Image credit: Washington Post[/caption] Posted on 05/22/2015 11:56:44 AM PDT by lifeofgrace
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Many people have been hoping for this day for years. The day when the Duggars fell. Today they got their wish.
By “the Duggars” I mean any member of the Duggar extended family—the ones “as seen on TV” in their hit show “19 Kids and Counting.” And by “fell” I mean not just dipping below the sainted status conveyed by their television persona, but really falling in a public, humiliating and tragic way.
Josh Duggar publicly confessed that accusations of his being investigated for child abuse 12 years ago are true.
"Twelve years ago, as a young teenager, I acted inexcusably for which I am extremely sorry and deeply regret. I hurt others, including my family and close friends," Duggar told People Magazine.
I had the pleasure of meeting Josh Duggar not even two months ago. I found him to be humble, well-spoken, polite and quite real. He also loves college football, especially his Razorbacks.
Yes, I had “the pleasure.” He is a fine young man with a wonderful family, who now have to live with a public blot on his character for many years.
There will be distortions. Oh yes, the distortions and accusations have barely even begun. They’ll call him a serial molester. They’ll extend the accusations to his father Jim Bob, who reported the incident to the police himself, according to the New York Daily News. They’ll paint the whole family as Branch Davidians and Jim Bob as David Koresh.
Josh Duggar handled the news of his public humiliation like a man. He admitted it, put it in the past, and stepped out of the way in his public position as executive director of Family Research Council Action (the political action arm of the FRC). He will probably move back to Arkansas and live quietly there.
I doubt we’ll see him on the show anymore, which is very, very sad.
There’s one group of people who I suspect aren’t too sad: the Duggars themselves. They will rally around the eldest child and provide support, like a family is supposed to. You won’t hear any exposés or exclusive tell-alls from the Duggars.
They’ll remain joyful because they understand the grace of God in their lives. They know that this life is a temporary sojourn, and that the reward they seek is not in this world.
The world can hurl its worst at Josh Duggar. As Vince Gill sang, they can only threaten him with heaven.
This world has no shortage of people who are rejoicing at Josh Duggar’s shame. Last November, a hundred and fifty thousand of them signed a change.org petition urging TLC to cancel “19 Kids,” which, of course, failed.
Possibly this time, they’ll succeed, with a new petition. The hatred is already seeping through the Internet—the same Internet clogged with child pornography, bestiality, and horrors worse than the most jaded fetishist has dreamt. Stuff so bad that even imagining a young child seeing it is an act of mental abuse.
And the denizens of this same Internet hold Josh Duggar to a standard so far above their own filthy sewers, then celebrate when he admits he’s less than a perfect soul.
Turns out @GovernorPerry enjoys hanging out with child molesters. #JoshDuggar #ChristianFamilyValues pic.twitter.com/znNpc1rHnS — Political Nerd (@Sttbs73) May 21, 2015
#TedCruz pals around with confessed sister molester #JoshDuggar pic.twitter.com/8GrtJT73Qs— JoeMyGod (@JoeMyGod) May 21, 2015
Hey @TLC its time to cancel that creepy "family" show. #JoshDuggar #Duggars — maria lia calvo (@MariaLiaCalvo) May 21, 2015
It speaks volumes to the mind of #JoshDuggar that he claimed he quit molesting kids because he thought it would ruin HIS life, NOT theirs. — Ree Cee (@ree_cee) May 21, 2015
UPDATE! Police will destroy all docs from #JoshDuggar molestation case to protect identity of alleged victim http://t.co/ta6zbsTeCs — Perez Hilton (@PerezHilton) May 21, 2015
And there’s those who live on gossip and the misfortune of others, who will feast on the news for their own aggrandizement, while living out the same lives in their twisted reality.
#JoshDuggar of #19KidsAndCounting allegedly molested underage girls! Get the details HERE! http://t.co/pmG5yUlJ8A pic.twitter.com/rGIbz7MOKx— Perez Hilton (@PerezHilton) May 21, 2015
New damning details come out regarding #JoshDuggar sex abuse scandal-- police reports released: http://t.co/3n6P1IxUuQ #19kidsandcounting — The Ashley (@TheAshleysRR) May 21, 2015
Surprise surprise: #JoshDuggar is a perverted hypocrite @TLC #Duggars #19kidsandcounting http://t.co/XfCBzPrvhl— Cameron L. Mitchell (@CameronLMitchel) May 21, 2015
Family Values at work http://t.co/PzqymBU7Ze #joshduggar #duggarfamily #19kidsandcounting #pervert — Katie Barber (@katiesaidno) May 21, 2015
For those who celebrate at the banquet of Josh Duggar’s humiliation, I’ve got news for you.
You’re not a shining perfect soul yourself.
In fact, you’re depraved, self-seeking, greedy, profane, and iniquitous.
Your counterfeit self-righteousness is as transparently feculent as your own deviant desires for others.
In other words: You live in a sewer, and you smell like its contents.
There’s no material difference between you and Josh Duggar. Except one thing. Josh Duggar believes in a holy, forgiving, loving and merciful God who has already forgiven him for his transgression.
Josh Duggar can stand up and say “I did this” without shame, because he’s given his own depravity to God, who has taken his shame and given him God’s righteousness.
I know this bothers you, because you want to see Duggar grovel and beg forgiveness from the world, so you can snatch it away while he writhes in his own humiliation for the rest of his life.
I've got bad news for you. It’s not going to happen.
Duggar admitted what happened and now it’s your turn to deal with it. He’s already past it. His wife is past it. His family is past it.
And they know one thing that you may not, if you’re one of the many celebrants awaiting the Duggars implosion.
What they know is something very ancient, and not at all hidden.
They know this: one day, “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:10-11.)
Right now, Josh Duggar is living out Philippians the second chapter.
One day I hope I will have the pleasure of meeting him again. Yes, the “pleasure.”
Duggar is not a perfect soul. Neither am I. Neither are you. What we have in common is the knowledge of the one who is a perfect soul, and like Josh Duggar, I hope one day you’ll meet Him too.
Let’s state the obvious:
We don’t know whether he is truly Saved or not. There is no way to know that about someone.
We don’t know whether he truly confessed his sin and asked for forgiveness. There is no way to know that about someone.
We don’t know if there are other victims.
All we know is what he did. He had to resign from a position when his deed left the darkness and came into the light. The Duggars took the place of honor at the “banquet” and had to be moved to a lesser place.
It’s amazing how right the Bible can be.
First of all he was not a “kid”- he was 14-15 years old at the time this took place. But his sisters were younger - 12, 10, 8 and 4 years old.
Next, I don’t know what kind of world you live in, but there is a very big difference between a boy or teenager out on a date with a girl (hopefully not his sister) and perhaps doing something like putting his arm around his date and sort of accidently on purpose brushing her breast (i.e. copping a feel) and an older brother sneaking into the bedrooms of his own sisters on multiple occasions and fondling their genitals – not just their breasts but their “nether regions”, including that of his 4 year old sister while they are sleeping.
The former is normal teenage boy behavior; the latter would be molestation bordering on incest.
It’s not a matter of celebration, far from it.
It is what some have expected; that the skeletons would start coming out of the closet at some point.
Despite the portrayals as the perfect, Christian family there is no such thing. Many became invested in the family as a shining example of Christian family values and anytime you follow that mindset you will eventually be disappointed regardless of how closely the family follow those values. As others have pointed out; everyone including them are human and will sin.
The telling will be how they handle the situation now that it has come out. So far, I don’t believe they have handled this too well.
Hear, hear! This was an ill-advised article (or blog piece). And I'm getting tired of bloggers who continually write sentence long paragraphs.
who was raped?
At least one of his sisters was digitally penetrated.
“who was raped?”
Each of the children whose genitals he touched.
14 and 12 year olds fondling each other is not necessarily rape, and it was not characterized as such. Perhaps you never engaged in fondling of anyone when you were an adolescent, in which case you are at least as moral as or more moral than average. If an adult fondles a 12 or 14 year old, that is certainly a sexual assault; but when 12 to 14 year old children fondle each other, it is immoral and sinful but NOT necessarily assault. Based on the information available in this case, those quick to label Josh a "sex offender" and a hypocrite are far more hypocritical in their own self-righteousness.
What about a 14yr old fonding a 4yr old.
That’s not ‘playing doctor’.
Normal 14yr old boys aren’t interested in their 4yr old sisters sex organs.
“14 and 12 year olds fondling each other is not necessarily rape,”
He was 14 his victims were as young as 4.
The girl involved was not his sister. Some twittering tweet-head threw that out there, but it has nothing to do with the actual event that has been reported. Also, when a child fondles another child, that does not make him a child molester -- or a sex offender.
Before you put any more of these labels on Josh, ask yourself this question: Did you ever do anything as a child or in your youth (say from age 8 to age 16) to another child in the same age range that would be a far more serious immoral or even criminal act if you did as an adult to a child or adolescent?
Only the Lena Dunaham’s of the world.
The police report is out there.
There were a total of 5 victims. 4 of them were his sisters.
One of them was four years old at the time and is still a minor at this point.
BUT, a 14 year old sneaking into his sisters rooms and fondling/penetrating them is not normal behavior and indicates more than just “teens being teens” behavior.
I groped when I was 14. Had my sons felt up a girlfriend when they were 14, I would have ripped them and warned them about the dangers. Had they done that to their 8 year old sister, my wife would have had to have restrained me from knocking them out. At the very least, we would have reported it and sent them straight to counseling. They would have been monitored and boundaries in place for the rest of their lives.
This moves beyond exploring sexually, and is a symptom of something gone wrong in his brain that is almost impossible to cure. I feel bad for the family, but that is the simple reality. Their son has a problem beyond just simple sex issues. You don't grow out of pedophilia tendencies.
Also despicable.
Reading her accounts of activity with her sister starting at a very young age my only question is ‘who molested her, when, and for how long’.
Ditto Josh.
“Before you put any more of these labels on Josh, ask yourself this question: Did you ever do anything as a child or in your youth (say from age 8 to age 16) to another child in the same age range that would be a far more serious immoral or even criminal act if you did as an adult to a child or adolescent? “
Sorry, but 14 is not in the same age range as 4.
Thanks for posting this......I happen to agree.
However, your thread will be torn apart......they are waiting in the wings to pounce.
Good luck!
“If you do not think that is rape...”
It’s not about what I think, that is a word with a pretty clear definition, isn’t it?
That said, those celebrating the revelations and labeling him are guilty of the same or worse hypocrisy.
Yeah, one young kid copping a feel on another kid didn’t used to be called “molestation”. It wasn’t acceptable behavior, but it wasn’t something that got people labeled a sex predator.
Did you ‘cop a feel’ on your sisters? The other one was a relative who used to spend a lot of time with the family, sleeping on the couch when staying over.
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