Meet the Bible quoting Duggar Family: Two religious, procreating parents, 19 home schooled, church going children whose names all start with “J.” Lots of rules including no hand holding on all chaperoned dates, no hugging and absolutely no kissing until the wedding ceremony is complete. Josh Duggar, the oldest son, and his wife Anna, never kissed until their wedding to maintain their purity . . . but then there’s this . . .
19 Kids and Counting turns to Five Victims and Counting. Twelve years ago, when Josh Duggar was 14 or 15, he molested five young girls several times, the police report indicated they were his sisters. From the report, “The alleged victims are [names blacked out] who live with their parents Michelle and Jim Bob.” His father found out from one of his son’s victims who told him she had been touched inappropriately. When confronted, he confessed to his father Jim, who waited over one year before turning his son into the authorities. Instead of calling police, Jim discussed the matter with Church officials and decided to send Josh to do manual labor for three months as a punishment. When Jim did report it over a year later, the officer investigating the case was himself arrested for child pornography and the investigation was derailed. Eventually the statute of limitations’ for prosecution expired. Josh Duggar went on his merry way to marry, have children and accuse gay people of being child molesters. Go figure.
As I always say, the truth always comes out. Josh and his family, making tons of money on the reality show “19 Kids and Counting,” probably thought this was all behind them. So they continued having children and failed to protect their daughters from their oldest son, Josh, who was living in the household. Who really knows the number of victims that were harmed? Josh admitted to 5 victims when he was 15. He has had twelve years to continue along this path with no accountability. If in fact he is a child molester, we know that there is no successful cure for that. Therapy doesn’t fix this problem and he didn’t even see a therapist. He was sent away for three months to do manual labor as punishment. And then, his parents probably tried to instill the fear of God into him so he would stop. Who knows if that worked or if more victims will eventually come forward in the days and weeks ahead? He has resigned as Executive Director of the Family Resource Council, so as not to have his scandal impact their homophobic work against the gay community. Of course we wouldn’t want Josh’s scandal to taint this ignorant organization. I wonder if they will take a stand against Josh, one of their own and an alleged child molester? Or is it their mission to solely persecute gays people and accuse all of them of being child molesters?
This situation is disturbing on so many levels. All of the parents’ concern seems to have been directed solely at Josh and getting him back on the path of salvation. Poor Josh who made a “mistake” several times with several of his sisters. Poor Josh who apparently wasn’t chaperoned carefully enough. Poor Josh who was probably taking an active part in helping to “raise” his siblings, as Michelle was too busy getting pregnant every year to pay much attention to them. I’ve read plenty about this family the past three days. The mother, Michelle, is sorry. The father, Jim, is sorry. Josh’s wife, Anna, is sorry. Josh is sorry. They all came to Josh’s defense. He lost his way, but he found his path back to the Lord and the Family Resource Council. Halleluiah! Can I get an Amen? Guess who I haven’t read one word about? The victims. Not one word about any of them, except for one who asked that the police report, with her name in it, be destroyed so the media couldn’t have a field day with it. The judge agreed.
I have not heard of any counseling or therapy for the girls molested by their oldest brother several times. How are they coping? What were they told? Why wasn’t CPS called in? On what planet is it ever okay for the victims of a child molester to live in the same household as their molester? Who could these girls turn to? They were home schooled and only had contact with the church community. Are we supposed to take the word of these parents or Josh, that his perverted behavior stopped? How would they know? Even if it did stop, these girls are forever damaged, their innocence lost. We don’t know the details, however Josh is the oldest child and he was 14 at the time, the girls were all younger than that. It’s beyond disgusting. Now he has a daughter of his own and another daughter on the way (in addition to two sons). Are his daughters safe? Who knows?
And the network that airs their reality show, TLC, finally decided to pull the plug on their show. I guess the feedback from advertisers and viewers convinced them they could no longer continue with show. Comments on their page have been 81% negative. Well they got plenty of years out of this family. They shouldn’t complain. They will find another large family where all the kids names start with “J” . . . oh, wait a minute, they already have the singing Willis family. They only have 12 kids, but they are entertaining, and their names all start with “J.” So bye, bye Duggars. Hope to see you in court and a judge orders Michelle and Jim to put a big chunk of their money in trust for the victims, who will surely need it for therapy in the future.
Here is the article that broke the story In Touch Magazine
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