The Duggar nexus: Huckabee, Gothard and Hobby Lobby.

[muriel_volestrangler]

From the In Touch article about Josh Duggar:

James said that they found out about a Christian program in Little Rock which they felt more comfortable with. James said that he could not remember the name of the program, but that it was conducted by a Christian ministry in the old Veterans Hospital in Little Rock and the man who ran it was Harold Walker. James said that he thought that the program was affiliated with the Little Rock Police Department since they had a station in the same building. James said that the program consisted of hard physical work and counseling. James said that (Josh) was in the program from March 17, 2003 until July 17, 2003.
...
(Interview with Michelle Duggar)
...
Det. Hignite then asked Mrs. Duggar about the training center they sent (Josh) to. She said it was not really a training center. Det. Hignite asked if the guy (Josh) talked to was a certified Counselor. She said no. She said it was a guy they know in Little Rock that is remodeling a building. Det. Hignite asked if the guy was more of a mentor. She said kind of.

From 2008:

Evangelist Bill Gothard, whose Institute for Basic Life Principles runs a faith-based prison program out of what's known as the Little Rock Training Center, has been much in the news recently. A young man home-schooled under a rigid Gothard program went on a shooting spree at a Colorado church in December, killing two and blaming Gothard for his crack-up. Later, Gothard and former Gov. Mike Huckabee were seen hobnobbing at a Texas fund-raiser for Huckabee's presidential bid.
...
Gothard's presence here can be tracked to his friendship with former Little Rock Mayor Jim Dailey, whose idea it was for Gothard to create a facility in Little Rock to promote faith-based products. Hobby Lobby donated the VA building to Gothard in 2000, and Gothard began renovation of the the 529,717-square-foot building. He said he would use the building as a juvenile center, orphanage for foreign children and base for growing his ministry in Arkansas.
...
Dailey said he'd called Gothard to get an update of what was happening with the training center. The training center, which features a huge, but unmanned and quiet, wood-paneled lobby with a maroon carpeting and chairs upholstered in white fabric, employs seven people, director R.T. Spivey said. It serves the chaplains in the IBLP's PAL prison program. At one time, the training center operated the “Integrity Construction Institute” for young men, but that program has moved to Alpena.
...
Huckabee's appearance with Gothard in December prompted an item first in a Cincinnati paper that took note of Gothard's “authoritarian” and “controversial” Biblical beliefs, tenets incorporated into Character Training Institute, a Gothard spin-off (and supposedly secular). The CTI sells “City of Character” products that use Biblical principles (scrubbed of Biblical references) to “teach” character, and Dailey once promoted making Little Rock a Character City. The city board of directors declined to buy into the program.

http://www.arktimes.com/arkansas/a-day-shelter-in-the-old-va/Content?oid=865453

I'm trying to track down the "Integrity Construction Institute ("for young men&quot - various outfits are called "Integrity Construction", but the 'for young men' bit, and Michelle Dugar's "remodeling a building" makes it sound like they used 'troubled' young men as free labour for construction projects. And all owned by Bill Gothard, good friend of Mike Huckabee, governor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007. In a building donated by Hobby Lobby. Gothard resigned from IBLP after this:

Bill Gothard, an Illinois-based advocate for home schooling and conservative dress who warned against rock music and debt, has resigned from the ministry he founded after allegations of sexually harassing women who worked at his ministry and failing to report child abuse cases.

Gothard’s resignation from the Institute in Basic Life Principles, according to a letter sent to families affiliated with the ministry he founded, comes a week after he was put on administrative leave. According to an organizer involved in the whistle-blowing website Recovering Grace, 34 women told the website they had been sexually harassed; four women alleged molestation.

RNS spoke with several women who alleged they were sexual harassed, including one woman who alleged that Gothard molested her when she was 17.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/conservative-leader-bill-gothard-resigns-following-abuse-allegations/2014/03/07/0381aa94-a624-11e3-b865-38b254d92063_story.html

It's no wonder Huckabee is defending the Duggars; he's up to his neck in this. The 'Christian ministry' running the non-counseling program was owned by Gothard, who owned the 'Advanced Training Institute' that the Duggars publicise to homeschoolers, and with which they've been associated for years (one Duggar book mentions they go to a conference for it every year, and recounts a story from one year which the age of one family member ties down to the early 2000s).

[Sienna86]

1. Very interesting article

Huckleberry does appear to be up to his eyeballs in this web of folks using God and religion to do whatever the hell they want. And interesting how women are the victims of these jerks.

[Ilsa]

2. OMG. The adult who ran this corrective program is

Another sexual predator. It fits so nicely with their paternal authoritarian beliefs.

First the state trooper, now this man Gothard.

[yellowcanine]

3. Gothard is notorious for promoting patriarchal Christianity where daddy beats

Last edited Sat May 23, 2015, 09:24 PM - Edit history (2)

the crap out of the kids to "break their will" - a la Dr. James Dobson beating up his weiner dog with a belt because the dog tried to "take his place" or some such shit.

[JustAnotherGen]

6. And then the parents

Are supposed to hug their children.

These people are sick.

[spinbaby]

4. I've posted this tidbit before

This is a good read otherwise, but there's a part that states that the Duggar girls curl their hair because Gothard has a thing for it. Really creepy.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfeminism/2014/08/an-open-letter-to-duggar-defenders.html

[DawgHouse]

11. I haven't seen this before.

Very good read and sheds light on the subculture.

[misterhighwasted]

17. Please create an OP on your post

Thank you for the link.
I knew some of this bit not the depth of which you tell.
Its a given that they have moved their twisted belief into legislating & lobbying.
This all needs to be publicly told for the damaging cult it is.
It needs to be brought out of its secrecy.

I have started an OP and would like to include a link to your post. Thank You.

[JustAnotherGen]

5. Page 242 - Republican Gomorrah - Re Gothard

We had a new member get dragged for a post about the danger Dominionism poses to America a few days ago. This shit goes deep.

“An authoritarian Christian-right self-help guru named Bill Gothard created the home-schooling regimen implemented by Murray’s parents. Like his ally James Dobson, Gothard first grew popular during the 1960s by marketing his program to worried evangelical parents as anti-hippie insurance for adolescent children. Based on the theocratic teachings of R. J. Rushdoony, who devised Christian schools and home-schooling as the foundation of his Dominionist empire, Gothard’s Basic Life Principles outlined an all-consuming environment that followers could embrace for the whole of their lives. According to Ron Henzel, a one-time Gothard follower who coauthored a devastating exposé about his former guru called A Matter of Basic Principles, under the rules, “large homeschooling families abstain from television, midwives are more important than doctors, traditional dating is forbidden, unmarried adults are ‘under the authority of their parents’ and live with them, divorced people can’t remarry under any circumstance, and music has hardly changed at all since the late nineteenth century.”

Excerpt From: Blumenthal, Max. “Republican Gomorrah.” Perseus, NONE. iBooks.
This material may be protected by copyright.

Check out this book on the iBooks Store: https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewBook?id=389053062

[justiceischeap]

7. I'm still surprised by how many sexual predators were involved in "counseling" Josh Duggar.

I mean, what are the odds of that?

[Ford_Prefect]

9. Is that what they call "networking"?

[justiceischeap]

10. I think it's not an accident, that's what I think. nt

[Ford_Prefect]

15. Yes. The sarcasm was implicit.

Past investigations have shown they tend to inhabit systems and institutions which allow them access to those the system was meant to protect. They also are quite effective at enabling and protecting their kind from the same positions of influence, hence "networking". See also: the revelations about Catholic Church hierarchy and infrastructure under similar circumstances.

[John Poet]

8. The new GOP campaign slogan is,

"No Child Molester Left Behind"

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. Jim Bob Duggar was vice chair of the Arkansas House of Reps Criminal Law subcommittee

while Huckabee was governor:

From 1999 to 2002, Duggar served in the Arkansas House of Representatives for the sixth district, which included part of northern Washington County, Arkansas.[4][5][6] Duggar was vice chair of the House Corrections and Criminal Law Subcommittee and also participated in the Insurance and Commerce Committee and Judiciary Committee.[7]

He also ran in the Republican Party of Arkansas primary election for the United States Senate in 2002, but lost to incumbent Senator Tim Hutchinson by a vote of 71,576 to 20,546.[8][9] Duggar sought the Republican nomination to the Arkansas State Senate District 35 seat in 2006,[10][11] but lost to candidate Bill Pritchard by 200 votes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Bob_Duggar

"Award: In April 2004, then-Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, far right, named Michelle Arkansas Young Mother of the Year at the Capitol in Little Rock. Above, Michelle poses with the award and her children"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3093136/How-squeaky-clean-photo-launched-Duggars-fame-2002-belied-sordid-molestation-secret-home.html

[TNNurse]

12. All of the minor children should be removed

from his and his parent's home until there is an investigation by a neutral and QUALIFIED agency.

I have never had one moment of respect for this family. I thought that the older children were probably raising the younger ones because how could two parents spend any real time with that many children.

I did not suspect they were covering up criminal activity in their home. You have to ask if he possibly abused his sisters, is he considered a more worthy family member. God won't like that.

[Cryptoad]

13. Come on you guys.......

he said he was sorry!

[Sienna86]

16. I'm wondering if Josh Duggar was molested as a child?

Certainly does not excuse his actions. Also, what other young women did he have access to on family get-together so and church outings? The circle may widen.

What action is DCFS taking to insure the safety of all children he has access to, whether family or others?

[elehhhhna]

18. the kid he raised for his parents, the boy holding hands with jimbob,

Was he victimized too...?

[countryjake]

19. Thanks for doing some good digging, muriel.

Huckabee insists on publicly continuing to carry out the cover-up of a child molester, minimizing the crime that Duggar committed, and claiming that it was dealt with openly and honestly at the time.

Those schmarmy bastards all could use a lesson on the meaning of "character".