Scandals involving the Duggar family just keep piling up. Earlier this year, In Touch Magazine reported that Josh Duggar was named as an "alleged offender" in a child sexual abuse probe, and that his parents waited more than a year to contact law enforcement. Josh Duggar later resigned from his position as executive director of Family Research Council Action. Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee defended the family, but their reputation was already in tatters. TLC eventually canceled the Duggar's reality show, 19 Kids and Counting, and announced plans to air a documentary on child sexual abuse in the wake of the scandal. Now, Josh Duggar is at the center of another sex scandal.
On August 19th, Gawker reported that Josh Duggar had a paid account with Ashley Madison, a dating website devoted to extramarital affairs. According to Gawker, hackers accessed client data from Ashley Madison's servers and released the data online. The hack revealed that someone used the website with a credit card in Josh Duggar's name and a billing addressed that matched his grandmother's home in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The subscription was maintained from February 2013 to May 2015.
Shortly after the Ashley Madison revelation came to light, Josh Duggar released a statement through his parents' website. In the statement, Josh Duggar confessed to a secret pornography "addiction" that supposedly played a role in how he "became unfaithful" to his wife. Not long thereafter, the original statement disappeared and was replaced by a shorter, scrubbed version that made no mention of pornography. Fortunately, Spiritual Sounding Board posted screen captures of the original statement, which reads as follows:
Statement from Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar:Now, the family's website features a shorter statement, which reads as follows:
Please see the statement below from our son Josh regarding recent media stories about him. When we learned of this late last night our hearts were broken. As we continue to place our trust in God we ask for your prayers for Josh, Anna, our grandchildren and our entire family.
Statement from Josh Duggar:
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.
I am so ashamed of the double life that I have been living and am grieved for the hurt, pain and disgrace my sin has caused my wife and family, and most of all Jesus and all those who profess faith in Him.
I brought hurt and a reproach to my family, close friends, and the fans of our show with my actions that happened when I was 14-15 years old, and now I have rebroken that trust.
The last few years, while publicly stating I was fighting against immorality in our country, in my heart I had allowed Satan to build a fortress that no one knew about.
As I am learning the hard way, we have the freedom to choose to our actions, but we do not get to choose our consequences. I deeply regret all hurt I have caused so many by being such a bad example.
I humbly ask for your forgiveness. Please pray for my precious wife Anna and our family during this time."
Statement from Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar:Why was the statement scrubbed? Why were references to pornography, Satan, and the molestation scandal removed? Did the Duggars realize that their fundamentalist Christian lingo would fail to resonate with the public? Did a lawyer insist that they to remove some of the content? I'm baffled.
Please see the statement below from our son Josh regarding recent media stories about him. When we learned of this late last night our hearts were broken. As we continue to place our trust in God we ask for your prayers for Josh, Anna, our grandchildren and our entire family.
Statement from Josh Duggar:
I have been the biggest hypocrite ever. While espousing faith and family values, I have been unfaithful to my wife.
I am so ashamed of the double life that I have been living and am grieved for the hurt, pain and disgrace my sin has caused my wife and family, and most of all Jesus and all those who profess faith in Him.
I have brought hurt and a reproach to my family, close friends and the fans of our show with my actions.
The last few years, while publicly stating I was fighting against immorality in our country I was hiding my own personal failures.
As I am learning the hard way, we have the freedom to choose our actions, but we do not get to choose our consequences. I deeply regret all the hurt I have caused so many by being such a bad example.
I humbly ask for your forgiveness. Please pray for my precious wife Anna and our family during this time.
The original statement is revealing in many ways. First, some of Josh Duggar's original language deflects responsibility away from him. His claims that Satan built a fortress in his heart and that he "became unfaithful" to his wife distract viewers from the fact that he made the choice to sign up for an Ashley Madison account.
Second, the reference to pornography addiction offers us insight to how some fundamentalist Christians understand infidelity. In some fundamentalist circles, pornography consumption is lumped together with other sexual sins under the category of "lust". When one realizes that some fundamentalists see porn consumption and adultery as morally equivalent sexual sins, or blame infidelity on lust inflamed by porn, the passage begins to make sense. This does not mean that the two acts are actually morally equivalent, nor does it absolve Josh Duggar of responsibility for his actions.
In both statements, Josh Duggar at least acknowledges the hypocrisy of his family values crusade with FRC Action. The hypocrisy of a man who condemned LGBTQ people for their alleged sexual immorality while cheating on his wife cannot be overstated. As with so many other Religious Right figures whose sexual sins came to light, Josh Duggar lectured others about the sanctity of heterosexual marriage while failing to hold himself to the same standards.
In the middle of this humiliating scandal is Anna, Josh's wife. An anonymous source told People Magazine that Josh's wife, Anna, has no plans to divorce her husband. Given how the Duggar's Quiverfull/Christian Patriarchy subculture loathes divorce and places great emphasis on a wife's submission to her husband, this rumor is not surprising. Moreover, without money of her own, job experience, or loved ones outside of the Christian Patriarchy subculture, divorce would be daunting for Anna. We can only hope that Anna's loved ones are showing her love and support, rather than scapegoating her for the adultery, as some fundamentalists are wont to do.
The sex scandals involving Josh Duggar, Bill Gothard, and Doug Phillips serve as ugly reminders that the Quiverfull/Christian Patriarchy subculture cannot deliver on its promises. A movement that promises its adherents sexual purity, virtuous families, and stable marriages has been marred by scandals involving infidelity, abusive behavior, and horrid family secrets. A movement that promises godly husbands to women in exchange for submission has given them entitled, predatory men instead. What other scandals will emerge from this toxic subculture?
To read additional commentary, visit the following links.
Love, Joy, Feminism: Josh Duggar Spent Nearly $1000 to Cheat on His Wife
The Daily Beast: Is Josh Duggar the Biggest Family-Values Hypocrite Ever? Not Even Close
No Longer Quivering: Here Are 5 Misogynistic, Christian ‘Family Values’ Taught to Hypocrite Josh Duggar
No Longer Quivering: Will Anna Duggar Be Offered As The Next Live Sacrifice To Save The Duggar Family? Scapegoating, Spread Your Legs Theology And The Modern Molech
Curiouser and curiouser...
ReplyDeleteYou'd think they would've run the apology by whoever has enough influence to scrub it before posting it. Such strange people, those Duggars.
Michelle -- You'd think. By scrubbing the statement after posting it, they just look duplicitous. Plenty of news websites and bloggers reported on the porn passage by the time the Duggars scrubbed the statement, so it didn't do them any good anyway.
DeleteThis certainly has been an interesting situation. First when the Ashley Madison account broke I was suspect that it was him, what with identity theft etc. As such, I am glad he came out and admitted it was in fact him and admitted his hypocrisy.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, honestly, I do not care what his kinks are (from the clip, not your analysis) as that is his personal thing, I mean if his preferences were homosexual acts that would show more hypocrisy and would be relevant, otherwise I do not care.
Christian -- While I feel sorry for Josh's wife and children, I'm pleased that this has dealt another blow to the Religious Right.
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