Author’s note: This article was written in May 2021 upon Josh’s initial arrest. I have updated the title to reflect his conviction.
Is anyone surprised that Josh Duggar has been arrested for child pornography?
Previously, it came out that Josh molested his younger sisters and a babysitter when he was growing up. He was privately disciplined and allowed to continue living with his victims. He grew up to become a lobbyist for an extremist political group created by James Dobson and Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council. There, he advocated for policies like making women and men with children wait a year before they can divorce, teaching only abstinence and intelligent design in schools, and policies that oppose gay marriage. They also are anti-HPV vaccine for some reason.
Later, it was revealed he used the service Ashley Madison to find someone to have an affair with. He spent almost $1,000 on the service but claims he never met anyone.
In response to the Ashley Madison scandal, Josh stated “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”.
The Duggar family’s plan to do nothing, having the girls blame themselves for being abused as children, and continue to play happy family with a known child molester when the family has dozens of children running around at all times, worked about as you’d expect. Last Wednesday Anna Duggar announced she and her child molester husband Josh Duggar are having their seventh baby, a girl. On Thursday, Josh Duggar was arrested by federal agents. The feds said they have been investigating Josh for child pornography since November 2019.
It should be noted that the Duggar family didn’t keep Josh around after his child molestation became public because they think forgiveness and family are of the utmost importance, they did it because their cult tells them men who sexually abuse others are NBD.
The Duggar family has cut people out of their family for much smaller things than child molestation. For instance, one of the older children, Jill, has been ostracized for years because she and her husband aren’t in the Duggar family’s groomer cult, the Institute for Basic Life Principles, anymore. If you read about IBLP, it’s very clear that Josh Duggar is not a bad apple in IBLP, the principles of the religion were created to help men in church leadership groom women and children. Josh Duggar, if he had never gotten caught, is who every man in IBLP hopes to become. The family also had no issues distancing themselves from their cousin, Amy Duggar, when she expressed less conservative beliefs about Christianity.
Here is a breakdown of creepy facts about the Institute for Basic Life Principles:
- It was created by Bill Gothard who is accused of preying on at least 34 young women and children. His brother, Steve Gothard, also had to be fired from the IBLP for preying on his secretaries.
- Past IBLP members call it a cult.
- IBLP teaches that medical issues like cancer and miscarriages are caused by not being a good enough Christian.
- IBLP teaches complementarianism, the belief that God ordained women to submit to the authority of men. Studies have shown this belief “positively correlates with the acceptance of beliefs that facilitate abuse”.
- IBLP is explicitly homophobic.
- If someone in an IBLP family is sexually abused, they teach that the victim should be counseled about what they did to deserve it.
- Within IBLP, grifters flourish. Michael and Debi Pearl have made their living through writing books and giving lectures to help parents deal with their young children. Does it matter that “The Pearl Method” as it’s known is responsible for the deaths of at least 3 children? Not to IBLP families. Of Josh molesting his sisters, one of them while she was so young she was sitting on his lap, Michael Pearl said “who am I to denigrate a man for the sins of his youth? I know I will lose a lot of support over what I am saying, but I would rather go down standing than to prosper bowing beside the enemies of God at the altar of social opinion.”
- IBLP believes every Christian should homeschool their children by purchasing IBLP curriculum. In the curriculum, you’ll find scientific information like that for an unmarried woman, contact with semen can cause cancer. (No such risk exists for married women, thankfully).
- The IBLP is a 501c3 non-profit that rakes in 80 million dollars each year. Tax free.
For anyone triggered by this, Recovering Grace is a website to support people who have left or are considering leaving the IBLP cult.
Is it any wonder that a man raised in this groomer cult grew up to… be a groomer?
One person who isn’t at all surprised is one of the women who says they have been abused by him. Ashley Johnston says Josh Duggar strangled and raped her while she pleaded with him to stop. Johnston met Duggar in March 2015 at a strip club in Philadelphia where she was working. Duggar paid her $600 over the course of the night for lap dances. She says she agreed to go to a hotel room with him but was unprepared for the sudden change in his demeanor. Of the attack, she recalls:
“There was no warning, the back of my head was grabbed, his d**k was shoved into my throat and it was hard, hard, hard, with no remorse, no nothing. Almost as if the look in his eyes went black. It was terrifying.
‘I was thrown up on the bed, put in multiple different positions, his hands around my throat. At one point I tried pushing off and his entire body was on top of me with his penis in my mouth and I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t even gasp for help.’”
Back at home, Josh’s wife Anna Duggar was pregnant with one of their six children.
Now, Josh will be separated from the children in his family, not because the Duggars wised up and wanted to protect the children they are responsible for, but because a federal judge ordered it. Josh is pleading “not guilty” to downloading and possessing child pornography. The children in the images were under the age of 12. Judge Erin Wiedermann ruled that even if Josh is released on bond, he is not allowed to live in a home with minor children, including the six (to to be seven) children he has with his wife Anna Duggar.
Based on sentencing guidelines for his charges, Josh Duggar could spend up to 20 years in prison and fines up to $250,000 on each count. A “count” is a single complaint or criminal act. For instance, each time Josh downloaded child pornography could be considered a different criminal act. Josh is currently charged with two counts, but it is common for more to be added as the case goes on. He is currently still in the custody of US Marshalls. His first hearing is scheduled for May 5.
