Me and the Duggars
By Michael J.W. Stickings
It's funny, you know. Since I started this blog on March 29, 2005, I've written posts on many, many different topics. Most of my posts have been political in one way or another, though I've also written extensively on popular culture and philosophy. In all, I and my contributors, co-bloggers and guest bloggers, have written almost 1800 posts.
Quite a few of those posts, I'm happy to say, have been linked to at prominent blogs and/or news sites and have generated a lot of traffic for The Reaction alongside our regular readers. And yet, one post that seems to have received a disproportionate amount of attention, judging by the comments that it still gets even though it's now deep in the archives, is the one I wrote on October 14, 2005 on the Duggars -- Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar and their 16 children. You can find that post here.
At the time, I was not terribly enthusiastic about what the Duggars were up to in terms of procreation: "This has nothing to do with God or a god or the gods. Rather, it has everything to do with Jim and Michelle fornicating without birth control while maintaining a child-like belief in divine omnipotence. Faith is no excuse for ignorance and irresponsibility. Someone needs to tell them to stop. Now."
I suppose I stand by what I wrote back then, although, if you read through the comments, you'll notice that quite a few readers (and presumably many in the wider public) disagree vehemently with me. That's fine. The Duggars are free to do what they want. It just seems to me that procreating so prolifically isn't necessarily such a good thing. But then I hardly share their child-like, and selective, beliefs.
I won't add more here, but I was wondering if there are any new Duggars. I've done a quick search today but didn't come up with anything other than reports of #16 from last October and the family website, which seems not to have been updated recently.
What are the Duggars of Springdale, Arkansas up to? Are they still being fruitful and multiplying like crazy?
It's funny, you know. Since I started this blog on March 29, 2005, I've written posts on many, many different topics. Most of my posts have been political in one way or another, though I've also written extensively on popular culture and philosophy. In all, I and my contributors, co-bloggers and guest bloggers, have written almost 1800 posts.
Quite a few of those posts, I'm happy to say, have been linked to at prominent blogs and/or news sites and have generated a lot of traffic for The Reaction alongside our regular readers. And yet, one post that seems to have received a disproportionate amount of attention, judging by the comments that it still gets even though it's now deep in the archives, is the one I wrote on October 14, 2005 on the Duggars -- Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar and their 16 children. You can find that post here.
At the time, I was not terribly enthusiastic about what the Duggars were up to in terms of procreation: "This has nothing to do with God or a god or the gods. Rather, it has everything to do with Jim and Michelle fornicating without birth control while maintaining a child-like belief in divine omnipotence. Faith is no excuse for ignorance and irresponsibility. Someone needs to tell them to stop. Now."
I suppose I stand by what I wrote back then, although, if you read through the comments, you'll notice that quite a few readers (and presumably many in the wider public) disagree vehemently with me. That's fine. The Duggars are free to do what they want. It just seems to me that procreating so prolifically isn't necessarily such a good thing. But then I hardly share their child-like, and selective, beliefs.
I won't add more here, but I was wondering if there are any new Duggars. I've done a quick search today but didn't come up with anything other than reports of #16 from last October and the family website, which seems not to have been updated recently.
What are the Duggars of Springdale, Arkansas up to? Are they still being fruitful and multiplying like crazy?
posted by Michael J.W. Stickings at
4:16 PM
4 Comments:
My aunt and uncle in Arkansas had 15 kids and they weren't even religious. :-)
Quite a few evangelical groups believe in reproducing a lot (in fornicating perhaps not so much, but what are they gonna do?) I read an article recently about "The Disciple Generation" who practice negative birth control so their groups can save the world. RIGHTEOUS: Dispatches from the Evangelical Youth Movement By Lauren Sandler reveals a lot about their mindset. If you think, like I do, that over-population is the umbrella problem of all world problems then it is, ironically, selfish to try to grow your group like that.
By
Anonymous, at 11:22 PM
That's lovely. Negative birth control? I'd never heard of it before you mentioned it, Dale. But I share you concern about over-population. It seem irresponsible to me to have so many children. But when you think that the Second Cominig is right around the corner, what do the world's problems even mean to you?
By
Michael J.W. Stickings, at 12:10 PM
Found this by searching around the net. I just saw the TLC special on The Duggars and did a quick Google search which led me here. Part of me agrees with you, yes I think it is a tad irresponsible to have 16 kids (although according to the wikipedia article on Jim Bob Duggar here #17 is on the way). However, the Duggars are debt free and despite the kids being a little...sheltered (to say the absolute least, but I really don't feel like going into that) the family is happy and healthy. When everything boils down, most families can't say that.
By
Anonymous, at 11:10 PM
When I grow up, I will have as many kids as they have...wouldn't you?
By
Anonymous, at 8:40 PM
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