19 Kids and Counting Ran for seven years on the TLC network. The show centered on the daily routines and challenges of the religiose Duggars, Jim Bob and Michelle—and their 19 children.
In 2015, when he was 27 years old, Josh Duggar publicly apologized for molesting five girls, four of whom were his sisters when he was a teenager. The fifth girl was possibly a babysitter for the younger Duggar children.
In May 2022, Josh Duggar was found guilty on all charges and sentenced to 12 and a half years in prison followed by 20 years of supervised release and will have to register as a sex offender.
What happened to Josh Duggar’s victims is absolutely tragic. Though, after looking at his actions and crimes in the context of his upbringing, it’s clear that he didn’t just spring up in a vacuum.
The Duggars don’t advocate child molestation, but as followers of Bill Gothard, they do subscribe to a number of beliefs that enable it.
Bill Gothard, the founder of both ATI and the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) was born on November 2, 1934. Gothard developed the Basic Youth Conflicts course into the Institute of Basic Youth Conflicts, and then later renamed it the Institute in Basic Life Principles. After trying unsuccessfully to develop a boarding school, in 1984 Gothard created a Christian homeschooling program called the Advanced Training Institute or ATI.
Bill Gothard himself was eventually removed from his leadership role at IBLP in 2014 after multiple women came forward with accusations that he had sexually harassed and/or sexually assaulted them. Later, in 2016, a group of 34 women (including all the women from the earlier group) filed a lawsuit alleging the same things and, additionally, that IBLP later tried to cover it up.
Music:
Airglow – Innermission (CC-BY-NC-SA)
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0
Lucifer’s Child – Fall of the Rebel Angels
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