|Christian]] topics. Before Provan's death in 2007, he and his wife had 10 children.
* [[R. C. Sproul, Jr.]], a [[Calvinist]] [[Christianity|Christian]] [[theologian]] and the son of the noted Reformed theologian and founder of [[Ligonier Ministries]], [[R. C. Sproul|Robert Charles Sproul]]. Sproul Jr. and his wife, Denise, had eight children before Denise died.<ref name="sproulbook">{{cite book |title=Bound for Glory: God's Promise for Your Family |last=Sproul |first=R. C. Jr. |year=2003 |publisher=Crossway Books |isbn=1-58134-495-3}}</ref><ref name="highlands">{{cite web |url=http://highlands.gospelcom.net/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050506181405/http://highlands.gospelcom.net/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=2005-05-06 |title=Highlands Study Center |access-date=2007-01-21 |publisher=Highlands Study Center |year=2007}}</ref>
* Nancy Campbell, author, speaker, and mother of 10 children. Nancy and her husband Colin run Above Rubies, "a ministry to encourage women in their high calling as wives, mothers, and homemakers. Its purpose is to uphold and strengthen family life and to raise the standard of God's truth in the nation."<ref>{{cite web |title=Ministry Overview |url=https://aboverubies.org/index.php/home/ministry-overview |website=Above Rubies |access-date=3 October 2023}}</ref> Campbell's magazine has a worldwide circulation of over 160,000, and began its publication in 1977.<ref name=campbell/> Nancy, Colin, and their children have faced allegations of exploiting Liberian orphans<ref>{{Cite web |last=Joyce |first=Kathryn |title=Orphan Fever: The Evangelical Movement’s Adoption Obsession |url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/04/christian-evangelical-adoption-liberia/ |access-date=2025-07-07 |website=Mother Jones |language=en-US}}</ref> and covering up sexual abuse allegations against [[Michael Tait]] of the [[Newsboys]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Morris |first=Jessica |date=2025-06-04 |title=EXCLUSIVE: Former Newsboys Frontman Michael Tait Accused of Sexual Assault, Grooming, and Substance Abuse, Dating Back to 2004 |url=https://julieroys.com/former-newsboys-frontman-michael-tait-accused-sexual-assault-grooming-substance-abuse-dating-back-to-2004/ |access-date=2025-07-07 |website=The Roys Report |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Morris |first=Jessica |date=2025-06-30 |title=Newsboys Owner and Family Sued for Defamation, Conspiracy, and Infliction of Emotional Distress in $5.4 Million Lawsuit |url=https://julieroys.com/newsboys-owner-sued-defamation-conspiracy-infliction-emotional-distress-5-4-million-lawsuit/ |access-date=2025-07-07 |website=The Roys Report |language=en-US}}</ref>
* [[Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar]], known for the reality TV show [[19 Kids and Counting]].
==See also==
{{Div col}}
* [[Childfree]]
* [[Christian views on contraception]]
* [[Natalism]]
* [[Human overpopulation|Overpopulation]]
* [[Traducianism]]
* [[Turpin case]]
* [[Voluntary Human Extinction Movement]]
{{Div col end}}
==
{{Reflist}}
==
===Books advocating a Quiverfull position===
* Adams, Shelly and Morgan. ''Arrows in His Hand'' (children's book). Monument Pub., Monument, CO: 2007.
* Andrews, Robert. ''The Family: God's Weapon
* Campbell, Nancy.
* Flanders, Jennifer. ''Love Your Husband/Love Yourself: Embracing God's Purpose for Passion in Marriage''. Prescott Publishing, Tyler, TX: 2010. {{ISBN|978-0982626900}}.
*
*
*
* [[
* [[Charles D. Provan|Provan, Charles D.]] ''The Bible and Birth Control''. Zimmer Printing, Monongahela, PA: 1989. {{ISBN|99917-998-3-4}}.
** Chapter of Provan's book [http://www.jesus-passion.com/contraception.htm available here]. Audio files of Provan's complete book available by searching with his name at sermonaudio.com
* Scott, Rachel. ''Birthing God's Mighty Warriors''. Xulon Press, Longwood, FL: 2004. {{ISBN|1-59467-465-5}}.
==
*
===Sources which are critical of Quiverfull===
* Ettinger, Eve, and Kieryn Darkwater. [https://kitchentablecult.com/ ''Kitchen Table Cult''] podcast.
* Joyce, Kathryn. [http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/sexandgender/890/women%27s_liberation_through_submission:_an_evangelical_anti-feminism_is_born Women’s Liberation Through Submission: An Evangelical Anti-Feminism Is Born]{{Dead link|date=August 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}.
* Joyce, Kathryn. ''Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement''. Beacon Press, Boston, MA: 2009. {{ISBN|0-8070-1070-7}}.
* McFarland, Hillary. [http://www.darklightpress.com "Quivering Daughters: Hope and Healing for the Daughters of Patriarchy".] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100704183717/http://www.darklightpress.com/ |date=2010-07-04 }} Darklight Press, 2010.
* McGowin, Emily. [https://fortresspress.com/product/quivering-families-quiverfull-movement-and-evangelical-theology-family Quivering Families: The Quiverfull Movement and Evangelical Theology of the Family] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190225092143/http://fortresspress.com/product/quivering-families-quiverfull-movement-and-evangelical-theology-family |date=2019-02-25 }}. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2018.
* McKeown, John. "US Protestant natalist reception of Old Testament "fruitful verses": a critique." Liverpool University PhD thesis, 2011. [https://www.openbookpublishers.com/product/263 Revised as book God's Babies: Natalism and Bible Interpretation in Modern America, OpenBook, 2014.]
* {{cite journal |last1=Mesaros-Winckles |first1=Christy |title=TLC and the Fundamentalist Family: A Televised Quiverfull of Babies |journal=[[Journal of Religion and Popular Culture]] |date=2010 |volume=22 |issue=3 |page=7 |doi=10.3138/jrpc.22.3.007}}
* ''[https://www.patheos.com/blogs/nolongerquivering/ No Longer Quivering]'' blog (originally created by [[Vyckie Garrison]]).
==
* [https://www.quiverfull.com QuiverFull.Com]
* [http://www.newscloud.com/read/77984 Video feeds of ABC News ''Nightline'' on Quiverfull] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928071451/http://www.newscloud.com/read/77984 |date=2007-09-28 }}
* {{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22526252 |title=The Quiverfull: The evangelical Christians opposed to contraception |date=17 May 2013 |publisher=BBC News}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Christian
[[Category:Christian
[[Category:Christian new religious movements]]
[[Category:Christian terminology]]
[[Category:Conservatism in the United States]]
[[Category:Evangelicalism in the United States]]
[[Category:Homeschooling]]
[[Category:Christian natalism]]
[[Category:Religious views on birth control]]
[[Category:Social conservatism]]
| |||