Our Father: What is the Quiverfull movement?
By Mads Lennon
The truth about former fertility doctor Donald Cline is horrifying enough, but the new Netflix documentary Our Father further explores Cline’s misdeeds and the impact it has had on his children. One disturbing reveal from the documentary is a theory that Cline was involved with a religious movement (or cult) called Quiverfull.
Considered a hardcore religious sect devoted to procreating as much as possible to create more Christians devoted to biblical civil law, Quiverfull received a lot of attention due to the many scandals surrounding the Duggar family.
The movement is mentioned once again in this documentary, this time with an alleged connection to Cline. Below we’ll discuss what the movement actually is and whether or not Cline was actually part of it.
Our Father: What is the Quiverfull movement?
It’s a cult-like group where the goal is to have as many children as possible and then send those kids out into the world like “arrows” (a “quiver” is a term that refers to a case archers use to hold their arrows) to spread the word of the Bible. In Our Father, Quiverfull is described as an organization that would feel right at home in The Handmaids Tale, where women are seen as breeders to create more followers of the verse and indoctrinate others.
They believe the Bible is law. One of the reasons Jacoba Ballard and her half-siblings thought Cline was connected to the group is because they saw the Bible verse Jeremiah 1:5 used on the website. The verse, “Before I formed you in your mother’s womb, I knew you,” is one that Cline frequently quoted.
It wasn’t just the “breeding” angle that drew their attention but the fact members of Quiverfull were allegedly careful to only produce white children due to fears they would one day disappear. And if you look at all the siblings Cline produced, they are almost all blue-eyed blonds. One documentary subject describes them as looking like the “perfect Aryan clan.”
Some Quiverfull members reportedly believe they are meant to raise a conservative Christian army. The underlying basis of the group is to shun contraception as they believe God will only give them as many children as they can handle. You can learn more about the organization from this article at Huffington Post.
Our Father: Was Donald Cline part of Quiverfull?
Besides the scripture, Cline was connected to Quiverfull via an email address used by someone connected to him. As The Daily Beast says, this evidence is merely circumstantial and there is no actual evidence that he was part of the movement. That said, it doesn’t seem like his personal philosophy was too far off from the group’s, whether he was actually involved or not.
Our Father is now streaming on Netflix.