Back in 2015, when the news of Josh Duggar’s molestation of his sisters–and a babysitter–broke, I wanted to believe that he had put all of that behind him. He was 14 at the time he did that, a lot of folks wanted to think it was a case of adolescent sexual experimentation gone too far, he apparently faced the music, and by all indications at the time, those were not indicative of who he became as an adult.
At the time, I said this:
It would be fair, in his circle of accountability, to question him significantly about who he is today. Has he cheated on his wife? Does he use pornography? What changed in his conduct after his scrapes at age 14? Has he learned to control his passions in a way befitting a Christian gentleman?
Then, a couple months later, he was outed in the Ashley Madison hack. As horrible as that was, at least it was otherwise consensual sex with other adults. Yes, it was terrible; yes, it merited repudiation from the Church; yes, it merited derision from the outside world due to the hypocrisy of his acts. But at that point he had done nothing criminal, at least not as far as we knew.
Sadly, what we are seeing is that Duggar’s adolescent molestations were indicative of sexually-predatory inclinations, and he apparently developed a sexual attraction to children. He has been arrested on two federal charges of receiving and possessing child pornography.
Trust me on this: the truth of this is very dark. Adult porn is one thing: unless the parties are forced, at least the adults involved are engaging in consensual sex. They are degrading each other, and yes–the viewer of such needs to understand that viewing conventional porn is not innocuous: you are enjoying watching one or more people debase themselves for your pleasure. Repentance is more than just vowing to stop watching it, but rather learning to view people as Image Bearers–worthy of dignity–rather than sexual commodities.
Child porn, however, is a whole different circle of hell. A person who enjoys child porn is a person who enjoys seeing children harmed. Children do not consent to be used that way. This is full-on child abuse the magnitude of which is severe and unconscionable.
huge sigh. i’d like to be surprised, but i am not.
and his pic is sooo creepy!
i hope they dotted all their i’s and crossed all their t’s and he gets the book thrown at him. he won’t last long in prison, though, but not my problem.
i’m heartbroken for his wife and kids, though 🙁
No question. His wife did everything right, and look at what she ended up with. And the kids? Dang.
As for Josh, what he did, that’s on him. And my guess is that the federal case is pretty solid: they typically are meticulous with the forensics on these cases. If they’re charging you with a crime like this, most of the time the only question is going to be what the plea bargain will look like.
Duggar’s parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, called the allegations “very serious” in a statement released Friday and thanked anyone praying for the family.
“It is our prayer that the truth, no matter what it is, will come to light, and that this will all be resolved in a timely manner,” they said. “We love Josh and Anna and continue to pray for their family.”
gotta give them a lot of credit for that.
Well, he’s entitled to his day in court and has plead not guilty, but it doesn’t look good. He has already cheated on his wife, or at least, intended to do so with Ashley Madison, so I think it’s hard for people to believe him when he says he is innocent. And, as far as I am aware, this isn’t “children” in the sense of teenagers. We are talking children *at least under 12* according to one article. The scary thing too is that the article said these videos weren’t just of naked children but of children being abused. Now, that could mean that they were simply engaging in sexual relations (which is abusive enough), but it could also be *much* worse. Horrible stuff that I feel gross even writing about. If guilty, he needs lots of prayer. Yes, this is a horrible, disgusting situation, but Christ can redeem even from this. Nevertheless, I also really feel for his wife. First, he tries to cheat on her, and now this! She showed him mercy and grace to even continue on when he was caught with Ashley Madison! Now, she has some really difficult and painful decisions to make. Their marriage vows were broken big time, and just like last time, she has a right to divorce. But, unlike last time, the offense is much worse. I would like to know, how on earth did he still have private access to a laptop after the whole Ashley Madison situation? Wouldn’t it have been better, if you are married, to have a rule where you never have an electronic device alone? I mean, that kind of thing doesn’t solve the problem completely, but it at least would have given him some accountability to his wife. All in all, this is a horrible situation that needs lots of prayer. But, it does go to show you that you can have all the external happiness that this patriarchy cult promises you, and it means *nothing* in terms of the heart which is where the real battle lies.
It’s worse than that.
In his teenage years, he molested at least 4 of his sisters and a babysitter. This is when he was 14. The problem is, in a situation like that, unless there is sufficient intervention–you need experienced therapists and law enforcement who will impress upon him that (a) this is the kind of thing that will get you a rap sheet, and (b) unless you deal with the underlying issues that led to the behavior–you will re-offend and you will end up in the soup really bad.
That didn’t happen. Instead, he got what amounted to “Biblical counseling.”
(Fair disclosure: Biblical counseling has its place, but in situations like this you also need real professionals who deal with these kinds of pathologies on a regular basis. He didn’t get that.)
The problem here is that his teenage molestations were indicative of predatory behavior. And they never did the hard work of getting to the heart issues that were leading to the behavior. And it surfaced in many ways.
When he was outed in the Ashley Madison hack, it was also revealed that he in fact DID cheat on his wife. And on top of that, he admitted to having a pornography addiction. What this revealed: a heart issue in which he saw other people as objects for his sexual entitlement.
(On the non-sexual front, he had also proven himself to be predatory in his business dealings, too.)
The child porn charges are a very big deal. Typically, if the feds charge you it’s because they have a very airtight case. Like you said: he will get his day in court, but it doesn’t look encouraging.
Byt yes, this patriarchy cult–and that’s exactly what it is–is pure poison.