Is Quiverfull Dying?

[TammyofGod71]

Hello all, I was wondering- As a Quiverfull Mommy, I am often met with strange looks from fellow christians when i tell them about my beliefs! Does no one still believe in letting the Lord decide your path in life?

 

[Pavel Mosko]

I don't think it was ever big. I only heard about a few years ago and I've managed to keep up with most American Evangelical movements.

 

[TammyofGod71]

Sad! I hope to spread the good word to other Christian mommies like myself!

 

[Brightmoon]

. Nothing wrong with having kids if you want them . But the world is over populated and I figured out that my paternal grandfather only had 2 living children . They had 5 children (my sisters and first cousin )in total . I’ve got 4 descendants, my sisters and first cousin have 9) and that when the numbers start climbing. 19 of those people are still alive .

 

[thecolorsblend]

But the world is over populated

Not really. Certain parts of the world are overpopulated. None of them are America. If anyone should scale back the number of children they have, it's them. America would have to embrace quiverfull on a nationwide basis for at least two entire generations to even be compared with other places in the world.

If Christians want to have babies, I say go for it. If they want to have even more babies, that's fine too.

 

[Brightmoon]

America has 335 million people. I’d say that’s over crowded . Most of our population lives near the coasts and Americans way use too much of the worlds resources .

 

[jacks]

Nothing wrong with having all the children you can afford. They are expensive!

 

[Quid est Veritas?]

. Nothing wrong with having kids if you want them . But the world is over populated and I figured out that my paternal grandfather only had 2 living children . They had 5 children (my sisters and first cousin )in total . I’ve got 4 descendants, my sisters and first cousin have 9) and that when the numbers start climbing. 19 of those people are still alive .

How can we determine that the world is overpopulated? What would be the appropriate population then?

We currently produce more than enough food to support upwards of 10 billion people, we just have distribution and economic issues.

Feeding the world without wrecking the planet is possible

Environmental degradation is disproportionately thanks to the lifestyles of a tiny percentage of the population, not to the amount of people.

'The rich are to blame for climate change'

Simply put, large parts of the world are empty. It is said we could stick the entire world population into Texas, with each having a plot of about roughly 100 square metres. People just crowd on to bits of it, but we can both feed the current population and more, without doing more environmental damage. The problem is the tiny bit that live to excess. The problem is Greed, not over-population.

We have forgotten the Virtue of Temperance in our lives, that is all. Sure, that can also be applied to breeding, but a blanket statement of 'overpopulation' cannot really be supported. It is merely stated, usually.

 

[Quid est Veritas?]

Hello all, I was wondering- As a Quiverfull Mommy, I am often met with strange looks from fellow christians when i tell them about my beliefs! Does no one still believe in letting the Lord decide your path in life?

I don't have a particularly large family, but I am often met with disbelief and tut-tuts of 'having your hands full'. Culturally, the West has shifted to a one or two kids standard, and anything more, such as my three, have become noteworthy. Children are a blessing, and I feel their relegation to a luxury is one of the saddest aspects of modern life.

 

[Brightmoon]

My great grandmother had 15 and my grandmother ( her daughter) had one . The jockeying for attention, pseudo-parenting by the older kids , and the bullying by the older kids sorta explains that . Not one of the 15 had more than 3. They didn’t like growing up being part of large family. My great grandmother would be sick with each of those 15 pregnancies and she was stuck with that because she couldn’t refuse her husband. “Good” women didn’t practice birth control back then ( late 19th century) She probably would have if it hadn’t been illegal. I suspect that my grandmother did as she was a teenager/ young adult in the roaring 20s

 

[Quid est Veritas?]

My great grandmother had 15 and my grandmother ( her daughter) had one . The jockeying for attention, pseudo-parenting by the older kids , and the bullying by the older kids sorta explains that . Not one of the 15 had more than 3. They didn’t like growing up being part of large family. My great grandmother would be sick with each of those 15 pregnancies and she was stuck with that because she couldn’t refuse her husband. “Good” women didn’t practice birth control back then ( late 19th century) She probably would have if it hadn’t been illegal. I suspect that my grandmother did as she was a teenager/ young adult in the roaring 20s

The factors around fertility are actually quite complex, and we have good data for the last century or so. Social stress is associated with early menarche (starting your period), and growing up in a single parent home is too, independantly thereof. Excess nutrition in childhood, but pre-natal starvation, are also associated with early menarche. Urbanisation also shifted fertility patterns.

The early 20th century was a roller coaster ride, of good times in 1900, 1920, 1950s; and shortages and disease in 1910s, and 1930 till the 50s, etc. Further, many households lost husbands in the wars, and the social disruption of the following years didn't help. On average, the menarche shifted earlier in the 20th century, but marriages later; children born out of wedlock remained low till late in the century, but sexually transmitted infections dramatically increased; and the entirety has to do with declining fertility rates. The failure rates of early family planning was very high, as vulcanised rubber condoms were crude, spermicides ineffective, early IUDs ineffective or dangerous, and hormonal contraceptive only available from the 60s. Of course, Abortion also increased during that time, but the estimated mortality of an abortion was about 30-40%, so this is insufficient to explain the decline in fertility or family size.

So the fertility period often shifted earlier, but women still only married later and most still only procreated in wedlock, so a shorter period of optimum fertility; with increasing factors like urbanisation and irregular nutrition trends, decline of fathers in the household, increased STIs, etc. Family sizes dramatically trended downward from the 1880s onwards, but that can only be partly attributed to birth control which was not effective or safe till the 60s, and has more to do with shifting social and biological fertility patterns in the population.

 

[Singlemom4goodman]

Hello all, I was wondering- As a Quiverfull Mommy, I am often met with strange looks from fellow christians when i tell them about my beliefs! Does no one still believe in letting the Lord decide your path in life?

 

[Singlemom4goodman]

Like minded quiverfull mommy here

 

[bèlla]

Tammy,

I know several Christian women with large families. They don't identify as Quiverfull but they've allowed the Lord to build their nest. Look up large family mom bloggers. There are several who specialize in that niche. You'll find others like yourself.

Yours in His Service,

~Bella

 

[Sabertooth]

Hello all, I was wondering- As a Quiverfull Mommy, I am often met with strange looks from fellow christians when i tell them about my beliefs! Does no one still believe in letting the Lord decide your path in life?

Many of the early contributors here (like us) are now empty-nesters. We met with the same resistance (secular & sectarian) when we were having kids in the 1980s & '90s. Our youngest was born in 2000.

It seems like once we found each other on-line, we affirmed each other and, then, the on-line activity dried up. This is not (nor ever was) a man-organized movement. God convicted a number of couples independently --at the same time!

More at Hello from a PhD student in Scotland

 

[Sabertooth]

. Nothing wrong with having kids if you want them . But the world is over populated and I figured out that my paternal grandfather only had 2 living children . They had 5 children (my sisters and first cousin )in total . I’ve got 4 descendants, my sisters and first cousin have 9) and that when the numbers start climbing. 19 of those people are still alive .

Nothing wrong with having all the children you can afford. They are expensive!

Debate about contraception is not allowed in this sub-forum.