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Two Duggar Memoirs: Jill and Jinger As Adults
Neither their abusive older brother nor the IBLP Christian fundamentalist organization is part of their lives now
From 2004 to 2007, starting with Michelle Duggar’s pregnancy with her 15th child, Jackson, the Duggar family in Arkansas was featured in documentaries. They considered the documentaries to be their Christian ministry.
In 2008, the family got its own series. It covered the births of the 18th and 19th children, Jordyn-Grace and Josie. The series came to be called 19 Kids and Counting.
The Duggars adhere to a strict form of Christianity. For example, for teens, the rules were: You could only court someone if you’d consider marrying them and if the parents gave permission. Once courting, you were allowed to say “I love you.” Once engaged, you were allowed to hold hands. Even at this point, any conversation would have to be chaperoned. Only once married were you allowed to kiss and be alone.
Back then, 15 years ago, I watched the show. Of course I knew the teens would never have been allowed to be friends with someone like me, having likely been warned about my sort: Jewish, gay, reading secular philosophy, and so on. My awareness of who and what they weren’t allowed to have in their lives — at least the rough contours of those restrictions, including my certainty that they excluded me and everyone I knew — was part of my fascination with the show. The reality show gave me a glimpse of their house into which I would never otherwise be invited.
I was also intrigued by how these homeschooled children looked strangely “perfect”: no one had a skinned knee, no one wore corrective lenses, no one misbehaved on camera. Now I know the Christian parents strove specifically to be a “model family” according to the teachings of Bill Gothard through the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP).
The family secret
What the parents knew, but the public did not, was that between 2002 and 2003, their eldest child, Josh, then a teenager, had molested his sisters. This secret was an added stressor on the kids as they were filmed for national television while being ordered to present themselves as a model Christian family.
