Onward, Christian soldiers?
QUIVERFULL:
Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement
By Kathryn Joyce
258 pp. Beacon Press $25.95
Reviewed by Steven Henderson
It’s a strange thing how sometimes what may appear to be laudable in one context becomes tainted, reconfigured, and repackaged in such a way that you’re no longer comfortable with it. For example, I believe there is some fundamental call for a higher order of respect that is due to a lady from a man. It might be old-fashioned, but my family instilled those ideas in me very early. Hold doors, let the lady go first, and all of the other good manners were reinforced frequently. I do those things under the spirit of politeness, not out of a belief in some fundamental inequality of women.
But what happens when you are involved in a world where, under the guise of paternalism and biblical stringency, one begins to control the entire life of a woman, calling it the duty of women to submit? This book answers that question, and the answers alternate between the horrifying and the depressing. Kathryn Joyce, a free-lancer who has written for numerous liberal publications, exposes all the sordid details—she fears this world is gaining more and more popularity.
In discussing a quote from one of the authors most cited by the “Christian Patriarchy” (Ideas Have Consequences, by Richard M. Weaver), Joyce speaks of the movement’s response to the problems of today’s society:
. . . [Christian Patriarchy is] an all-purpose “I told you so” to a society that has embraced, even to a limited extent, modern notions of women’s autonomy, broad definitions of family and love, and a high valuation of individual rights and fulfillment that, as they see it, can threaten the good of a community at large. When the lumbering conventional wisdom of centrist politics gets around to registering the effects of these ideas—sexual revolution ideas, in short—Weaver’s fans smile ruefully: they could have told you that feminism would lead to nothing good.
First and foremost, followers of the movement believe in the utter supremacy of the Bible. According to Genesis, a woman’s place is in submission to her husband. She is not equal, but rather was created as helper and follower. Trying to do jobs outside the home except as a last resort is strictly forbidden, and it seems that the by-words consist of “seen and not heard” in the public arena. The title of Joyce’s book comes from the name of one particular “packet” of thought within the Christian Patriarchy movement. The Quiverfull’s set of ideas specifically relate to children, but they are a part of the larger patriarchy movement and are tied to it. Quiverfull families cite Psalm 127:3-5 as the basis for their beliefs on the practice of procreation.
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.—KJV
To them this means there are to be no preventive measures to children’s being born, up to and including “non-treatment based” birth control actions, including abstinence and the rhythm method. Any notion of “family planning” that does not begin and end with the idea of “the more the merrier” is absolutely forbidden. This aspect of the Christian Patriarchy leads to some ideas that make up the core of the movement. Joyce says every woman in the movement is considered a “fountainhead” for the soldiers of a vanguard of Christ, and one day through their efforts the “faithful” will outnumber the unbelievers. The tacit statement is that if you can have children, you’d better be doing it: if you are having them, you’re wonderful; and if you can’t have them, you are not a worthy part of the community. With the inescapable interweaving of those two concepts, the doctrines of Quiverfull and the Christian Patriarchy, there are some very real—and very frightening—thoughts that exist in the world at large.
The power divide does not always work. Joyce tells the story of a husband and wife having marital problems. The husband is behaving insanely, accusing the wife of fictional affairs, committing acts of verbal abuse and other acts of cruelty. Eventually the wife goes to her pastor, who tells her that it is her “lack of submission” that is causing her husband to falter, and that she should “try harder.” Giving in, she signs agreements that she will follow her husband’s bidding in all instances. But the violence, abuse, and danger continue and get worse. Finally, in a state of absolute desperation, the wife returns to the pastor—who denounces her and calls her a “Jezebel.” The preacher then tells the entire congregation about the wife’s failure, and the community persecutes her.
The movement, according to Joyce, is small but growing. She suggests that the increasing number of home-schooled children, while not always those of members of a Patriarchal movement, provides some indication of the number of children being born into communities that will function exactly this way. The ideology, which aims to produce Christian soldiers, is a declaration of war.
Even as a male, who in the cosmic coin toss came out on top, it seems, I would seek a new place to live if the Patriarchy ideology ever became the majority.
Steven Henderson is an English teacher, avid reader, and blogger. Please visit his blog at http://viralknowledge.blogspot.com.
