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The Duggar Family's Ties to Predatory Religious Right Institute in Basic Life Principles [1]
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Date: 2023-05-24
Josh Duggar and Ted Cruz: A Not So Odd Couple.
The Duggar Family: From a popular television series portraying it as the epitome of clean-cut living to revelations of a litter of religious and sexual controversies. How the mighty have fallen! According to People magazine, a Prime video limited docuseries titled Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets,“aims to go beneath the surface as it explores the wholesome family's troubling ties to a radical religious organization, the Institute in Basic Life Principles. In doing so, it unveils how the organization has shaped — and negatively impacted — the once-beloved TLC brood, which has since experienced a series of controversial scandals.”
Over the years, the Duggar Family preferred to keep their ties to Bill Gothard’s ultra-conservative Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) close to the vest. “Gothard’s name and his connection to the Duggars of 19 Kids and Counting fame skyrocketed in 2015, after Josh Duggar sought counseling at an IBLP facility once run by the former church leader,” In Touch’s Louisa Marshall reported (
https://www.intouchweekly.com/posts/bill-gothard-sex-abuse-claims-iblp-church-teachings/).
Marshall noted that, “Gothard preached ‘male superiority and female obedience,’ had guidelines on how his constituents should dress and even released homeschooling curriculum, as detailed by a July 2016 report from The Chicago Magazine” (
https://www.chicagomag.com/chicago-magazine/july-2016/institute-in-basic-life-principles-hinsdale/).
According Marshall, “IBLP’s founder, Bill Gothard, stepped down from his position within the church in 2014 after more than 30 women accused him of sexual harassment, [many of whom were underage], but his legal woes did not end there,” as there were more reports of sexual harassment in ensuing years.
As Chicago magazine’s Bryan Smith reported in June 2016, “as more becomes known about Gothard — of what the lawsuit alleges was his almost despotic control over his adherents and of the puritanical, idiosyncratic way of life he prescribed for them — shaken Hinsdale [Illinois] residents regard the benign-looking if somewhat abstruse manor down the street not as just another religious institution but as an organization with a disquieting appellation: the cult in their midst.”
Duggar Family Serial Controversies
People magazine reported that “Since Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar invited TLC cameras into their lives in Arkansas in 2008, viewers have seen the 19 Kids and Counting stars through courtships, new additions and no shortage of controversy.”
One of the “controversies” was related to oldest son Josh’s serial sexual scandals. According to People magazine’s Alison Schwartz, Natalie Stone and People staff, in mid-May 2015, Duggar — “married to Anna since 2008 and father to six kids with her —apologized for his ‘wrongdoing’ after a 2006 police report revealed that he had been investigated as a teen for inappropriately touching five underage girls. TLC promptly canceled the family's show.
Instead of dealing directly with Josh’s behavior, and sending him to a traditional treatment center, they sent him to an IBLP facility in Little Rock, Arkansas.
“Months later, in August 2015, Gawker reported that the oldest Duggar son appeared to have had active accounts on Ashley Madison, a website created to facilitate cheating on your spouse.
Josh ultimately confessed to having a pornography addiction and cheating on his wife in an apologetic statement on the Duggar family website.”
”I have been the biggest hypocrite ever. While espousing faith and family values, I have secretly over the last several years been viewing pornography on the Internet and this became a secret addiction and I became unfaithful to my wife. I am so ashamed of the double life that I have been living and am grieved for the hurt, pain and disgrace my sin has caused my wife and family, and most of all Jesus and all those who profess faith in Him.”
Duggar was convicted on child pornography charges in 2021, and was due to be released August 12, 2032. According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website, Josh Duggar's 12 ½ year prison sentence has been extended by nearly two months.
As In Touch’s Marshall reported, “Though many of the Duggar family members have kept their religious practices to themselves, Jinger Duggar makes a bold comparison between [IBLP’s] Gothard and her older brother, Josh – who was convicted of downloading and possessing child pornography in 2021 – in her memoir, Becoming Free Indeed.” Apparently, according to reports, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar are “embarrassed” by Jinger’s book.
In 2018, Amy Duggar also spoke out against Gothard, tweeting: “I have to be honest, and true to myself by tweeting this. I do not support Bill Gothard and the Institute in Biblical Life Principles in any way, shape, or form. I find his ‘teachings’ extremely questionable. I am a Christian. I believe in God’s good Grace and freedom to be ourselves! God gave us emotions, personalities, and He wants us to live our best life. Legalism is the opposite of what my Bible teaches.”
Amy, Jill Duggar and her husband, Derick Dillard, will share their experiences with the religion in Prime Video’s docuseries Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets.
Meanwhile, the 88-year-old never married Gothard is still active in the religious community, and his teachings remain part of a number of homeschooling systems,
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