And the Duggars Shall Inherit Earth ...

And the Duggars Shall Inherit Earth ...

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

filed under: momstrosity

The Duggars say it's their mission from God to have more children. Could He also tell them to knock it the heck off?

Momlogic's Momstosity: Surprise, surprise. Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar are already going to be grandparents! Their eldest son Joshua and his new wife are expecting their first of what's sure to be many, many children. What happy news, except for the fact that Michelle is herself a mom to an infant ... and has her hands full with her other 17 kids.

Unbelievably, even though Michelle will soon be making the transition from mommy to grandmommy, she is still itching to get pregnant. "We would love more,'' Michelle reportedly said. "We really believe that each child is a gift from God. We would love to receive more gifts." Hmm, Michelle Duggar sounds a little like a woman collecting designer handbags ... she just can't stop herself. Sounds a little less like God's work and more like pure greed.

Mrs. Duggar's womb just keeps quivering for more kids. This makes sense, since the Duggars and other prolific procreators like them subscribe to the Quiverfull movement. Never heard of it? It's a movement followed by a small faction of conservative evangelical Christians. Apparently it's easy to be "quiverfull" -- all you have to do is pop out as many kids as humanly possible.

It's all based on Psalm 127:
Lo children are an heritage of the LORD and the fruit of the womb is his reward
Happy is the man who has a quiverful.

That was probably REALLY good advice back in biblical times, when the child mortality rate was through the roof and parents needed as many kids as possible to help sustain their hardscrabble agrarian lifestyle. Thanks to medical advances and convenience stores, the need for a multitude of children has dwindled.

But Nancy Campbell, founder of the Quiverfull movement, which began to take hold back in the '80s, believes "The greatest impact is through my children." Campbell told NPR, "The more children I have, the more ability I have to impact the world for God." Or, more accurately, impact the world with Quiverfull families' big a** carbon footprints.

In these days of food shortages and pollutions, maybe Psalm 127 needs some revision to account for a global population that's teetering on 6.77 billion.

But Kathryn Joyce, author of "Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement," sees the future of the movement as strong. "If everyone starts having eight children or 12 children, imagine in three generations what we'll be able to do." Joyce also told NPR, "We'll be able to take over both halls of Congress ... we'll be able to reclaim sinful cities like San Francisco for the faithful." Um, yeah, good luck finding affordable housing in 'Frisco for a family of 20.

It's Multiple Mania!

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37 comments so far | Post a comment now >>

The Duggars have worked hard to pay for the amount of children they have. I’m wondering how many of these “quiverfulls” are on public assistance? Also, Mrs. Duggar should stop having babies now before either she or her next baby die during the birthing process. Her last chile was a couple weeks premature and that should be a huge red flag. Each birth Michelle has is already a VBAC,add the to her age and number of children she has. It’s a dangerous scenario. Not to mention that high odds of having a child with special needs. She’s no good to that large family if she’s dead. To me this is poor decision making. This is not a gift from God any longer but a dangerous gamble to collect more of the thing she loves. These large families put a strain on our global resources. They will only continue to strain our resources as a brood of 20 turns into a brood of 400 when the kids have 20 of their own.

- Jodi

Posted 04/14/09 12:14 PM

I think this is unfortunate. I think Anna and Josh are too young to have kids. yes, i know kids younger than them have kids but they are naive. yes, wait until you are married to have sex. yes, do court before you marry. but after you are married please get to know each other AND thyself. i am sure that everyone thought they knew it all at 20 only to realize they didn’t know squat. josh and anna are the same way…EXCEPT they have jim bob and michelle cheering them on!! COME ON!!! tell these kids to get an education, learn about life before creating one.

- D.W.

Posted 04/14/09 01:00 PM

The Dugger’s are doing a great job raising their family. They have values that not all of us understand, but they trust themselves to God and his plan for them. Jim Bob and Michelle are debt free and have 18 kids, I’m sure there are a lot of us here with 2 or 3 kids and in debt.

- Jadden

Posted 04/14/09 03:35 PM

Two words: Carbon footprint.

- sasuga

Posted 04/14/09 04:09 PM

The only thing that bothers me about the Duggars are the children raising children. If they didn’t force the older ones to take on the younger ones I would have no beef with them at all. The children are taken care of, paid for by their parents, I mean what more could you want. I just wish the children were allowed to be children their entire lives. It’s one thing to help out, it’s another to raise your sibling and that’s what they do.

- Pamala

Posted 04/14/09 07:42 PM

well of course she wants more kids as soon as the baby is old enough she passes it on to a buddy as she puts it she said it herself so are the parents raising these kids or are they raising each other i dont know but it reminds me of some kind of cult it just weirds me out

- al

Posted 04/14/09 08:16 PM

I think they have wonderful, well-mannered children who do not seem the least bit resentful for helping out around the home. Stop passing such harsh judgement on them. The family looks happy and healthy to me!

- Jenny

Posted 04/14/09 08:46 PM

Although I admire their willpower, morality and manners these people are actually very backward, controlling and essentially adding to their cult with each child. None of these children has freedom to think what they want and do what they want even into adulthood. I hope at least one or two rebel. Chilling.

- Kate

Posted 04/15/09 07:34 AM

What is disgusting is how people so easily reduce human beings to economical entities. They were a blessing because you need a lot of them to survive? I know you MomLogic bloggers are a petty and bitter bunch, but, wow! You really don’t seem to think much of children other than what *they* can do for *you*. An anonymous asked what happens when a Duggar wife discovers that she can’t have a lot of children. He addressed that with Joy Behar on Larry King and said he’d be happy with a small family, too. These people thoroughly understand that God is in control, not them. They realize that the planning is not in their hands and that they are not the boss. You folks who are so nasty should really look at why you have such strong feelings and are so threatened by this family’s ideas.

- Sandy

Posted 04/15/09 08:46 AM

It’s not the life for me, but the unnecessary meanness and bitterness the people seem to spew every time these people are mentioned is absolutely insane. Yes, Joshua and Anna are 20. But they are married, Anna has a college degree, and they own their own business. That’s far more than you can say for many people significantly older then they are, let alone the average 20 year old! (I’m 20 and excited just to be working TOWARDS a degree, lol!)

- Kirstie

Posted 04/15/09 10:16 AM

First of all, they don’t have cameras 24/7. They come once a week. They are not in thier faces all the time. As long as all these kids feel loved and are being cared for, I see no problem with this family. They are not on welfare, they recylce, they help the needy, & contribute to the poor. They went to a 3rd world counnrty to help the people. They teach their kids to love the Lord, and to serve their fellow man. Their kids are not running the streets, they are not out dealing drugs, they are not in gangs, they are not in jail. I think the world could take a parenting lesson from these people.

- Anonymous

Posted 04/15/09 12:08 PM

Jodi, 38 weeks gestation is not premature. Once you hit that point, it’s considered full term, so the Duggars’ youngest was actually on schedule. The only red flag I saw was the fact that Michelle needed a C-section (her third) because the baby turned sideways at the last second. And I agree with the posters who said that the impact of large families like this on the earth’s resources is NOT a good thing! I don’t even want to think about the size of their carbon footprint! My husband and I have two children, and I got my tubes tied after the second one. We recycle everything we can (which results in our garbage can hitting the curb twice a month at most), we grow our own vegetables and fertilize the garden courtesy of a compost pile in the backyard, and I’m a SAHM who homeschools to supplement the public schools in our town. Our kids are doing well, and they seem to be well-mannered and responsible thus far. And for the record, we’re not Christian.

- Amanda

Posted 04/15/09 01:45 PM

For the people that consider it irresponsible to the health of the earth, please take a step back and consider the absurdity of your concern. That one family is statistically insignificant, especillay since they probably have to reuse and buy second hand. So you have to ask, do you really think the publicity is going to make a significant section of the country say “ooh, 19 kids! That sounds fun, I should do that too.” get off your holier pedestal and don’t watch the show. If you are concerned about children raising children, send money to African orphan villages where it is actually a depressing problem. Spewing venom on forums does not make you the better person.

- Gwyneth

Posted 04/16/09 02:40 PM

Jeez people! Lay off! I don’t agree with them having so many kids but I’m not going to judge. Move on!

- SesshoumarusGirl

Posted 04/17/09 03:46 PM

The only thing that bothers me about this family is that the kids never seen to have “outside” friends like people that don’t come to their place that are in a huge family already.. maybe it’s just me.

- meh

Posted 04/18/09 06:51 PM

obscene!!! this is proof positive that most pest breed in mass amounts. cockroaches, mice, christians… the list goes on and on, and all the above have the same narrow minded selfish interest. me,me,me…

- Anonymous

Posted 09/29/09 04:14 PM

I am shocked by some of the vitriolic comments I am reading on here about the Duggars. As others have said, this is a self-sufficient family not relying on the government in any form. If you’d read their book, it explains a lot about their decisions and how they care for their large family. They don’t “force” the older children to care for the younger; they teach them to help each other. These have to be some of the most caring children I’ve ever seen! The girls learn to sew and cook and the boys learn how to fix cars and other useful tasks. They all worked together to build their house. Josh and his brother already run a successful business, so I see no reason why he shouldn’t be able to support a family. The nonsense about their “carbon footprint” is absolutely absurd because 1) this family buys their clothes second hand, makes their own laundry soap, and makes clothes as well, and 2) global warming doesn’t exist!! God made the earth to sustain itself, so all this garbage about global warming is ridiculous. The earth is getting colder, not warmer. Just my 2 cents.

- Andrea

Posted 10/09/09 01:42 PM

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