Belief

I was reading TWOP this morning and saw something that caused a mini-melt down. There's a picture of Jana Duggar being "blessed" by Bill Gothard, followed by a podcast with four of the Duggar girls.

If you're disturbed by the things you heard on that tape, you aint' heard nothing yet. That's the tip of the iceberg. I've been to those Gothard camps and what's publicly disclosed in materials previews and things like that podcast is only the beginning. You go in to these camps, if you had never been before, thinking that you'll enjoy fellowship with girls who live the same way you do and you are scared. Why should any girl be scared to go to camp with other girls, you might ask? It's simple. IBLP or ATI girls are supposed to be perfectly sweet, perfectly virginal, and perfectly submissive to higher authority and any normal person knows that this is an impossibility. Despite the sickeningly sweet voices and doey eyes: girls are girls. Since leaving, I've seen depressed, self-mutilating anorexics who have more self-esteem and senses of self-worth than girls I went to camp with. Take a girl from birth and tell her that she's inherantly sinful and worthless unless she is a "jewel in the crown of her father" (heavenly and earthly father). They don't say, "Be good because being good leads to better choices." or "Be careful about who you love because those choices are important." They say, "You were born with sin. If you don't fight the sin that lives inside you, then you will not be worthy of God's love and you'll end up in hell." They say, "If a man looks at you with lust, it's your fault. Ask yourself what you did to cause him to look in such a way." I have a study guide from one of those camps and I want to share what's on one of the worksheets.
Ask yourself the following questions...
1. Have I ever attracted the attention of a man and felt good about it?
2. Have I ever encouraged a man to look at you by styling your hair or face enticingly?
3. Have I ever worn an immodest style of dress to be noticed?
4. Have I ever returned the advances of a man knowingly or unknowlingly by my words or actions?
5. Have I ever wished to have a man's touch?
6. Have I ever wished a man would be tempted by my beauty, intelligence, or countenance?

It continues until you reach question twenty. It concludes with this...
If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, then you have allowed yourself to be manipulated by Satan. Satan has entered your heart and mind to entrap you and the person you sullied with your selfish, foolish vanity and pride...

Those camps taught me that women were the cause of all that was bad with the world. The only way to redeem our souls was to completely subjugate ourselves to God. In lieu or God, the men in our lives would fill God's role. Having children was another way to begin balancing your spiritual checkbook. By having children, you were fulfilling God's command and adding warriors to the "most righteous army of God".

It doesn't matter if Jim Bob doesn't allign himself with the Quiverful "movement". He's ATI, Gothard, and IBLP. Here is what a man within that movement believes.
He believes a woman's body is not her own. It belongs to the Lord for His purposes. They frequently site the book "Our Bodies, Our Selves" as a Satanic tool because it gave women the belief that they had control over their fertility and a right to do to their bodies what they desired.
He believes children are a blessing because they can serve God. He believes he should have at least six children to fill his quiver.
He believes his wife and children should be obedient and that he is obedient to the Lord. He believes the commandment of children to obey their parents, but most fled the beliefs of their own parents.
He believes in restoring "Christian principles" to the United States and the World through any means necessary.

Where is the reality in 18 kids and Counting?