What would you say to a woman who said to you, in all seriousness, that her womb was her weapon against the enemy?

I guess one part of me says good for her for sticking up for her beliefs and obeying the commandment to multiply. Second part of me says “make sure you can take care of your weapons”.

I’d say that she must be a member of the Quiverfull movement. I don’t know if I’d ask her much about it, since I’m not that interested in religious motivations for these kinds of actions. I also wouldn’t try to make her see things in a more mainstream way, because true believers are not subject to scientific information.

Sometimes, though, I use the same reasoning to urge people who don’t want to have kids for the sake of the environment to have kids. They will overrun us if we don’t have our own kids. Although, I trust that they will get an education (the kids, that is) and I know that that is the best way to get people to move towards a more progressive view of the world.

My wife heard that report and says she wants to start a “scissorfull” movement think about it

The moment I saw this question, I knew it ha to be about QuiverFull!

They terrify and disgust me. I had been waiting for this book to come out, but now I am almost afraid to read it because it will make me angry and depressed.

@willbrawn
I don’t think blind allegiance to such destructive beliefs is a praiseworthy thing.

It points to the weakness of their ideology in the “marketplace of ideas” that the only way they think they can advance their cause is to actually manufacture their foot soldiers.

It’s really not much different from the Khmer Rouge who used their indoctrinated child soldiers to overwhelm the thinking members of Cambodian society.

One can only hope that the kids will fight off the brainwashing and think for themselves…..

As an adviser to demographers, I don’t really worry about overpopulation. I worry about underpopulation. In WORLD POPULATION TO 2300, the UN releases it’s predictions:

Long-range population projections are reported to 2300, covering twice as long a period as ever covered in previous United Nations projections. These projections are not done by major area and for selected large countries (China and India), as was the previous practice, but for all countries of the world, providing greater detail.

In these projections, world population peaks at 9.22 billion in 2075. Population therefore grows lightly beyond the level of 8.92 billion projected for 2050 in the 2002 Revision, on which these projections are based. However, after reaching its maximum, world population declines slightly and then resumes increasing, slowly, to reach a level of 8.97 billion by 2300, not much different from the projected 2050 figure.

I’ve heard of other predictions that world population will actually go into a precipitous decline. We see the start of that in European nations and in the US, where the birth rate is already below the rate necessary to keep population at the same level. The only thing counteracting this in these countries is immigration.

In a mere fifty years, all families in Western nations will see significant incentives to have more children, as they do now, in France and Germany and Japan, I believe. If Italy doesn’t have such incentives, it ought to, since its population has experienced the most dramatic declines.

Seriously, these groups are too small to make even a statistical difference on the population meter. This is not how they will spread their ideology.

What I want to know is where these people stand on sterility. What if a woman can’t have children? What if a man can’t impregnate a woman? Are they god’s castoffs or what?

Hm, I’m just waiting for seVen to poke his little propaganda filled head in.

@KatawaGrey Interestingly, they cover some of that in the NPR report. One guy was vasectomized and the church found a doctor who would reverse the vasectomy for him for low cost.

@Benny There are actually ministries that exist just to reverse vasectomies and tubal ligations for QuiverFull adherents, and to raise the money to fund the procedures.

@daloon
Why in the world, for the sake of the Earth and its inhabitants rather than industry and business, would we want to increase the world population?

As far as ‘these groups are too small to make even a statistical difference on the population meter,” I think you underestimate greatly the effect that Christian Right has had on politics in the United States.

@crisw: 6 months ago, I would have agreed with you. However, considering that the Christian Right no longer has the majority of members in Congress, nor the White House. I think the Christian Right may be losing steam.

@Benny: I did see that in the article, but I meant the kind of sterility that isn’t reversible.

Fanatics of all sorts- bleh

She needs therapy to undo the brainwashing.

@mattbrowne Problem is that they love the brainwashing. They think it’s their life. Difficult to escape.

@KatawaGrey
Maybe on the federal level. At the state level, I think they are getting even more vicious. Look at Prop 8, which banned gay marriage in California (everyone is expecting the state court to uphold it), or the Texas school board which is facing yet another creationist assault, for examles.

I would let her know that it might be high time to air it out.

Nice to know that this “Christian movement” is based on bigotry (Those Muslims are going to outnumber us!).

All extremists should be killed! this is a tongue-in-cheek comment, so don’t fling stones and arrows at me.

@evelyns_pet_zebra…Isn’t a flung arrow a spear?

muh thunge ith altho in muh theek

Nothing at all. You just can’t fix stupid sometimes.

@crisw: Because if we don’t, then the population will drop precipitously, and that will cause severe dislocation, and a drop in the economy at that time. Managing world population is like managing the economy. They are both like an oil tanker. You have to start turning long before your turn comes, and you have to end long before the turn is completed, or else you will be crashing into things and spilling oil all over the place.

Our kids will be living at that time. Managing population now, is crucial for what happens then. We need to achieve a stable situation—no growth, and no precipitous declines, either. That’s gonna take some doing.

As to the importance of the Quiverfull movement—please. Most of the Christian right knows what birth control is, and uses it. You don’t think all those Christians are like Bristol Palin, do you? Most of them know that if they want to stay out of poverty, they have to limit their fertility. They will not be emulating the Quiverfull movement. Those folks are as crazy as I am, except in an opposite kind of way.

@syz I don’t agree with this. All the Christians I know, even the Fundamentalists, are perfectly reasonable people, and they are NOT bigots.

@Benny – Yes, sad but true.

@Benny That’s funny, most of the Church-going-bible-quoting Christians I know use the church as an excuse to exclude people who don’t look like them, live like them, talk like them, have sex like them, or think like them.

@syz That’s a shame. Like I said I know many Christians, and they’re all good people. Some are even Church going and know the Bible well.