The Duggar family of Tontitown, Arkansas, are a large clan of fundamentalist Baptists who have gained celebrity due to the ârealityâ television program 19 Kids and Counting on basic cableâs TLC channel. Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar are parents to 19 children â a result of their patriarchal, âQuiverfullâ religion.
The TV show purportedly revealing the daily reality of this large family helped turn them into spokespeople for and mascots of the religious right â avatars of âfamily valuesâ and a religiously motivated sexual righteousness. The Duggars have leveraged that fame to support various right-wing political causes â fighting to ban same-sex marriage, gay rights, antidiscrimination laws protecting LGBT people, access to contraception, and legal abortion. The familyâs oldest son, Josh, went to work for the anti-gay religious right lobbying and fundraising group, the Family Research Council.
All of that blew to smithereens last week when celebrity-gossip rag In Touch magazine published police reports revealing that Josh Duggar sexually abused several children when he was a teenager, and that his parents waited for more than a year before notifying authorities.
This is not the first time that prominent religious right figures have been exposed as sexual predators and hypocrites after making a career out of demonizing LGBT people while celebrating their own sexual âpurityâ and moral superiority. Nor will it be the last.
Hereâs a round-up of some insightful commentary and reflection in response to the Josh Duggar scandal.
⢠In Touch Weekly, âJim Bob Duggar Didnât Report Son Joahâs Alleged Sex Offenses for More Than a Yearâ
âJim Bob Duggar waited more than a year after his son, Josh, confessed to sexually molesting several female minors before contacting police âŚÂ based on information contained in the official police report.â
⢠Libby Anne, âWhat You Need to Know about the Josh Duggar Police Reportâ
âSexual abuse should always always always be reported to the authorities immediately, even when the perpetrator is a minor.â
â˘Â Sarah Posner, âJosh Duggar and the Purity Lieâ
âThe Duggars are no ordinary spokespeople for the religious right; they are super-spokespeople. For years, they have been held up as exemplars of biblical living, of devotion to Christ, and of, especially, homespun honest living and sexual purity. Itâs long been obvious to many that this is a product of marketing and packaging, not reality. But now no one can pretend anymore.â
â˘Â Sarah Pulliam Bailey and Michelle Boorstein, âHow do evangelicals view the Duggars? Itâs complicated.â
âWhen the Duggars first appeared on television in 2008, some evangelicals saw a fringe image of themselves, perhaps something like the experience of Mormons watching the reality show Sister Wives, about a polygamous family.â
⢠Melissa @ Permission to Live, âItâs Not Just The Duggarsâ
âWhat is truly horrifying, is that after setting their kids up for this to happen, Josh Duggarâs parents pushed it under the rug, kept things in house, and didnât get help for either the molester or the children who were molested.â
⢠Katie Mulligan, âChild Sexual Assaultâ
âWe have not figured out how to deal with child sexual assault.â
⢠Ken Tucker, âJosh Duggar, Molestation, and the Hypocrisy of Reality TVâ
âHow does one look at the cheery faces of Jim Bob and Michelle and not think about the degree of their complicity in keeping this âstorylineâ â for thatâs what all real events become in this TV genre â suppressed?â
⢠Timothy Swanson, âThe Duggars: How Fundamentalismâs Teachings on Sexuality Create Predatory Behaviorâ
âAll I needed to know was that they followed Gothardâs teachings about sex and gender, and I knew that it was more likely than not that a sex scandal would surface sooner or later.â
â˘Â Hemant Mehta, âAfter He Was Accused of Child Molestation, Josh Duggarâs Family Did Everything Wrongâ
âTurns out Josh Duggar is far more dangerous to children than the LGBT people he has demonized for so long.â
⢠David Clohessy, âHuckabee defends sex offender; SNAP respondsâ
âItâs painful when some misunderstand and misapply the notion of forgiveness in ways that lead to putting other innocent kids and vulnerable adults in harmâs way again, even in cases of proven, serial, predatory behavior by dangerous men.â
⢠Christian Post, âDuggar Family Continues Receiving Evangelicalâs Support Amidst Josh Duggarâs Molestation Scandal; Training Ministry Says âEveryone Has Sinned'â
ââHaving met the Duggar family and been in their home, I have great admiration and appreciation for how Jim Bob and Michelle instilled Christian values in the lives of each of their children,â âŚÂ Evangelism Explosion International president John B. Sorensen said in a statement.â
⢠Hemant Mehta, âRay Comfort: Josh Duggar Wasnât Really a Christian When He Molested Those Girlsâ
âIf this is the sort of morality Christians have â where the only thing preventing them from stealing or raping or committing any number of crimes is their fear of God â it tells you how fucked up their worldview is.â
⢠David Badash, âOnly âFear Of Consequencesâ Keeps Us From Sin: Jessa Duggarâs Father-in-Law Defends Joshâ
âMichael Seewald penned a lengthy essay Sunday, quoting Scripture, and offering disturbing excuses.â
⢠Mary DeMuth, âIn faith communities like the Duggars, abuse victims are encouraged to be filled with grace. Itâs not that simple.â
âOften we see in communities of faith that victims are admonished to be grace-like, offering instant forgiveness to their abuser as if it could be doled out like a trinket or candy. And when someone is pressured to âbe like Jesusâ and forgive swiftly, often this pressure causes harm.â
⢠Kathryn Elizabeth, âJosh Duggar says heâs sorry. So what?â
âThis isnât penitence, itâs not repentance, itâs what child molesters do. Rewrite the narrative so that in the end the audience feels sorry for them and forgets about their victims.â
⢠Samantha Field, âHow Josh Duggar is getting away with itâ
âThis is what purity culture does. More than anything else, it silences victims.â
⢠Boz Tchividjian, âA grand deception: The successful response of sex offendersâ
âSexual offenders have perfected a grand deception that sadly seems to work all too well inside faith communities.â
â˘Â Carmen Green, âAnna Duggar and the Silencing Power of Forgivenessâ
âThey are tapping into the belief that no sin is too terrible for God to forgive and the mandate that we must forgive our trespassers as God has forgiven us. Together, these beliefs force victims in this subculture to shut up, sit down, and âmake peaceâ with the people who have wronged them.â
â˘Â Libby Anne, âWhat Did Josh Duggarâs Counseling Look Like?â
âBill Gothard was outed as a predator of teen girls last year and removed from his leadership position, but the Duggars continue to serve for speakers at ATI conferences. The Duggarsâ connection to Gothard and ATI is not incidental or tangential.â
â˘Â Rebecca Schoenkopf, âHow Not to Counsel Your Daughters When Theyâve Been Molested by Josh Duggarâ
âWhat we are going to talk about is what the Duggarsâ religion â their freaky-deaky, Stepford-meets-Taliban, patriarchal, Quiverfull, homeschooled, isolated, culty, HARMFUL AND DAMAGING religion â teaches them about their girl babies. Because what it teaches is Some Bullshit, and it is Not Okay.â
â˘Â Vyckie Garrison, âWhat Is Quiverfull? Hereâs a look inside the Duggarsâ dangerous Christian cultâ
âThe teachings of the Quiverfull lifestyle are spread primarily through the Christian home school movement. Many of the publishing companies which cater to the curriculum needs of the Christian home school community also publish and promote materials which address lifestyle choices regarding biblical family structure, roles, and practices.â
⢠Vyckie Garrison, â5 demented evangelical teachings that enabled Josh Duggarâs sex crimesâ
âMy point here is to say that contemporary evangelical Christianity sets âbiblical familiesâ up for this sort of disaster.â
â˘Â Libby Anne, âJosh Duggar and the Tale of Two Boxesâ
âThere seems to be an assumption among some social conservatives that because progressives do not see premarital sex as sinful and wrong, they arenât in any position to criticize Josh Duggarâs actions.â
â˘Â Joanna Rothkopf, âLetâs revisit what Michelle Duggar said about LGBT people being child predatorsâ
âI doubt that Fayetteville parents would stand for a law that would endanger their daughters or allow them to be traumatized by a man joining them in their private space.â
⢠Ahab @ Republic of Gilead, âJosh Duggar Backs Out of Teach Them Diligently Conferenceâ
âIâm relieved that Duggar will not be speaking at the event. However, when I skimmed over the conference workshop schedule, I was disappointed that the topics reflected the unhealthy Christian homeschooling culture in which the Duggars live.â