Quiverfull article on Cracked

[happy atheist]

http://www.cracked.com/article_21061_5- ... dhood.html

 

The author, Hannah Ettinger, talks about the insanity of growing up Quiverfull. Not much new information, but it's good to see the subject being discussed somewhere as mainstream as Cracked.

[Jana814]

Interesting article! Felt bad for the friend she talked about in her article.

[Closed Womb]

Wow, book burning and rape denying in the same friend. Something about the book being an 'idol' made that household sound Maxwellian, although we know it's not since that girl had friends and the ability to have unknown social media accounts (Steve Maxwell would probably use that as proof of insular righteousness.)

I was glad to hear that some QF folks allow real colleges, the type that offer legit nursing degrees.

[happy atheist]

Yeah, the "making an idol" of the book made me think of Pepsi immediately.

[Emme]

Can someone go refute one of the most recent comments posted. It's by JJ Walrus: Who would have thought that a Mad Magazine clone would turn into this one day? Such overt hatred for people who don't fall in line with a liberal/humanist view point. This women obviously has an ax to grind so why are you featuring this if you're goal isn't to demean the faith of others? Yes, there are s****y situations within groups like this but there are also loving, happy families like the Duggers. Stop pretending to be a comedy website Cracked! It's a liberal, snarky website and the photoplasties are the only things that are truly funny anymore.

Reply

I want to reply but I'm tired and incoherent and can't think of ways to enumerate all the crappy things the Duggars do...

[misslady]

She's the one that got me started down the fundie rabbit hole. This makes me sound like a creepy stalker but way back when she was still in, I found her original blog, now defunct, that led me to the Harrises and LAF and eventually here. I was so happy when I stumbled across her current blog and saw she was out of that mess.

[debrand]

"Like roughly 2/3 of people who join cults, they came into it as young adults fleeing shitty childhoods. Choosing this alternative lifestyle was their rejection of the "normal" world -- whether they were fleeing drug abuse, alcohol abuse, or plain vanilla no-frills physical abuse -- to right the wrongs of their parents."

This is something that we have touched upon on this forum. Many of the adults who turn toward the quiverful mindset are from crappy or abusive families. An amazing large number of the women seem to have had really horrible relationships with their own mothers. Perhaps coming from an abusive childhood makes it easier for some individuals to find solace in black and white answers to life.

[shedemei]

Robert Evans has been publishing a series of stories like this from people who grew up on cults or have had unusual jobs. Examples include high-end prostitutes, prison workers, former Scientology kids, and a woman who was sent to one of those crazy tough love camps. I recommend reading them; they're very interesting.

[crazyforkate]

Yeah, I've loved Cracked's new series. There are some really interesting things in there.

[ariel9]

This article made me really want to read the book her friend wrote...oh wait her parents burned it.

[Jana814]

"Like roughly 2/3 of people who join cults, they came into it as young adults fleeing shitty childhoods. Choosing this alternative lifestyle was their rejection of the "normal" world -- whether they were fleeing drug abuse, alcohol abuse, or plain vanilla no-frills physical abuse -- to right the wrongs of their parents."

This is something that we have touched upon on this forum. Many of the adults who turn toward the quiverful mindset are from crappy or abusive families. An amazing large number of the women seem to have had really horrible relationships with their own mothers. Perhaps coming from an abusive childhood makes it easier for some individuals to find solace in black and white answers to life.

That could be true for so many of them. They r trying to find themselves or they don't feel part of the "normal" world & r looking for something else.

[16strong]

I really really hope that the girl who wrote the sci-fi/fantasy novel rewrote it after it was burned. In fact, I hope she wrote it to be even better than before, and got it published. If she hasn't, she really owes it to herself to do so.

[actuallyjessica]

her website is pretty informative.

hannahettinger.com

[nellautumngirl]

"Like roughly 2/3 of people who join cults, they came into it as young adults fleeing shitty childhoods. Choosing this alternative lifestyle was their rejection of the "normal" world -- whether they were fleeing drug abuse, alcohol abuse, or plain vanilla no-frills physical abuse -- to right the wrongs of their parents."

This is something that we have touched upon on this forum. Many of the adults who turn toward the quiverful mindset are from crappy or abusive families. An amazing large number of the women seem to have had really horrible relationships with their own mothers. Perhaps coming from an abusive childhood makes it easier for some individuals to find solace in black and white answers to life.

Interesting. Is it true with the Duggars for example? Jim Bob had huge problems with his father, and he doesn't treat his mother with much respect.

Although Michelle was the "baby" in her family, I've never seen her talk about her parents. Did she ever mention how life was in her family?

[neuroticcat]

I've always speculated there was some kind of estrangement with Michelle's family. It could be that they disapproved of the QF lifestyle or understandably don't want their lives on TV of course, but they are really absent fro the show. The one time they went to the family reunion/grandpa's birthday party, it seemed off. If I remember correctly, they made some comment about how many children had been born since they had last seen them, and it was like 5+ years. For people who travel around fellowshipping all over the country, surely they would have connected some other time?

I think that and the fact that she really never mentions her family sends up little red flags. I would imagine saying anything negative=not honoring her parents, so she only says the positive things she can, i.e. Daddy was a good provider, and crickets to anything else. I've also wondered how old she was when her mother died. I cannot recall her ever mentioning her mother at all, which makes me wonder. I think Jim Bob's few references to his father's anger problems as well as his own obsession with never becoming angry point to a difficult childhood. Besides the fact that it seems the financial instability must have had an impact - anyone remember the story where they literally had no food so G-ma Duggar cooked up the rice that had been on the mantel as a decoration for years?

All that to say, I definitely think dysfunction draws people to this lifestyle. When you look at the characteristics for codependence - which many adult survivors of abuse have - it fits: desire for external authority, inability to take responsibility for decisions, rigid thinking, enmeshed relationships, serving others at the expense of self, complete control over environment and relationships. I tend to think for people who come into it out of abusive/dysfunctional backgrounds, they are patterned to have their true self consumed by something/someone else, so they opt for extreme religious fundamentalism over the extremely-anxiety-producing process of becoming a separate person.

[nellautumngirl]

Sounds logical to me.

I wonder if Michelle has always been this narcisstic. Maybe her parents spoiled her as the only child at home, maybe they didn't want to see it or were too old to care? Or were they the reason she became this way in the first place? I find this so interesting because Michelle is such a piss-poor mother with so much disregard for anyone around her, what environment produces such a woman? On the other hand, her siblings, the little we've seen of them, seem like lovely, down-to-earth people.