There is a very good, very affecting piece here about the Quiverfull movement amongst fundamentalists.
At the heart of Quiverfull is patriarchy: the ideal of biblical headship and submission. This is the belief that by God’s perfect design, the father is the head of the home. The father serves as protector, provider and shepherd for his wife and children. He is primarily responsible for the wife’s and children’s physical, emotional and spiritual well-being and with such responsibility comes the (divinely granted) commensurate authority over the members of his household. According to this view, God works through the father and he serves as an intermediary for his wife and children.
There is no end of literature about fundamentalist cults, but what makes this one especially valuable is the frank recognition that so much of Christian teaching is predatory and, basically, draws its strength from the insecurity of its victims.
The Quiverfull lifestyle is extremely demanding and completely overwhelming for the devoted Christian women who are determined to fulfill their God-given purpose of being godly wives and mothers. They’re submitting to their husbands, having a baby every other year, homebirthing, homeschooling, cooking from scratch, and earning extra money with a home business. They are almost completely cut off from “unsupportive” friends and family, and they never use babysitters so they have their children with them 24/7. Why would any woman want to live this way?
Most of the women come from chaotic family backgrounds and are seeking the security of “biblical family values.”
But:
The more a Christian woman cares and the harder she tries to live according to biblical principles for godly womanhood, the more she, her husband, and their children suffer.
Make no mistake about this: The difference between groups that we can all agree are nothing but predatory cults, and the ‘respectable’ church around the corner from your house, is one only of degree. It is no accident that family- and social-pathologies are most acute where the churches are strongest.