I'm sure everyone has their own theories about what exactly happened to cause this media circus surrounding the Duggar family. I think we could all speculate for hours what went wrong to cause the various acts recently unveiled concerning the Duggar family, namely the oldest son, Josh.
The Duggar family was first introduced to the world on TLC in 2008. Then "17 Kids and Counting" audiences were intrigued by this family's story - an incredibly large, faith-based family in which each child bestowed a different "J" name.
Not only was America infatuated with this family's morals, values, and just general lifestyle (all children were homeschooled by the company Advanced Training Institute), Americans were just plain interested in them.
They went about their daily lives in an incredibly, shall we say – unique, manner, from the outfits they wore, to their homeschooling lessons, to the activities they conducted in their 7,000-square-foot monstrosity of a home. The Duggars are captivating, and I think they are captivating because of one enormous factor of their daily lives: their religion.
Image Source: DuggarFamily.com
The Duggars are Independent Baptists, and throughout their seven-year duration on TLC, they discussed modesty, purity, and their morals frequently. While the Duggar family doesn’t identify as Quiverfull Christians, several of their ideas and beliefs can be linked to one another.
These include: chaperoned courtship, the disbelief in birth control, homeschooling via a religious company, and entertainment being highly monitored and filtered. So I think it’s normal to wonder, perhaps assume, that their extremist religious views could have easily played a role in the recent acts unveiled by Josh Duggar.
Image Source: ABC News
I think we probably all knew those kids in high school … the ones with overprotective parents, I mean. And I think we all probably have known that one child from an overprotective family who then went on to college and got a little too crazy with partying, etc.
That’s the best way I can relate the scenario concerning Josh Duggar … a case of wonder, perhaps deprivation, and good old-fashioned curiosity in which a series of unfortunate events ensued. Do I believe an extremist-religious background could do this to someone all on its own? Not necessarily. I think there additionally is some mental instability that comes along with all that surrounds the events concerning the oldest Duggar.
I do, however, believe the actions of Josh Duggar (i.e. allegedly sexually abusing his younger sisters and infidelity to his wife and mother of his children) are inexcusable. While these actions have probably stemmed from a psychological disorder, as well, I can’t help but think: just what exactly did the Duggar children learn in their home regarding sexual assault and abuse?
Like I said, the Duggars were all home-schooled, using a program by the Advanced Training Institute (ATI), which is a Bible-based homeschooling system headed by a man named Bill Gothard. The first red flag here is Gothard himself. Last year, sexual abuse allegations were made involving Gothard, leading to his resignation from ATI.
Although Gothard was forced to step down, the Duggars still follow the teaching guidelines from ATI. There is even a particular scenario in their “guidebook” that addresses the issue of an older sibling sexually abusing a younger sibling. One of the questions they instruct families to ask the older child is, “What factors in the home contributed to immodesty and temptation?”
In a home where the child is raised to believe what he wants to explore (his sexuality) is morally repugnant, of course sexual abuse can occur. Of course, with teaching guidelines that question what was wrong in the home as far as “immodesty,” which if you have ever seen the show, you know there was very little shown. There is likely going to be an equally repugnant outlet in which expression of repressed sexuality can be released. And it is sad it had to allegedly happen to his own family members.
Image Source: ATI
I can’t help but wonder if, had ATI taken a different approach to the lesson of sexual abuse, or perhaps just sex in general, if this situation could have been avoided. Because do we still live in a world where there are actual people who still look at women as objects of sex, breeding, and sex and breeding only?
Sexual violence requires education. The more aware people can be of the issue of sexual violence, especially within the home, the more we can prevent it from happening.
Now, I’m not by any means saying I know what it’s like to be a parent, so teaching about sexual violence within the home is ultimately left up to them. But it is better that we teach children the basic aspects of respect, and try to prevent further situations like this from happening.
In the case of Josh Duggar, I can’t pinpoint when things began to get messy. What I can say, however, is that there was obviously a serious misunderstanding of respect within the Duggar household. Was this caused by extremist religious views? In my opinion, absolutely. Was this caused by education, or lack thereof? Totally.
There are numerous factors that contributed to the now corrupt view of the Duggars, but the more we can strive to educate children, and everyone, on sexual violence alongside respect for one another, the more successful we can be in preventing situations like this in the future.
