It is a religious cult that women must, not should, must, have as many children as they are biologically capable of. The boys are expected to join the military to train as soldiers of Christ. The girls are expected to marry in their teens and have as many children as biologically possible. They teach absolute submission of women. They also home school so that their children are not exposed to any other viewpoint. They don't teach science because science is godless. So I saw a great graphic of this woman and her then 18 children, what would have become of them in, say, the 17th century before there was all this godless science. She would almost certainly have died long before 18 children, either of puerperal fever, because midwives did not know to wash their hands before delivering babies, or would be so riddled with anemia and malnutrition she would not survive a pregnancy after 10 or so. Of the 18 children, looking at the child mortality rates of the pre-godless-science 17th century, the graphic counted how many would have died of measles, how many would have died of scarlet fever, how many would have died of tuberculosis, how many would have died of smallpox, how many would have died of infant diarrhea. Based on the stats of the day, without all this godless science the mother would have been dead before the 10th kid and of 18 children 3, at most 4, would have survived.
