I have been reading some ex-Quiverful blogs lately

[conuly]

They're fascinating and enlightening... and also very scary. (And slightly voyeuristic, so it's all uncomfortable feeling.)

Quiverful is the loose movement to eschew any form of family planning in favor of having lots and lots of kids like God wants. And there are several things that seem to tend to go along with that, such as homeschooling and patriarchy and fundamentalism (but I'm aware that of course, different families are not cookie cutters and also that these folks are ex for a reason, so for sure they won't post great stuff about it).

I mentioned on a post about the Duggar's little announcement that for many of these people, leaving the whole movement doesn't just mean, as implied, breaking years of conditioning and changing your beliefs (a hard enough thing to begin with), it means leaving your entire social network and even their families, their parents and younger siblings. Which is hard. (It also seems like they can only get help by knowing people to ask for help, unless they happen to qualify for a women's shelter or somesuch. There appear to be few if any organizations dedicated to providing tangible assistance for people leaving religious groups of this nature. Some websites offering moral support, but that's not always enough, I should imagine.)

So anyway, they asked for links, and I'm finally posting them now! This is just a sampling of the people who are more interesting to read. (Also, it's good to note that they all have different perspectives in general.)

http://nolongerquivering.com/
http://dulcefamily.blogspot.com/2011/11/but-they-look-so-happy.html
http://ayoungmomsmusings.blogspot.com/
http://www.quicksilverqueen.com/about-me/new-here-must-read-posts/

There's more - especially the first link, if you look back, they have posts from a multitude of writers. But I've put this off long enough, I'll update it if I think it's necessary.

Comments

[gmdreia.livejournal.com]

There are even mainstream religions with that same mentality, and all the same problems (leaving essentially means leaving your whole family behind, your entire network, and in some areas where these religions dominate - you may even need to leave the area to get a job, because of blacklisting).

[conuly]

Indeed. QF is kinda-sorta mainstream because it's an offshoot of Christianity, even.