The day may have been won on Tuesday, but the battle continues, as the most hardcore fundamentalists understand. I've been reading post-election analysis from the war chiefs of the Christian Right,
Chuck Colson and
Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council and
Rod Parsley of the Orwellian Center for Moral Clarity, and they're not licking their wounds -- they're regrouping (and crowing of their anti-gay referendum victories in
7 out of 8 states, bringing to 27 the number of states that have legislated away the essence of the 14th Amendment).
Those who want to understand the mindset of the fundamentalist longterm plan for power may want to check out my friend Kathryn Joyce's startling portrait of the "avant-garde" of fundamentalism in the latest issue of The Nation, "Arrows for the War." More -- 550 million more -- after the jump...
There's a small group of several thousand conservative women out there who aren't particularly upset by the thumping their Republican champions took last Tuesday. That's because they're thinking long term -- very long term. "Quiverfull" is a fundamentalist movement of women who wage cultural war by birthing as many babies as they're humanly capable of. Typical family size is eight; many have a dozen or more, all home schooled and trained from birth to be fundamentalist activists in the future.
Kathryn explains the reasoning (quoted with permission):
If just 8 million American Christian couples began supplying more "arrows for the war" by having six children or more, they propose, the Christian-right ranks could rise to 550 million within a century ("assuming Christ does not return before then"). They like to ponder the spiritual victory that such numbers could bring: both houses of Congress and the majority of state governor's mansions filled by Christians; universities that embrace creationism; sinful cities reclaimed for the faithful; and the swift blows dealt to companies that offend Christian sensibilities.
"With the nation's low birth rate, the high divorce rate, an un-marrying and anti-child viewpoint, and a debauched nation perhaps unable to slow down the spread of AIDS, we can begin to see what happens politically. A half-billion person boycott of a company which violated God's standards could be very effective.... Through God's blessing we would be part of a replay of Exodus 1:7, 'But the sons of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly, and multiplied, and became exceedingly mighty, so that the land was filled with them.'" "Brethren," they write, "it's time for a comeback!"
The Quiverfull moms may be a bit kooky, but they're finding mainstream support: David Brooks has endorsed them as the "new red diaper babies," reports Kathryn, and even the Democratic Leadership Council has commissioned a study for how the Democratic Party can reach out to these Christian soldiers of what it calls the "radical middle."
Of course, it's an insult to these women, as well as sanity, to call them centrists of any sort. They're a fundamentalist vanguard, trying to pull their movement toward radical patriarchy. How radical? Consider the fact that they consider the current fundamentalist movement too feminist, and you'll start to get a picture. But this election has probably given a boost to their position with the fundamentalist movement -- they're ultra-personal politics will become the new standard for a movement riven by scandal.
There's hope, of course -- nobody's naughtier than the son (or daughter) of a preacherman. Let's hope that goes double for the children of Quiverfull.