Last week Joseph Duggar of the famous “19 Kids and Counting” clan was arrested for- among other things- “lewd contact with a minor”. Soon after, his wife Kendra were arrested on charges of false imprisonment and endangering the welfare of a minor and these charges were added to Joseph’s list of offences as well. Fun fact- Law enforcement has confirmed these charges are NOT directly related to the SA of a minor charges Joseph was already in custody for. Lovely.
If this sound vaguely familiar, it’s because an older Duggar brother- Joshua- is currently in prison for possession of copious amounts of child p*rn. Prior to that it came out that he had molested multiple girls- including several of his own sisters- and was busted in the data leak of the famous website for cheating spouses Ashley Madison.
What are the odds that 2 members of the same family are found to have molested young girls? Normally I would say awfully small, but this isn’t just any family. They had a successful TV show of course, but that isn’t what I’m referring to. The Duggars were up to their eyeballs in he IBLP- the Institute of Basic Life Principles aka the Quiverfull movement. Of course, once its leader Bill Gothrard was ALSO charged with molesting young girls the Duggars distanced themselves from the group, but they were keynote speakers at many IBLP events and even sold the company’s books on their website for many years. I strongly recommend watching Shiny Happy People on Netflix to learn more about this awful organization and the harm it did to so many people under the guise of Christian teaching. But I digress.
The supposed justification for Joshua Duggar’s abuse of his sisters – which was put forward by his OWN PARENTS I might add- was “natural human curiosity”. Of course we all remember how well that went over. And it certainly doesn’t explain his later desire to watch children being abused when he was a married man with a small army of children of his own.
But there probably is a grain of truth in there. One of the featured heavily on 19 Kids and Counting were the Duggars their very strict courtship rules. Couples were only allowed to hold hands in public once they were engaged, were not to be allowed to spend any time together without a chaperone, and no physical contact other than hand holding and “side hugs” until they were married. In a few of the televised weddings, much was made that the couple’s their first kiss took place in front of God and everyone at the end of the ceremony. Of course, their homeschool curriculum (purchased from the IBPL) didn’t any sex education or even basic human biology. Or much history or science, but I digress again.
So, two brothers raised in extreme purity culture grow up to abuse young girls. And the only reason we know about it because they had a TV show. It’s been alleged that this behavior is surprisingly common within these communities and is just swept under the rug. The fact that they produced a workbook/ pamphlet for girls who had been assaulted seems to add fuel to that fire. Fun fact- the entire pamphlet was designed to help the girl figure out what she did wrong to cause the abuse. If you are sick to your stomach by now good news- you are normal.
This is important now because in spite of all the negative publicity the IBPL is still around and there are several other organizations just like it out there claiming all they are doing it teaching “traditional Christian values”. Yup- the same values MAGA claims they are persecuted for believing.
Now I hear you saying “THAT isn’t what I mean by traditional values! I just want men to be men and women to be women blah blah blah……….” But if you create/ promote an environment where men have the final word about everything, women are no more than walking uteri, and children are trophies you are creating the perfect environment for men to abuse children. Over 90% of molested children are abused by someone they know and in at least a third of the time the perpetrator is a close family member.
That is the opposite of purity if you ask me. If you don’t believe me, just ask one of the Duggar sisters.