The Josh Duggar Scandal Reveals the Underbelly of the Duggar Family

“When I was young, I thought classical music was only the background noise for cartoons.” ― Ben Carson link

http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=11174&picture=snowy-sova-oci
Snowy Owl

TWW 2009- We didn't much like the Duggars way back then

The Deebs have long been concerned about the Christian celebrity status of the Duggar family. We wrote our first post about them long before our blog established (much to our everlasting surprise) a niche presence on the web. The Duggar Delusion was written by Deb in July 2009. I wrote “Ma Ma, I Need an Appointment, I Have a Boo Boo

We took a long, hard look at the how life at their home was portrayed by the television show. We discussed the fact that few people could afford 19 children. The Duggars' current home, travels, etc. were gifted to them through the generosity of their television sponsors who were thrilled by the large audience who followed them.

We remarked that it was highly unlikely that either of the parents had much time to spend with each child and how they had to rely on the older kids to babysit the younger children. Few people realized that the show presented their home life after they cleaned up the videos. For example, if the kids acted up, the camera people did a retake.You know that clean, spotless well appointed kitchen? Did you know there was a larger kitchen in which the preparation mess was hidden? The Duggars played *perfect* pretty darn well.

It was not a *reality* show but a *fantasy* show that Christians bought into. The Duggars were just another in a long line of Christian celebrities acting out a farce. As I said way back then, the Duggars are heading for a fall. Why?

There is a reason that Jesus needed to give humanity His grace. We are all mess ups. Now, some of you who are young will think I am being unbearably negative. However, most everyone who has raised a family to adulthood will know exactly what I mean. Serious failure and pain is as much a part of our lives as are those fun trips to Disney World.

When Josh Duggar's molestations of his sisters and one family friend were revealed, I was not surprised in the least. However, what startled me was the number of Christians who went to his defense. The silliest excuses were given-some of them by well known pastors and seminary professors. Folks, Christians sin.If things look perfect, you are being taken for a ride ans someone is making money off it.

  • "He did this and became a Christian afterwards." 
  • "He was just playing doctor." 
  • "He got *counseling.*
  • "He has repented."
  • "He got married.

Each of these excuses were naive and just plain wrong but I do not have time to delve into them. Please feel free to do so in the comments.

The Dr Keith Ablow/Robert Jeffress Blowout.

Perhaps the best demonstration of profound Christian naivete was exhibited in a debate between Robert Jeffress, pastor of FBC Dallas, and Dr Keith Ablow, a Johns Hopkins trained psychiatrist. I am not here to be an apologist for either one of these guys. However, the debate brought out some points that would prove to be important in the coming months.

Note how Jeffress defends the Duggars, bragging that they sometimes come to his church. If you wish to read the transcript, here is the link. ​

Jeffress gave all the standard Christian responses. Josh was a young teen. He has repented. They are a wonderful family and did the right thing. They got counseling.I t's their right to live this way.

The Duggar sisters, prior to the debate, said the Josh was just going into puberty and was "just a little too curious about girls." Good night! What did their parents teach them. Did they actually get any counseling?

Dr Ablow said that Josh fit the criteria for a pedophile; that he got pastoral counseling which was not appropriate for pedophiles; that not being allowed to hold a girls' hand was bizarre;  that they had too many kids and were unable to keep up with their issues; and that they put their kids on television, knowing they had concealed this secret. he found this disturbing and said that they were not a wonderful family.

I found that I agreed with Dr Ablow. During the ensuing months , I googled Josh Duggar's name on a daily basis. I was convinced that something was terribly wrong with him and that the other shoe was about to drop. Dr Ablow would prove to be correct. Dr Jeffress would  be shown to be either a naive pastor when it comes to these issues or a celebrity Christian apologist. 

Michelle Duggar admitted she was overwhelmed by all her work at home prior to Josh's molestation scandal.

I believe that there was serious stress in the family which was exacerbated by performing for cameras. In this admission, Michelle gives a hint of the stress involved maintaining their lifestyle.

It was 1:00 AM in the morning as I stood folding laundry with tears streaming down my cheeks,” Duggar wrote. “Feelings of being overwhelmed flooded my mind. I cried aloud, ‘LORD I NEED YOUR HELP, I can’t do it all! I feel so inadequate! Diapers, dishes, laundry, meals, cleanup, school lessons, baths, hugs, kisses, correction…’ My list seemed to go on and on.”

Saying God spoke to her, she continued, “Then it was as if a still small voice said, ‘Michelle, it’s easy to praise ME when things are going good, but are you willing to praise ME now?’ Immediately the scripture that says, ‘Offer up a sacrifice of praise’, came to mind. I said, ‘OK Lord, I will praise you even now! It really is a sacrifice!’ So through the tears I began to sing, ‘The joy of the Lord is my strength,’ my heart there was a release as if a burden had been lifted. I finished the laundry at 2 AM and went to bed.”

The family reportedly began to have serious money issues when their show was canceled.

In July, a number of sources began to publish articles that the Duggars were having trouble managing their financial obligations since the show was canceled. The family was pulling in between $25,0000-$40,000 per episode. They reportedly hoped to have a spin off featuring their two married daughters but Jill and her husband got out of Dodge, deciding to become missionaries. That cash cow was no longer available- link, link and link.

Then, the Duggars and TLC reportedly produced a show on how to counsel victims of sex abuse. (This is NOT a joke.)

It is simply astonishing to me that TLC would ever allow such a program. It is reported that Discovery's TLC will lose millions of dollars due to the cancelation of the cash positive Duggar show. So they dreamed up this?

The film, "Breaking the Silence," will air at 10 p.m. EDT Aug. 30, the network said Thursday.

To be broadcast commercial-free, the documentary aims to shine a light on the challenges faced by those affected by child sexual abuse, as well as raise awareness of where people can turn for help.

Viewers will also hear from experts, including a prevention training session conducted by Darkness to Light that is attended by Jill and Jessa, two of the Duggar sisters who have publicly spoken of being molested in their youth by their brother Josh. He has never been arrested or charged in connection with the molestations.

"We look forward to working with TLC on this upcoming special documentary and hope that it is an encouragement to many," the Duggar family said in a statement when the program was first announced.

The absolute idiocy of allowing the Duggars to do this show is mind boggling. TLC-do not air this show!!!

What sort of counseling did Josh get? His statement here, given at the time of the molestation revelation, is indicative of his continuous lying. As you will see shortly, he was involved in some other *activities* during this time period.

Josh appears to be adept at hiding his peccadillos over a long period of time link.

At the time, Josh, now 27, said, "Twelve years ago, as a young teenager, I acted inexcusably for which I am extremely sorry and deeply regret. I hurt others, including my family and close friends."

After noting that he confessed the crimes to his now-famous parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, as well as the authorities at the time, Josh added, "My parents arranged for me and those affected by my actions to receive counseling. I understood that if I continued down this wrong road that I would end up ruining my life."

Josh Duggar/Ashley Madison

We were planning to post a tirade about TLC using the Duggars to help others learn how to handle abuse. However, the other day when I was doing my daily check of Josh Duggar, I found the Josh Duggar/Ashley Madison story within 30 minutes of its release. I immediately tweeted it and was beat out by two minutes by Mary DeMuth! I consider this war!

I had heard of the Ashley Madison hack several weeks ago and assumed that credit card numbers were going to be sold. I did not know that the hackers, known as the Impact Team, wanted to simply embarrass Ashley Madison and its users.

While they had earlier said that the $19 fee Ashley Madison charges customers to wipe their user data clean does not actually get rid of the information completely, the post announcing Tuesday’s dump contained additional allegations.

“Find someone you know in here? Keep in mind the site is a scam with thousands of fake female profiles,” the post — titled “Time’s Up!” — reads. “90-95% of the actual users are male. Chances are your man signed up on the world’s biggest affair site, but never had one. He just tried to. If that distinction matters.”

“We have explained the fraud, deceit and stupidity of ALM and their members,” an earlier paragraph of the Impact Team statement says. “Now everyone gets to see their data.”

Josh Duggar was amongst the first to be outed by the Impact Team's information dump link. This should not have been a surprise to Christians who understand the difficult nature of pedophilia, sex addiction, and other potentially damaging and dangerous sexually dysfunctional behavior.

I was not in the least surprised by this revelation. It is important to realize that Duggar had molested not just one of his sisters one time, but he molested 4 of his sisters and reportedly a baby sitter. These are not mistakes. These are deliberate and continuous acts.

Dr Ablow was proved correct. Unless Josh had received help from someone who knew how to deal with these issues, like a licensed sex offender therapist, then he was at risk to offend again. It appears that he did not get truly expert counseling that targeted his problems. As you will see, he reportedly began to participate in Internet activities as early as 2004-shortly after the molestations ended.

When he returned home after his *counseling* with a family friend who had Josh help him build houses, the family had the boys sleep on one side of the house and the girls sleep on the other side of the house with their doors locked.

Do you realize just how concerning this is? Why did they feel it was necessary? I have a son who for years slept in a room next to his sister's room. I never once had any need to consider having her lock the door…well, there was that one water balloon incident…

Josh Duggar also had a secret Facebook account in which he friended strippers link.

 Josh Duggar's secret Facebook account friend list including female bar workers, a lingerie photographer and a stripper

The same email Josh Duggar used to sign up for Ashley Madison was used to make a phony Facebook account
The account for 'Joe Smithson' has just 32 friends, who are mostly women and include lingerie models and strippers 
Most of the women are based in Arkansas, where Duggar lived before moving to Washington D.C. for work

He has used his fake name, Smithson, since 2004- four years before he married Anna link.

Think about it. It appears that has has been doing the Facebook thing for 11 years, which would be shortly after the reported molestation of his sisters.

He also used a profile picture of a real person link.

I would imagine that Harvard educated Jonathan Blankfein and his Goldman Sachs daddy are not amused.

 Smithson's' profile was active as recently as January 2014, and appears to have been started in 2004, four years before Duggar married his wife Anna. 

It says that Smithson is a graduate of the University of Arkansas who is living in Fayetteville.

The profile has just one picture on it, depicting Jonathan Blankfein, the son of Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein. Blankfein is a Harvard graduate and has never lived in Arkansas while Duggar never attended college.   

Both the Duggar family and Josh Duggar released statements, took them down and then rereleased new ones.

This aspect has been concerning to me. It appears that they cannot say what they mean without doing a retake. They did those retakes in their show so everything looked picture perfect. I guess they like to do retakes in their real life as well. This leads me to wonder what is and isn't real link.

The apology has since been amended several times, deleting the reference to his porn addiction, as The Wrap spotted. He also changed the passive "I became unfaithful to my wife" to "I have been unfaithful to my wife."

Julie Anne Smith looked at the comings and goings of the Duggar statements at her blog.

Josh seems to be under the illusion that people trusted him after molestation revelation link.

"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," Duggar said.

Well, in this case, he is correct. What is it with some Christians who seem to think that simple "I did it and repented" is the truth? I read more statements from Christians who claimed that Josh was over it. Even his sisters and parents conveyed that. Why?

I believe that the parents never had time to spend with each of the children.  They were too busy buying food, figuring out how to get free vacations to Dollywood and doing retakes. Josh's sisters were glorified babysitters, often taking the role of the mom and dad with the younger children. This was like working in the Amazon warehouse.Run, run, run and get it right.

Will Anna Duggar blame herself? What should she do?

Prediction: Anna is already blaming herself for not being there for Josh. If Anna or her friends are reading this, please hear this. You have had 4 children in short order. Your husband has a deeply rooted sexual problem. He could be a danger to both you and your children, particularly to your daughters since it he appears to focus on females. Please get them and you safe and have yourself tested for sexually transmitted diseases. 

Please do not keep bringing new children into this marriage. Josh needs psychiatric intervention before things get worse and they can get worse. No one can handle lots of little kids and deal with a seriously compromised spouse. Please get help for all of you. And if the Duggar parents try to blame you, run with the children, as fast as you can. 

Will Anna Duggar get a divorce link and link?

Anna and Josh have a covenant marriage which means she may have to stayed married to Josh for almost 3 years. This is a voluntary law in Arkansas. The two sisters signed such a document. It is unclear whether or not Anna did so. Our guess is the Duggars will do everything in their power to keep Anna married to their sexually compromised son. I bet they will even tell her to keep having children.

Covenant marriages allow for divorce only in certain extreme circumstances –such as physical or sexual abuse of a spouse or child, or infidelity– but only after a mandatory counseling period that can be up to 30 months long.  

Observers from outside the evangelical church are beginning to sit up and take notice of our scandals link.

This is why TWW exists. Christians need to hear from those of us who are inside the church and follow Jesus. It is important to realize that if we see it, everyone else sees it. So stop blaming us for airing your dirty laundry and listen. If you cannot draw us into your fantasies of the perfect family like the Duggars, you sure as heck are not going to find support from outside the church. We need to clean up our own acts and be the first to admit to our sins before we start to point fingers at the world.

From the Daily Beast 

And maybe we could give a group hypocrisy award to pastors Jack Schaap (Hammond, IN), David Loveless (Orlando), Grant Storms (New Orleans), Isaac Hunter (Orlando), Larry Durant (Sumter, SC), Sam Hinn (Stanford, FL), Paul Barnes (Douglas County, Colorado), Lonnie Latham (Tulsa), Earl Paulk (Decatur, GA), Joe Barron (near Dallas), Michael Hintz (Des Moines), Todd Bentley (Lakeland, FL), and Tony Alamo (Arkansas), all of whom were caught with men, women, boys, or girls, and forced to resign in the last decade.

…And these are just the sex scandals—I don’t have enough space to include the financial scandals, abuse scandals, and fraud scandals that have bedeviled right-wing Christian churches and organizations over the last few years.

It’s tempting to minimize these stories.  They’re so familiar by now that surely the default assumption must be that the anti-gay crusader is probably closeted and gay, and the pro-family crusader is probably on Ashley Madison.

Which makes perfect sense, psychologically.  If you’re wrestling with a particular demon, it’s easy to see that wrestling as the most important thing in the world.  Philandering family-values types are out there screaming because ultimately, they’re screaming at themselves.

Jim Bob and Michelle do not get basic theology: Stupid bathing suits and ugly jean skirts do not prevent sin link.

There is an advantage to having a few years under the old belt. I watched *perfect* parents who homeschooled their kids, preached modesty and abstinence, fussed at me when I let my kids read Harry Potter, got upset with the witch in Sleeping Beauty and claimed that their kids were going to change the world for Jesus. Then, I watched as kids from committed Christian families became drug addicts, got pregnant out of wedlock, dropped out of school, or leave the faith. Of course, some did well. But pain and struggles were felt in most families.

In regards to the Duggars, it appears that they thought they could control all of this. Now they have a serious problem on their hands. Perhaps they might go back to Genesis and read how the most perfect Father in the world saw His children disobey Him. Why do we think we are going to get different results?

This wasn't something they ever imagined was possible," says the source. "They so strictly limit their exposure to these sorts of outside influences – from websites to even the sort of television they watch, if they turn on the TV at all – that they were absolutely baffled by how this could have been possible."

Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar pimped their kids for money.

Here is my major criticism. The Duggars used their children to make having 19 kids financially feasible. What they don't tell you is that having 19 kids without a steady and substantial income is to guarantee living at the poverty line. God does not tell you to have as many kids as possible. He gave us the ability to limit the size of our families so that we can actually get to know one another and spend time together. Of course, everyone has the right to have as many kids as possible but one is not obligated to do so.

Why are we willing to take antibiotics for an infection, go to a doctor to deal with cancer or go to a psychiatrist to treat bipolar disease? Why shouldn't we let the chips fall where they may since God is in control?

The Duggars kept their kids from attending college and expected their girls to stay at home and take care of the little kids. They did not let them get exposed to a larger world with differing points of view, even within the faith. I still remember when the Duggars visited the Creation Museum. Josh stated that the earth was young. When asked how he knew, he claimed to have "researched and read on the subject." He has little idea what real research entails. 

The Duggars put those kids on the air when they knew their son had molested their daughters. And they took the chance because, after all, it supported their habit of pushing out as many babies as possible. The episode in which Jim Bon and Michelle visited a OB GYN specialist to see if they could do anything else to have more kids was the day that I decided that there is something deeply wrong with the Duggar family.

Stay tuned….I predict there will be more stories to come.

Comments are closed.