Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement

Quiverfull / 978-0-8070-1073-0 I consider myself to be a homeschooling success story, as I was homeschooled for several formative years of my education, and now happily hold two college degrees and a good job - and indeed, I am fully open to the possibility of homeschooling my own hypothetical children. Going into "Quiverfull", I held some concerns that author Kathryn Joyce might fail to clarify that the type of people her research centers on - many of whom "homeschool" (see note below) - are NOT typical examples of the homeschooling community at large. However, Joyce is an eminently fair writer, and frequently emphasizes that the movement she studies is "fringe" in most all respects - fringe Americans, fringe Christians, and fringe homeschoolers. [[NOTE: Homeschooling families tend to be sensitive to accusations of isolationism and indoctrination, in large part because the public figures of homeschooling are often comprised of the "fringe" element - whereas the "normal" families who see homeschooling as one of many valid education options to choose from tend to be more interested in quietly getting on with teaching their children properly. In much the same way that there are educational private schools and indoctrinational private schools, such as there also educational homeschooling families to balance the indoctrinational one. The best parsing of the issue I have seen so far is the growing online meme to refer to these methods respectively as "private schooling", "private churching", "home schooling", and "home churching", to designate where the training is taking place, and what the training is focusing on.]] Divided into three parts, "Quiverfull" carefully parses the duties and burdens on women within the Quiverfull movement - as wives, mothers, and daughters. With a predominantly respectful tone, author Joyce carefully balances the statements of the members of the movement with the cold facts, and keeps editorial comments at a perfect minimum (just enough to delight the reader, but never so much as to seem to co-opt the narrative). Joyce carefully highlights the contradictions within the movement at large, such as: * the insistence that wives be submissive at all times to their husbands, even when the husband is wrong, but without a corresponding energy level directed into teaching the husbands to be loving, mild, and, well, not wrong. Why is so much energy directed at teaching the women to be submissive when that same energy could be directed at teaching the men to be kind, gentle, and wise representations of Christ? * the disconnect between the fertility reasoning behind the Quiverfull movement (to allow God to direct the number of children within a family) and the actual practice of the Quiverfull movement: desperate women driven to despair because they "only" have 3-4 children, which means they measure as "less holy" than the women with larger broods - some women going so far as to use fertility pills, treatments, and schedules

My brother and his family are deep into this and so I was curious to see if anything could help me to understand what makes them all tick. I still don't get it, because to me it's just ludicrous, but the book was very well done and did explain a lot to me, even though I still can't wrap my mind around why anyone would choose such a miserable way to live. Bu I loved the book and thought it was well done. The most interesting part to me was at the back of the book, when it talked about the mothers and daughters. It's a whole different way of thinking, and this is what makes it all possible to make this lifestyle work for some. I recommend this, especially if you know someone who's in it.

My husband and I homeschooled our children for a total of 13 years, and we are familiar with many of the names in this book. We had our first child as a result of stopping birth control to allow God to "plan our family". We attended Jonathan Lindvall's "Bold Parenting" seminar and for a time, subscribed to "Patriarch" magazine. I also have read most of Mary Pride's books. I mention this to show our familiarity with this movement. I feel that this book is extremely well written and readable, and although Joyce obviously has a bias, as mentioned in another review, she mostly allows people's words to speak for themselves without commentary. The reason I call this book a "must read" for homeschoolers is because you may not be getting an accurate picture of what is going on in your church until it is too late to avoid being sucked in and becoming victims yourselves. The chapters on the Epstein family ("Life in the Garden") and Cheryl Lindsay ("Exiting the Movement") are heart wrenching in describing the destruction that ensued when church discipline was exercised. And in many of these churches, discussing issues of conflict with leadership is labeled "gossip", so you likely will only hear bits and pieces of what is going on...and those who leave are labeled "wolves among the sheep" to discourage people from speaking to them firsthand. I would have liked to have the author write a chapter on the psychology of what draws people to this movement and as well as more discussion on people who have left and how they recovered and moved on. But all in all, a book worth reading even if you do not agree with the author's opinions.

In this book, writer and columnist Kathryn Joyce goes all out to reveal the dangerous, acidic patriarchy (better known as "patriocentricity" among those who are familiar with its evil) that has been leaking into Christianity for the past several years. This movement goes far beyond complimentarianism, the hierarchal and extra-Biblical (though comparatively mild) system that the likes of Wayne Grudem and John Piper exhort, and instead forbids women from voting, holding public office of any sort, working outside the home, attending college or public school, using abortion even to save their lives from doomed pregnancies, or using birth control. Instead, it upholds the womb as the single and most valuable part of a woman, a part that she is nevertheless forbidden to have any control or say over. There are many vile members and levels of this new wicked belief system, and author Joyce reveals nearly all of them in this shocking volume. The most outlandish and domineering of these groups is that of the Vision Forum, a relatively new cult which embraces all of the afore-described "values" and pushes them, and the women who practice them, beyond the brink of sanity. Begun by Doug Phillips, a man who has proven more than once to have no Christian character, this movement has stretched beyond the borders of its own cult and now seeks to ensnare thousands across the country. Joyce spent years in the making of this book by traveling and visiting several different members of Vision Forum and its rotten branches, interviewing its victims, members and supporters, and offering fascinating descriptions of their beliefs as well as their behavorial traits; one of the treats of this book is Joyce's sharp eye for detail and description, taking you straight into this strange world and the minds of its inhabitants. It's quite an experience to hear/read the words from these strange people themselves, and how Joyce restrained herself from showing shock or revulsion is beyond me. Perhaps the most revelatory chapter is "Life in the Garden", in which Joyce shares the story of a young couple she interviewed who were former members of Doug Phillips's own church. The story was mainly told by the wife of the couple, "Jen", who joined the church when the VF (Vision Forum) was still young and actually allowed its women to perform in the church like human beings. As she and her family's attendence progressed, the VF church tightened its reigns chokingly on the female members, until women were no longer allowed to literally speak at all in church, wear anything other than dresses, take communion for themselves, or sometimes even drive. Jen often openly disagreed with them, much to the chagrin of the domineering "pastor", Doug Phillips himself. Her own true crucifiction, however, didn't come about until after she let the group know about her marital problems. Jen's husband had a temper that was becoming increasingly violent towards her. When she sought the help of Beaull and th

The reason I am telling the story of my involvement in the Quiverfull movement, and how I got out ([...]) is because I came across an article on Alternet and read with interest about the people and the teachings which our family had followed for many years. I was kind of amazed that someone on that liberal news site knew about this movement ~ so I posted a comment on the article ~ and that's how I got in touch with Kathryn Joyce, author of Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement. I pre-ordered the book and as I read it, I kept saying aloud, "I know these people!" All the names were familiar to me ~ Nancy Campbell, Mary Pride, Doug Phillips, Phil Lancaster, R.C. Sproul Jr., Debi Pearl, Anna Sophia Botkins, Jennie Chancey ... "Wow," I thought, "she even interviewed Charles Provan!" I used to own nearly every book mentioned in Quiverfull ~ and, yes ~ I read them all ... starting with The Way Home: Beyond Feminism and Back to Reality, the book which really started the current patriarchy movement that's becoming so popular among homeschoolers. Isn't it interesting that it has mostly been the WOMEN who are writing these books, teaching seminars, and leading other women into this life of subordination? I really want to just encourage everyone who has been touched by the Quiverfull philosophy in any way to read this book. I wish I could quote the whole thing for you ~ and then sit back and read the comments which would sound something like, "OMFG!" and "Is this stuff for real? ~ People actually believe this and live this way?!!" Yes ~ it's true. The thing is, those of us who followed (and those who are still following) the Quiverfull / patriarchal lifestyle got into it gradually ~ just a little at a time. For us, it started with homeschooling which seemed pretty radical at the time. It was at our state's annual home school conference that I was introduced to some of the movement's books ~ mostly through Vision Forum, a supplier of Classical Education curriculum. I started out with Nancy Campbell's "lovely" vision for godly wives and mothers ... discovered Phil Lancaster's Patriarch magazine which spread the idea to the men ... then found S.M. Davis's "Solve Family Problems" series in which the dynamic and often vehement (my kids said he just yelled a lot) preacher set us straight about what constitutes a truly godly family ~ and what dedicated Christian wouldn't want to do whatever the Lord requires to please Him and to be a "blameless" example of righteous living to our friends, family and community? Now I will admit that when Debi Pearl came out with her book, Created to Be His Help Meet ~ even I couldn't stomach it. I guess there must have been some residual lesson I'd learned after trying to follow the bible study ladies' advice about how to be a perfect, godly wife in order to win my abusive, unfaithful first husband to the Lord ~ but I just couldn't support Pearl's book wholeheartedly the way I had Campbell's God's Vision for Famil