The factory churns on

Remember that family with 15 kids I mentioned a couple of months ago? The link goes to a news story from May 2004 right after our heroic mom delivered #15 (all home-schooled and with names beginning with J). Well, she's done it again, folks -- #16 just arrived, and Mom rarin' to go for more. She's 39 and obviously healthy as an ox, so why not? Hell, I didn't even get started until I was two weeks shy of turning 39. I guess I have a lot of catching up to do.

Most disturbing is the video interview on today's CNN home page. There are 16 children (the oldest is 17) arrayed attractively on, behind and in front of an overstuffed couch, with the proud parents in the middle. The video clip almost five minutes, so figure around half an hour before editing. The scary thing is that the kids NEVER MOVE. The girls on either end have their hands decorously and symmetrically crossed in their laps, the boys are standing or sitting at attention, and no one breaks their pose the whole time except for the youngest toddler. What kind of threats or other inducements are necessary to result in such nice, well-behaved children? I shudder to think.

This touches on yet another horrendous teaching of some fundamentalist Christians, the "full quiver" theology -- screw like mindless ferrets, have a zillion kids and trust in God to provide. Same basic idea as Roman Catholics have, except the flock is permitted to use the rhythm method (unfortunately about as effective as nothing at all). Though I'm pro-choice, I have a lot more sympathy for the pro-life view than I did before having my own kids, but what the HELL is the matter with contraception? Or better yet, how about NOT HAVING INTERCOURSE? Now there's a concept.

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