The Quiverfull Movement: How High Fertility Ideologies Die

Join us as we delve into the history and controversies of the Quiverfull movement, a conservative religious group known for promoting large families as a response to modern secular trends. We discuss its origins, major influences, and the peak of its visibility, particularly through media exposure like the Duggar family's reality show. We also explore the numerous scandals and controversies, including those involving abuse and patriarchal control, that have led to its decline in recent years. Finally, we reflect on lessons that contemporary Christian high-fertility movements can learn to avoid similar downfalls.

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Malcolm Collins: Hello Simone. I'm excited to be here with you today. Today we are going to be discussing the quiver full movement and what happened to them because I was noticing at the recent prenatal list convention, we had lots of conservative religious people come.

Yeah.

Yes, it was about two thirds of the people there. With, as I said it's about one third just Tech bros. One third just Religion Bros. One third Tech and Religion bros. Um mm-hmm. And so, what there wasn't a lot of was.

Evangelical. And especially what there noticeably wasn't a lot of was quiver full. And if you are unfamiliar with the quiverfull movement, I will give you a brief background. The movement primarily based in the United States with some spread in the uk, emerged in the late 20th century as a response to feminism and modern birth control.

It derives its name and philosophy from 1 27 3 through five, which compares children to arrows in the hand of a warrior symbolizing [00:01:00] divine blessings and strengths through procreation. And it also says the children of your youth implementing in that land that you should have kids while you're still young, which I,

Simone Collins: oh, which is one of the key things now is, is how do we get people in their twenties to start having kid again?

So you think, oh, this is so promising. This is perfect. Okay, great start.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah. Basically, it, it argues, and I actually find it to be a really important passage in the Bible. Mm-hmm. It says that, you know, the children you have in your youth are like the arrows in your quiver for your adulthood. Because what it's basically telling you is that while you're young, you should fill your era with quivers so that when you go to war. You have the boat, but, but it, it talks about having kids as a preparatory thing for a full life rather than the capstone of it.

Yes. Which is actually a really powerful way to see having children. Yes. Anyway. Adherence self-identify as quiver full or full quiver or qf. [00:02:00] Christians issue all forms of contraception, including natural family planning and sterilization. Viewing family sides is solely determined by God. This is the wheel people.

Ah,

Simone Collins: okay. First place. I'm seeing cracks here.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah, note that this might be why they don't have many kids anymore because biological fertility has been falling and you really need to plan on kids. When Katherine Pock, she was on our show, she did college, she did a big thing where she interviewed 50 people who had over five kids.

Only one of them used this method. So it is very rare to use this among large families. Mm-hmm. This NAIC approach is part of a broader conservative Christian pushback against secular trends aiming for demographic growth. To influence culture and politics. Early influences include works like a full quiver, family planning and the Lordship of Christ by Rick and Jan Hess, which framed large families of a fulfillment of divine command.

The movement gained traction in the 1980s and nineties, aligning with other conservative ideologies like Christian patriarchy, which . Emphasized male headship and female [00:03:00] submission. No. Before we go further, was this, that's, that's basically the gist of what the movement was. It was the spooky prenatal list that I knew of growing up.

Like if somebody had said, what is a prenatal list? Movement, I would've said Quiverfull. And when I grew up in the nineties,

Simone Collins: 100%,

Malcolm Collins: but. They've basically gone extinct as we showed in a recent episode, TISM significantly outcompete queer full as something like a search term these days. And so the question is, what happened to them?

Why aren't they going to like natal list conferences? Why aren't they in talks with, you know, with all of the, the political talk about brutalism these days and JD vs in office, why isn't there some quiver full. You know, thinker or talker stepping up and catching news because there isn't. Mm-hmm.

And it's uniquely interesting because they were having lots of kids. And so this is important to us. You know, it shows that just having lots of kids isn't enough and can even lead to the extinction of your movement. And so this is something that we have to look [00:04:00] out for. I mean, we are a Christian high fertility movement, right?

Yeah. So, how do we pass that on intergenerationally? When they failed to do this.

Simone Collins: Yeah.

Malcolm Collins: So let's explore the movement and let's explore how it fell apart and how we can avoid that. The movement reached peak visibility during the two thousands and 2000 tens, largely due to media exposure. Families like the Duggars featured on the reality show, 19 Kids and Counting became public faces that they did not explicitly identify as quiver Full.

Their lifestyle was 19. Children mirrored the movement's ideals, bringing it into mainstream awareness. At this time, estimates suggest that around 10,000 adherence was a focus on large families, often six to 12 children as a strategy for demographic shift in cultural influence. And no, here they were not that big.

10,000 movements at their peak. Right. And I think that that and the evangelicals more broadly sort of were overplayed by the media as a much larger movement than they ever really were. This period saw the movements [00:05:00] doctrines, such as rejecting birth control and emphasizing homeschooling

to maintain indoctrination became widely discussed. However, the movement faced significant controversies that likely contributed to decline in prominence. Reports of spiritual abuse, dehumanizing practices, and patriarchal control emerged with former members like Vicki Garrison, a turned activist highlighting the darker side.

The grudge article from 2023 noticed the movements association with Kissing Patriarchy were wives. Were expected to be subservient and fathers controlled all aspects of family life, making it harder for members to leave. Mm-hmm. Specific cases such as women continuing pregnancies against medical advice, nearly dying, underscored the physical and emotional toll as seen in examples like Gar Garrison's Seventh Child Critiques, also focused on sustainability with physical, emotional, and financial strains on families.

The movement's vision for large families was seen as impractical in modern context and political strategy. Aiming for [00:06:00] influence through demographic growth was questioned for limited electoral impact outside of conservative communities. Oh, these contries amplified by media and former members' testimonies likely eroded its broader appeal.

So what are your thoughts so far?

Simone Collins: Well, I think the really strong thing is this message of starting your twenties and kids are an asset. The Let Jesus take a wheel. No family planning, not even natural family planning approach is insane. And what really bothers me about the man has to be the leader approach is that only works when you have an excep