S.F. Chron Reporter: "God Does Not Want 16 Kids"

Discovery Health - Spencer Tirey

Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, conservative Christian husband and wife, were the subject of a vicious and insulting article written by Mark Morford at the San Francisco Chronicle. The article lampooned the couple who just had their 16th child. Morford characterized the couple and their 16 children as "18 spotless white hyperreligious interchangeable people." Why the angry and virulent attack by this so-called journalist? What would motivate such scathing insults not toward vapid celebrities but an unassuming couple  with a large family?  Nothing more than they are Christians.

Now I would not want 16 children of my own. That seems like quite a lot of mouths to feed and I don't presume that I will be financially successful enough to care for 16 progeny. That being said, objectively, what is wrong with it? Should the state or anyone else (psychologists or social workers) regulate how many children a couple should have? Is it wrong to have 16 children?

Don't go to Morford's article to consider these interesting questions, he doesn't care to address them. What he does do is simply deride and insult the husband and wife for their choices and then, by association, extend his arrogance to all parents, all pro-lifers, all believers in traditional family, all residents of Midwest states, all Republican and all Christians world-wide. Morford states:

it is exactly this kind of weird pathological protofamily breeding-happy gluttony that's making the world groan and cry and recoil, contributing to vicious overpopulation rates and unrepentant economic strain and a bitter moral warpage resulting from a massive viral outbreak of homophobic neo-Christians across our troubled and Bush-ravaged land.

Honestly, no offense taken.

The shocking ideas of the article, more than the un-provoked attack upon a Midwest couple and their large family, is the pointed attack on all people of Christian belief.

Why does this sort of bizarre hyperbreeding only seem to afflict antiseptic megareligious families from the Midwest? In other words -- assuming Michelle and Jim Bob and their massive brood of cookie-cutter Christian kidbots will all be...never allowed near a decent pair of designer jeans or a tolerable haircut from a recent decade, and assuming that they will all be tragically encoded with the values of the homophobic asexual Christian right -- where are the forces that shall help neutralize their effect on the culture? Where is the counterbalance, to offset the damage?

Offset the damage? Christian belief that was foundational in creating the country, not to mention Western Civilization itself, is now seen as evil and needs liberals to "offset the damage?" This is revisionist history that most revisionist historians wouldn't be so bold to undertake.

Leaving his most insulting and clear anti-Christian biased remarks for the end, he scornfully ask and answers his own question:

Why is having a stadiumful [sic] of offspring still seen as some sort of happy joyous thing?

You already know why. It is the Biggest Reason of All. Children are, after all, God's little gifts. Kids are little blessings from the Lord, the Almighty's own screaming spitballs of joy. Hell, Jim Bob said so himself, when asked if the couple would soon be going for a 17th rug rat: "We both just love children and we consider each a blessing from the Lord. I have asked Michelle if she wants more and she said yes, if the Lord wants to give us some she will accept them." This is what he actually said. And God did not strike him dead on the spot.

So the Left is insulting people now just because they want a lot of children? They are not on welfare and there is no evidence that the children are unhappy nor the parents unfit. Their unforgivable sin seems to be the conjunction of their choosing to have many more kids then a normal family and naming all the children's names beginning with J (Joshua, John, Joanna, ect). While 16 kids seems like a lot to me, what is wrong with it and why should anyone else care?

So much for tolerance and respect. Mark Morford and his malevolent drivel make me want to vomit.

hat-tip: La Shawn Barber, ThinkingRight, Outside The Beltway, Mike's Noise, The Crusty Curmudgeon.

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Technorati Tags: children, Duggar family.

Comments

[Lin]

Well, everyone has their own opinions about people. I happen to agree with a big family. That is the way that God laid a family out to be. BIG!! Because, your having kids to raise for God. I mean you may not be famous, but it someone stuck in your life trying to tell you what is the wrong way and right way to do something. Someone said, "there is no way you can love 17 children the same and all that love gets divided.". How do you know? Do you have 17 children? This faimly isn't hurting anyone. They are actually part of a handful of believers on this planet. If you ask me, everything in this family is being done the right way. Maybe when you think about this familes so called 'problems', STOP!! and start thinking about yours.

[Johanna]

If the Duggars can pay for 'em all, I guess they have some kind of Constitutional right to have 'em all. But that isn't the same as giving each one of them the time, space, and attention each one needs.

My question is: what's REALLY going on in that household? You don't think passing a six-month old on to its older sister to raise is just a little bit tending toward the "child exploitation and abuse" horizon?

[Krissy]

Personally, I couldn't agree more with the Chron reporter. The Duggars are scary scary people and the Discovery channel should be ashamed to parade them out for ratings.

[Alexander M Zoltai]

Right on !
And, Left Out !!
I'm, personally, apolitical but with that much intolerance the issue is warped cultural values--and I sure ain't talkin' 'bout the family!
Thank you for your coverage of that journalistic miscarriage...
~Alex