Okay, I'll ask... what about Josh Duggar?

Post Reply New Topic

Since no one is going to start this thread, apparently, I'll ask, what are your thoughts on Josh Duggar, his crimes against his sisters - and one unrelated girl (how the hell his family managed to cover that up, I have no idea) - and the defense they're getting from the right? Discuss.

Part of it is magical thinking; pray for forgiveness to the Invisible Pink Unicorn/Flying Spaghetti Monster/Bob the Subgenius/and of course Jebus Hisself; and ye shalt be forgiven. Jebus wipes your slate clean with prayer and monetary donations, allowing the offender to stay on the path to Heaven.

The Amish have the same problem; if some Amish guy does something horrible, they simply pray for forgiveness. There's a popular bumper sticker saying "Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven". And then there's the suppression of natural teen sexual instincts leading to said instincts emerging anyway but in socially unacceptable ways.

Some of these Evangelical Christians are real wackos. The public isn't too smart and keeps watching these perfect Quiverfull families until suddenly they're not so perfect anymore. There's already another Christian-megafamily show in the works, apparently. The far right just wants to BELIEVE BROTHER BELIEVE!! !! !! !!11 and will defend their heroes to the death. The Left leaves a lot to be desired, but at least they're not beating people on their heads with a Jebus Stick to get them to be "perfect" while the top dogs get a pass.

I can't bring myself to get too worked up about a 14 year old feeling up his siblings over a decade ago, and can't help but feel that if he'd been Joe Schmoe and not someone identified as a partisan nemesis by a large chunk of the populace, that anyone else would have either.

Ugh! I hate the way the Duggars keep this whole public spectacle going! Also, "too curious about girls"? The heck?

Anyway, this should have been a private juvenile matter, not meat for public discourse.

Legally, the parents were obligated to report the crime - though I can fully understand why they would not. But the fact remains, the parents only acted after their son had done this several times tells me they could have faced charges for providing an environment which permitted this to happen. Also, one of the victims had been five years old at the time - at age fourteen/fifteen, Josh Duggar might as well have been an adult. Then, as I've already stated, one of the victims was not even one of his sisters, but a babysitter, which completely confounds me. I can't see how he wasn't brought up on charges for that, as there was no way that incident could have been kept in the family.
Then the actions taken by the Duggar's leaves much to be desired. The police officer, who had "given him a stern talking to," is currently serving a fifty plus year sentence for child pornography (you know, as a cop and sex offender, his life in prison must be a living hell). The family then had sent Josh to so called "therapy," devised by a character named Gothard, from whom they had gotten all their home schooling misinformation from. Rather than giving actual therapy to the offenders in his charge, Gothard, too cheap to hire workers, uses their labor in his construction business, claiming that they were supposed to work out their demons with labor . Basically, Josh Duggar held down an unpaid summer job in lieu of actual therapy, which means it's doubtful that he overcame his problems. Plus, several women who had worked for Mr. Gothard have accused him of sexual harassment.
I have no problem with believing in forgiveness, but the fact is, both the Duggar parents, and their supporters like Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin, are minimizing what he had done - oh, he only touched them through their clothes, they were asleep at the time, he was only a child himself, yada, yada, yada. Or they try to say that the left has a double standard in such matters, bringing up Bill Clinton and Anthony Wiener, forgetting conveniently that those incidents involved consenting adults.

It is a parents job to care for their children.

Once they knew that a child of theirs had been victimized in any way, their responsibility was to protect any other

children of theirs and to obtain genuine therapy for their son.

Supposedly, the girls' bedroom doors were kept locked after these incidents.

That does not deal with their trauma, nor does it fix whatever is wrong with their brother.

I started a Josh Duggar thread in PPR.
I saw an interview with his sisters. Their attitude seems to be incest is normal in families, no joke, and you have to lock doors and wear layers of clothing to avoid it. Whether this is true or not I have no clue since I am an only child with a divorced mom/dad. I will say on my mom's side of the family there was a family with ten kids and one of the girls ended up pregnant at a young age and her parents raised the kid as theirs, lied to everyone but the extended family knew. It was my mom's aunt and uncle. No one talked about who the father was. My mom says the child's mother was meek and you must be aggressive and hit people when they intrude upon your space.
At least old Josh apologized and regrets what happened which isn't always the case, so there's that. However, there's no way to know what's been covered up and what hasn't and what's going on now.
I think the Duggars have too many kids, they can't keep up with them all. Jill Dillard wast saying their parents made a rule about two kids going off together and "hiding" so that makes ya think it's worse than they are saying.

Of course I disagree with the Duggars judging everyone else so harshly rather than focusing on their own mess. It's like, how dare they? They are the least credible to be judging everyone else. They covered up crimes in their own household and who knows how many lies revolve around this cover up? They want everyone in the same boat as them, with too many kids to care for, stressed out, overly religious, impoverished parents. The only reason the Duggars are keeping their show is because they have so many kids that need the money.

It should have been a private juvenile matter - except that the parents had kept it under wraps and away from the notice of the legal authorities back when something could have been done about it. But thanks to the passage of time, the statute of limitations has come into effect. These incidents would have remained covered up, were it not for a producer of the Oprah Winfrey show learning about them, and reporting the Duggars to social services.
I think the family might have been given a pass by the public, as this had happened so long ago, except for the fact that the Duggars have been so active in the Anti-LGBT movement. Mrs. Duggar had made robocalls in a campaign against LGBT rights during a pertinent Arkansas election, while Josh Duggar had been a high placed member in Focus On The Family, an organization bent on rolling back gay and transsexual rights. It's very much a matter of the Duggars hypocritically complaining about the speck in their neighbor's eye, while ignoring the log in their own. Plus, I think most Americans are offended by the Duggar's associations with the Anti-LGBT movement because they recognize that the intent is to roll back the constitutional rights of other Americans for the reason of prejudice. Considering the part of the country where the Duggars and their Anti-LGBT compatriots reside, it's not difficult to imagine them opposing the civil rights movement had they lived decades ago.

It' worse than just that. These people are part of a movement in this part of the country to pretty much live how they did before birth control was invented. It's not just about being homophobic. They want everyone to literally be in the same boat as them. They want women to have as many kids as she possibly can and the man to be the head of the household and final authority on everything. Women cannot work outside the home. The father must be the sole provider for his fifteen kids. Their agenda is ridiculous. If you oppose it, according to them, you oppose God.

I guess you can call it proto Amish only they have technological access. Anyway I don't agree with it and would never want to live their lifestyle and that is what it really is. It's just a lifestyle choice. You can pretend it's God and all that but it's lifestyle and lifestyle should be up to the individual.

Okay, sorry, I hope I didn't intrude on your space by starting this thread out of ignorance of the one you had already started.
I agree, too many kids to keep track of, saturated with essentially the wrong kind of religion, and going overboard with morality, and you've got a recipe for a disaster.
I'm also an only child, but none of the families I know with multiple children have ever had problems with incest. It's not something that's common to everyone.

I just thought I'd tell you about the other thread, heh. Thought you didn't see it. You suggested no one had started one.

It's not just about multiple children. Did you know Michelle Duggar had a dangerous condition known as toxemia while carrying Josie which made he blood pressure shoot up to something like 200? What if she didn't make it through that pregnancy and she has had something like 18 other kids although some were older. She had several small children. One of the toddlers, the one she had before Josie, named Jordan really did seem neglected during that time period. She was always upset and crying on every show.

...Uhhhhh...

I admit that I have never watched a single episode of their show, but like everyone else, it's impossible not to know of them. So, no, I actually hadn't known about that kind of pregnancy complication. It does sound like the Duggars are being irresponsible by farting out as many kids as possible. Basically, the primary reason why they're famous and have a show at all is because they're such prolific breeders.

Let me fill you in real fast. Michelle suffered toxemia and had her youngest Josie a few months premature and she had complications, took a lot of time, attention and care from both her parents who both had at least three kids under the age of five. Then Michelle had another baby after Josie but it died in utero. Her name is Jubilee. Michelle hasn't publicly announced another pregnancy since.

I am sorry for her loss. Do you think she might be taking birth control on the sly?

Her last pregnancy was in 2011. I doubt she takes birth control because they are fanatically religious. She's in her forties so...and she has a lot of young kids to raise. Most of her kids are going to need parenting for at least the next ten + years even though 19 Kids And Counting is all about "look ma I got a new puppy" warm fuzzy feelings the reality cannot be ignored indefinitely. She has to stay functional and healthy for, at the least, ten years or longer and should be thinking about this.