Duggars Redux: 19 Felonies and Counting

[prisma]

I just ran across this Amy Schumer clip for "Ashley Magdalene," the cheating site for Christians. Sounds like Josh could've used it.

[Deleted]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSIAH!
We love you so much!
You are an encourager and can brighten up any room you walk into!
You have made a big impact in all of our lives.
Your love for God, humility, diligence, selflessness, giving spirit, and so much more has challenged us in our relationship with the Lord!
We are so blessed to have you in our family!
Love,
Mom (dad and family agree too!)

Challenged us in our relationship with the Lord? WTF is that supposed to mean? They are always with the riddle-speak. I'm going to take a wild guess and say that Josiah has an independent spirit that has been more difficult to keep in check than his siblings. It makes me sad every time I stop for a second and think about the kids still at home. Oh, and Jana. She's turning into a character out of a Grimm fairytale.

As of this week, Josh is at Reformers Unanimous, whose chairman and cofounder, Paul Kingsbury, had a longterm working relationship with convicted sexual predator Jack Schaap, is allegedly protecting an accused sex offender from justice, and allegedly has a habit of failing to notify people when a known sexual predator is in their midst.

Several years ago, Bob Jones University invited GRACE, an organization run by Billy Graham’s grandson and Liberty University professor Boz Tchividijian, to conduct an investigation of their handling of rape and sexual assault on campus. The final report released by GRACE detailed a situation in the early 1990s where BJU expelled and then readmitted a man accused of sexual assault. According to the GRACE report, “the alleged perpetrator minimized the extent of his crime, but he admitted to touching her inappropriately without her consent while he believed she was sleeping.”

That sounds awfully familiar...too familiar. This must be the party line when someone like Josh is "caught with his hand in the cookie jar." There must be hundreds of abuse stories involving these God-fearing people that we'll never hear about. The more I learn about the circles the Duggars travel in, the more I hate Jim Bob. He is probably the only family member privy to all of this nastiness, and for whatever sick reason, this is what he wants for his family.

[kateln]

I'm guessing that in his mind, it's that Jim Bob sees it as God testing his faith?

[azaleaqueen]

Well first and foremost JimBob sees this as his money bubble bursting. There goes the gravy train, folks. If he regards anything about this whole mess as a test of his faith, that would be it.

[Smilla]

"Well, I'm not giving birth to that many, but we want to adopt."

Really? While I am in no way opposed to adoption as a means of creating/expanding a family, I think it's absurd for a twenty-two year old who is not even a parent yet to be talking about it. Especially when her husband is also very young, and the two have not established themselves in life or careers. Is the Gothard world currently pushing a "Twenty plus kids is okay as long as the woman isn't forced to give birth to them" meme?

[Baby Fish Mouth]

No, as far as I know Gothard has always taught that adoption is a no-no because adoptive children carry the "sins of the parents." Jim Bob and Michelle paid lip service to considering adoption but no one ever seriously thought they'd do it. Same with their kids - I'll believe it when I see it.

[chonies]

I'll believe it when I see it, too, but Jessa actually sounds kind of girlish and almost normal. I think it's pretty typical for women to consider adoption, especially when they're young and, at the risk of sounding extremely patronizing, naïve about everything involved. If she weren't Jessa, she sounds like anyone else talking about a hypothetical future--while most of the women I know who declared they were never having children actually did have children, a few stayed child-free. It's possible it was just sort of an off-the-cuff comment, but even if the adoption is beyond the bounds of Gothardism, Jessa might not see herself as a Gothardite and more in line with general evangelical Christianity, where there is a huge adoption movement/ministry.

Jessa strikes me as so glam and vain, and I don't actually mean that in a shade!-filled way. I actually think she's going to be the one who bolts because one day she'll want a pair of skinny jeans and a tank top that's not on top of a tee shirt.

[Baby Fish Mouth]

Jessa has shown herself to be nasty, judgmental piece of work, and her husband is no better. I doubt she'll ever bolt.

[lea1977]

Well whatever Jessa decides what to do it will always be about Jessa.

[chonies]

Aug 30, 2015 17:44:33 GMT -4 lea1977 said:

Well whatever Jessa decides what to do it will always be about Jessa.

I agree. I don't think there's going to be a big moral reckoning or enlightenment. Instead, if she leaves, it will be because her current condition no longer suits her.