{"id":26511,"date":"2015-08-20T14:54:47","date_gmt":"2015-08-20T18:54:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?p=26511"},"modified":"2015-08-20T15:07:09","modified_gmt":"2015-08-20T19:07:09","slug":"josh-duggar-blames-porn-and-satan-in-public-statement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2015\/08\/josh-duggar-blames-porn-and-satan-in-public-statement.html","title":{"rendered":"Josh Duggar Blames Porn and Satan in Public Statement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Josh Duggar has now released a public statement<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Statement from Josh Duggar<\/strong>:<\/span><\/p>\n

I have been the biggest hypocrite ever. While espousing faith and family values, I have secretly over the last several years been viewing pornography on the internet and this became a secret addiction and I became unfaithful to my wife.<\/span><\/p>\n

I am so ashamed of the double life that I have been living and am grieved for the hurt, pain and disgrace my sin has caused my wife and family, and most of all Jesus and all those who profess faith in Him.<\/span><\/p>\n

I brought hurt and a reproach to my family, close friends and the fans of our show with my actions that happened when I was 14-15 years old, and now I have re-broken their trust.<\/span><\/p>\n

The last few years, while publicly stating I was fighting against immorality in our country, in my heart I had allowed Satan to build a fortress that no one knew about.<\/span><\/p>\n

As I am learning the hard way, we have the freedom to choose to our actions, but we do not get to choose our consequences. I deeply regret all hurt I have caused so many by being such a bad example.<\/span><\/p>\n

I humbly ask for your forgiveness. Please pray for my precious wife Anna and our family during this time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Josh Duggar<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The idea that porn viewing leads to porn addiction which leads to cheating on one\u2019s spouse is a common one in evangelical circles. It\u2019s also false. But it\u2019s very clearly an idea Josh is leaning on heavily. He\u2019s positioned\u00a0himself perfectly to travel the evangelical speaking circuit as\u00a0anti-porn advocate with a\u00a0powerful testimony.<\/p>\n

Also, by putting the mention of his infidelity behind a double mention of porn, he made it easy to miss and effectively minimized it. I already had one person ask me whether the infidelity refers to the porn, not, you know, actual infidelity<\/em>. Josh\u00a0may not realize\u00a0that most people don\u2019t care that he watched porn. Seriously. It\u2019s the cheating on his wife thing that is an issue here.<\/p>\n

Josh says he \u201callowed Satan to build a fortress.\u201d What that means is that it was Satan who worked this evil in Josh\u2019s life, and Josh\u2019s only mistake was allowing it. This is most definitely a variant of \u201cthe devil made me do it.\u201d It\u2019s a way to shift responsibility.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong, I do appreciate that Josh acknowledged\u00a0that the consequences he is facing are deserved, that he stated that we have the freedom to choose our actions, and that he has admitted that he was a hypocrite. Still, I\u2019m bothered by the way he blames both porn and Satan for what happened, and I can explain why.<\/p>\n

First, notice what doesn\u2019t appear in this statement: Any acknowledgment that any of Josh or his parents\u2019 beliefs may\u00a0be implicated in what happened. Now yes, lots of people cheat. But\u00a0remember that Josh and his parents have portrayed their rigid beliefs about sex and relationship formation as the key<\/em> to creating healthy, happy, sound marriages. Courtship, not having sex until the altar, all of that is supposed to protect you from<\/em> problems like this one. And it didn\u2019t work<\/em>.<\/p>\n

There is nothing in Josh\u2019s statement admitting that perhaps a highly chaperoned courtship and sexual abstinence before marriage isn\u2019t so foolproof after all. Instead it\u2019s all about porn and\u00a0Satan. The problem, the statement suggests, is that Josh didn\u2019t follow the rules closely<\/em> enough, not that the rules themselves may be\u00a0flawed.<\/p>\n

I was raised in a home much like the Duggars\u2019, but I am no longer religious, and my husband isn\u2019t either. In the Duggars\u2019 worldview, that means we have given ourselves over to Satan, because we are no longer protected from sin or temptation by the blood of Jesus. My husband and I began our relationship as a courtship, but switched to just dating\u00a0when my parents\u2019 started layering on restrictions. We had sex before the wedding. And you know what? We don\u2019t subscribe to that whole no-porn business. And yet, somehow, neither of us has ever been\u00a0anywhere near cheating.<\/p>\n

The Duggars promote very specific sex and relationship rules, rules that are supposed to protect young adults from just this heartbreak. I\u2019ve been saying for years that these rules are seriously flawed, and others who grew up in this environment have as well, but the Duggars have continued to promote courtship and abstinence as the foundation for sound marriages. Courtship and abstinence before marriage were supposed to give\u00a0Josh and Anna the perfect relationship and a fairy tale marriage, and but it didn\u2019t. Josh\u2019s infidelity ought to put a dent\u00a0in their starry-eyed promotion of courtship, at the very least, but given the way this statement is phrased, I don\u2019t see that happening.<\/p>\n

The Duggar boys aren\u2019t allowed smartphones for fear they\u2019ll access porn. The Duggar children, including the adult children<\/em>,\u00a0are only allowed on the internet with someone else sitting by them watching them, to make sure they don\u2019t access objectionable things like porn. It\u2019s almost like they never stopped to ask themselves whether making such a huge deal about porn might backfire when their sons got out of the house and had control over their\u00a0own internet. When you obsess over sex, you shouldn\u2019t be surprised when sex becomes an obsession.<\/p>\n

But you know what? I don\u2019t think any of these questions will be asked, and I don\u2019t think any of these conversations will be had, at least by the Duggars. And that\u2019s sad.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Josh Duggar has released a public statement. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[520],"class_list":["post-26511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-purity","tag-josh-duggar"],"yoast_head":"\nJosh Duggar Blames Porn and Satan in Public Statement<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Josh Duggar has released a public statement.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2015\/08\/josh-duggar-blames-porn-and-satan-in-public-statement.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Josh Duggar Blames Porn and Satan in Public Statement\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Josh Duggar has released a public statement.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2015\/08\/josh-duggar-blames-porn-and-satan-in-public-statement.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Love, Joy, Feminism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-08-20T18:54:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-08-20T19:07:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Libby Anne\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Libby Anne\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2015\/08\/josh-duggar-blames-porn-and-satan-in-public-statement.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2015\/08\/josh-duggar-blames-porn-and-satan-in-public-statement.html\",\"name\":\"Josh Duggar Blames Porn and Satan in Public Statement\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-08-20T18:54:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-08-20T19:07:09+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2\"},\"description\":\"Josh Duggar has released a public statement.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2015\/08\/josh-duggar-blames-porn-and-satan-in-public-statement.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2015\/08\/josh-duggar-blames-porn-and-satan-in-public-statement.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2015\/08\/josh-duggar-blames-porn-and-satan-in-public-statement.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Josh Duggar Blames Porn and Satan in Public Statement\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/\",\"name\":\"Love, Joy, Feminism\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2\",\"name\":\"Libby Anne\",\"description\":\"Libby Anne grew up in a large evangelical homeschool family highly involved in the Christian Right. 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