Ann Althouse<\/a>, and the video she links to.)<\/p>\nNo, I\u2019ve never been a fan of the Duggars, nor of their show, which I flip to occasionally when I want something while I\u2019m sorting laundry or the like, but just doesn\u2019t seem to be particularly entertaining. \u00a0And I don\u2019t know if their audience is composed primarily of people who genuinely see them as role models, or just gawk.<\/p>\n
But my reaction in reading this news was not, \u201cshame on Josh Duggar,\u201d nor do I think he should be imprisoned or barred for life from any meaningful, well, life, in the way that sex offenders are. \u00a0Nor am I willing to say that this is somehow the inevitable byproduct of the awfulness of the family\u2019s religious beliefs.<\/p>\n
My first reaction \u2014 because news reports suggested that dad Jim Bob learned of these events* after they had occured \u2014 is that I\u2019m not entirely sure what I would do, were I in his place. \u00a0Or, rather, I think that any parent\u2019s instinctive reaction is to protect their children, and, in this case, if the victims don\u2019t, from external appearances, to have been harmed, I think a parent would turn to protecting their perpetrator-child, especially since he was only 14 years old. \u00a0Do you send him to juvy? \u00a0What happens in such a case? \u00a0 Presumably the child\u2019s life is seriously uprooted, with a rather dim\u00a0future ahead of him, even if he escapes adult charges and sex offender status.<\/p>\n
(* Yeah, I\u2019m not going to be specific. \u00a0You can read the details elsewhere.)<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not saying I support the family\u2019s choices, but, oh, man, I just can\u2019t begin to fathom being a parent in that situation.<\/p>\n
(Ed. to add: \u00a0just to be clear: \u00a0this is a horrible situation. \u00a0I\u2019m not saying the Duggar family did the right thing. \u00a0All I\u2019m saying is that I think there\u2019s a good chance I wouldn\u2019t do the right thing either.)<\/p>\n
Now, the link above claims that Jim Bob knew what was happening for a full year during which Josh continued to, er, misbehave.* \u00a0Did Jim Bob just ignore the whole thing? \u00a0Have repeated stern talking-tos with his son, during with Josh promised that he\u2019d stopped? \u00a0I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n
(Ed. to add: \u00a0yes, that\u2019s a euphemism; I don\u2019t think that his actions are really merely \u201cmisbehavior.\u201d)<\/p>\n
One has the feeling that this was treated as something of a victimless sin, and that Jim Bob reacted in the same way as he might if the boy were caught masturbating, or fooling around with a girl his own age \u2014 and, conceivably, even though the report is that much younger girls were victims, he might have believed that it was only same-aged children, in which case, well, what would a parent do?<\/p>\n
But, of course, even in that situation, and even in the case in which you believe that the child\u2019s behavior isn\u2019t doing a grave harm to another person: \u00a0well, imagine that the chain of events was that Josh Duggar had gotten himself addicted to internet pornography; parents have a responsibility to take away the opportunity, don\u2019t they? \u00a0Or did they not want to bring shame upon the boy by telling everyone else, \u201cdon\u2019t leave him alone with girls,\u201d or were they too busy with their TV show and other activities (in the same way as countless other parents are \u201ctoo busy\u201d) or is this a difficult battle to fight if he slips into a bedroom in the middle of the night?<\/p>\n
Last thought: \u00a0I\u2019ve seen multiple statements that the parents went wrong in not getting \u201ccounseling\u201d for the boy. \u00a0Haven\u2019t we abandoned the idea that all it takes to fix things is a therapist?<\/p>\n
And now it\u2019s your turn \u2014 because I\u2019m not interested in this\u00a0as a means of tearing down a family or yelling \u201chypocrite!\u201d, but in thinking abut young offenders, that line between \u201csin\u201d and \u201ccrime,\u201d and parenting when things go wrong.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Here\u2019s an article\u00a0(from a Patheos blog which appears to get way, way more traffic than me) which lays out the facts, as best as its author can compile them, and attempts to be factual and non-gossipy. So, yeah, it\u2019s bad. \u00a0It\u2019s again another occasion for non-Christians to say that we need to get our own […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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