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Quiverfull is a movement among conservative evangelical couples chiefly in the United States, but with some adherents in Canada,^[1] Australia, New Zealand, England, and elsewhere.^[2] Its viewpoint is to receive children eagerly as blessings from God,^[2][3][4][5] eschewing all forms of birth control, including natural family planning and sterilization.^[6][7] Someone of this persuasion might call themselves a "quiver full", "full quiver", "quiverfull-minded", or simply "QF" Christian. Some might refer to the Quiverfull position as Providentialism,^[8] while the popular press has recently referred to the movement as a manifestation of natalism.^[9][10] The movement and its corpus of literature have grown steadily since its inception. Its adherents most likely number in the "thousands to low tens of thousands".^[6] It began to receive significant attention in the U.S. national press in 2004.

Contents 1 Historical backdrop 1.1 Anglican allowance of birth control and feminism 1.2 Early Quiverfull authors 1.3 Consolidation and growth of movement 2 Motivations 2.1 Obedience to God 2.2 Missionary effort 2.3 Population and demography 2.4 Conservative politics 3 Beliefs 3.1 Majority doctrine 3.1.1 Infertility 3.2 Minority doctrine 4 Practices 4.1 Non-use of contraception 4.2 Family organization, homeschooling, homesteading 4.3 Sterilization reversals 5 Criticisms 5.1 From Protestants 5.2 From Catholics 5.3 From feminists 6 Controversies 6.1 Andrea Yates 7 Quiverfull and Roman Catholicism 7.1 Similarities 7.2 Differences 8 Quiverfull in U.S. national press 8.1 Fox National News 8.2 New York Times 8.3 The Nation 8.4 Newsweek 8.5 ABC News Nightline 8.6 ABC Good Morning America 9 Notable adherents 10 Notable former adherents 11 Further reading 11.1 Books dedicated to advocating a Quiverfull position 11.2 Books advocating Quiverfull as a secondary focus 11.3 Sources Critical of Quiverfull 12 See also 13 References 14 External links

[edit] Historical backdrop

Also see: History of Birth Control

Some of the beliefs held among Quiverfull adherents have been held among various Christians during prior eras of history. Initially, all Christian movements opposed the use of birth control. As birth control methods advanced during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, most Christian movements issued official statements against their use.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Anglican allowance of birth control and feminism

In 1930 the Lambeth Conference issued a statement permitting birth control "when there is a clearly felt moral obligation to limit or avoid parenthood and where there is a morally sound reason for avoiding complete abstinence." Primary materials on the contemporary debate indicate a wide variety of opinion on the matter. Coinciding, a feminist movement which began about a decade earlier under American Birth Control League (which eventually became Planned Parenthood) founder Margaret Sanger emerged to advocate for modern birth control.^[11][12] In the decades that followed, birth control became gradually accepted among Protestants, even among the most conservative evangelicals.^{[13][14][15][16]}

[edit] Early Quiverfull authors

      Main article: Mary Pride

      Also see: Feminism, Anti-feminism, and Birth control

Within that context, Quiverfull as a modern Christian movement began to emerge.^[17] While a newsletter by Nancy Campbell espoused Quiverfull ideas early, and Campbell is in measure responsible for formulating them, the movement sparked most fully after the 1985 publication of Mary Pride’s book The Way Home: Beyond Feminism, Back to Reality.

In her book, Pride chronicled her journey away from what she stated were feminist and anti-natal ideas of happiness, within which she had lived as an activist before her conversion to conservative evangelical Christianity in 1977, toward her discovery of happiness surrounding what she said was the Biblically mandated role of wives and mothers as bearers of children and workers in the home under the authority of a husband. Pride wrote that such a lifestyle was generally Biblically required of all married Christian women but that most Christian women had been unknowingly duped by feminism, especially in their acceptance of birth control.^[18][16]

As the basis for her arguments, Pride selected numerous Bible verses to lay out what she felt was the Biblical role of women. These included verses she saw as containing her ideas of childbearing and non-usage of birth control, which she argued were opposed to what she called "the feminist agenda" by which she had formerly lived. Pride's explanations became a spearheading basis of Quiverfull.

The name of the Quiverfull movement comes from the Old Testament Bible verses in Psalm 127:3-5 that Pride cited in The Way Home.^[18]

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.(emphasis added).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."^[18]

[edit] Consolidation and growth of movement

After the publication of Pride’s The Way Home, various church women and others took up her book and ideas and spread them through informal social networks. Around this time, numerous church pastors issued sermons in accord with Pride's ideas and various small publications and a few Quiverfull-oriented books emerged.

As the Internet exploded onto the scene several years later, the informal networks gradually took on more organized forms as Quiverfull adherents developed numerous Quiverfull-oriented organizations, books, listserves, websites, and digests, most notably The Quiverfull Digest. The largely decentralized "Quiverfull" movement resulted.^[6][19]

From their onset, Quiverfull ideas have sometimes had a rather polarizing effect between Christians who hold to the position and those who are skeptical of or disagree with them.^[16][20]

[edit] Motivations

[edit] Obedience to God

The core motivation expressed by Quiverfull authors and adherents is a desire to be obedient to God's commands in the Bible. Among these commands, "be fruitful and multiply" (Genesis 1:22; 9:7), "behold, children are a gift of the Lord" (Psalm 127:3), and passages showing God acting to open and close the womb (Genesis 20:18, 29:31, 30:22; 1 Samuel 1:5-6; Isaiah 66:9) are interpreted as giving basis for their view. Quiverfull adherents typically maintain that their philosophy is first about an open, accepting and obedient attitude toward the possibility of birthing 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 are seen as inconsistent with this attitude and are thus entirely avoided, as is abortion.

[edit] Missionary effort

Quiverfull's principal authors and its adherents also describe their motivation as a missionary effort to raise up many Christian children to affect the world for the cause of the Christian religion.^[2] Its distinguishing viewpoint is to eagerly receive children as blessings from God,^[2][5] eschewing all forms of contraception, including natural family planning and sterilization.^[6][18]

[edit] Population and demography

According to journalist Kathryn Joyce, writing in the liberal journal The Nation,

“

Population is a preoccupation for many Quiverfull believers, who trade statistics on the falling white birthrate in European countries like Germany and France. Every ethnic conflict becomes evidence for their worldview: Muslim riots in France, Latino immigration in California, Sharia law in Canada. The motivations aren't always racist, but the subtext of "race suicide" is often there.[6]

”

But Joyce admits that, for Quiverfull supporters, politics or political demography plays a secondary role as a motivation for the movement: "[T]he Quiverfull mission is rooted in faith, the unseen, its mandate to be fruitful and multiply," even if it "has tangible results as well."^[21] As for the principal motivation of Quiverfull supporters, she admits "this is what Quiverfull is about: faith, pure and simple." ^[22]

[edit] Conservative politics

As Kathryn Joyce has reported, Quiverfull authors Hess and Hess do indeed see the proliferation of conservative politics as one of the Quiverfull movement's secondary, tangible, benefits. They state,

When at the height of the Reagan Revolution the conservative faction in Washington was enforced with squads of new conservative congressmen, legislators often found themselves handcuffed by lack of like-minded staff. There simply weren't enough conservatives trained to serve in Washington in the lower and middle capacities.^[2]

Hess and Hess continue by envisioning that the offspring of Quiverfull families might enter national and local politics to bring conservative majorities, publicly-funded education to bring the teaching of creationism, and business to adjure companies to adhere to what adherents see as Christian sensibilities.^[2][6]

[edit] Beliefs

The principal Quiverfull belief is that Christians should maintain a strongly welcoming attitude toward the possibility of bearing children. With minor exception, adherents reject birth control use as completely incompatible with this belief.

[edit] Majority doctrine

Most Quiverfull adherents consider children to be unqualified blessings, gifts which should be received happily from God. Quiverfull authors Rick and Jan Hess argued for this belief in their 1990 book.

"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?^[2]

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".^{[18][23][2][24]}

Accordingly, Quiverfull theology opposes the general acceptance among 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 maritial fruitfulness are perverted."^[18] Adherents believe that God himself controls via 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 Genesis 20:18, 29:31, 30:22; 1 Samuel 1:5-6; Isaiah 66:9).^[2][25] Hess and Hess state that couples "just need to trust God to provide them with the perfect number of children for their situation."^[2]

Rejection of birth control by some Quiverfull adherents is based upon the belief that the Genesis creation and post-Noahic flood Bible passages to "be fruitful and multiply" (see Genesis 1:22; 9:7) are un-rescinded Biblical commandments. For example, Charles D. Provan argues,

"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.^[23]

Quiverfull advocates such as Hess and Hess, Nancy Leigh DeMoss, and Rachel Giove Scott, believe that the Devil deceives Christian couples into using birth control so that children God otherwise willed to create are prevented from being born.^[2][4][25] A Quiverfull adherent quoted in 1991 in the Calgary Herald made the 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."^[1]

[edit] Infertility

Adherents view barrenness, referred to as an "empty quiver" by adherents, as something to be accepted from God if that is his choice, while also making it a matter of prayer in the belief that God may wish to miraculously intervene. Infertility treatments are seen as a usurpation of God's providence and accordingly rejected. Adoption is viewed as a positive option in which couples also rely on God's providence to send children. Biblical references to God's love for the orphan and to the belief that persons are saved through adoption into God's family are often noted.

[edit] Minority doctrine

Also see: Pragmatism

Not all Quiverfull families and authors would agree with each statement made by the movement's principal authors.

Samuel Owens considers that there may be aspects of a fallen universe that sometimes justify an option to use a non-potentially abortive birth control method. Example situations include serious illnesses, inevitable Caesarian sections, and other problematic situations such as disabling mental instability and serious marital disharmony. Owen additionally argues that birth control may be permissible for married couples called to a "higher moral purpose" than having children, such as caring long-term for many orphans or serving as career missionaries in a dangerous location.^[26]

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 to prevent having children.^[2][5]

[edit] Practices

[edit] Non-use of contraception

Also see: Fertility and Infertility, and 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 attempts to regulate fertility are a subjugation of divine power. Thus, the key practice of a Quiverfull married couple is to not use any form of birth control and to maintain continual "openness to children", to the possibility of conception, during routine sexual intercourse irrespective of timing of the month during the ovulation cycle. This is considered by Quiverfull adherents to be a principal, if not the primary, aspect of their Christian calling in submission to the lordship of Christ.^[27]

A healthy young Quiverfull couple might thereby have a baby every two years, meaning that as many as 10 children or more might be born during a couple's fertile years. In reality, however, most Quiverfull families do not become that large because general health problems or infertility may intervene, or the couple may have married later in life, or the decision to stop using birth control may have come later in the marriage. Quiverfull adherents advocate for child spacing through breastfeeding, so return of fertility after childbirth could be delayed by lactational amenorrhea, although the method is not certain. This method is only believed to act as a contraceptive method in 50% of cases, meaning that the general advice is never to rely on this alone if conception is not desired.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Family organization, homeschooling, homesteading

Also see: Family and Patriarchy

Quiverfull authors and adherents advocate for and seek to model a return to Biblical Patriarchy. Families are typically arranged with the mother as a homemaker under the authority of her husband with the children under the authority of both. Parents seek to largely shelter their children from aspects of culture they as parents deem adversarial to their type of conservative Christianity.

Additionally, Quiverfull families are strongly inclined toward homeschooling and homesteading in a rural area. However, exceptions exist in substantial enough portion to where these latter two items are general and often idealized correlates to Quiverfull practices and not integral parts of them.^[28]

[edit] Sterilization reversals

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 Protestants wishing to undergo sterilization reversal surgery.^[29] Protestants such as Bill Gothard also advocate for reversals, saying that sterilized couples have "cut off children" but should instead devote themselves to "raising up godly seed".

[edit] Criticisms

[edit] From Protestants

Jeffrey J. Meyers examines the biblical and theological arguments that Pride puts forth and carefully points out the shortcomings of her interpretations.^[30]

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.^[31]

John Piper's Desiring God Ministries criticizes Quiverfull by saying that

"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.'"^[32]

[edit] From Catholics

Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI's encyclical encompassing family life and sexuality, which reconfirmed the Church's stance against abortion and birth control, also discussed responsible parenthood. Responsible parenthood "is exercised, either by the deliberate and generous decision to raise a numerous family, or by the decision, made for grave motives and with due respect for the moral law, to avoid for the time being, or even for an indeterminate period, a new birth."^[33]

Pope Paul VI further stated in Gaudium et Spes, No, 50, "let them thoughtfully take into account both their own welfare and that of their children, those already born and those which the future may bring. For this accounting they need to reckon with both the material and the spiritual conditions of the times as well as of their state in life. Finally, they should consult the interests of the family group, of temporal society, and of the Church herself. The parents themselves and no one else should ultimately make this judgment in the sight of God."^[34]

In addition, Humanae Vitae reconfirmed that conjugal life between married people is both unitive and procreative, and that mis-attention to either of those is disordered. "It is in fact justly observed that a conjugal act imposed upon one's partner without regard for his or her condition and lawful desires is not a true act of love, and therefore denies an exigency of right moral order in the relationships between husband and wife."

The Catholic teaching therefore is that, while mankind has been commanded by God in Genesis to increase and multiply (Gen 2:18), parents also have a responsibility to their families and to society to ensure that the children they have can be appropriately cared for. In addition, the health of the mother is a concern; having pregnancy after pregnancy with no recuperative time does not fall under responsible parenthood. Natural family planning, based on monitoring signs of fertility, is a permissible method of avoiding pregnancy.^[35]

[edit] From feminists

Cheryl Lindsey Seelhoff, a former ardent Quiverfull adherent, birth-mother of eleven children, and former editor of Gentle Spirit Magazine, argues that the Quiverfull movement is one "in which women and children are routinely and systematically subordinated and subjugated by the men in their lives - fathers, husbands, older sons, sons, pastors, elders, leaders - as a matter of biblical principle."^[36] Seelhoff charges that Quiverful adherents "never talk about the victims of the movement, other than to distance themselves, to explain how it is that the victims are aberrations." ^[37][38]

[edit] Controversies

[edit] Andrea Yates

Seelhoff and others claim that Andrea Yates was a victim of Quiverfull thought. Yates and her husband Rusty described themselves as nondenominational Christians who did not use birth control, agreeing to accept as many children as God sent their way. Andrea Yates had a history of post-partum depression and was strongly advised by her psychiatrist not to have more children, but her husband, Russell "Rusty" Yates, persuaded her to stop taking her medication and conceive her fifth and last child. Andrea also homeschooled all her children, and Rusty led a "home church" wherein he was the sole interpreter of the Bible.

On June 20, 2001, Andrea killed her five young children, ages six-months, two, three, five, and seven, by drowning them in their home bathtub. She was originally found guilty of murder in the first degree, but her conviction was overturned through appeal due to false testimony of an expert witness hired by the prosecution. A second trial determined she was not guilty by reason of insanity. She was confined indefinitely in a Texas state mental health facility.

Her husband, Russell Yates, was advised by her doctor not to leave his depressed wife alone (apparently because she had a history of suicidal thoughts); however, he began leaving her alone with the children for an hour in the morning and evening just prior to the drownings, against the objection of Andrea's mother. Although his actions suggested negligent endangerment of his children, the Texas District Attorney decided against prosecuting him after a brief investigation. Russell eventually divorced Andrea and remarried two days prior to the scheduled but postponed retrial.

Quiverfull adherents argue that the Yateses never specifically self-identified as Quiverfull and thereby reject that they were actually part of the movement. However, they were adherents of a preacher named Michael Peter Woroniecki, who espouses ideas similar to those in the Quiverfull movement.^{[39][37][40][41][42][43]}

[edit] Quiverfull and Roman Catholicism

Also see: Roman Catholic views on contraception

Although the similarities between the two, Roman Catholics sometimes adopt the Quiverfull label without understanding the quite substantial distinctions.

[edit] Similarities

Roman Catholic teaching but not all Quiverfull adherents interpret the Genesis creation and post-Noahic flood passages to "be fruitful and multiply" (see Genesis 1:22; 9:7) as commandments rather than only actions that result in blessings.^[44]

[edit] Differences

Moreover, Roman Catholic theology emphasizes that "conjugal acts" (intercourse between spouses) inherently have both unitive/loving and procreative significance. Just as marital intercourse that is deliberately unloving is excluded, Catholic theology also says that acts which are done with the specific intention of frustrating the procreative dimension inherent to such acts are against the natural law of God, or the right reason that governs the morality of human acts. Such acts are therefore also sinful. In this context, Catholic theology encourages "responsible partenthood." While frivolous or materialistic reasons for avoiding children are seen as immoral, the Roman Catholic Church permits natural family planning (NFP) for grave reasons, although the translation of the Latin word "grave" is debated.^[45] Use of NFP to avoid pregnancy is considered appropriate when reason so dictates (according to the judgment of the couple), taking into account, economic, health, and vocational considerations. Some limit circumstances to serious health problems, dire poverty, and active persecution.^[46]

Dissimilarly, Quiverfull emphasizes the continual role of Providence in controlling whether or not and when a woman conceives due to God having exclusive prerogative in "opening and closing the womb". Quiverfull regards all birth control methods alike in so far as they further such avoidance, while Catholicism permits natural family planning.

[edit] Quiverfull in U.S. national press

While Quiverfull had previously garnered some attention in the Christian press,^[9][47] the Canadian press in March 2001,^[1] and in various scholarly pieces, it began to receive focused attention in the U.S. national press in 2004.

[edit] Fox National News

On January 16, 2007 Fox News Live Desk with Martha MacCallum, segment, "When birthing children is a religious experience." Martha MacCallum talks with Rachel Scott, author, "Birthing God's Mighty Warriors." Rachel Scott answers common questions asked to large families and disputes myths "Quiverfull" women are made to stay home and tend to babies. Rachel Scott describes the Proverbs 31 woman as being a business owner, educated and very capable. Rachel Scott also shares about "the dream with a warrior angel" that started her "Quiverfull" experience and led to writing her book, "Birthing God's Mighty Warriors."

[edit] New York Times

In an article on December 7, 2004, New York Times journalist David Brooks described an arising movement he called simply "natalism" and sought to show how in the future it could shift the U.S. political landscape from a philosophy of liberalism to conservatism. Brooks concluded, "Natalists are associated with red America, but they're not launching a jihad".^[10][6]

[edit] The Nation

Journalist Kathryn Joyce connected Brooks' "natalism" with Quiverfull and disagreed with him in her November 9, 2006, 5-page exposé on Quiverfull in The Nation. Joyce emphasized that the movement uses what she described as "military-industrial terminology" to articulate the belief that "only a determination among Christian women to take up their submissive, motherly roles with a 'military air'" and within a milieu of becoming "maternal missionaries" will lead to what Joyce described as Quiverfull's "Christian army" achieving cultural "victory."^[6]

[edit] Newsweek

Four days later, on November 13, 2006, Newsweek provided a 2-page piece on Quiverfull, characterizing the movement as conservatives who are "reacting to revolutionary changes in women's social roles and seeking to re-impose a more traditional order". The piece ended by quoting a Quiverfull family as stating they were "exponentially happier" after relinquishing control of their womb to God.^[48] On March 17, 2009, Newsweek published a second piece on Quiverfull through their website.^[49]

[edit] ABC News Nightline

On January 3, 2006, ABC News Nightline aired a special segment, "The More the Holier?", on the Quiverfull movement.^[50] The coverage was re-aired on ABC's World News Now about four hours later. On September 15th, 2007, Nightline revisited the issue as part of their "Faith Matters" series, again featuring the Carpenter family.

[edit] ABC Good Morning America

On July 25, 2005, ABC Good Morning America segment, "Is eight really enough?." Deborah Roberts interviews Rachel Scott author "Birthing God's Mighty Warriors." Rachel Scott discusses the trend toward larger families, managing finances with more mouths to feed and she states, "when good people stop having kids, society fails."

===Quiverfull responses===

In the proximate aftermath of the U.S. national print articles, responses from Quiverfull adherents in The Quiverfull Digest ranged from "feeling betrayed" to assertions that the articles were "fair".^[51] Additionally, a few disagreeing Quiverfull adherents undertook apologetic responses on the Internet discussion forums provided by the latter national publishers in immediate on-site connection with their articles.^[6][48]

[edit] Notable adherents

• The Duggar family -- headed by Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, the family consists of, as of December 2008, eighteen children. The Duggars are perhaps the most widely known example of the Quiverfull movement in the United States, as they have been featured on several programs on the American cable network TLC, including a new series (17 Kids and Counting) which began in September 2008.

• Michael Farris - Farris is a conservative United States constitutional lawyer and founder of the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) and Patrick Henry College. His wife Vickie is the author of A Mom Just Like You (2002). The couple have ten children and six grandchildren^[52].^[53]

• Doug Phillips - Phillips is the son of U.S. Constitution Party leader Howard Phillips and president of Vision Forum Ministries that advocates for Biblical patriarchy, creationism, homeschooling, and Quiverfull. Doug and his wife Beall have eight children.^[54][5]

• Charles D. Provan - Provan's book The Bible and Birth Control is credited as providing important theological justification for Quiverfull, and was quoted in a November 27, 2006, article about Quiverfull in The Nation Magazine. He was an author of books and articles on other Christian topics and that criticize outright Holocaust denial while revising certain elements thereof. Before Provan's 2007 death, he and his wife had ten children.^[6]

• R.C. Sproul, Jr. is a Calvinist Christian minister and theologian and is the son of Robert Charles Sproul, a noted Reformed theologian and founder of Ligonier Ministries. Sproul Jr. and his wife Denise have seven children.^[37][55][56]

• Matthew Trewhella - Trewhella is a Calvinist minister and founder of Missionaries to the Pre-Born. He was the subject of a 1994 FBI investigation for incitation of abortion clinic violence but was ultimately cleared. He and his wife, Clara, have eleven children.^[57][58][59]

[edit] Notable former adherents

• Cheryl Lindsey Seelhoff - divorced birth-mother of eleven children and former editor of Gentle Spirit Magazine, a magazine on Christian topics and homeschooling that reached a circulation of 35,000. She now considers herself a feminist and has been critical of Quiverfull thought.^{[36] [37][38]}

[edit] Further reading

[edit] Books dedicated to 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 For Victory. Winepress Publishing 1996. ISBN 1883893240 ; Sentinel Press 2002. ISBN 0971569401
• Campbell, Nancy. Be Fruitful and Multiply. Vision Forum, San Antonio, TX: 2003. ISBN 0-9724173-5-4
• Hess, Rick and Jan. A Full Quiver: Family Planning and the Lordship of Christ. Wolgemuth & Hyatt Publishers, Brentwood, TN: 1990. ISBN 0-943497-83-3
• Houghton, Craig. Family UNplanning. Xulon Press, Longwood, FL: 2007. ISBN 1-60034-851-8
• Owen, Jr., Samuel A. Letting God Plan Your Family. Crossway Books, Wheaton, IL: 1990. ISBN 0-89107-585-2
• Pride, Mary. The Way Home: Beyond Feminism, Back to Reality. Good News Pub, Wheaton, IL: 1985. ISBN 0-89107-345-0
• Provan, Charles D. The Bible and Birth Control. Zimmer Printing, Monongahela, PA: 1989. ISBN 99917-998-3-4
  • Chapter of Provan's book 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

[edit] Books advocating Quiverfull as a secondary focus

• DeMoss, Nancy Leigh. Lies Women Believe: And the Truth that Sets Them Free. Moody Publishers, Chicago, IL: 2002. ISBN 0-8024-7296-6
• Farris, Vickie. A Mom Just Like You. B&H Publishing Group, Nashville, TN: 2002. ISBN 0-8054-2586-1jkjkj

[edit] Sources Critical of Quiverfull

• Women’s Liberation Through Submission: An Evangelical Anti-Feminism Is Born - By Kathryn Joyce
• Joyce, Kathryn. Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement. Beacon Press, 2009. Publisher's site.

[edit] See also

• Amish
• Antifeminism
• Breeder (slang)
• Childfree
• Christian movements
• Christian views on contraception
• Creationism
• Fecundism
• Natalism
• Overpopulation
• Patriarchy
• Population
• Providentialism
• Retro housewife
• Traducianism
• Voluntary Human Extinction Movement

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Full Quiver Mission
• QuiverFull.Com
• Aboverubies.org
• Christian Moms of Many Blessings
• MOMYS.com (Mothers Of Many Young Siblings)
• Quiverfull Links Page - contains many pro and con links
• Video feeds of ABC News Nightline on Quiverfull