The Duggars, stars of TLC 19 children and countingpresented on the surface as a real-life version of the characters Cheaper by the dozen. But beneath that facade, there were religious zealots who opposed abortion, rejected LGBTQ+ rights, and practiced an extreme patriarchal Christianity that used scriptures to encourage women to keep getting pregnant. Four episodes of Prime Video Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets He is a brutal downloader of the Arkansas tribe, led by his own two credentials.
But it also exposes the Duggars’ role as prime movers in a sex evangelical crusade designed to denigrate, control, and disempower its female members, and to carry its message into the corridors of American political power. As such, this is also a damning indictment of TLC and its parent company, Warner Discovery, which has helped highlight the movement’s backward and deep-seated views.
It was an integral part of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar’s faith. 19 children and counting. Less obvious, however, was their bedfellowship with the ultra-external organization IBLP, founded by Bill Gothard. Gothard preached a 1950s-1800s Christian doctrine in which men were the irreproachable heads of the family and women their subordinate partners, as seen in various seminar talks and promotional videos. Whether it’s demanding chastity and modesty from girls, corporal punishment on children (hitting keeps them in line!), preventing people from reporting abuse, or giving fathers and other men full authority over girls’ lives (especially when it comes to dating) to dating and marriage, which It was, and remains, a system of physical, psychological, emotional and sexual control and abuse.
If Jim Bob and Michelle’s connection to IBLP was overlooked on TLC’s hit show, it was left open. The network instead chose to profit from them and their basic lifestyle without digging even an inch below the surface. Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets It does just that, using lots of archive footage (from 19 children and counting and IBLP materials) to emphasize the connection between the Duggars and their beloved religious organization. Those relationships spiraled into pedophilia and incest. During the family’s heyday on TLC, eldest son Josh Duggar raised five underage girls, including his four sisters, when the scandal was thrown under Jim Bob and Michelle (a Megyn Kelly-hosted Fox News special featuring his abused sisters defending him). The same was true of Gotthard and his brother Steve, who were accused of fondling, assaulting, and raping minors (which led to Bill’s resignation from IBLP), and yet faced no legal consequences for their crimes.
Josh may have gotten away with his original crimes, but in He wasn’t so lucky in 2019, thanks to the federal government’s shocking child pornography arrests. Currently serving a 12-year sentence in prison, Josh b Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets It’s the inevitable result of the evangelical-homeschooling pipeline that misrepresents sex, values male dominance, and subjugates women and protects the wronged and blames the victim.
Directors Julia Willoughby Nason and Olivia Crist’s docs equate Josh’s behavior with this cultural lesson. It is corroborated by many former IBLP members (Lindsey Williams, Tia Levings, Heather Heath, Lara Smith, Chad Harris, Tara and Floyd Mehla) who bravely speak of their horrific experiences in Gotthard’s cult. They describe being educated in “wisdom booklets” that teach nonsense (“the hand is made up of ‘lifeless’ atoms”) and lessons that create fear and shame, and are abused and abused by their male counterparts. They resisted, because they were led to think that it was their holy duty to embrace meekness.
Elsewhere in the documents, Duggar family friends Jim and Bobby Holt discuss their shock and dismay at Josh’s actions, and their relief when he spoke out against them at the hearing. Still, the biggest “find”. Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets Jill Dillard (Nae Duggar), one of Josh’s first victims, has a long conversation with husband Derek about living under Jim Bob and Michelle’s roof, the ethics of acceptance, and eventually deciding to separate herself from her. Relatives.
Jill glosses over Josh’s direct condemnation, and more than once, makes it clear that she wishes her own abuse had never gone public. However, she was criticized for her upbringing and the show, and was never properly compensated for her participation on the show. 19 children and counting Or a post-Josh-scandal spinoff Jill and Jessa: CountingAnother way evangelicals use people: financial exploitation often includes child labor.
Jill’s cousin Amy King and Jim Bob’s sister Diana also take the Duggars for wrongdoing, blaming the reality TV stars for it and, on the other hand, giving more internal voices to the religious group that uses them as proselytizing tools and entertainment machines. He gave them a platform. TLC and its parent company are not so secretly condemned Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets To transform this seemingly backward religiosity into something beautiful and lovable. Those damning documents — in the final episode, according to attorney Alex Harris — show how the Duggars and the IBLP are part of a larger “Joshua Generation” campaign to raise young evangelicals to positions of power. From the Senate to the White House to the Supreme Court in the country. The Duggars have been described as leaders of a movement aimed at a theocratic revolution (backed by a wave of Christian social media influencers).
In the year In 2023, America will be dominated by conservative extremism. Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets It shows that the Duggars are not sleazy anti-birth control kooks, but insidious fanatics with a nefarious agenda. This is an expose that sounds like a warning about the rising tide of zealous Americans. The Handmaid’s Tale Closer to a dream than a nightmare.
[ad_2]