So, I binged this mini-docu-series in one day while working from home. With four, shorter episodes, this series really only has about four hours to pack a punch, and it does a decent job at a comprehensive look at the Duggars' past, rising fame, and downfall in the eye of the world, while also discussing their cult-based teachings and backgrounds, through which"They turned every father into a Cult Leader, and franchised Spiritual, Physical, Emotional, Psychological Abuse." - Josh Pease
Overall, this docu-series revealed more than expected. I suspected that some of these things were happening behind the scenes, but things like the physical and sexual abuse of children, and the cover-up that both Michelle and Jim Bob executed in order to protect Josh Duggar (their pedophilic son, who molested his sisters several times), coming out into the open was kind of shocking.
Ahhhh. The Duggars and their dark secrets. IBLP. Child Abuse. Sexual Abuse. Overpopulation. Indoctrination. Cult activity. Evangelical Christian Fundamentalism. Boy oh boy, do I have opinions.
-The Duggar Family c. 2015
Episode 1: Meet the Duggars
Jill & Derick Dillard lead us into this first episode and really focus on the image of the Duggars that was presented to the world, i.e., the "Shiny Happy People" they seemed to be. Because it wouldn't be fundamentalism without a cover story now would it? We have to remember, as we walk through this piece, that cults like this only have one goal - to gain as many followers as possible, and effectively one day to take over the world. That seems extreme to say, but that's just how extreme cults truly are.
The first red flag to me sticks out with the rather incredibly young marriage of Jim Bob (19) and Michelle (17) and the immediate influence Jim Bob had on Michelle, who was younger than him. Michelle states that he influenced her and convinced her of the word of God and that she gave her life to Jesus that night. Already I have a problem with this. Yes, people got married rather young in 1984, but the fact that they were this young causes me to worry, and Michelle's admission that he convinced her that day when she was 17 and still in high school, that she should live her life only one way from here on out, and only with him, is rather upsetting. She was a bit too young to be convinced and a bit too young to be allowed to make those decisions for herself. Jim Bob was old enough to know that, if Michelle was a teenager who had a crush on him, she would probably give him more credit than he was worth, which most teenagers do. If neither of them understood that, then they were probably too young to get married, and if Jim Bob didn't realize how the trajectories of their lives were being altered for the worse, I would probably say they shouldn't have had children either. The lack of sexual education and emotional intelligence that seems to have affected this family is devastating, to be honest. And I am reminded that several million families live like this. Yuck.
With a miscarriage happening early on in the marriage, the young Duggars asked for forgiveness for having been on the Birth Control that "killed" their second child. I really don't even know how to respond to this, honestly. The Duggars seemed to think that they had done something wrong by being on birth control for God to have taken away their second child, and so they stopped using the Birth Control all together. I greatly understand the mental gymnastics that facilitated this decision, but boy was it a poorly educated one. Birth Control causes the uterine lining to shed, and has nothing to do with conception. The Birth Control did its job, which is easy enough to say, but the Birth Control being a sin against God? Absolutely not. I would dare say that Jim Bob and Michelle's need to conceive twenty-one times was the sin. How irresponsible could you be to bring 19 children onto this planet, abuse them, allow them to be sexually abused by their sibling, and then continue to control their behavior and choices well into adulthood? So goes the way of the cult. Every aspect of the Duggar children's lives was controlled by, well, control; Strict household, no radio, no TV, girls wearing pantaloons, strict modesty, and corporal punishment. Jim Bob and Michelle are delusional and created so many children in order to super-populate the cult and increase the chances of having conservative children grow up to be influential fundamentalist leaders.
And also as cults go, this family was encouraged by the IBLP to be strongly politically motivated. Both Jim Bob and Josh Duggar ran for office multiple times and the entire family attended Pro-Life Rallies and supported the Family Research Council, an extremely pro-life lobbying group founded in 1983 that conflates homosexuality with pedophilia. Yeah. Those people. Fundamentalist groups like this typically crave a theocracy, which is the opposite of what this country stands for. Jim Bob himself served 4 years in the House of Representatives, then lost his bid for Senate, but the fact that a fundamentalist evangelical cult follower had this much control and power is truly a bad thing for our government. Fundamentalists, whether conservative or liberal, are a problem for our country. Most conservative fundamentalists want a fascist theocracy, and most liberal fundamentalists want a socialist or communist revolution. Both of which alienate a majority of the population in this country - the moderates. Democracy will never succeed with these types involved in politics, especially lobbying groups and radical-thinking politicians who have delusions about themselves either saving the world or controlling it. Democracy will not succeed with the extremists involved because they will polarize the bipartisan voting situation we're in and people will be required to vote for more and more extreme candidates than any of us really want running our country.
All of this political activity led to one little picture in a newspaper, and the Duggars exploded on the television scene. Thus begins their fame with Discovery Health and the TLC bombshell program "19 Kids and Counting." After they took the spotlight, around child 15, Jim Bob saw an opportunity to do the totally Christian thing- exploit his family, make money, make more children, and spread his values and loving ministry to the world. Phenomenal. All I can think about is poor Michelle. 19 children, one (or more?) miscarriages, and one stillborn. Brutal on the body. The sorrow Michelle must have felt about her miscarriages and stillborn is masked by this happy face and infantile voice that she uses with the cameras, instead of showing that she was sad about her loss. I wonder how much of her personality is faked for the cameras.
Reality TV is strange because it is just as scripted as fictional television, but it touts that it is "real life" (i.e. "The Real Housewives," etc.). The reality of reality TV, is that it's not really real. Everything on TV is constructed and fabricated, even the stuff that looks really genuine - is not. Especially shows that depict groups or individuals as happy and problem-free. I worked on the set of reality TV for one episode and never wanted to do it again. Seeing how artificial and constructed all of the interactions were had me shocked. When it comes to the Duggars, the show's popularity soared and people were mesmerized by the way the Duggars handled everything, but really they had a mask on to seem problem-free. Normal day-to-day tasks became epic mythos and insanely excessive and expensive. And the children were "perfect." But this was what was presented to the public, not the reality. Relationships that are depicted on these shows are far from how typical families and relationships exist. And that goes for most Reality TV shows. It is stereotypical that the women handle cooking and cleaning and child-rearing, as well as family management, coming out to be "Caregivers" - and men almost exclusively handle hard labor, religious expectations, discipline, finances, and business, and are self-proclaimed "heroes."
When the Duggars went to TLC, they became a "Contemporary Freak Show." People didn't watch for the family values or the supposedly "loving" family - they tuned in to see how a family that large managed to exist- how did they cook dinner for 20 people? How big was their house? What were the kids like? How did they discipline? Date? Marry? Have more children? Etc.? Not only were they famous for the shock factor, but they became a lighthouse for the Fundamentalist Evangelical community. People saw themselves represented on television and saw their own ultra-conservative beliefs being praised on the tube, and became emboldened. Either that or interested in the Duggars' way of life and wanted to incorporate that into their own lives.
This lifestyle seems to start out as something fantastic, but then, the longer you look at it critically- you begin to realize it's all a ploy in order to gain control of as many people as possible. The IBLP (The Institute of Basic Life Principals) and the teachings of Bill Gothard are notoriously fundamentalist and traditionalist, sometimes even nationalist. Historically, the goal of any cult (dare I say several major religions and corporations as well), is to gain control of as many vulnerable people as possible, brainwash them, and turn them into a soldier for the cause. Just like several other cults and religions, the IBLP teaches the Prosperity Gospel, and the Quiverfull Concept. The Prosperity Gospel is the belief that if you are faithful god will bless you financially. And the Quiverfull Concept is that you should have as many children as possible to fight in the spiritual war that goes on in the world. More children = More Fundamentalist Christians. To rely on numbers in order to convince others is simply a brute-force way of converting the world. Again - an attempt at a theocracy, which goes against U.S. foundational ideals.
Jim Bob Duggar, and Michelle, believe deeply in the IBLP and have even done teaching courses for the Institute. They became the poster children (pun intended) for the cult, and were recognized everywhere they went. The Duggars would draw people in via their stardom, and Bill Gothard, the founder of IBLP, would set the recruitment into concrete with Charisma and false promises. The IBLP also released the Advanced Training Institute, a homeschooling course for IBLP followers. ATI was a take-home indoctrination process. Women were learning about what clothes were modest enough for God, and Men were learning about how to be the head of the household. It was all about indoctrinating more fundamentalist children to grow up and create more fundamentalist children in their own families. The ATI created an obsession with purity and submission, thus creating female victims and male predators. Before the Duggars were famous, Christian Fundamentalism had its own underground culture, and suddenly cults became mainstream. With the fame of the Duggars, others felt comfortable speaking out. Suddenly, extremist views start cropping up everywhere in popular media, because the Duggars made it acceptable first.
Suddenly, a shock - Josh Duggar, from 12-15 years old, sexually abused little girls, including his sisters. When he was 15 years old, he touched 5 girls in 2002 and 2003. The allegations are disturbing. And guess who tried to cover it up? Jim Bob and Michelle. Instead of reporting him to the police or removing him entirely from the home, Jim Bob and Michelle decide to send him to an IBLP young men's work camp for a short time to "rehabilitate" him and then brought him back home. The expectation was set - continue life as normal, force the victims to live in the home with their attacker, and put the other young girls at risk in their own home. Well done parents. Well done. You value your oldest son's reputation more than the lives of your 18 other children. Fantastic. In a conversation between the Duggars and the Holts, Jim Bob revealed that he was going to lie in an interview and claim that Josh was just curious and didn't really touch them - they were sleeping and he touched them over their clothing. That wasn't all though. Instead of discussing therapy or removing Josh from the home, the Duggars allowed the following to happen:
In March 2003, Duggar's parents learned of additional incidents and victims. Four of the molestation victims were Duggar's siblings:[31][32] he had reached under the dress of a younger sister who was in his lap, cornered a sister in the laundry room to reach under her clothing, and touched a much younger sister, who, according to the Duggars, "didn't understand she had been improperly touched".[28][30][33] (Years later, however, in 2021, Jim and Bobye Holt testified that Josh had touched his sisters inappropriately multiple times and that at least one of the girls had reported it.)[34] The fifth victim was a babysitter. Duggar's father brought the issue to the elders of their church.[29][30]
Although Josh confessed three times to his father to seven incidents of molestation involving a much younger sister, the family waited at least 16 months before reporting the abuse to authorities.[35] - WIKI
Jill remembers that these things happened to her, and recounts the issues she had with Josh as a teenager, and struggles to bring it up again as an adult. She is traumatized and devastated.
But this doesn't stop with the Duggars. Bill Gothard himself, the leader of IBLP and millions of followers who trust him with their children and their futures, is a pedophile with his pick of the crop.
The IBLP raises predators, perfect victims, and harbors pedophiles.
“You never think you are in a cult when you are in a cult,” Micah J. Murray, who was a student in the ATI program and later worked for IBLP in the mid-2000s, wrote on his website. “We talked about how it was a cult, joking at first. … But as I spiraled closer and closer to the center, the realization began to sink in. The jokes became real.” - Chicago
- Bill Gothard with unknown young IBLP women.
Episode 2: Growing Up Gothard
This second episode kicks off with the accusations against Josh Duggar sexually assaulting his sisters. The kicker is that Jim Bob, Michelle, and the producers discussed how the show could carry on while at the same time dealing with the repercussions of Josh's actions. Not canceling the show, y'know, like normal people would have. But the combination of Hollywood sharks and fundamentalist cultists doesn't make a great mix. Jim Bob and Michelle even got two of the sisters (Jill & Jessa, who were victims) to do an interview on their brothers' behalf, claiming he was innocent and that the parents were in the right. When the above incidents had already happened. Amazing. Jim Bob and Michelle covering things up is proof of their lack of care towards their female children, which does not surprise me, considering their belief system.
But Josh continues to be a problem for the Duggars, and he really doesn't stop.
On August 20, 2015, following the online posting of information from the Ashley Madison data breach, which included records of credit card transactions under his name, Duggar and his parents released a statement on the family website in which he admitted to watching pornography on the Internet and being unfaithful to his wife.[63] According to the material obtained in the data breach, Duggar's credit card was used to pay $986.76 for two Ashley Madison subscriptions starting in February 2013, which were canceled in May 2015 shortly after the molestation allegations surfaced.[63][64] - WIKI
Jim Bob and Michelle claim this is another trial from God. Y'know because god is totally cool with molesting children and sisters and cheating on your wife as long as it's a lesson for the family. Because that's how much women matter to these people. But what the Duggars didn't count on, was people seeing that for what it was - a cover-up. People finally began looking at what was really going on. Other IBLP families that were going through the same things began to see that they weren't alone and that IBLP may not have been what they thought it was.
And it all started with Gothard. People LIVED the word of Gothard. He was selling what protestant white men wanted. Submissive wives, submissive children, and complete authority over their families and finances. Jim Bob Duggar is no different. Gothard told his followers that living as Puritans would be the only way to please God. What made Gothard so effective, was that he connected his teachings to what people wanted. Secretly, many Protestant white men across the U.S. craved this in the 80's and 90's, and the moment Gothard's teachings were brought into the home, these families were doomed.
Gothard’s principles went beyond the common fundamentalist warnings against alcohol and tobacco, calling on adherents to remove televisions from the house and to avoid music with a “tribal” beat. Men had to be clean-shaven, and women had to meticulously conceal their sexual appeal—the most valuable, and dangerous, attribute they possessed. All these instructions were, Gothard claimed, pulled straight from Scripture. They were what God wanted. - TNR
Once ATI was released in 1984, people began to trade out a decent education for a non-accredited and extremely religious-based homeschooling curriculum that focused primarily on modesty, obedience, purity, and authority. At the core of ATI were Wisdom Booklets, which were each written by non-educators and focused on building blocks about life from God's perspective. These were small activity booklets that were based on the Sermon on the Mount - and were touted to be akin to a pre-medical and pre-law degree. The Wisdom Booklets were no such things.
From Wisdom Booklet 44
How would such an apprenticeship program work for someone who wants to become a medical doctor? The chief surgeon at one of our nation's leading university medical centers never went to medical school. He trained under other doctors and through personal study was able to validate each medical exam. The university recognized the superior quality of his training and offered him their highest position. Another medical doctor apprenticed more than twenty specialists, some of whom are so outstanding that clinics are named after them today. The success of his training methods is now being studied by leading universities throughout our nation. - Reddit
Right - keep children uneducated, and then tell them that college isn't necessary, but why? Because uneducated people are incredibly vulnerable and easy to take and keep control of. Giving children racist, sexist, fundamentalist activity booklets and calling it Homeschooling should be illegal. Shouldn't it? Well, they got away with it for quite a long time, until much later, because it was marketed as a Christian Homeschooling System, as opposed to what it actually was - a cultist indoctrination with a subtext of pedophilia and sexuality that is repressed and cannot be acknowledged, leading to hypersexuality ridden with guilt. Fear was a HUGE component of what was pushed in all teachings, especially regarding human sexuality- if a young woman wore something that a man might be attracted to sexually, it was a sin on her part that her clothing didn't draw attention only to her face, or "countenance," as they say. All the girls wore dresses with pilgrim collars all the time and all the men wore khakis and polos non-stop. This isn't a huge deal until you realize that, "Instead of learning math, you're learning slut-shaming." - Brooke Arnold. The youths were being taught that someone was worth less unless they dressed modestly. And on top of that, there was not much other education being provided. The women were meant to present as young pure virginal girls and the men were meant to present as providers and political powerhouses. For example - Michelle infantilized herself in her voice and face in order to make herself more presentable, but she herself was blanket training her kids and parentifying her older daughters and showing them they weren't worth more than being a baby-maker themselves; they were only good for rearing children. As children and while growing up in this cult, the Duggar children and several others were indoctrinated and harshly abused in order to conform to the IBLP beliefs that were presented in these Wisdom Booklets. And most often the harms perpetrated here are parents upon their children who became meek because they were abused.
But the abuse doesn't stop there. The families would burn and destroy things that were of any outside influence. This isolates the children (and adults) and prevents them from experiencing the different viewpoints in the world around them, and prevents them from making their own decisions while growing and learning to develop their autonomy. By removing children's autonomy and then allowing physical punishment (or "encouragement" as Michelle Duggar calls it) to affect every aspect of the child's life, you are creating empty robots of children that are mindlessly obedient and cannot think for themselves. Having an independent voice was stifled and discouraged. Instead, most of the indoctrinated children had broken spirits and only lived to serve their parents and god. We could even mention To Train Up a Child - by the Pearls, the infamous IBLP child-rearing manual that condones strict physical punishment, but at the same time avoids trouble with the Law.
To Train Up a Child has been criticized for advocating child abuse. The book tells parents to use objects like a 0.25 in (6.4 mm) diameter plastic tube to spank children and "break their will". It recommends other abusive tactics like withholding food and putting children under a cold garden hose.[3][15] - WIKI
Classy. Several IBLP families, who are psychologically, and possibly physically, isolated, are doing these things to their children. Daily. Still, today, people purchase this book on Amazon and use it with their children. Blanket Training is fairly common in these homes as well. For those of you who are not sure of what this is:
Blanket training, also known as 'blanket time,' is a method adapted from the methods encouraged in To Train Up a Child, published in 1994 and written by Christian fundamentalists Michael and Debi Pearl. To Train Up a Child promotes several harsh parenting techniques, with a focus on child obedience, which have been linked to multiple child deaths.[1][2]
Blanket training is an allocated amount of time during the day where an infant or toddler is required to remain on a blanket or play mat for a limited period of time, with a few selected toys. When the child moves to leave the blanket, parents are instructed to hit the child with a flexible ruler, glue stick, or another similar object.[3] Many of those doing it have voiced online that they start by doing five minutes a day and build up the intervals over time, with some extending it to 30 minutes or more.
Proponents of the technique claim that blanket training helps very young children to learn self-control, however, no empirical evidence currently exists to back these claims. - WIKI
The whole point is to inflict pain until the abuse results in the submission that the oppressor wants. Not to mention that this is used on infants as young as 6 months old. You heard me. The child, whether being taught with the rod, water, or blanket, is being taught not to resist.
Its teachings are linked to the deaths of Sean Paddock,[16]Lydia Schatz,[17] and Hana Grace-Rose Williams.[18] - WIKI
Your body belongs to the church. Your body belongs to the family. Your body belongs to god. And only God, your family, and the church can approve of what you do with your body and mind. The blanket training is designed to groom victims to be ready for more predators later on. It creates the perfect victim. And it might even kill a child.
This leads infants right up to the Courtship phase of their lives. They don't get to be children. Especially for young women, who, in my opinion, are the true victims here; life is about the beautified purity culture for young women in these families. They are taught that women are always under the authority of a man, either a father or husband (or even brother if necessary), and that their decisions mean nothing, and their opinions, wants, and needs, mean nothing. The Courtship Process establishes the parents as the head of every relationship (because they decide if the match is correct, leading to several young arranged marriages) and is seen as a way to guarantee sexual purity in each courtship. In this culture, you can't say no to the man who wants you, and you have to accept it, as long as your parents agree. Again, no autonomy for young women, but young men have their pick of the pure young virgins that have been raised to obey men. Seems cultish, huh? Because it is. Young women are taught that having children is their only purpose, so young women in these families are dating to make babies and get married as quickly as possible.
Thus, from infanthood, to marriage, to true adulthood, women and men are treated as having different levels of worth, and traditional gender roles are required for the household to please god and the church and the parents. Now, as the children become teens and adults, they are taught that they have different gifts - and of course, these gifts are gendered as well. There are really only two - The Gift of Mercy (for the girls) and the Gift of Prophet (for the boys). Now this is inherently sexist as is, women are Mercy - forgiving, receiving, and openness, while men are Prophet - orders, godhead, and control. See the problem here? Now all of these sexist teachings led the oldest Duggar Son, Josh, to see women and young girls specifically as receivers who can't say "NO," who, at 12 years old, began molesting young girls in his family. Which is not normal. After several years of this, just before Josh's wedding to Anna, Jim Bob and Josh Duggar attempt to show to the world that he was "rehabilitated" by giving him the Gothard Wedding Night CD (an instruction manual on sex for the fundamental christian)- another fake show of normalcy. Yes, of course, he doesn't understand sex with a woman because there was no education he received. Absolutely not. Clearly, he was curious enough to search for pornography and learned from his own family that females are submissive creatures that will cater to all needs of the men in the family. This goes for most women in the IBLP; most of these women were treated like shit by their husbands, and of their own admission, raped frequently, as they were conditioned from childhood to obey without question. Fundamentalist husbands will physically punish their wives for not "obeying;" it really doesn't end for these women, and they believe it is honorable to suffer silently. Talk about brainwashing.
Frankly, nobody was surprised when the allegations came out about Josh Duggar. The Duggar Family was a hotbed for predatory activity against their female children, and those children were later forced to go on live television to relive the trauma for the ratings and to downplay their brothers' actions. Amazing.
So, TLC canceled 19 Kids & Counting, and then tried to create an offshoot with Jill and Jessa (Jill & Jessa: Counting On). So what happens next? Jim Bob scrambles to force his adult kids to continue the show. Surprise surprise.
-The IBLP's teaching on Authority
Episode 3: Under Authority
This episode focused mostly on IBLP women. They were frequently forced to sign a contract to agree to a set of rules or behaviors and agreed to punishments for disobeying this contract. Several families faced suffering abuse because of these contracts behind closed doors, and still do today.
Jim Bob really possesses a ton of power in the Duggar family, and forced several of his adult children to continue in the rebooted show Jill & Jessa; Counting On, tricking some to sign a contract for that show and several years of production. The concept of parents being in control of their children's future is far-reaching in the IBLP. Jim Bob and Michelle likely knew that continuing to have babies and weddings is what brought in high ratings and money, and they didn't want it to stop. So by greenlighting Counting On, the family was trying to ensure their financial success. As of 2023, Jim Bob Duggar is worth over $3 Million. Even despite the scandals and cancellation of the original 19 Kids and Counting.
And he never paid his adult female children. Not one of them saw a cheque in the mail, and while trying to film Counting On, Jill Duggar denied film crews access to her labor & delivery because she knew she wasn't going to get paid at all. Because she knew that the L&D was going to bring in high ratings, she had her husband talk to Jim Bob about compensation, and he offered $10/hr. for the L&D. Amazing way to take care of your children Jim Bob. Oh yeah, and they relied on food banks too, because Jill likely was not educated enough to work beyond taking care of children. One distinction I really liked in Shiny Happy People was that the difference between the Duggars and the Kardashians is that the Kardashians were getting paid. Another unpaid group in the Duggar family is the children, for free child labor. Having the young girls raise their siblings and act as free childcare is amazing. The young men did physical labor with no recompense either. Especially in the documentary 16 Children and Moving In (2006). The kids were working or filming for 16 hours a day with no pay or royalties provided. No residual either. Because these children were taught to serve and serve alone without recompense, because it was the holy thing to do, they were effectively taken advantage of for their whole youth and sometimes young adult lives.
But this Authority was not just in private homes; with the structure of IBLP, there are different training centers throughout the United States that IBLP families would entrust their children to- and this is where the majority of abuse came from. For example, most children would have other children leading and punishing them. Punishments over nothing would occur, just because these children had power over one another. Girls were even punished for using tampons because they were inserted into the vagina. There would be private sessions about confessing sins and punishment that would be carried out. Shame was the tool used to keep children in line. And it was killing them. Some reports on Shiny Happy People included accounts of people threatening suicide because they were so ashamed of being sinful and unable to live perfectly. Sure, these kids were brainwashed, but that wasn't the only type of abuse and control being exercised upon these kids at these different centers. There was even a group called ALERT, which was a homeschool militia of young boys who went through a form of boot camp or correctional facility for kids with "bad behaviors."
ALERT is religious indoctrinating masked by military-style activities, barracks, ranks, and routine. Used by some as a correctional center of sorts to "work hard and get real with god and other godly men", some go voluntarily. Their intake paperwork asks about sexual activity, whether the applicant has been in a homosexual relationship, parental status, sexual/physical abuse, alcohol or smoking use at any point in time, and bizarrely your top favorite TV shows and movies. For some recruits, it is happily anticipated as you have a semblance of friends/community and in some cases a less oppressive environment than home. - Reddit
There were similar programs for women:
STEP is the girls' equivalent but ended in 2019. I don't have experience here but have heard it was used in a similar way to correct unwanted behavior in girls but the main message was more about learning practical skills and how to be a good wife. - Reddit
Journey to the Heart is a particularly odd camp of sorts. I attended somewhere in 2010-2011. While it is a coed event the sexes are carefully kept separate. There were a few 'fun' events like volleyball at the gym but most of the trip is intense indoctrination, long hours of "sermons", pressure to take vows to remain single until your thirties, never visit a movie theater, and days where we simply did not eat as a way to "chastise the body so the spirit can grow". One of the activities was to spend the entire day in silence and go for a long walk in solitude to receive spiritual revelations. There was also an incredibly uncomfortable one-on-one meeting with Bill Gothard where he chastised any music other than hymns or classical and asked incredibly personal and inappropriate questions related to sex, sexual desire, and thoughts. - Reddit
All of the programs were expensive and for a godly reason, right? Who did all this money go to? You guessed it. Gothard- whose Net Worth is over $3 Million in 2023. Even after IBLP has been exposed, he's still making money on Wisdom Booklets and Training Programs. These are real political power and connections that have been grown off of the back of poor people who are vulnerable and were likely not educated enough to make a decent decision on their family's future. Meanwhile, as the organization preys upon vulnerable and poor families, the higher-ups in the IBLP, namely the Duggars and Gothard himself, are lobbying with conservative politicians and other business partners that support the IBLP in order to increase their power. They wanted the Ten Commandments back in schools and wanted to abolish abortion in any form and abolish contraception. Kind of extreme in my opinion.
Gothard went from center to center like a celebrity and still tried to project this image that he was meek and poor on purpose. But behind the scenes, his family had jets and mansions and lived quite luxuriously. By convincing others to give blind obedience to his authority, and gods authority, he was convincing others to give him their livelihoods. And then by convincing people that this was the only way to live, and the only way to get to heaven, of course, he's created a scam that has captured thousands and led several of those people into believing that the rest of the world needs to live like this. Thus the entry into politics, police, armed forces, and more. IBLP & ATI is world domination. In fact, they began to open training centers internationally, because IBLP was picking up so much steam.
And sure enough, Gothard used the Duggars as a recruiting tool, so it was obvious that Jim Bob had to keep the show going, y'know, for the good of humanity - totally not because he loved the money and attention and submissive wife who couldn't say no to sex and children that he could also have control of and continue the show with. When Jim Bob tricks Jill into signing a contract for Counting On, the production studio uses that against her, stating she has to be a part of the show for as long as the contract runs, and she does.
See, as long as they were under the authority of Jim Bob, no evil could come to them at all. Oh, except for sexual assault from your siblings and church leaders.
So the story goes, according to Shiny Happy People; Steve Gothard, Bill Gothard's brother, was preying on young women in the IBLP and sexually abusing them. Bill saw this as a problem, because Steven was sloppy and not able to hide his crimes as well as Bill. So Bill moved Steve to a campus with less oversight so Steven and Bill could both continue to get away with it. Girls who disobeyed Bill went to stay with Steve. Eventually, Bill was caught with a young woman in a cabin and they were confronted about himself and Steve- and so he tried to marry Steve off, but that wasn't enough for members of the IBLP, who decided to throw Steve out of the organization completely, but they couldn't let go of Bill - their cornerstone of faith. So Bill agreed. They throw Steve out, but then Bill introduces the Matt 18 principle, which was to not gossip, meaning don't make allegations or accusations. This took away any recourse or resources for people who were sexually abused in the community looking for help. So now they were obedient, submissive, AND silent.
More stories come out from the IBLP depths and we learn about his victimization of several underaged women- including inappropriate touching, and sexual assault of minors, frequently. Gothard never married or had children, which begs the question, why all of this? Why the model for the perfect family? And yet he's never been a husband or a parent? Nobody ever questioned it because he claimed he got his revelation from god, but I do believe he wanted access to young women, and lots of them. And he managed to manipulate millions into getting what he wanted. He taught that sexual assault is the victim's fault. He taught that you can't exist without tempting a man to attack you. And he even glorified being attacked as a way to make you spiritually strong. This was a system with no checks or balances, and Gothard got away with it all. Gothard tested boundaries to see how far he could get with different young women, while Josh Duggar was doing the same thing in his home with his sisters. Gothard monitored resources to prevent girls from speaking out, and Jim Bob constructed a story that the girls followed in order to protect Josh.
Eventually, the IBLP is sick of accusations coming from Gothard's victims, so they throw Gothard out. They didn't want the liability of Gothard as a leader and decided that losing him was better than anything he may have had left to offer. Now we have a $9 Million organization in the IBLP with no leader, and you can bet the Duggars wanted in. It didn't matter that Gothard had left, the movement continued, and Jim Bob and Michelle seem to be the replacements for the vacuum left by Gothard and Steve.
Then, from left field, the truth finally comes out; Josh Duggar, as a married adult man with children of his own- is arrested for possession of child pornography.
- Josh Duggar's 2nd Mughot, at the time of his arrest in 2021
Episode 4: Arrows Activated
On April 29, 2021, U.S. Marshals arrested Duggar on federal charges of receiving and possessing child pornography.[80][79] Prosecutors believed the images were transmitted in May 2019. The federal grand jury's indictment accused Duggar of "knowingly" receiving pornographic images of children who were under 12 years old.[77] Duggar was arrested and booked into the Washington County Jail.[81][79] On April 30, 2021, he plead not guilty to one count each of the charges of receiving and possessing child pornography,[82] with his attorneys indicating that he would "fight back in the courtroom" against the charges.[77] ...One of the videos allegedly in Duggar's possession, created by Peter Scully, depicts the rape and torture of an 18-month-old toddler.[91][92]- WIKI
Monsters can't hide under the bed forever. Even those family members that continued to believe in the IBLP were disgusted. Josh got away with it over and over again - even after using accountability software (Covenant Eyes, a Christian Based Anti-porn Software). So even after all the prayers and "help" his parents gave him by sending him to an IBLP camp, it is obvious that the Duggars have led their family into sexual harm, and instead of putting Josh in rehab or therapy, they simply exacerbated his pedophilic tendencies into a full-blown perpetration of child-porn possession and involvement with images from Peter Scully.
So the trial begins, and Jim Bob lies on the stand, claiming he doesn't remember how Josh molested his little sisters. Great parenting Dad. This has me recalling the words of Michelle Duggar after the first sexual assault allegations came out.
"Even though we would never choose to go through something so terrible, each one of our family members drew closer to God. We pray that as people watch our lives they see that we are not a perfect family. We have challenges and struggles every day. It is one of the reasons we treasure our faith so much because God’s kindness and goodness and forgiveness are extended to us — even though we are so undeserving. We hope somehow the story of our journey — the good times and the difficult times — cause you to see the kindness of God and learn that He can bring you through anything. " - Duggar Facebook Post
Great job Mom, allowing your pedophilic son to stay in the home around the younger girls? These are some pretty amazing parents. While Josh Duggar is on trial for the Child Porn accusations, his father Jim Bob runs for Senate. This was more shocking to people than Josh being on trial! Granted, Jim Bob was likely using the Media Attention to gain views, but still - running for Senate? He lost. Duh.
Duggar finished third out of four candidates in the Republican primary, with 15.3% of the vote.[16][17] - WIKI
Jim Bob needs to apologize to a lot of people, specifically his own daughters and other children, not only for disregarding their suffering the stand, but for also allowing their perpetrator to come back into the home and allow him to live a normal life there around their other young girls.
So of course, Josh Duggar is found guilty:
On December 9, 2021, a jury found Duggar guilty of receiving and possessing child pornography.[10][108] - WIKI
On May 25, 2022, Duggar was sentenced to 12 years and seven months in prison. His earliest possible release is August 22, 2032.[109]This will be followed by 20 years of supervised release, during which he must register as a sex offender and can have no unsupervised contact with minors, including his own children. He can only access the Internet with the permission of his probation officer, and must agree to monitoring of his online activity.[110][111] He was fined $10,000 and ordered to pay an additional $40,100 in special assessments.[112] - WIKI
So Josh is found guilty anyways and sentenced to 12.5 years (release in October 2032 as of today). At least some kind of justice was served here. The rest of the family, especially Michelle and the younger children, pulled away and ostracized the more mature and contemporary members of their families. A common thread that was pushed among IBLP children is that, "Loyalty shines through in adversity, no matter how bad the adversity is." - Shiny Happy People. This concept is extremely detrimental to everyone involved in Josh's family and trial. To stay loyal to a child predator is harmful to everyone, especially younger siblings that were victims. They have committed atrocities against humanity and god and the universe and deserve no support, in my opinion. They need rehabilitation and to serve time for their wrongs.
The documentary has a brief mention that these are the same people who got Roe v. Wade overturned, and they are playing the long game. Scandal follows them because of their worldview and treatment of women and others, and they exist even now, among young men and women on social media (which has a large population of conservative youths that now have a safe platform to anonymously share their views). Suddenly, because of videos in the mainstream, contemporary Christians are re-hashing and re-posting the umbrellas of authority without realizing it's a fundamentalist and cultist ideal.
In 2016, a large group of victims sued Gothard, which resulted in a Countersue by Gothard over the Statute of Limitations. Ultimately, all charges were dropped, but the victims still live out their lives after having suffered at the hands of Gothard and the IBLP.
The Wisdom booklets became a "Bible Study" open for purchase, but ATI is now closed and the IBLP is now far less popular than it once was, having lost several million dollars in the last ten years of public funding and donations.
From 2009 to 2012, the Institute in Basic Life Principles began a steady decline, losing money, assets, and greatly decreasing the number of annual seminars it conducted, while the public became increasingly aware of controversy (more specifically, allegations of sexual misconduct) associated with IBLP.[7] The controversy led to Gothard resigning in 2014, though not admitting to anything more than "a violation of trust". The following year, according to Chicago Magazine, IBLP relocated its headquarters to Texas.[3] - WIKI
Bill Gothard still denies the allegations.
On February 27, 2014, the board of directors of the Institute in Basic Life Principles placed Gothard on indefinite administrative leave while it investigated claims that he sexually harassed several female employees and volunteers.[22] No criminal activity was uncovered, but an investigation found that Gothard had acted in an "inappropriate manner".[22] The claims had been publicized on the Recovering Grace website, which is a support group for former followers of Gothard's teachings.[23] As many as 34 women who worked for Gothard have claimed that he harassed them.[2] Gothard denied the allegations and admitted no wrongdoing but announced his resignation from the Institute in order "to listen to those who have ought [something] against him".[24][2]
On June 17, 2014, IBLP issued a statement,[25] summarizing the investigation conducted by "outside legal counsel". They asserted that although no criminal activity was uncovered, Gothard had acted in an "inappropriate manner" and so "is not permitted to serve in any counseling, leadership, or Board role within the IBLP ministry". In July 2015, Gothard re-launched his website, including testimonials from several women.[24][26]
In 2016, Gothard and IBLP were sued by a group of alleged victims who accused him of sexual harassment and assault.[27] The plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed their lawsuit in 2018, citing "unique complexities" with the statute of limitations, but emphasized: "We are not recanting our experiences or dismissing the incalculable damage that we believe Gothard has done."[5][6] - WIKI
Jim Bob and Michelle, other than continuing to press their love of their children and God, also did not comment for this documentary, but did release a statement after Shiny Happy People was released:
A Note from Jim Bob and Michelle by Jim Bob Duggar | Jun 1, 2023 | 45 comments
The recent “documentary” that talks about our family is sad because in it we see the media and those with ill intentions hurting people we love. Like other families, ours too has experienced the joys and heartbreaks of life, just in a very public format. This “documentary” paints so much and so many in a derogatory and sensationalized way because sadly that’s the direction of entertainment these days. We have always believed that the best chance to repair damaged relationships, or to reconcile differences, is through love in a private setting. We love every member of our family and will continue to do all we can to have a good relationship with each one. Through both the triumphs and the trials we have clung to our faith all the more and discovered that through the love and grace of Jesus, we find strength, comfort, and purpose. - The Duggar Family
Several Comments on their website bless the family with support and claim that the media is lying. Take that for what you will.
-B
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