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    dontbeanidiotJennifer C. Martin
    5/25/15 9:17am

    I know that this will probably not make any difference to anyone, because most people’s minds are already made up, but I promise that not all homeschooled, Christian families are like this.

    I was homeschooled and grew up in a Christian household. Yeah, maybe I had a few more restrictions than other people, but I still consider my childhood “normal,” even looking back as someone who is now in the real world. I got to take field trips (they even let me go to New York City, the “land of the gays!” [smh]), date girls, listen to any type of music (The Strokes, anyone?), and learn about cultures outside of America and Christianity.

    My siblings and I (there were 4 of us, idk if that really counts as a quiverfull?) were raised to respect other people, no matter our differences. Believe it or not, we never molested each other or anyone else and were taught to always treat others like we wanted to be treated. All of us turned out pretty well, I’m in the military, my brother is at a military academy, my older sister owns her own business, and my younger sister is in college.

    I know it’s easy to look at one psycho family and think that we’re all the same, but I promise that’s not the case.

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      dontbeanidiotdontbeanidiot
      5/25/15 9:23am

      And I should add, my mom and dad love each other and there was never any of the stupid patriarchal nonsense. Sure they had their disagreements, but it never came down to “I am the man, we are doing it this way.” I'm thankful for them/that.

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      Wishbone of Arcdontbeanidiot
      5/25/15 9:35am

      #NotAllArrows

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    amandaaries7Jennifer C. Martin
    5/24/15 5:56pm

    Good show, Gawker! This is exactly what people need to know about these nutjobs. Josh Duggar is a sexual offender, but his entire cult was built by predators. This wasn’t a “little mistake.” ALL these men believe themselves holier than women due to their powerful penises, and they believe all these lesser beings should just bow down before them. Expose them for the fraudulent, hypocritical, evil fuckers that they are.

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      peacelovecrazyamandaaries7
      5/25/15 9:38am

      Yes, this was well-written and incredibly informative. It’s interesting; you don’t usually get something so thorough in the mainstream media.

      I had a friend who was not quite Quiverfull, but who lived most of the other beliefs besides having large numbers of kids. She even had a PhD in math, but mostly didn’t work. Her mother had a PhD in Nuclear Engineering and father Chemical Engineering, so it’s not like she wasn’t smart. As far as I could tell, her religion was based 100% on fear. She was afraid she was going to hell for “blaspheming the Holy Spirit” because one time she thought something faithless.

      We got along by not talking about religion or politics. She was willing to tolerate me for a while. After her husband got cancer, she became more strident and intolerant. We got into an argument about whether the government should fund schools at all. She said “no”. I said “I’m a single mother who can’t homeschool, what about my kids?” It is an incredibly selfish religion. I wondered what she would do when her sheltered son had to go to college. The answer: he is majoring in engineering (of course) at college where a Christian homeschool dad bought a house. All the homeschool boys live there together so they don’t have to interact much with the other students. Those kids have been pretty much brainwashed.

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      Ceekkamandaaries7
      5/25/15 9:40am

      HILLSONG UNITED. Another effed up cult of evangelical pentecostal hypocritical scumbag nutjobs. Except Hill song is right here in New York City at two locations spreading their bigotry hatred and lunacy. But they cloak it in music that is a combination of EDM and pop. They clone a rock concert with lights and video and pretty shiny objects. The lines to attend their bigotry pstchotic speak in tongue sessions line up and down city blocks by the thousands. The pastor has tattoos and dresses in really cool modern clothes so its all hipster and love you now.

      They are quiver full cult shit. ...nothing more. scary that a bunch of mainly younger idiots in some of the world’s biggest cities are sucked into their insanity because.....who the fuck knows.

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    toothpetardJennifer C. Martin
    5/25/15 9:14am

    This hat is warning enough.

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      reggiebushlateraltoothpetard
      5/25/15 9:21am

      So all this and they got a tv show? That is scary.

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      toothpetardreggiebushlateral
      5/25/15 9:23am

      It’s how america rewards its religious fundamentalists.

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    cheerful_exgirlfriendJennifer C. Martin
    5/25/15 9:38am

    Very good piece. And thank you for saying this:

    One line of argument you might hear is that Josh Duggar didn’t know it was wrong to molest girls or that he didn’t know what he was doing. He comes from a culture in which women are forbidden from showing their shoulders in case it causes their brothers to stumble, where they aren’t allowed to dance or front hug their own siblings—so how would he not know it’s wrong to fondle their breasts and genitals?

    Don’t let anyone tell you this.

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      UnicornIceCreamcheerful_exgirlfriend
      5/25/15 9:59am

      ( didja notice the avatar?)

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      craigthejollyfatmancheerful_exgirlfriend
      5/25/15 10:04am

      In another article about the subject a commenter, Starfox, goes really far out of his way to act as if Josh Duggar was an innocent child who deserves forgiveness and does so at length against an onslaught of replies calling him out. That someone could defend such actions is sickening.

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    NavyObserverJennifer C. Martin
    5/25/15 9:08am

    If it’s such a new thing, then most women who become Quiverfull wives weren’t raised in it. So what the hell are they thinking getting into it?

    It literally sounds like some dude had an SVU-level impregnation fetish and used AOL chat rooms in the 90’s to convince others to join.

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      ojlkjsdfNavyObserver
      5/25/15 9:18am

      A movement that’s built on having as many kids as possible can obviously grow quite quickly in a short amount of time. I doubt many new wifes come into it at this point that weren’t raised to believing this is the correct way of doing things...

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      ottokatzNavyObserver
      5/25/15 9:21am

      Most of the women in it now were raised in it! They get married at 18, meaning they were born by 1997, this started in the 80’s. Time flies when you’re having fun. Or being molested by your brother, or father, or boss....

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    The Noble RenardJennifer C. Martin
    5/25/15 9:36am

    I’m definitely not the first to say this, but this whole disaster raises yet again the question why TLC has not been held more responsible for putting this cult family on TV. By enabling them and their attitudes, they allowed the Duggars to appear as righteous and powerful, to the point that Josh Duggar hung out with all the famous Republicans pictures above. And throughout all of this, the borderline child abuse (in the form of the horrifying psychological sexist bullshit) perpetuated agains the Duggar children, especially the girls, was not only allowed to continue but was probably played up for the cameras.

    It’s as if the Manson Family was the subject of a reality TV show and then was pulled five years later when it turned out that, surprise surprise, the cult leader had been doing some awful things with all that TV show money.

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      linaleeThe Noble Renard
      5/25/15 10:06am

      I agree. There’s NO WAY that TLC wasn’t aware of the more horrifying aspects of this family’s religion, and they chose to exploit these kids for TV anyway.

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      benjaminalloverThe Noble Renard
      5/25/15 10:12am

      That’s what’s unique and alarming about the Duggars; not that they’re part of this anti-feminist cult, but how mainstream both TLC and the modern republican party has made them. These are 2015 conservative christian values, and they’re a lot more extreme and widespread than a generation ago.

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    Pangolin_of_DoomJennifer C. Martin
    5/25/15 10:16am

    Gawker, you forgot a few things.

    1) Child abuse. Beating the ever loving fuck out of kids as young as four months with belts and sticks to “break their spirit” (yes, we’re quoting here) is a major part of Quiverfull ideology. If you are not hitting your four-year-old with a piece of PVC pipe until she falls down and pees herself, you are not doing Quiverfull right. Your list of influential “thinkers” should have included Michael Pearl, author of “To Train Up a Child”

    2) Overseas Adoption. It’s not enough to have dozens of kids. Quiverfull also adopts children out of foster care and from Africa and South America as a kind of colonialist mission work, with unbelievably horrible results.

    3) The enormous difficulty women have in leaving Quiverfull. Leave, and you will be dead to your entire family, all of your friends, and everyone you have ever known. Everyone at your church will testify against you to ensure your husband gets sole custody of the kids. You will be utterly alone in the world with a third-grade fundamentalist education and a nineteenth-century skill set.

    4) “Christian Domestic Discipline.” I’ll just let you all google that one yourselves.

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      bioluminescentPangolin_of_Doom
      5/25/15 10:36am

      Your list of influential “thinkers” should have included Michael Pearl

      Yes indeed. I mentioned in the comments section of a different article that Michelle Duggar has publicly asserted that her children were blanket trained.

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      prestocrazymwahahahahaPangolin_of_Doom
      5/25/15 10:51am

      True, they didn’t even get to the most disturbing shit. To Train Up a Child, to me, reads like To Completely Destroy a Child. Reminds me of this.

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    RealAmurricanJennifer C. Martin
    5/25/15 10:10am

    “Be available. Anyone can fix him lunch, but only one person can meet that physical need of love that he has”

    How in the everloving fuck does that have anything to do with an “intent to procreate”!? Unless that quote was immediately followed by a stipulation regarding ovulation cycles, and/or a proposed theory that women are always ovulating, that has absolutely nothing to do with procreation.

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      cheerful_exgirlfriendRealAmurrican
      5/25/15 10:27am

      Ovulation cycle smovulation cycle, if the husband king wants to have sex that’s God telling him there is a potential baby. God >science.

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      prestocrazymwahahahahaRealAmurrican
      5/25/15 10:44am

      No, no, God whispers in the husband’s ear when it’s time to FEEHK, so he just straight up knows when a baby is a’coming. The only thing that could shut that shit down is if her heart is unclean and burdened with any kind of knowledge, resentment, or independent will.

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    Mr. CrabbsJennifer C. Martin
    5/25/15 9:43am

    More to be angry at—I thought TLC removed the show. Here is their TV main page three days later.

    T

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      BabylegsMr. Crabbs
      5/25/15 10:01am

      THIS is what I’ve been clamoring about since Friday. When the Honey Boo Boo scandal broke TLC erased it from the website and canceled the show, making their severance from the Thompson family clear as day.

      From where I’m standing, TLC has not canceled 19 Kids; it’s just pulled it from schedule for the foreseeable future, and they still consider this show part of its brand. Clearly they’re invested in the rest of this family and are hoping to mine the Duggars (sans Josh and Anna, as many speculate) for future wedding and baby specials. TLC has in no way punished these people the way they deserve.

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      YoureNotMakingSenseBabylegs
      5/25/15 11:06am

      So, the whole family should be punished? Even those that were molested? The ones that turned Josh into the police?

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    X37.9XXSJennifer C. Martin
    5/25/15 9:11am

    This has been done before

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      IWasCorporateRejectX37.9XXS
      5/25/15 9:27am

      Yeah, and they both eventually blew it. This cult has been around since the 1980s, and they think they can outnumber the Muslims?

      Uh-huh. Call me in 2,000 years and give me a progress report, then maybe I’ll worry.

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      Galeria Nacional de ClipArtX37.9XXS
      5/25/15 9:28am

      Quiverful. Putting the God in Godwin.

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