Carn, you're right, it's rude of me to assume that these people are stupid. And yes, as many have said, this country is free enough that people such as these have every protected right to have this many children. I am not arguing with that. But I still have issues with WHY anyone would do this, if they had ANY awareness of America's population and consumerism impact on the rest of the world. And Carn, I am obviously not open-minded on this topic, and that's fine with me.
Now, people are going to get really mad at me, but intelligence? Anyone with a website like that... I mean, this is how they portray themselves, not how the "Internet" portrays them. Their favorite websites include CREATION SCIENCE EVANGELISM. wtf. (And did anyone see the "Modest Swimwear" link?
http://www.wholesomewear.com/page-3.html) I know it's not related, but still, WTF. I saw absolutely no original thought on that whole website. Every other sentence was a Bible verse, and they seemed to chalk everything up to God without considering the demographic impact of their childbearing (and that's coming from me, someone who was a hard-core evangelical for 10 years).
The big question is WHY? The reason they have had so many kids is on their website... because they became convicted that using birth control was a sin. Because someone else TOLD them it was a sin. It all goes back to the church. So they decided to continue fucking like rabbits instead of using periodic abstinence to control their reproduction. This is the problem I have with Catholicism (again, coming from someone who was *very* involved with Catholicism for a while)... it demands that people of whatever economic background NOT use birth control... and while it's fine and good for a rich dude and his wife to pop out 16 and pay for all of them, how does a very poor family in Mexico or the Philippines cope with having that many children, all of them growing up poor? It doesn't help, and it's not realistic, at all.
Another point (I have a few): both of my grandparents had ten kids each. So believe me, I know how "great" it is to have a huge family. Have we forgotten, however, that that was a completely different generation, when people NEEDED a lot of children to help with the work and to bring in more income later in life? These days, at least in middle-class America, NO ONE needs that many children. There is no reason for it. We are no longer an agricultural or even manufacturing economy, and more than a handful of children is going to be a liability to the system, eventually.
I'd like to hear the opinions of the children in about 20 years... unless they're just totally brainwashed and they each have 15 children themselves. Imagine the demographic impact!!
/end rant, and bring on the pot shots, people.