The Duggars & Silliness

"So how many children will you have?" Anna responds, "We would be happy with two or three if that is all God blesses us with, but we believe that children are a blessing from God and we look forward to receiving each gift that He gives us."

In a world where surgery can be performed on a fetus in utero, people are literally rocketed out of our atmosphere and into orbit, and something as delicious as a Smuckers Uncrustable is thought of and mass produced, it's almost unbelievable to fathom the idea that people still don't understand how babies are made. If you don't know who the Duggars are, I'm sorry to have to break this horrible news to you but they are a real family with very real beliefs and extremely fertile reproductive organs, and I'm about to blow your mind.

If you're already familiar with them, feel free to skip ahead to my point.  If not, read on and google it to make sure I'm not making up grandiose shit, I fucking dare you.  The Duggars are a family of 21 (19 children & 2 parents) who live in a backwoods town in Arkansas.  They are conservative Baptists and on the surface one would think they live their lives strictly according to their religion (they are not permitted to dance or take part in anything that evokes sexual thought).  They first appeared on one of those TLC/Discovery shows that likes to detail the day-to-day lives of human oddities & leave you mind-fucked for a few hours.  They got their own reality show, "17 Kids and Counting" (back when only 17 spawn roamed the earth) which followed the family around the house & town, broadcasting to us sinners how a strict Baptist family manages to survive in something like a Big Top Circus Tent of a house.  Obviously anyone who heard of something this outrageous wanted to know how the hell a woman took care of a house big enough to accommodate 17 children, herself & husband while maintaining (and keeping track of) aforementioned 17 children.  Once you tuned in, that solution was so simple that it's no wonder why more people don't think of it! There, in the Big Top Circus Tent, are 17 children forming an assembly line to essentially take care of each other.

...I was not aware you could birth more children onto this already overly-crowded planet to take care of the ones you already had.  Duly noted, Mrs. Duggar (what a savvy multi-tasker).

Mrs. Duggar gave birth to her 19th child in 2009.  The baby was 3 months early (extremely premature & dangerous for anyone not familiar with infant survival rates, the baby had a slim chance).  But with the help of an apparently stellar NICU team, the baby survived and was eventually sent home.  Inevitable preface to my ever-popular opinions:  I'm very happy that baby is alive, healthy & possibly happy living in her Big Top Tent as she will hopefully be the last in her brother/sister human assembly line.  Now...

I don't support over-procreation by any means.  Sounds hypocritical since I already have a kid & it probably sounds convenient to say that.  My feeble explanation is a combination of only three things:  Beatles, copious amounts of marijuana, and the fact that we lived 40 miles away from anyone we knew.  I do not want to have another child to give Stella "someone to play with."  I do not want to have another child so I can see myself in not one but TWO little humans.  And I certainly do not want to have another child because I believe they're god's little miraculous gifts that he gives me.  If I were to believe in a god, it would be the one who gifts me awesome things that don't need parenting, like a free month's mortgage payment and maybe an Xbox 360, I'm really not that picky.  I don't see the need in bringing any more children into a world whose resources are already being sucked dry by a unanimous culture built on gluttony & greed.  Some people are militant recyclers, others drive hybrids...this is my way of leaving as small of a carbon footprint as I'm capable.  The idea that there are thousands upon thousands of children shuffled between foster homes, left lonely in orphanages and possibly on the street without anyone to love or care for them is enough to literally ruin my whole day.  If I had the financial means, I would adopt 20 Sudanese children and spend the rest of my life loving & providing for them.  For this reason, I don't understand why anyone would act on such a primal and outdated instinct over & over again so they can see themselves in another little human, rather than take in children who are already alive & without anyone to love them.

My second gripe with this family is their belief that god gives them as many children as he feels they need.  What's so mind-boggling about this for me personally is the total and complete disregard of science (and common sense).  Sex feels good, yes?  That's an ancient, biological cue so that your species survives.  How motivated would you be to further your race if the sensation of sex was a painful, unpleasurable duty?  We'd probably die off pretty quickly.  But since sex is the awesome act that it is, our species' population now reaches 7 billion.  The Duggars don't believe in contraceptives because they are a man-made tool that inhibits god from "doing his will."  They do not see conception & birth as the inevitable outcomes of unprotected sex, they god honestly believe that they are being blessed with heavenly gifts.  Ok, I'll bite...

If contraceptives keep god from "doing his will," why then was their child permitted to receive care when she was born 3 months early?  Why wasn't her premature labor "god's will?"  And if you're christian and you DO use contraceptives, aren't you interfering with god's plan?  Here are some answers I've received from people I've asked:  being Christian & using contraceptives is ok because if you get pregnant beyond using protection, that is god's will.  Baby Duggar received care in the NICU because those machines were made by men who were created by god, essentially that is god's will. (Apparently condoms were made by people who were created by Satan.  This is the only concept I can deduce by following that logic.)

God's will seems extremely lenient and bendable by the people who believe in him when it conveniences their will, doesn't it?  By no means would I want the Duggars to withhold treatment to their premature infant.  If they were any other family who held the same beliefs (but didn't have so many children), maybe I would be able to turn my head a little more easily.  But because they have NINETEEN children, the way they bend these beliefs when it conveniences their lives seems extremely irresponsible.

If there are any Christians reading this who don't loathe me by this point and can further clarify what in the hell people like this are all about, please don't hesitate enlightening me.

<3