A Quiverfull of Patriarchal Dominion Theology

Concerned father about daughter’s choice of American Girl Julie, doll child of a divorced doll mother; “we’ll have to have many more conversations with her about why God established families and why he gave us churches and especially the Scriptures to help guide us"

Time waits for no blog.  I started this post a couple of weeks ago, with the working title of ‘What Would Duggars Do?’  The idea was to explore the dilemma faced by extreme right-wing Christian evangelicals in the face of a rapidly expanding Republican Presidential field that tilts to the fundamentalist side of the religio-political spectrum.  I planned to use the highly visible Duggar family as exemplars: they had supported Mike Huckabee in 2008, Rick Santorum in 2012, and Family Values flak/eldest son Josh Duggar seemed to support everyone.  WWDD? Maybe I could start a lucrative hand-braided bracelets sideline.  

Then the Duggars destroyed my hypothetical question (and cottage inspirational bracelet industry) by coming out for Huckabee.  I changed my focus:  why Huckabee rather than the more fertile Santorum?  That question led me into the netherworld of cult-like Christian ‘movements.’  I felt like Pee-Wee Herman; my mind was playing tricks on me “like you're unraveling a big cable-knit sweater [vest?] that someone keeps knitting and knitting and knitting and knitting and knitting and knitting and knitting... “  In other words, I kept finding more creepily fascinating stuff, and the in-process blog became buried in a heap of infinitely tangled theology. (The preliminary answer to the Duggars’ allegiance:  Mike Huckabee’s 1998 signing of the Christian Patriarchy manifesto  — since Huckabee didn’t run in 2012, they switched to Santorum, who supports much of what they support but is . . . Roman Catholic!)

Rather than WWDD, maybe I should explore WWPWD

The final blows to my nascent blog occurred last week.  Josh Duggar made headlines for molesting his sisters; the elder Duggars made headlines for covering it up;  Mike Huckabee made headlines for instantly galumphing to the family’s defense; editorial and opinion writers made headlines by digging into the beliefs that shape the Duggars’ way of life.

Which is what I’d been noodling about!  What’s left to write on this subject?

Maybe not much. The most helpful thing I came up with is to attempt unraveling these beliefs, as recent coverage tends to conflate them.  Certainly, they cross-pollinate each other, and people like the Duggars apparently subscribe to all three.  But the doctrines have distinct emphases and pet causes.  Here goes.

Christian Patriarchy

Female family members’ job is to keep a moral home, to please and support the husband/father/brother, to be modest, yet to be an always-available sex object (or potential sex object).  And to cultivate and curl their crowning glory.

This is fairly simple to understand.  The family unit’s head is the father, to whom all other family members owe unquestioning obedience. Males literally rule females — daughters as well as wives — as well as unmarried sons until they wed and become ruling fathers themselves.

—Favorite political targets:  Marriage equality, LGBT rights, Women’s Health Care and Pro-Choice initiatives, Common Core, Equal Pay

—Representative Duggaresque manifestation:  Female curly hair.  It’s most pleasing to the pater familias.  On the other hand, one might argue that — as women are the source of male temptation — it’s a possible tool of Satan.  Another manifestation: a smiling, cheerful countenance at all times.

—Founding Fathers:  Douglas Wilson, Douglas Phillips (leader of Vision Forum and mentor of the Duggars, who had to resign after charges of sexual abuse)

Quiverfull

From Psalm 27: 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

This too is fairly simple.  Although the term is based on a Biblical verse, this risibly named movement suggests the vexed sexual frissons that vibrate through extremist religious teachings about sex and sexuality.  It’s all about having children — the more, the godlier.  Any other type of sexual expression is really, really bad. Plus fundamentalist Christians have a duty to outbreed people who are not fundamentalist Christians (see Dominion Theology).

—Favorite political targets:  Abortion, Contraception, Home Schooling Regulation, Immigration Reform, plus anything conceivably promoting ‘homosexual agenda’

—Representative Duggaresque Manifestation:  Uhm, a disconcertingly huge family? One that includes seeking out fertility treatments (against the teachings of Quiverfull, which hold that God decides the size of your family) even after you’ve had enough children for two baseball teams?

—Founding parents:  Mary Pride, Bill Gothard (Duggar guiding star recently outed and disgraced for sexual harassment)

Dominion Theology

James McNaughton’s 2012 painting “One Nation Under God” encapsulates Dominionism’s theocratic view of United States’ history and destiny

This, to me, is somewhat murkier.  It has to do with a radical view of American Exceptionalism: the United States is a Christian nation that needs to be restored to its original doctrinal purity; the United States is divinely ordained to reshape the world in its own (purified Christian) image; humans have absolute dominion over the earth.

—Favorite political targets:  the Supreme Court, Environmentalism, ‘Global Warming,’ Evolution, the United Nations, Immigration Reform, Home-schooling regulation

—Representative Duggaresque Manifestion:  Active advocacy for almost every ultra-right-wing candidate within their sights and who are willing to pay appearance fees

—Founding Fathers:  Rousas Rushdoony, James Dobson, Rick Warren, Calvin Beisner

You might want to visit the McNaughton interactive site, where the artist explains the ideological impetus behind every aspect of his busily programmatic painting, “One Nation Under God.”  Because few will have the time or interest to click on each figure, I recommend focusing on the unhappy group on the lower right.  A supreme court justice plus ‘bad opinions’ (Marbury v. Madison, Roe v. Wade to name a few) . . . an unwed mother . . . a humanist college professor . . . a liberal reporter . . . corrupt lawyers and politicians . . . all representative of the country’s fall from Christian grace.  That this painting, by a conservative Mormon, has been promoted by fringe Evangelicals and extreme Tea-Partiers suggests the interconnectedness, seductiveness, and political testosterone of the movements I’ve tried to outline.  

Back to Josh Duggar, because why not?  His teenage misdemeanors (I looked into Arkansas law about sexual offenses, and his acts were not felonies because of [1] his age; and [2] lack of penetration) are reprehensible . . . and probably more common in large families (where monitoring each child’s activities is logistically difficult) and in strictly religious families (where frank discussions about sexuality are rare) than one would like to think.  What has made his story headline-worthy is the hyprocrisy at its core as well as general cultural schadenfreude.  What should also make it headline-worthy is the crepuscular light it sheds on a hybrid theocratic ideology that is frighteningly active in today’s politics.  

References

[Note:  I stopped listing references three days ago, when the Josh Duggar revelations hit the fan and the news waves.  This list of references is not complete up to that time, either, as I didn’t want to detail every increasingly tiresome or depressing article I’d consulted that covered common ground.]

“8 steps to confront your wife’s sexual refusal.”  Biblical Gender Roles 23 May 2015. [Note -- OK, this I found a day ago -- too stunning to omit. The understandably anonymous author has a series of these screeds, findable on his website if you're a true glutton for punishment.]  http://biblicalgenderroles.com/2015/05/23/8-steps-to-confront-your-wifes-sexual-refusal/

Berlet, Chip.  “Inside the Christian Right Dominionist Movement That’s Undermining Democracy.”  PRA archives online n.d. (apparently 2011).  http://www.publiceye.org/christian_right/dominionism.htm 

Bishop, J. M.  “How are the Duggars dealing with the Gothard sex scandal?”  Powder Room/Jezebel  27 May 2014.  http://powderroom.jezebel.com/how-are-the-duggars-dealing-with-the-gothard-sex-scanda-1581883720

Brantley, Max.  “Another reason to oppose Tom Cotton and Asa Hutchinson.” Arkansas Times 17 October 2014.  http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2014/10/17/another-reason-to-oppose-tom-cotton-and-asa-hutchinson

Burleigh, Nina.  “The Duggars Seem So Nice Until You Meet Their Terrifying Political Agenda.”  The New York Observer Online 10 December 2014.  http://observer.com/2014/12/the-duggars-politics/

“Discussion with artist Jon McNaughton regarding his new masterpiece ‘One Nation Under God.’”  Jon McNaughton Fine Art Company 2012.  http://jonmcnaughton.com/content/ZoomDetailPages/OneNationInterview.html

“How To Remove Demonic Doorways And Demons From Your Home.“ Dreams of Dunamis 1 October 2013. [Note: I include this because it is absolutely demented and names Cabbage Patch dolls as potential demonic portals.  I suppose ultra-Christian daughters need no dolls at all, as they have an unending supply of baby siblings on whom to practice ideal motherhood.] https://dreamsofdunamis.wordpress.com/2013/10/01/how-to-remove-demonic-doorways-and-demons-from-your-home/ 

Hurst, Evan.  “Gross Josh Duggar Admits to Molesting His Own Sisters, Resigns from Family Research Council.”  Wonkette 21 May 2015.  http://wonkette.com/586273/police-report-gross-josh-duggar-allegedly-admitted-molesting-his-own-sisters

Joyce, Karin.  Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement.  Boston: Beacon, 2010.

Karlin, Mark. “Christian Fundamentalist Group Preaches Patriarchy and Women’s Fertility as Weapons for Spiritual Warfare.”  Alternet 3 March 2009.  http://www.alternet.org/story/134000/christian_fundamentalist_group_preaches_patriarchy_and_women%27s_fertility_as_weapons_for_spiritual_warfare

Kass, Jackie.  “Duggar family on Rich Santorum: We would do it all over again!” AXS Entertainment/examiner.com.  11 April 2012.  http://www.examiner.com/article/duggar-family-on-rick-santorum-we-would-do-it-all-over-again

Koppelman, Alex, and Vincent Rossmeier.  “Huckabee’s radical religious friends.”  Salon 18 January 2008.  http://www.salon.com/2008/01/18/huckabee_connections/

Libby Ann.  “An Open Letter to Duggar Defenders.”  Patheos 20 August 2014. http://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfeminism/2014/08/an-open-letter-to-duggar-defenders.html

“Lucifer’s Toy Chest.”  The Landover Baptist Church December 2010. http://www.landoverbaptist.org/2010/december/luciferstoychest2010.html [note: this is a satiric site, and a swell one]

Mantyla, Kyle.  “Dominionism and the Religious Right: The Merger is Complete.” Right Wing Watch 6 July 2010. http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/dominionism-and-religious-right-merger-complete

McNaughton, Jon.  “One Nation Under God Interactive Page.”  McNaughton Fine Art n.d. (2012?) http://jonmcnaughton.com/content/ZoomDetailPages/OneNationUnderGod.html

Marcotte, Amanda.  “The Christian Right Still Dominates the GOP — Is There Any End in Sight?”  Alternet. 18 March 2015.  http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/christian-right-still-dominates-gop-there-any-end-sight 

Marcotte, Amanda.  “Sex Scandal Rocks the Duggars’ Christian Patriarchy Movement.” The Daily Beast 16 April 2014. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/16/sex-scandal-rocks-the-duggars-christian-patriarchy-movement.html

Morgan, David.  “The Art of Jon McNaughton, the Tea Party’s Painter.”  Religion & Politics 25 July 2012.  http://religionandpolitics.org/2012/07/25/the-tea-partys-painter-the-art-of-jon-mcnaughton/

Murphy, Tim.  ‘Who Will Win the Duggar Primary?’  Mother Jones 5 March 2015.  http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/03/duggars-huckabee-santorum-2016

Ohlheiser, Abby.  “After pushback against their political activism, the Duggars spend the weekend rallying against abortion.”  The Washington Post Online 1 January 2015.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/01/21/after-pushback-against-their-political-activism-the-duggars-spent-the-weekend-rallying-against-abortion/

Palmer, Cliff.  “Seven Basic Needs of a Husband.”  South Heights Baptist Church 2011-2012.  http://www.southheightsbaptist.com/mp3/CliffPalmer/7BasicNeeds_Husband.pdf

Peck, Jamie.  “Michelle Duggar’s Tips for a Happy Marriage are Predictably Stepford-esque.”  Crushable 17 February 2012. http://www.crushable.com/2012/02/17/entertainment/michelle-duggars-tips-for-a-happy-marriage-are-predictably-stepford-esque-354/

Stonestreet, John.  “American Girl Dolls: Divorce and the Legacy of the 70s.”  Christian Post 27 March 2013.  http://www.christianpost.com/news/american-girl-dolls-divorce-and-the-legacy-of-the-70s-92730/#HFjdVg3u3smMmPM4.99

Taleda, Alison.  “Mike Huckabee Launches Campaign for President, Gets Support from Duggar Family. “ US Weekly Online 6 May 2015. http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/mike-huckabee-joins-2016-presidential-race-with-duggar-support-201565

Tumulty, Karen.  “Why the GOP’s 2016 hopefuls angle for the home schooler endorsement.”  The Washington Post Online 10 April 2015.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/why-the-gops-2016-hopefuls-angle-for-the-home-schooler-endorsement/2015/04/10/3da09228-df8d-11e4-a1b8-2ed88bc190d2_story.html