This week, two right-winger who portrayed themselves as exemplars of virtue, and regularly lectured Americans on “family values,” proved to be far from “pure” themselves.
Until this week, Josh Duggar was a celebrity in more ways than one. Not only was the 27-year-old married father of four a reality television star of TLC’s “19 Kids And Counting,” which made his parents Jim and Michelle Duggar famous for their fecundity, but he was also the executive director of the Family Research Council’s lobbying arm, FRC Action. Duggar moved to Washington, D.C., for the job in 2013, and for two years used his celebrity to champion conservative causes and candidates.
Duggar’s fame turned to infamy this week, when InTouch Magazine reported that in 2005 Jim Bob Duggar reported his then 15-year-old son to police for sexually molesting several female children. The article includes a 33-page police report, which revealed that Duggar was investigated for multiple sex offenses (including forcible fondling) against five female children — including one or more of his own sisters. Some of the offenses investigated were felonies.
- In March 2002, a female minor reported that Duggar — who was 14-years-old at the time — had fondled her breasts and genitals on multiple occasions while she slept.
- In July 2002, Duggar admitted to fondling a minor’s breasts while she slept.
- There was another “incident” in March 2003, when another female minor accused Duggar of fondling her breasts and genitals.
- Several female minors accused Duggar of fondling their breasts and genitals while they slept, but also when they were awake.
According to child experts, it’s a normal part of psychosexual development for children to examine one another’s genitals. However, children usually grow out of that stage by age 6. It becomes a problem when a child continues to “inspect, grope and molest” his siblings as a teenager.
Parents Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar waited more than a year after their son’s confession to contact police. Instead, they took the matter to their church elders. Instead of contacting law enforcement, they decided to send Duggar to “a program [that] consisted of hard physical work and counseling,” for two months. The Duggars said it was a “Christian” program.
Michelle Duggar later admitted that their son did not receive counseling. The “Christian” program turned out to be a family friend who was apparently in the construction business, and needed some help remodeling a building. However, the Duggars claimed that their son had “apologized” to the female minors, who had “forgiven” him. They also took him to an Arkansas state trooper, who gave him “a stern talk” but took no further action.
When police launched an investigation in 2006, the Duggars refused to make their son available to be interviewed. Instead, the family lawyered up.
The whole affair would be little more than an unfortunate family drama, except that the Duggars have built their fame and their “brand” on being a living example of the kind of “family values” conservatives love to tout. They’ve lent the weight of their celebrity to a number of right-wing causes and candidates.
Great to be with @RickSantorum & @BenSeewald in #Houston today -- standing for #ReligiousFreedom! @FRCAction #TX pic.twitter.com/r5BIwOOrJM
— Josh Duggar (@joshduggar) March 11, 2015
Good to catch up with @govjebbush this morning in DC. pic.twitter.com/r7cqjb7aTx
— Josh Duggar (@joshduggar) January 21, 2015
Great to visit w/ my friend @GovMikeHuckabee this morning in DC. Thankful to have his voice on the #2016 stage! pic.twitter.com/qN2FiyadVf
— Josh Duggar (@joshduggar) May 16, 2015
Happy Birthday to my friend @RickSantorum -- I appreciate your courage standing for truth! pic.twitter.com/P4cGVt6T4F
— Josh Duggar (@joshduggar) May 10, 2015
Great to see Gov. Rick Perry tonight! #TX
A photo posted by Josh Duggar (@joshduggar) on
Honored to meet Louisiana Governor @bobbyjindal tonight in New Orleans #LA
A photo posted by Josh Duggar (@joshduggar) on
- In 2012, Josh Duggar came out in support or Chick Fil-A’s anti-marriage equality stance, tweeting, “I treat everyone with honor, dignity, & respect regardless of belief, race, creed, sexual orientation or gender & I stand with #ChickFilA!”
- In November, Josh Duggar led a rally against marriage equality in Arkansas.
- Last December, Josh Duggar defended “Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson, after he was criticized for homophobic ranting. "The real issue is religious intolerance and it shouldn’t be tolerated,“ said Duggar, ”He has a right to free speech and that includes his opinions on religion, life, marriage … and ducks."
- Last year, the Duggar family threw their support behind efforts to repeal a recently passed nondiscrimination ordinance in Fayetteville, Ark., that would have prohibited discrimination in housing, employment, and public accommodations on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The ordinance was repealed, by a vote of 52 percent to 48 percent.
The hypocrisy gets even worse. The Duggars have in the past claimed that LGBT people were a threat to children. Michelle Duggar recorded robocalls claiming the Fayetteville nondiscrimination ordinance would cause “males with past child predator convictions that claim they are female to have a legal right to enter private areas that are reserved for women and girls.”
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In an interview with FRC Radio, Josh Duggar claimed that the Fayetteville ordinance jeopardized the safety of children.
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That LGBT people are a threat to children is perhaps the biggest anti-gay myth of all, and the most thoroughly debunked. The American Psychological Association says that gay men are “not more likely to sexually abuse children than heterosexual men are.” Gregory Herek, a professor at the University of California, Davis, reviewed a series of studies, and found no evidence that gay men are more likely to molest children than heterosexual men are.
The Duggar family’s story proves once again that children are mostly likely to be abused by people close to them, like neighbors, babysitters, family friends, and family members. When confronted with abuse in their own family, the Duggars protected the abuser and shielded him from justice.
Duggar resigned from his position with FRC, and apologized for his “inexcusable” behavior. His behavior wasn’t just “inexcusable.” It was criminal, and he essentially got away with little more than a couple of months “hard labor.” In his resignation, Duggar asked for prayers for himself, but not his victims. That pretty much says it all. Doesn’t it?
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Here’s the best of the rest of the worst in wingnuttery this week:
- Mama June, formerly of TLC’s cancelled “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo,” is ready to sue the network if the Duggar’s show remains on the air following allegations that the family covered up their eldest son’s molestation of young girls. June’s show was cancelled after June resumed dating a man who sexually abused her daughter multiple times, when the girl was 8 years old.
- He loves to blame all manner of problems on “absent fathers,” but divorce documents reveal Fox Host Bill O’Reilly as both an absent father and an abuser. Trial transcripts reveal O’Reilly’s daughter telling the court her father was “never” around, and when he was he would go “ballistic,” and behave in a “scary and demeaning” because of his violent temper. Of course, Fox News completely ignored the abuse allegations against O’Reilly.
- Radio host Bryan Fischer told his listeners, “I believe we are going to have violence as a result,” if the Supreme Court legalizes same-sex marriage nationwide.
- Evangelist Franklin Graham is issuing prayers on Facebook to try and change Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s mind on marriage equality.
- Fox News claimed President Obama was “disarming” the nation’s police officers, after the president issued executive orders banning the federal government from providing some military equipment to police departments.
- Glenn Beck warned that “the cops are being set up,” for a federal takeover.
- Appearing on “The Alex Jones Show,” Fox News host Tucker Carlson suggested that the Obama administration is engaging in “Nazi stuff,” by using ethnic politics, and wants to confiscate firearms and put people “in jail for even having them.”
- Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) destroyed Milwaukee County sheriff David Clarke at a House Judiciary Committee hearing about the tensions between police officers and African Americans, when Clarke claimed that “black-on-black crime” as the “elephant in the room.”
- Fox guest Ben Stein told host Neil Cavuto that free college would be a waste, because there are a lot of poor people “who are slobs, drunks, drug addicts.”
- Glenn Beck advised his listeners to “prepare for all-out war,” when the fight against ISIS develops into World War III. “War unlike we’ve ever seen in our lifetime because that’s what I believe is coming,” Beck said.
- Beck also warned that if Hillary Clinton becomes president, “That means the people are dead. That means we have voted for destruction.”
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