I’ve been reading Kathryn Joyce‘s Quiverfull and several passages scare the living $#!& out of me.
Like this one, describing a courtship ritual among Quiverfull families:
The fairytale marriage story for this generation of patriarchy daughters is that of the courtship and wedding of Brown’s daughter, Kelly, and Peter Bradrick, a former Vision Forum intern and son of homeschooling lecturers Michael and Susan Bradrick…
The merging of these two families through the marriage of their young children was featured on Web sites and blogs across the patriarchy community, capturing the moment of the couple’s first kiss at the altar, surrounded by scores of bridesmaids and groomsmen. Peter’s courtship of Kelly had begun, breathless accounts tell, with her father, whom he approached and had to win over long before he ever displayed his interest to Kelly. Peter wrote more than a dozen “position papers” for Scott Brown on everything from politics and theology to child training and marital roles for husband and wife, all backed by biblical arguments for what Peter expected from his future wife.
…
“I never told her ‘I love you,’ and I never told her she was beautiful,” explains Peter, “two things that I thought would insert an emotional flutter, an emotional element. I wanted to withhold before I made a commitment.”
(p. 232-233)
Sleep well!
Another excerpt coming soon.
(My interview with the author is here.)
