Vyckie Garrison

No Longer Qivering

Vyckie Garrison was once a prominent member of the Quiverfull community, a rapidly growing Christian fundamentalist movement that bans birth control and encourages huge, “Biblical families” such as the Duggar Family of TLCs “19 and Counting” fame. Garrison edited and published a Christian “pro-life, pro-family” newspaper for 16+ years in northeast Nebraska while home-churching, home birthing, and home schooling seven children. She made waves when she left the Quiverfull movement, divorced her husband, and began speaking out against the lifestyle.

Vyckie has appeared on The Joy Behar Show, The Secret Lives of Women, The Story with Dick Gordon, as well as numerous podcasts and radio programs including Thom Hartmann, Living After Faith and Godless Bitches. She is a well-respected adversary of Biblical patriarchy and the damages that it can inflict. She started the blog, “No Longer Quivering,” to provide support to women and children who are escaping abusive religious movements, and to provide the public with accurate, compassionate information on the unique challenges faced by the spiritually abused.

Fearing God at the End of the World

But I've come to recognize the value of apprehension - because fear which is not squelched or pacified by the mental hocus pocus of pious devotion can be a great motivation for necessary change. Without the thought-stopping effect of 365 biblical "fear-nots," these days, when I am afraid, I have no other option than to actually figure out: What is so terrifying? Why am I scared? What should be done to prevent my fears from materializing in reality? What do I need to do differently?

How I Lost Faith in the “Pro-Life” Movement

The spring of my sophomore year of college I was president of my university’s Students for Life chapter. The fall of my junior year of college I cut my ties with the pro-life movement. Five years later I have lost the last shred of faith I had in that movement. This is my story.