DGH
Registered: 07/02/07
Posts: 384
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Reply with quote | #1 |
I am going to admit something here. I watch TLC on occasion, specifically, the 18 Kids and Counting show featuring the ultra-conservative Duggar clan. Does anyone else see this show on occasion?
I posted this in religion and spirituality because much of the show focuses on the seemingly charmed life the Duggars live...well behaved children, eager to please mom and dad, no complaints.
On occasion, the fam lets their religious views slip onto the show. Subtle things, like arguing the age of the earth (5000 years vs. a few billion) with park rangers, subjecting their kids to "blanket training" and restricting their childrens' access to anything outside of the antiseptic "Christian" products and lifestyle choices they consume.
Much of the above comes from what is known as the "Christian Patriarch Movement" or "Quiverfull", where the male is the sovereign of the family, women and daughters are the possession of the father, and in extremis, children are "unschooled" with the intent to confine their learnings to a fundamentalist education. Women dress very modestly. In more "devout" households, wifes take on a submissive, childlike demeanor at all times, and respond to the whims of the husband with near servitude.
I suppose my question for the readers is: Is there a schism coming between fundamentalist "Christian" denominations and the traditional "Protestant-Catholic" branches of Christianity?
The second question, perhaps more provocative, is that my brief description of the "Patriarch" movement is eerily similar to fundamentalist Islam's treatment of women and family. Is this a fair comparison?
Finally, I should turn off TLC, but I am awestruck by the plastering over of some of these practices of this family in the name of television. I suppose it is the right of parents to raise their kids as they choose, their right to exploit it on national television, and my right to turn off the boobtoob.
However, I also think when you are in the public eye, you open yourself up to scrutiny, and well, some of their practices seem to fly in the face of American understandings of personal liberty. We seem to go to war in defense of this in distant lands, but look past it in our backyard so long as you waive the flag.
Thoughts?
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DGH
Registered: 07/02/07
Posts: 384
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Reply with quote | #2 |
28 views and no comments. I am not trying to be mean here, but this is a valid topic.
All of you are better followers of Emily Post than me, as my two favorite discussions in mixed company are religion and politics. Everything else is small talk.
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KayeBarton
Registered: 11/12/06
Posts: 367
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Reply with quote | #3 |
DGH,
Sorry I can't weigh in on the show since I haven't seen it but Sharia law is so repressive and I am apalled that there are Sharia banks being set up in America. Where are the feminists on these issues?
I do want to empathize. People seem to avoid politics like the plague and it affects much more of their lives than they seem to know. |
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italianenthusiast
Registered: 06/01/07
Posts: 56
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Reply with quote | #4 |
That show is on at the same time as re-runs of "Seinfeld", so naturally I have never seen the show.
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Dirk_DiggIer
Registered: 08/02/08
Posts: 450
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Reply with quote | #5 |
Quote: Originally Posted by DGH
28 views and no comments. I am not trying to be mean here, but this is a valid topic.
Quote: Originally Posted by DGH
The second question, perhaps more provocative, is that my brief description of the "Patriarch" movement is eerily similar to fundamentalist Islam's treatment of women and family. Is this a fair comparison?
I can definitely see some similarities between the two. However, I don't know much more about them than what you wrote, so I'm not in a position to say much more.
I found your reference to "blanket training" to be interesting. I did not know what this was, so I followed your link. It looks to be a combination of time-outs and corporal punishment. Or, at least, a time-out with the threat of corporal punishment. I find this interesting because it seems to coincide with my own belief that time-outs alone are usually ineffective. At least, they are ineffective in the way that I see most people employ them.
I am a proponent of discipline without abuse/anger. I believe that if an angry person is disciplining a child, then the discipline can lead to abuse. A mature person will let the anger subside, and then institute discipline.
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DGH
Registered: 07/02/07
Posts: 384
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Reply with quote | #6 |
Ah well. Thanks for the look, Dirk.
My view is this--it is far easier to gripe about politics than religion, ethnicity and nationalism. The latter three always conjure up emotions without much thought or rationalism. It is really hard to have a conversation about the merits and detriments of blind patriotism, blind faith and unswerving support for color over content of character that we may never get to the root problems out there. Maybe I'll try another segue into this topic another time.
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