Quiver

In case you hadn't noticed, I added two new blogs over to the right.  Both Love, Joy, Feminism and Permission to Live talk about life after leaving the Quiverfull/Christian Patriarchy movements.  Libby Anne at Love, Joy, Feminism has a good brief overview of what that means:

"My family was highly involved in the Christian Right, and I was homeschooled through high school and taught that dating was “practice for divorce” and that courtship was the godly alternative."

The blogs are a fascinating read, regardless of background, but even more so for me.  I wasn't raised in an explicitly Quiverfull house, but there were definitely some similar elements.  I was homeschooled from 3rd grade until high school graduation.  I was raised with the "practice for divorce" line.  While college was a given (something which is frequently not the case for Quiverfull daughters), it was also understood that I would marry an equally religious man, and there definitely would be "no ding-a-ling before the ring-ring" as an old youth pastor phrased it.

Where my family differed was in children.  I'm my dad's only biological child; when he married my stepmom, she'd already had three boys and couldn't have any more kids.  Chores tended to fall to me inside, the boys outside, but the gender roles weren't nearly as proscribed as in other families.

Still, so many of the names that Melissa and Libby Anne reference are familiar.  Sovereign Grace.  Beautiful Girlhood.  Patriarchy, for crying out loud.  (And when your dad's a pastor, it's all complicated.)

Anyway, go poke around over there.  It's fascinating stuff...and I'm so glad they're free.