More details about the "mistakes" made by Josh Duggar. From Sarah Posner, Religion Dispatches.

[madfloridian]

Josh Duggar and the Purity Lie

Such hypocrites they are.

According to the police report, Jim Bob and Michelle, paragons of parenting, hid Josh’s crimes from the police and the public. In Touch reports, based on the police report it obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request, that:

"Josh Duggar was investigated for multiple sex offenses — including forcible fondling — against five minors. Some of the alleged offenses investigated were felonies. Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar were interview [sic] by the Springdale Police department on Dec. 12, 2006. The report says that James told police he was alerted in March, 2002 by a female minor that Josh — who turned 14-years-old that month — had been touching her breasts and genitals while she slept. This allegedly happened on multiple occasions. In 2006, Jim Bob told police that in July, 2002 Josh admitted to fondling a minor’s breasts while she slept. “James said that they disciplined (redacted, Josh) after this incident.” The family did not alert authorities."

And more:

In their own statement to People, Jim Bob and Michelle say that “when Josh was a young teenager, he made some very bad mistakes, and we were shocked. We had tried to teach him right from wrong,” that “each one of our family members drew closer to God,” and that they “pray that as people watch our lives they see that we are not a perfect family.”

But the Duggars and their supporters have very deliberately marketed them as a perfect family—or if not perfect, at least pure, and in particular, sexually pure.

The first episode of their “reality” television show aired in 2008, two years after the police interviewed family members about the sexual assaults that had taken place in 2002 and 2003; the statute of limitations had already run and the police could not pursue charges.

Now we know the reality is a very ugly thing.

The Duggars are no ordinary spokespeople for the religious right; they are super-spokespeople. For years, they have been held up as exemplars of biblical living, of devotion to Christ, and of, especially, homespun honest living and sexual purity. It’s long been obvious to many that this is a product of marketing and packaging, not reality. But now no one can pretend anymore.

The purity lie:

[7wo7rees]

1. KaBoom!! Duggar family be gone. Peace. nt

[madfloridian]

2. It's the piety that gets to me. Jessa D said we should judge one another.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/02/26/duggar-daughter-liberal-christians-are-going-to-hell-just-like-other-sinners/

[Journeyman]

8. First commenter on the article: "Why are they even taken seriously? They are like. . .

"They are like the less-garish Kardashians. Their only claim to fame is that the Matriarch's uterus is apparently made by Samsonite."

[MisterP]

22. perfectibilists, eh?

[workinclasszero]

3. And this child molesting creep

sits in judgment of gay folks who want to get married?!

[Arugula Latte]

4. I wonder how much Josh's wife knew before she got eternally saddled with that creep.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

5. She claims he told her --

two years before they were married.

[KitSileya]

16. Let's phrase it right - he got his version out before any of his victims could warn her off.

You betcha he knew what he was doing when he revealed this so early in their acquaintance - two years before they married must have been just as they were getting to know each other. So he told his version of this, and made sure that she wouldn't believe any of his victims.

[StevieM]

18. I have little doubt that she knew the entire story and just didn't care. She married him anyway.

eom

[bluestateguy]

6. A lot of sanctimony here about Christian forgiveness

That would be easier to take seriously if this family of white conservative Christians would show the same spirit forgiveness for a poor black or Hispanic youth who is busted for drugs or petty theft.

[madfloridian]

7. Guardian subject line says he resigned from TV show, but article doesn't say so? Confusing.

Here is the title:

Josh Duggar resigns from 19 Kids and Counting amid molestation claims

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/may/22/josh-duggar-resigns-from-19-kids-and-counting-amid-molestation-claims

A son in the large Christian family featured in reality television show 19 Kids and Counting issued an apology and quit his job on Thursday after reports that he molested underage girls when he was a teenager.

Josh Duggar, 27, is the eldest child of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, whose long-running show on cable network TLC chronicles the daily struggles and triumphs of a conservative family in Arkansas.

Josh Duggar did not directly address the allegations that were reported by In Touch magazine and other websites but said in a statement that he felt remorse for what he called “wrongdoing”.

Confusing.

[malaise]

9. It's over

They just don't get it yet.
I always celebrate when the 'let us prey' movement is exposed.

Fugg 'em!!! All bullshit all the time.

[JHB]

10. The job he quit was his one at Family Research Council...

Last edited Fri May 22, 2015, 10:03 AM - Edit history (1)

...I.e., his "celebrity lobbyist" gig, not the show that gave him the celebrity (in certain circles) in the first place.

[madfloridian]

11. I know. The Guardian still has the misleading title though.

I wonder why someone didn't edit it?

[JHB]

13. Yeah, speaking of editing...

mea cupla

[lapfog_1]

12. always the same

[Tree-Hugger]

14. I would love to see them gone

Unfortunately, I don't think it will happen. Their supporters are rabid fucking lunatic morons. The comments I have read in the last 24 hours are stomach turning. They have a very large and very vocal amount of support from "Christians" and cultists around the globe. They are saying these reports are an attack against God and Christians. Those of us who think molestation is horrible are merely possessed by the devil and wanting to destroy God's word.

I'm Christian. I give no fucks if this piece of shit is religious or not. I give a fuck that he has molested children and got away with it.

I began this week reading about the Naugler family and reading their blind supporters defend child abuse and neglect in the name of Jesus 'n' the 4th Amendment. I end this week reading defense after defense for the abusive and corrupt Duggar family in the name of Jaysus. Sad fucking world.

I am sure it is the girls' fault. Josh was raised to believe women are created to serve men and to be submissive. He was raised to believe they he maintains authority over women's bodies simply because he is a male. These girls learn from birth that their job is to submit, submit, submit - submit to their men, submit to their church, submit to their friendly GOPer who is legislating against their rights. If only they had linger skirts, or covered their arms more, or permed their hair tighter (seriously - Jim Bob has a perm fetish), or didn't have female anatomy then this wouldn't have happened. They are told that their skin, their bodies, their hair, their very presence is a temptation and could rip a man from the arms of Christ. They are all brainwashed to believe they are full of sin merely for having two xx chromosomes. Women who are "joyfully submissive" are growing in number. Scary.

Modesty culture is degrading and is a threat to society.

[smirkymonkey]

15. +1000

[workinclasszero]

17. Same here

I'm Christian. I give no fucks if this piece of shit is religious or not. I give a fuck that he has molested children and got away with it.

Apparently these holier than thou hypocrites have all the forgiveness in the world for child molesters and whoring around with hookers, etc,etc,etc..... but gay people?

TEH GAYS WILL BURN IN HELLFIRE!!!!!

Cherrypickin pharisee bastards! Jesus said he who is without sin, cast the first stone...well little old Josh Duggar with his filthy child molesting hands picked up that rock and was throwing it at gay people 24/7 right up until the minute he was exposed!

Fuckin liars disobey Christ everyday, in every way and still claim to be Christian! It makes me violently ill what the damned republican party has done to the Christian church in America!

It has virtually destroyed it with hate, racism, GREED and Randism!

[StevieM]

20. Actually, you bring up another interesting point when referring to hookers.

They will forgive the man who is led astray into the path of temptation.

But the prostitute is a filthy whore in their minds.

This is why IMO the police target the hookers for arrest far more than the johns.

[workinclasszero]

21. Yup and it all goes back to a core belief of fundamentalists of all stripes

Women are evvvvvvvvil!!!

[MisterP]

23. it's EXACTLY how cults work: this goes far beyond "rule by fear" to a point where

their entire identity becomes the belief that they're alone against a world where everyone--from the deli counter to all clergy but their own--is persecuting them, or even literally Satanic; they see themselves as not only persecuted but survivors in a long line of underground churches, so Foxe's Book o' Martyrs nourishes them, perverse as it may sound: therefore someone having to bake a cake for a gay couple is the slippery slope to gassing kids and it's as bad as the Moluccas conflict when the tea shop doesn't pull Celestial Seasonings from the shelves because there's a five-pointed star on the back

this sort of pattern can be applied to anything--even British literature before WWI

it can get really bad: Guyana bad

[Skittles]

24. shame on anyone who was a fan of this garbage show

[gratuitous]

25. How very surprising

Doesn't their Bible come with Luke chapter 8 verse 17?