
The Duggar family, most well known for their reality TV show 19 Kids and Counting
So, it's in the news everywhere: A Duggar son groped his sisters while they slept when he was 14. The family essentially hushed it up. And, now that he is buddies with Ted Cruz, it became a juicy news story. (Nothing like a political AND sexual scandal to sell ads...)
And the aftermath is predictable. The Duggars get their show suspended, and the (now adult) kid loses his job. And, there is a brobdingnagian pile of
schadenfreude to be found in the tabloids.
I have been saying privately for years that something like this would absolutely come to light regarding the Duggars, so this is no surprise to me at all.
As an attorney, I have handled several cases involving fundamentalist families with sexual issues, and the facts seem very familiar.
I'm not going to get into specifics, because of attorney client privilege. However, there does seem to be a certain amount of commonality in how these go down.
I firmly believe that the beliefs within Christian Fundamentalism strongly contribute to these failings - and indeed make them inevitable.
First, let me note again that I spent a portion of my teens involved in Bill Gothard's organization. My law school education was at his
law school, so I know of what I speak. The Duggars are big in the Gothard organization, and promote it through their TV show. So, I know the exact teachings that they follow and promote.
That's why, despite never having seen more than a few minutes of the show at a time, and having no idea which kid was Josh, I was able to make this prediction. All I needed to know was that they followed Gothard's teachings about sex and gender, and I knew that it was more likely than not that a sex scandal would surface sooner or later.
In addition, I have been discussing this with some friends, many of them also ex-Gothardites, and some common issues have arisen, and I decided I probably should address them a bit from the perspective of both a lawyer and a former Fundie.
Because the perpetrator in this case (and in my cases as well) was a minor - age 14 - a boy in the throes of puberty - the issues are not quite as straight forward as they would be in a typical pedophile case.
While I would not defend what this boy did - it was pretty clearly sexual assault - I do understand some of why, and strongly believe that Gothard's teachings contributed to the way he acted out.
Again: I am not minimizing sexual assault, or excusing perps.
What I intend to show is that Fundamentalist teachings on sex tend to lead to young men who would not otherwise be predators act out in predatory ways.
Comment: For more with the author on the upcoming economic collapse, listen to this episode of The Truth Perspective.