UPDATE::BREAKING: Lawsuit against Bill Gothard and The Institute in Basic Life Principles Dismissed | Spiritual Sounding Board

Heart-breaking but it appears that the SOLs may have a part to play in this voluntary dismissal,,, more to come!

BREAKING: Lawsuit against Bill Gothard and The Institute in Basic Life Principles Dismissed | Spiritual Sounding Board

The Cult Next Door | Chicago magazine | July 2016

The building, red bricked, colonnaded, crowned with a white cupola, sits on a grassy knoll in northwest Hinsdale. Unmarked, unremarkable, it barely registers as anything more than a garden-variety administrative headquarters of unknown provenance.

That isn’t to say that the decades-old property, situated on 223 acres in this Shangri-la of a western suburb of multimillion-dollar estates and country club splendor, has escaped notice over the years. The sight of teenage girls walking arm in arm in a nearby park, identically dressed in chaste ankle-length skirts, red scarves knotted around their necks, and modest Mary Janes, and of teen boys seemingly stamped out on a Wonder Bread assembly line—always in dark suits, white shirts, and ties—drew the occasional stare.

“Everyone kind of thought it was very strange. Like, what do they really do there?” says one longtime Hinsdale resident. “They always seemed very secretive.”

Then, in 2014, came a scandal,,,

The Cult Next Door | Chicago magazine | July 2016

UPDATED::New charges allege Illinois-based religious leader, with ties to the Duggars, sexually abused women - Chicago Tribune

UPDATE::  More Plaintiffs Join Sexual Abuse Case Against Evangelical Ministry 

Five women sued IBLP last October, and in January, additional women joined the suit. Gothard was added as a defendant at that time.

The second amended complaint, filed in February, includes the claims of nine additional plaintiffs. One of the new plaintiffs, Joy Simmons, spoke at length to the Investigative Fund and TPM about her childhood growing up with the homeschooling methods of IBLP's Advanced Training Institute, and the years she spent working at IBLP facilities for little or no pay.

At age 24, she was sexually assaulted near her home by a man from another ATI family, and sent to IBLP as punishment. "I was isolated with no one to help me leave. I was brainwashed into believing God would hurt me if I didn't do everything I was told to do," she said.

Shawn Collins, the attorney for IBLP, declined to comment on the complaint apart from pointing to IBLP's and Gothard's motion to disqualify the plaintiffs' attorney, David Gibbs III. They claim that Gibbs acted as Gothard's attorney for a time before the litigation was filed.

Gibbs disputes this account, calling the motion "utter nonsense," because "Gothard, in my opinion, is attempting to distract from the real issue. People who are sexual predators are good at this." 
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Gaffney also threatened to sue the people involved with the website Recovering Grace who, he said, "have posted false and defamatory statements within that website." Recovering Grace is a whistleblower site launched in 2011 to document the stories of former IBLP employees, interns, and volunteers, who say they were subjected to sexual harassment and other abuse.

UPDATE::  More women sue home-schooling guru for sexual harassment

The sexual harassment lawsuit against Bill Gothard, whose ministry preached the subordination of women to men, has grown again.

Now 18 people — 16 women and two men — are suing the 81-year-old founder of the Institute in Basic Life Principles, and the Oak Brook, Ill.-based institute itself, a once influential Christian ministry associated with the Duggar family from TLC’s “19 Kids and Counting.” Thousands of conservative Christian families have relied on the IBLP’s home schooling curriculum.

“It’s very similar to the Bill Cosby situation,” said the plaintiffs’ lawyer, David Gibbs, referring to the sexual assault lawsuit against the comedian. “More and more victims keep coming forward telling the same story.”

The story told in the pleading filed Wednesday (Feb. 17) paints Gothard and other IBLP leaders as manipulative spiritual authorities, groping girls as young as 13 and persuading them to keep the abuse from their parents. The suit also alleges that Gothard raped one young woman. One of the men suing alleges harsh physical punishment and emotional abuse from IBLP leaders. The other alleges that he was molested by a male IBLP counselor, who is not Gothard.
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Gaffney said Gothard is considering a countersuit against the plaintiffs and the Recovering Grace website, on which many of them have accused their former spiritual guide. Gaffney said his client has been “left with little choice” because he “has been defamed, and the manner in which this has been done and how it all came about was a violation under Illinois law resulting in a claim for intentional affliction of emotional distress.”

_
Ten women on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against Bill Gothard, who for decades was a major force in the conservative Christian homeschooling movement, charging him and leaders in his ministry with sexual abuse, harassment and cover-up.

Gothard, who urged Christians to shun things like short skirts and rock music, is accused of raping a woman. The same woman says she was raped by one of the ministry's "biblical counselors."

The lawsuit is part of a battle between dozens of women and the Oak Brook-based Institute in Basic Life Principles, which was until recently an influential homeschooling ministry, and its charismatic leader Gothard, who urged Christians to focus on their "biblical character" and have large families. Gothard has never been married.

Gothard, 81, resigned from the ministry in 2014 after more than 30 women had alleged that he had molested and sexually harassed women he worked with, including some who were minors.

New charges allege Illinois-based religious leader, with ties to the Duggars, sexually abused women - Chicago Tribune

ADDENDUM::Two women detail sex abuse allegations against Bill Gothard - NY Daily News

Two women who are accusing an influential Christian preacher with ties to the Duggar family of sexual assault spoke out for the first time Thursday about their hellish years of forced labor and abuse in the cult-like organization.

Joy Simmons and Jennifer Spurlock are two of the many men and women who have made the horrifying accusations against Bill Gothard, who ran Institute in Basic Life Principles, saying they were deprived of an education, forced to work and were groped by the Christian leader.

“To have your education ripped from you and to have your childhood ripped from you, it’s extremely difficult. It’s just evil,” Spurlock, who spent three years as a minor at one of Gothard’s training centers, told the Daily News.


Gothard retired in 2014 as president from the IBLP after running the organization for 40 years when the sexual assault allegations first came to light.
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The women’s shocking allegations describe a disturbing culture within the organization in which Gothard would take troubled young men and women under his wing at the IBLP and then target them as victims of sexual abuse, rape and free labor for the bizarre organization.

IBLP board members are also listed as defendants in the lawsuit because of their role in covering the abuse, the more than 200-page complaint reads.

Two women detail sex abuse allegations against Bill Gothard - NY Daily News

January 16, 2016::End of the day round-up

Reflections on the Bill Gothard Phenomenom and Scandal…

Why do I compare Gothard and Piper and their movements? The comparison has nothing to do with scandals; it has only to do with the kind of single-minded, overly simplistic, absolutist dedication of core followers. Both were perceived by many developmentally immature evangelical Christians as “the recovery” of true, authentic Christianity that, if adopted by all Christians, would solve all the major problems facing and infiltrating Christian churches from secular culture. The single enemy of both, whether followers know it or not, is the rise of anomie out of the secular and pluralistic cultural revolution of the 1960s. Both offer “the cure” for all that ails church and society. Both have strongly ideological and demogogic features. Both have the tendency to idolize power. Leaders of both failed to recognize the predictable abuses of their teachings by their absolutizing followers.

The core problem with both movements is threefold. First, they tend to take one rather idiocyncratic idea and blow it up into the interpretive key to the whole Bible and Christianity in general; Second, they tend to totalize an ideology developed out of that idea/key as something that cannot be subjected to critical scrutiny without revealing the critic’s spiritual weakness if not outright rebellion against God. A problem with both is that they did and do not regard their signature teachings as proposals for consideration but rather regard them as having the status of divine revelation itself. (How many times have I heard YRRM people call high Calvinism “a transcript of the gospel itself?”) Finally, both tend to elevate a single individual teacher as above question or criticism and both of those teachers are noted for rarely, if ever, saying “But I could be wrong.”

Another judge criticizes Jehovah’s Witnesses’ court tactics

Jenkins didn’t elaborate on the collaboration, but her remarks were not the first time a judge has taken issue with the Watchtower’s tactics in court. In two cases in California, judges issued default judgments to plaintiffs because the Watchtower refused to produce documents and witnesses.
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A Reveal investigation last February found that since 1989, the Watchtower had directed Jehovah’s Witnesses elders to hide child sexual abuse from secular authorities. The Watchtower’s pattern of secrecy subsequently was highlighted during an inquiry by an Australian government commission, which found that the Witnesses had failed to report more than 1,000 suspected child sexual abusers in that country.

New Virginia bill would let clerks deny marriage licenses to gay couples

Republican Sen. Charles Carrico of Galax, whose southwestern district borders Kentucky, said many of his constituents were concerned about what happened to Kim Davis, the Rowan County clerk, and asked him to help Virginia officials who are put in the same position.

“I’m just trying to clarify what the options are if they have a right-of-conscience issue,” said Carrico, who said he opposes gay marriage.

Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe has already vowed to veto the bill if it passes the GOP-controlled General Assembly.
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Carrico’s bill specifies that clerks and deputy clerks wouldn’t have to issue licenses if they object on “personal, ethical, moral or religious grounds.” It would establish a process to ensure that people whose licenses are denied would be able to get one from the Department of Motor Vehicles, Carrico said.
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The Virginia Court Clerks’ Association hasn’t taken a position on whether clerks should be able to refuse licenses, but doesn’t believe the DMV should have the power to hand out licenses, said Chaz Evans-Haywood, Rockingham County Clerk and the group’s president. If the bill moves forward, the group will push to ensure it specifies that if one clerk declines, another clerk in the county or a deputy clerk would have to issue the license, he said.

“We want to make sure that everyone who comes to the door is taken care of equally,” he said.

Seven days from the "5th Annual International Day of Protest Against Hereditary Religion" which is taking place on January 23, 2016. Here is part 2 of 4 from 2014 to tickle your appetite.

One Of The Largest Coal Companies In The United States Just Filed For Bankruptcy

“U.S. coal consumption is declining dramatically as coal-fired power plants are shutting down. Coal is being displaced by renewables and natural gas, and the Asian markets that all coal companies were looking to as their saviors are moving in the opposite direction,” Ross Macfarlane, senior advisor with Climate Solutions, told ThinkProgress. “[Arch’s bankruptcy filing] wasn’t unexpected, but it’s still very significant in that it shows that the second-largest coal company in the United States is unable to pay its debts and provide any return at all to its shareholders.”

As a company, Arch has seen a fairly rapid decline in the value of its shares following a flurry of domestic acquisitions in 2011. Those acquisitions, which totaled in the millions, were based on the presumption that the coal industry would see rapid overseas growth in the coming years. That overseas growth never materialized, with coal consumption several key nations like China peaking, or appearing to peak, in the past few years. In early 2011, stock in Arch Coal peaked at $260 a share — on Monday, shares in Arch Coal were worth less than a dollar. During that time, Arch Coal executives doubled their pay, despite falling share prices.
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“After carefully evaluating our options, we determined that implementing these agreements through a court-supervised process represents the best way to solidify our financial position and strengthen our balance sheet,” Arch’s chairman and CEO John W. Eaves said in the press statement announcing the Chapter 11 filing. “We are confident that this comprehensive financial restructuring will further enhance Arch’s position as a large-scale, low-cost operator.”

WATCH: Stephen Colbert’s fascinating interview with pyramid-discovering ‘space archaeologist’ Sarah Parcak

Parcak, an associate professor of Anthropology and director of the Laboratory for Global Observation at the University of Alabama, recently was awarded the 2016 $1 million TED Prize for her talk on how she uses satellite imagery to discover below-surface ruins.

Inside The Duggars' Deep Ties With A Once-Powerful, Now-Scorned Ministry

Although the Duggar Debacle is now "old" news, there is still much to be gleaned from the fall-out surrounding it. This is a good article that lays out all the issues with the Duggars' main influence, Bill Gothard and his ATI.

But a mystery remained at the heart of the tabloid drama. The Duggars’ explanations for how they handled their son’s confessions elided some crucial details, and Josh Duggar’s did as well. In a statement issued to People magazine just hours after the In Touch report was published, he said, “We spoke with the authorities where I confessed my wrongdoing, and my parents arranged for me and those affected by my actions to receive counseling.”

What Josh Duggar didn’t say—and what his parents and two of his sisters didn’t say in interviews with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly a few weeks later—was what, precisely, that counseling entailed. Although none of the Duggars has ever publicly identified it as such, the facility where Josh was sent in Little Rock is owned and operated by the Institute in Basic Life Principles, an insular and authoritarian evangelical homeschooling ministry whose charismatic founder, former followers say, sexually harassed female employees, blamed rape victims for provoking their attackers, and subjected young disciples to grueling physical labor for little or no pay.
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By keeping Josh’s confession—and punishment—in a small, closed circle, the Duggars were acting in accordance with the teachings of IBLP’s founder, Bill Gothard, and the Advanced Training Institute, IBLP’s exclusive homeschooling program that provides curricula to parents, holds conferences, and offers missionary and work opportunities. The Duggars have belonged to ATI since 1992, when Josh was four, according to their own accounts on 19 Kids and Counting.

That hugely successful reality television series, which aired from 2008 until May 2015, depicts ATI conferences as wholesome family fun, with Jim Bob describing it as “an old style family camp” and “one of the best things we’ve done for our family.”

But that portrayal obscures a dark reality, about family sexual abuse and more, according to more than a dozen former ATI members who spoke to TPM and The Investigative Fund.
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Michelle Duggar has used the ATI curriculum—consisting of a series of “Wisdom Booklets”—to homeschool all of her children. Several members of the Duggar family, including Jim Bob and Michelle, Josh, and the four oldest sisters, Jana, Jill, Jessa, and Jinger, are frequent featured speakers at IBLP conferences. Most recently, Michelle, Jana, and Jinger spoke at an August 2015 conference called Commit, aimed at girls aged 12 to 17 and their mothers.

Gothard’s philosophy on sexual assault is detailed explicitly in his publications, including in the Wisdom Booklets. When a woman is attacked, one booklet reads, “She is to cry out for help. The victim who fails to do this is equally guilty with the attacker.” A document Gothard sent to ATI families, “Lessons from Moral Failures in a Family,” purports to be a teenage boy’s meditation on his sexual assault of his sisters, which he blames in part on his mother, for allowing his sisters to run naked after a bath and for asking him to change his sisters’ diapers, something that would not have occurred if the family “had only applied Levitical law.”

Inside The Duggars' Deep Ties With A Once-Powerful, Now-Scorned Ministry

Something that has been bugging me since the Duggar Debacle broke,

According to the 2006 Springdale, Arkansas police report, the Duggars had traveled to Chicago for an interview with The Oprah Winfrey Show in December 2006. Before the interview took place, the program had received an email from an unidentified person, accusing Josh of abusing his sisters and charging that “the parents have been hiding this secret for a long time.” The Oprah Winfrey Show interview was canceled—a major PR hit for TLC—and Harpo Studios, the show’s production company, faxed a copy of the email to Springdale human resources officials, prompting the police investigation. The Oprah Winfrey Network did not respond to interview requests or written questions. (In 2008, Discovery announced a joint venture with Oprah Winfrey to create the Oprah Winfrey Network, now part of the Discovery lineup of networks.)

A MUST READ::Inside The Duggars' Deep Ties With A Once-Powerful, Now-Scorned Ministry

By keeping Josh’s confession—and punishment—in a small, closed circle, the Duggars were acting in accordance with the teachings of IBLP’s founder, Bill Gothard, and the Advanced Training Institute, IBLP’s exclusive homeschooling program that provides curricula to parents, holds conferences, and offers missionary and work opportunities. The Duggars have belonged to ATI since 1992, when Josh was four, according to their own accounts on 19 Kids and Counting.

That hugely successful reality television series, which aired from 2008 until May 2015, depicts ATI conferences as wholesome family fun, with Jim Bob describing it as “an old style family camp” and “one of the best things we’ve done for our family.”

But that portrayal obscures a dark reality, about family sexual abuse and more, according to more than a dozen former ATI members who spoke to TPM and The Investigative Fund.
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A girl or woman who didn’t dress modestly and “cry out to God” is, in Gothard’s view, just as guilty of rape as the assailant—and any sexual assault within families should be kept within the family and ATI if at all possible. Another former follower, Mark*, who worked at IBLP in the 1990s, said he was not surprised by the revelation of sexual abuse within an ATI family, because he had been made aware of many similar instances during his time there.
About the Duggars, he added: “The only surprising thing was that they knew about this and still decided to do a TV show.”
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Gothard’s philosophy on sexual assault is detailed explicitly in his publications, including in the Wisdom Booklets. When a woman is attacked, one booklet reads, “She is to cry out for help. The victim who fails to do this is equally guilty with the attacker.” A document Gothard sent to ATI families, “Lessons from Moral Failures in a Family,” purports to be a teenage boy’s meditation on his sexual assault of his sisters, which he blames in part on his mother, for allowing his sisters to run naked after a bath and for asking him to change his sisters’ diapers, something that would not have occurred if the family “had only applied Levitical law.”

Wisdom Booklet No. 24 contains a section on why “God’s laws on nakedness begin with modesty in the home,” and that “God’s people are commanded not to ‘uncover the nakedness’ of those near of kin.” The Wisdom Booklet also says that “nakedness arouses insatiable lusts,” lusts that are “neither quenchable nor controllable."

Inside The Duggars' Deep Ties With A Once-Powerful, Now-Scorned Ministry

The Anatomy of an Unaccredited Christian School | The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser

An interesting bit of detective work that shows the dangers of the fundamentalist Christian school movement and the intentional indoctrination and dumbing down of children.

There are tens of thousands of churches like Lewis Ave Baptist Church and thousands of these churches have schools that are just like State Line Christian School. Thousands of American children are being educated in unaccredited schools, taught by non-certified teachers. These schools use fundamentalist Christian textbooks that teach evolution is a myth and promote American exceptionalism and Christian nationalism. Some of these schools don’t even use textbooks, using instead a self-guided curriculum published by Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) or Bill Gothard’s Advanced Training Institute (ATI).

Secularists and humanists think educating children is vitally important. Having an educated populace is for our common good, and it is to everyone’s benefit to make sure every child is adequately, properly, and comprehensively educated. We expect the government to regulate schools in such a way that they provide a quality education for every child.

Fundamentalist Christian churches and schools have lobbied legislators and have used lawsuits to demand exemption from state laws that regulate what they can and can not do. In many states, they have been quite successful and this is why there are schools like State Line Christian School. Here in Ohio, any church can start a non-charted, unaccredited religious school. There are no regulations for such schools, and for families who choose to home school, the regulations are few. In others words, many states and local jurisdictions have abdicated their responsibility to regulate and investigate many of the schools that educate their children. (see How to Start a Non-Chartered Christian School in Ohio)

Even worse, right-wing politicians are working hard to pass voucher laws that enable private Christian schools to receive state funding with little or no oversight.  Thousands of American children have their private, religious education paid for by taxpayers. These voucher programs have caused a huge census and financial drain for many public school systems.

 The Anatomy of an Unaccredited Christian School | The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser

News: Why The Duggars Needed A Payment Processor

So the clown car, vagina family is still in the news:

So it turns out that not only do the Duggars have a new money making scheme since their show on TLC was cancelled but they also need someone to do the online payment processing of credit cards. Hence Duggar Processing LLC and Fivestone Group LLC. Turns out that the Duggars are starting to ask for money from anyone watching their videos on YouTube, at least all the Duggar Studios videos which seem to be an endless procession of kids going to the dentist Josiah Duggar stoned out of his gourd on pain meds while Jim Bob drives him home from having his wisdom teeth removed, lip synching to music or doing other every day things. They have also done a promotion of Bill Gothard’s Alert Academy. Josh and Anna Duggar have their own channel. At least Josh and Anna aren’t trying to shake anyone down for money, yet. But at the Duggar Studios page,,,

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Here’s what I’m predicting based upon the news of the payment processor registrations by Jim Bob and Josh Duggar combined with the money request on their YouTube channel. Before too long there will be a paid access online portal, not necessarily YouTube, where you can see new videos on the Duggars on a weekly or daily basis. It’s a good way to keep the reality television dollars rolling in so that Jim Bob Duggar doesn’t have to abase himself like the rest of us and get a regular job. All this merely confirms my notion that Jim Bob Duggar in particular is mostly a grifter wrapped in Jesus-speak.

And to think, I used to think this family was quaint,,,sigh!!

News: Why The Duggars Needed A Payment Processor

Evolving Thoughts on the Duggar Debacle

This is a "work-in-progress" type of post; an experiment, so to speak. As "new" information or pertinent opinions become available I will be editing and updating as I want to explore how my personal views may morph.  Since I laid the foundation of this post, hundreds of articles, personal opinions and the like have flooded the inter-web.  I have barely made a dent in reading them all.  Consider this a sort of highlight reel.

A few weeks ago my co-host and I had the pleasure of "interviewing" Vyckie Garrison of No Longer Quivering.  In some sense the explosion surrounding the Duggar debacle IMO is vindication for all her work and having her as a guest now seems fortuitous. For me, there is a bit of justification for my obsession with the topic of the Quiverfull movement and its surrounding issues (some of which our first guest, Renée Davis-Pelt, addressed).

Although I was well aware of an issue issues involving Josh for many years (yes I use to watch the show or should I say, studied the show), I had pegged it as more of him being on my gaydar.  I still believe that underlying all this is that very issue but that is just my opinion.  And a whole nother ball of wax in light of the recent allegations and confirmation of said, my initial thoughts have changed, "Daddy Duggar may have actually turned his eldest son in for acting normally for his age."

But it is now obvious, that this is not "stealing a first kiss" (before it was confirmed some of his sisters where victims) or a "case of playing doctor".  I still stand by my belief that due to the religious abuse and indoctrination, "none of those kids will know right from wrong when they've spent their lives being told every natural urge is wrong;" although there is some wavering as I am digesting more information as it becomes available.

For example, Vyckie in her most recent article makes this point (and do check out her sources, the demon one is mind blowing).

#3 - The Duggars frame dysfunction, abuse, and psychopathology in terms of sin, repentance, forgiveness, and grace … oh, and DEMONS.

I’ve written before about the way popular Christian teachings about love and relationships actually provide chapter and verse justification for “dysfunctional game playing and crazy-making head trips.”

Like the majority of fundamentalist Christians, JimBob and Michelle harbor a grave mistrust of pretty much every respected, evidence-based approach to behavioral issues: secular psychology is “spiritually dangerous,” modern medicine, therapy, and pharmaceuticals are equated with “witchcraft,” and abusive, criminal behavior is often attributed to “a heart issue,” or even demonic influence or possession.

The sad fact is, the Duggar family called Josh’s sexual abuse of minor girls a “teenage mistake” and they naively believe that because the boy repented, humbled himself before God, and asked forgiveness, God’s “grace, mercy, and redemption” have changed Josh into a new man who can be trusted not to molest minor children.

Obviously that is NOT the case if he can make jokes about dating his sisters (see below).

In discussing this debacle, my mind harkened back to a posting I made two years ago.  It was a response to a Steven Hassan video in which he refers to techniques used within a cult setting - "thought stopping" and the implanting of phobias (making people believe something is dangerous when it is not).

Starting at the 6:25 mark, listen to how Hassan explains it, paying particular attention at about the 7:21 mark we he talks of how his family in some cases drove him deeper because of his programing, "I was already programmed to expect persecution."

At the 8:05 mark is where he speaks of thought stopping which is like a mantra they are taught when faced with conflicting evidence regarding their brand of dogma



Now compare that to what we know about the Patriarchy and Quiverfull movements specifically the Duggars.  One only has to look at the Reich's response to understand what I am implying.  Anna Duggar's initial response is very telling:

"He continued to do what he was taught. [I know] who Josh really is – someone who had gone down a wrong path and had humbled himself before God and those whom he had offended," she says. "Someone who had received the help needed to change the direction of his life and do what is right." 

In other words he experienced even more "forced" indoctrination.


Cognitive dissonance much?  How could she not get creeped out by this?




One point over-looked in regards to Anna's initial statement and should be a cause for concern, how truthful was Josh in his disclosure.  Let's say the reports concerning the Hutchen's are correct, "that Jim Bob told him about only one incident of molestation and that, in part, is why he decided not to report Josh to the abuse hotline."  Wouldn't it be safe to assume that Josh, taking his cue from daddio, did the same during his courtship of Anna; that he vaguely told her he made a mistake(s) without getting into what he actually did?  Does that make her collateral damage, or a willing a accomplice?

Anna is now married into this cash cow machine.  She is expected to toe-the-line for the good of "the family" and stand behind her husband. She's also pregnant with 3 small children, no job skills and married to a man steeped in patriarchal values.  A man who has been publicly humiliated is now unemployed and  (one can only hope) unemployable.  All of which puts her at risk.

One can only hope that she and her family are taking a serious look at all that has transpired.  The disconcerting aspect of all this is we may never honestly hear what the "girls" have to say.

As a foreshadowing of what is to come, think Michael and Debbie Pearl, To Train Up a Child and blanket training.  How does cultish tactic not fuck with a child's mind?

Currently TLC is mulling over what to do, 19Kids has not, as of yet, been cancelled; just pulled of the air for now.  According to reports, TLC is considering just removing Josh and continuing with their cash cow.  I believe the whole show needs to go.

Speaking of TLC, are these to incidents comparable?  

The former star of another TLC reality show is angry about the apparent double standard the Duggar family is enjoying despite revelations that they covered up their son’s molestation of young girls – including his sisters.

“Mama June” Shannon, who appeared in the cable network’s “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo,” said she is considering a lawsuit against TLC – which promptly canceled her popular show in October after she began dating an accused molester.

Let's keep the pressure on and Tell TLC To Stop Supporting A Child Molester By Canceling 19 Kids And Counting.  No advertising no show, "[t]he advertiser backlash against the Josh Duggar molestation scandal is growing into a tidal wave as 14 more companies have publicly refused to run ads on 19 Kids and Counting."

Interesting to note, and this is from The Guardian,

It remains to be seen whether TLC will suspend 19 Kids & Counting or cancel it. The network has recently thrown significant marketing weight behind a show featuring the Bates family, another large Christian family who has been friendly with the Duggars and appeared on 19 Kids. They may have been TLC’s backup plan in case the bloom went off of the Duggar rose.

I would be curious to know just what the Bates' are thinking about now.  First would they want to be compared to the Duggars?  And second, would they want to be in anyway associated with 19Kids or TLC


1]  As WaPo reports, Mama clown car has stated in her book, "The onus to protect your purity is on you. If someone steals your purity, you are a ruined bicycle with warped tires and a ripped seat. Your value has been stolen. Your parents’ dreams are ruined. You are used and cheap and valueless." As well as comparing an individual who deviates from their idea of "purity" is no better than a cup of spit.

A point echoed by Garrison:

According to the Duggars, female bodies are a source of irresistible temptation to boys and men. Upon learning of their oldest son’s fondling and groping of the younger girls, JimBob and Michelle’s first reaction was undoubtedly to question the girls’ - as well as their own - culpability rather than immediately believe it was Josh himself who has a problem.
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Was 14-year-old Josh actually responsible for his behavior? Strange as it may seem, JimBob and Michelle would definitely have had serious doubts as to whether or not their son could help himself. Rather than recognizing immediately that Josh needed professional help, the Duggars were more likely to believe that demonic forces were at work … the Devil made him do it.

As I have been pondering all that has transpired, my mind keeps going back to the above.  Specifically the mind-set and how it influences much within our culture and cultures world wide.  Sierra over at The Phoenix and Olive Branch refers to it as "the modesty doctrine".

,,,the belief that women need to cover their bodies to prevent men from being attracted to them, because sexual attraction is lust that leads to sin and death for both.  The modesty doctrine is not the same as wearing conservative clothing. You can do the latter without believing the former. The modesty doctrine is found in fundamentalist Christianity, Judaism and Islam, with milder echoes in mainstream Western culture.
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The modesty doctrine frames this idea in terms of clothing to preserve the veneer that women are somehow to blame for this, and that there’s something they can do about it. There isn’t. The modesty doctrine revolves around the assumption that a man has a right to sex with every woman he finds attractive. In Christian fundamentalism, he only has a right to sex with his wife. Therefore, other women who are attractive to him seem to taunt him with something he can’t have (extramarital sex). That’s why certain women get singled out as threats, despite trying their hardest to be “modest.” It doesn’t matter what they wear; if men find them attractive and can’t marry them, they must be punished. This disproportionately happens to curvy women because their sex is impossible to erase. [Emphasis mine]

Sierra continues further,

Feminists will probably find all of this annoyingly familiar. What am I saying, after all? The modesty doctrine is rape culture. It is inseparable from patriarchy. It is the very means by which patriarchy reduces women to mere flesh. “If I can see it, it’s mine” is the motto of a thief. If a woman’s body is the “it,” it’s the motto of a rapist. “If I can see it, she’s defrauding me” is the motto of Christian patriarchy. The Christian patriarchy movement attempts to obliterate a woman’s sexual agency in several ways:

First, it demands she cover up to keep men from wanting what they see.

Second, it sanctions sex with a woman based not on her consent but upon marriage vows (“it’s impossible to rape your wife because her body is yours”).

Third, it places control over marriage vows in male hands through courtship (father and husband). Consent is therefore farcical.

Fourth, it demands that women, not men, face the consequences of sex: either the guilt of adultery for the imagined sex a leering man has with a woman he finds attractive, or the perpetual pregnancy resulting from marital relations, as birth control is forbidden. [Emphasis in original]

If this sounds familiar, it should, it is the exact same ideology that drives the misogyny prevalent in Islam. And as one source puts it in response to a question I posed - do have a good article/source that discusses the Islamic idea of modesty?  The reply was, it's so prevalent that he didn't know of one source that summed it up neatly.

What I did find I think is even worse, where as momma Duggar is just gross, Islamic beliefs border on justifying death (if one were to read between the lines as to what happens to "rabid" animals):

Islamic scholars consider modesty to be a quality that distinguishes human beings from animals.  Animals follow their instincts without feeling any shame or a sense of right or wrong.  Hence, the less modesty a person has, the more he resembles animals.  The more modesty a person has, the closer he is to being human.  Islam has mandated certain legislations which induce this sense of modesty within humans. These legislation range from seeking permission before entering any room and distancing one from others while relieving oneself, to mandating certain manners of dress for men and women alike. Another way that modesty may be attained is by associating with modest people - people in whose presence a person feels embarrassed to do anything shameful,,,

Both sources cited, it is to be noted, are excellent examples of Hassan's "implanted phobias" as well.

What mommy and daddy espouse.

2]  The so-called counseling center, was controlled by none other than Mr Perv himself, Bill Gothard.  

Jim Bob Duggar told Springdale detective Hignite in 2006 that he sent his son to a Christian ministry in "the old Veteran's Hospital in Little Rock." Duggar said he couldn't remember the name of the program, but it involved "hard physical work and counseling."

Michelle Duggar told police that the place her son was sent "was not really a training center" but that Josh went to work for a "guy they knew in Little Rock who is remodeling a building." Asked whether the guy was a mentor, Michelle Duggar replied, "kind of."

Pulaski County assessor's records show the nearly 500,000-square-foot former VA hospital building was purchased by Hobby Lobby in 1998.

The craft-store company then donated the building in 2000 to the Institute in Basic Life Principles, an Illinois-based ministry founded by televangelist Bill Gothard.

Shortly after the institute acquired the building, Gothard began renovating the space, saying it would be used for the Little Rock Training Center, which would house "court-referred youthful offenders in the organization's Bible-based rehabilitation program," according to an April 2000 article in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Oh and I am not buying that he didn't stay there, the Duggar clan has been trying to distance themselves from Gothard since last years revelation of his 34 sexual mis-deeds.  Although a bit over simplified, The Guardian makes this observation:

For people who had never pried beyond the Duggar persona presented on TV, the news must have come as a tremendous shock. But for those of us who have been following the family’s ascent over the past few years, it is not completely unexpected. The family is known for their support of Bill Gothard, a hyper-conservative Christian who has advocated for homeschooling, modest dressing and living debt-free. Many of his followers, including the Duggars, belong to the Quiverfull movement, which is based on a Bible verse about God filling “quivers” with “arrows”, interpreted to mean “wombs” and “foetuses”. Each Duggar child who got married – in addition to Josh, Jill and Jessa Duggar both had televised weddings in which they spoke of their “purity”, or virginity – said they would trust God with the size of their family.

Although Gothard’s name was never invoked on-air, his philosophy was everywhere on 19 Kids and Counting. Jim Bob bragged that his family stayed debt-free by living frugally and “buying used and saving the difference”, even though in later years it became clear that the family’s affluence was largely bankrolled by TLC and by the byproducts of their fame, including multiple book deals and paid speaking engagements. The Duggars also attended Gothard-sponsored events around the country like the one in Big Sandy, Texas, where Josh met his wife. Gothard was brought down in a scandal of his very own recently, accused of sexually assaulting more than 30 women. The Duggars may be the world’s best-known Gothardites, but they somehow survived the scandal unscathed and unimplicated. [Emphasis mine]

3] Get a load of the home school material used, Advanced Training Institute, a program run by cult figurehead Bill Gothard.

4] The there is this, if Oprah "knew" in 2006 when exactly did TLC find out? And who is actually complicit in this crime?

5]  Something to ponder in all this, and why I am hesitant to put ALL the blame on Joshieboy; although that is changing as information comes out.

A boy grows up in a controlling, cultlike family that rejects Enlightenment values and closes off much of the outside world. He is deprived of any conception of morality separate from a fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible. His intellectual and ethical development is stunted by reactionary, dogmatic views about gender and sexuality. He is told that women were made to be subservient to men, to be obedient to their masters. How should we react when it comes to light that this boy repeatedly molested young girls?
,,,
The leaders of the Duggar clan are undoubtedly hypocrites of the highest order. Josh’s heinous crime merits our utmost moral condemnation, and his victims deserve sympathy and compassion. But it would be shortsighted to treat Josh with nothing more than mocking, scornful ire. Josh may be a monster—but as 19 Kids and Counting demonstrates, his path to depravity was lighted by the twisted beliefs of his parents.  [read the second citation in (#1) for better context]

In other words, the real perps are JimBob and Michelle for indoctrinating all their children.  Josh was the weapon with the girls being the ultimate targets.

Now I have heard some say that Josh should have been able or should be able to reason his way through the public's reaction to these accusations.  I would tend to agree if this mind-set wasn't so prevalent.  Not only was he engrossed in it at home but his job as well.

Again referring to Vyckie's article, she sums it up well.

According to the “eternally happy ending” story which the Duggars are telling themselves, the little girls whom Josh allegedly groped and fondled are not victims or even survivors of sexual abuse, but are instead equated with the “highly favored” Old Testament Joseph whose brothers sold him into slavery: What Satan meant for evil, God used for good.

Suffering in this life is insignificant - even trifling - compared to the faith-strengthening and soul-saving purpose of trials which will be richly rewarded with eternal life in Heaven … so praise the fucking Lord for whatever misery He sends to you and your children.

The Duggar delusion is so deeply ingrained that even in the midst of this horrifying revelation, JimBob and Michelle are hoping that the onlooking world will be inspired by their family’s witness: “We hope somehow the story of our journey — the good times and the difficult times — cause you to see the kindness of God and learn that He can bring you through anything.”

One just needs to examine the responses of some of their minions supporters as cited above.  To them, Duggars included, Josh did not commit a crime but sinned.  Even if Josh could reason himself out of this scandla, why should he (besides the fact it is the right thing to do).

Michael Brown, writing at The Christian Post:

Most of us have done things we wish we could take back, and in some cases, the consequences of our bad choices and sinful actions last for decades. Yet with the Lord, no matter how great the stigma of our sin, if we will humble ourselves before Him, He can take those stumbling blocks and turn them into stepping stones, to the point that the worst things that ever happened to us become the best things that ever happened to us.

Carrie Hurd in response to an OP posted on Vyckie's Facebook:

“When I was a kid, it was often called “playing doctor”, there were just as many girls initiating this kind of behavior as boys. Most of those never went on to perp horrible things. The Duggers, who I have never watched–am not a fan, did it properly and the 14 year old boy should probably be left alone to live a good life, just like girls who do the same thing.”

Dino Jr, aka Eric Hovind, writing for his Creation Today Ministry:

Honestly, I am blown away by the incredible double standard that is applied to Christians. We don’t claim to be perfect; we claim to be perfectly forgiven. We don’t claim to be better; we claim to be better off. We can forgive because we have been forgiven. And yes, we do use Christian morality to judge. Haven’t you noticed that everyone is using Christian morality to judge people?

Isaac, when a Christian admits his sin, goes to the proper authorities, pays the penalty, repents of his actions, is up front and honest with the world, and has made things right with the victims, then he has done exactly what God has commanded him to do. Why would you say that Christians are applying a double standard?

In reality, it is evolutionists who apply a double standard. If evolution is true, then there is no absolute right and wrong. If evolution is true, Josh should not have admitted his faults over a decade ago because what one evolved bag of molecules does to another bag of molecules just doesn’t really matter. If evolution is true, there is no ultimate Judge who will hold every man, woman, and child responsible for their actions. And if evolution is true, you will not give an account for every idle word you speak.

The truth is, we all use Christian morality to judge people. The very idea of judgment comes from Christianity.

Since the scandal became public, the Reich has circled the wagons to protect one of their own from facing the consequences of his actions and hypocrisy.

BUT,,,

There is this to consider, Josh would have been 19 when this action took place:

The Josh Duggar molestation case did not end when Springdale, Ark. police closed their investigation in 2006 because the statute of limitations had run out, In Touch Weekly is reporting exclusively.

Police referred the matter to the Families in Need of Services agency, which has jurisdiction over minors. The Department of Human Services (DHS) was then brought into the case, In Touch has learned. Nine months after those agencies entered the Duggar molestation case, Josh Duggar sued the Arkansas Department of Human Services. A trial was held on August 6, 2007.

The results of the investigation into the Duggars and Josh’s trial are sealed. But a source familiar with the Duggar investigation told In Touch it was likely that Josh “appealed the DHS decision or finding from their investigation.” The source notes that DHS had the authority to apply “restrictions or stipulations about him being at home with the victims.

“Josh would be considered an in-home offender, giving DHS the authority to do an investigation. As part of your appeal rights you can request a DHS hearing to challenge what they found and their ruling.”

What's that old saying, "actions speak louder than words,,,

6]  And then there is this, Mike Huckabee, one of many whose influence will be wielded.

 
A few things in all this, if I or any everyday citizen of this country were to have committed these acts as a 14 year old we would have been put into the juvenile justice system until the age of 21. Because of their celebrity (pre and post show), and the notion that this family is considered a bastion of purity and a moral example for all of us to aspire towards, they were able to use their contacts in law enforcement and local government to avoid any public mention of this all the while parading on TV to condemn others for their sins.  But yet "we" are the ones being demonized for asking questions and demanding that a full accounting of what transpired be undertaken.

Second, I am still wavering on the culpability of Joshieboy.  There is his age to consider, he was 14 when he molested his own sisters.  And, as many comments have pointed out in various forms (this paraphrased from an acquaintance):

Such actions from an adolescent, are indicative of their own molestation unrecognized and untreated, which the adolescent attempts to process by "mirroring" the abuse onto others.  Since there was no investigation (regarding Josh's actions) the original child molester is free and clear and most likely still offending.
 
The current debacle was initially hidden for a year, with none of the children getting any legitimate counseling.  That being the case, it makes all of them victims likely to repeat the cycle as statistics show.

So who exactly started all this?


Updated 5/27/2015
Updated 5/28/2015
Updated 5/29/2015
Updated 5/31/2015

An Open Letter to Duggar Defenders

When I was doing my brief write up concerning Michelle Duggar the other day, I came across this piece by Libby Anne over at Love, Joy and Feminism where she writes about problems with the Christian Patriarchy and Quiverfull movements also touching on homeschooling. The Duggars have been the topic of conversation a few times as she explains in her introduction.

If you want to be creeped out, read what she writes about why the Duggar girls curl their hair!
__
The Duggars are part of a very specific subculture of the Christian homeschooling world, one dominated by leaders like Doug Phillips of Vision Forum and Bill Gothard of ATI, whose incredibly restrictive teachings and controlling practices have earned them the adjective “cult-like.” These organizations and leaders teach that children must be trained to obey their parents completely, without question, and with a smile; that women are not to have careers and that daughters should be actively discouraged from considering such; that adult daughters must continue to obey their fathers and must marry through parent-controlled courtships; that college attendance is problematic for children of either gender but especially for girls; and that marrying and having large numbers of children is the only godly path available.

[,,,]
I grew up in the same culture as the Duggars. I was homeschooled, I was the oldest of 12 children, and my family was involved in or aware of each of the various ministries the Duggars are involved in. The Duggars parent the way my parents did, listen to the same ministries as my parents, and have the same general beliefs as my parents. You have to understand that the Duggars are not just your typical suburban family plus an extra sixteen children. The Duggars are part of a very distinct subculture, and that subculture has different rules and different norms. I know those rules and norms, because I lived them.

[,,,]
But let’s get back to the point about smiling for a moment here. The Duggar parents are following parenting gurus who teach that unhappiness or a sour disposition is disobedience. In this climate, what child would have anything but a smile? There is no other option. I also grew up on these teachings. I remember being punished for having a “bad mood.” My siblings and I looked happy, on the outside, and that outward appearance was not always wrong. But sometimes it was—sometimes it was very, very wrong, because being discontented was seen as sin, and was punished. Of course children will look happy, when that is the only option they are allowed.

[,,,]
Yes, the Duggar parents are giving their adult children some opportunities, but these opportunities are carefully circumscribed by what they consider acceptable. In a world where college is considered godless and immoral, the Duggar sons are limited to starting their own businesses or various job-training programs. This isn’t to say that they can’t succeed, but simply that some doors are closed to them from the start. In a world where women are not allowed to have careers, the Duggar daughters are limited to music lessons, apprentice midwifery, and photography hobbies. Not only are the girls not permitted to go to college, they also aren’t permitted to think in terms of finding a way to financial independence.

[,,,]
If you’re still incredulous that such little things could be counted rebellion or that rebellion could actually result in being cut off from your younger siblings, it’s worth noting that the Jeub family, who were filmed for the TLC miniseries Kids by the Dozen and were part of the same subculture as the Duggars and my own family, kicked their daughter Alicia out and cut off all of her contact with her younger siblings for being “rebellious.” Reb Bradley, a pastor and homeschool leader who writes parenting books that are popular in the same circles, similarly kicked out one of his sons and cut off all contact because he was “rebellious.”

An Open Letter to Duggar Defenders

The Good Book Taught Badly?: Okla. School District Approves Hobby Lobby Owner’s Bible Course | Americans United

That’s our goal, so that we can reintroduce this book to this nation. This nation is in danger because of its ignorance of what God has taught, ~ Steve Green
--
An Oklahoma school district has approved the use of a Bible curriculum designed by Steve Green, the controversial owner of Hobby Lobby. The Mustang public schools will begin offering the curriculum next academic year.

As reported by Religion News Service, Green’s curriculum is designed to correspond with his planned Museum of the Bible, which is currently under construction in Washington, D.C. Jerry Pattengale, who heads the Green Scholars Initiative and is overseeing the curriculum’s development, said the ultimate goal is put the curriculum in “thousands” of schools.

Little is known publicly about the details of the curriculum. However, in a 2013 speech he delivered to the National Bible Association, Green explained that it’s divided into three sections: the history of the Bible, the story of the Bible, and the impact of the Bible.

Classes about the Bible don’t necessarily violate the separation of church and state. It all depends on what is taught and how it’s taught. Green’s speech indicates that he may have ulterior motives.

It appears that Green doesn’t intend to simply teach students history.

“The history is to show the reliability of this book,” he told his audience, and added, “When you present the evidence, the evidence is overwhelming.”

The Good Book Taught Badly?: Okla. School District Approves Hobby Lobby Owner’s Bible Course | Americans United

See also: 

Curricular Controversy: Hobby Lobby President Proposes Bible Elective in Okla. Public School

,,,but Green also has strong ties to Bill Gothard, the leader of an extremist Christian fundamentalist sect roiling with allegations of child abuse.

Gothard’s religious empire includes a homeschool curriculum popular with fundamentalist families, and a nationwide network of training centers and youth programs that exclusively rely on Gothard’s teachings.

[,,,]
In 2002, Green, acting through his family trust, purchased and then leased a vacant college campus to Gothard’s ministry. A year later, Green, this time acting through Hobby Lobby itself, purchased a shuttered hospital in Little Rock, Ark., and donated it to Gothard for the purposes of building a local training center.

These weren’t mere business transactions, either. The website of one of Gothard’s many ministries features video of Steve Green describing Hobby Lobby’s “desire to share Christ and Disciple others.” And in a review of Gothard’s book, The Amazing Way, David Green, father of Steve Green and founder of Hobby Lobby, wrote that, “Through the example and teachings of Bill Gothard and the Institute in Basic Life Principles, we have benefited both as a family and in our business. It is as we take those lessons from God s Word that Bill clearly articulates that we live the full life that God intends.”

Pt 3::News: Media Starting to Link Duggar Family to Doug Phillips Finally

Suzanne Calulu from No Longer Quivering adds to the above, that "there are those protesting that the perfect Duggars have no real links to Phillips." To which a commenter responds:

Nobody has said that the Duggars are complicit in the sexual improprieties of Phillips, Gothard,,,, the Duggars *DO* promote and advertise the corrupt leaders and institutions.

A second comment that hits hard as well:

You know what I find amazing? That the Duggar family and the likes have spent countless hours on the show telling people that they are in the world but not of the world. Only to find that within the confines of their cocoon, mean, abusive leaders like Gothard and Phillips are abusing innocents, all while mingling with their precious families and friends. Really, it boggles the mind to think that so much BS they've talked about how their kids are protected by being trained by material and BS from these "wholesome" sources, the same bad things that happen on the outside, are happening in it. WTF? Seriously. And of course, now they're doing a lot of damage control,,,

News: Media Starting to Link Duggar Family to Doug Phillips Finally

Pt 2::Another Major 'Biblical Patriarchy' Organization is In Crisis Because of a Sex Scandal - The Wire

A week after the theologically conservative Institute in Basic Life Principles placed its leader Bill Gothard on administrative leave, the influential leader in the Quiverfull and Christian homeschooling movements has resigned from the organization. Gothard, 79, faces accusations of sexual abuse from dozens of women associated with his organization. The IBLP promotes a "chain of command" family hierarchy that Gothard claims is based on Biblical principles. In seminars, the institute has described the structure with the image of a father as the "hammer" of the family, the wife as the "chisel," and the children as "gems" in the rough.

This is the third organization associated with an umbrella of group sometimes referred to as the "Biblical patriarchy" movement to face a major sex scandal in recent months. In October, the Vision Forum ministry shut down after its leader Doug Phillips confessed to having a romantic affair outside of marriage. And just weeks ago, The New Republic published an investigation into sexual assault at Patrick Henry College, an evangelical university with big homeschooling support. The accusations against Gothard are quite serious. According to a whistle-blowing organization called Recovering Grace, at least 34 women have accused Gothard of unwanted sexual advances, and four of those women say the leader molested them. One of those four women is underage.



Another Major 'Biblical Patriarchy' Organization is In Crisis Because of a Sex Scandal - The Wire

Creationism in Texas public schools: Undermining the charter movement.

This was a tough article to "read."  Yes it is long, but it is loaded with information.  The sub-title IMHO say it all, "An investigation into charter schools’ dishonest and unconstitutional science, history, and “values” lessons."  For those that follow the Reich and dominionist movement, there are a few familiar names.

Some of Responsive Ed’s lessons appear harmless at first, but their origin is troubling. Students also learn about “discernment,” which is defined as “understanding the deeper reasons why things happen.” In other sections, students learn other moral lessons such as “values” and “deference.”

These lessons were lifted directly from a company called Character First Education, which was founded by an Oklahoma businessman named Tom Hill. He is a follower of Bill Gothard, a minister who runs the Institute in Basic Life Principles, a Christian organization that teaches its members to incorporate biblical principles into daily life. IBLP is considered a cult by some of its former followers. Gothard developed character qualities associated with a list of “49 General Commands of Christ” that Hill adopted for his character curriculum. Hill then removed Gothard’s references to God and Bible verses and started marketing the curriculum to public schools and other public institutions.

The values taught by Responsive Ed can often be found word for word on Gothard’s website. The Responsive Ed unit on genetics includes “Thoroughness: Knowing what factors will diminish the effectiveness of my work or words if neglected.” The only difference is that Gothard’s website also adds “Proverbs 18:15” after the quote.

Many of Gothard’s teachings revolve around obedience to men, especially that of the wife and the children. Gothard has upset even other conservative Christians. In an interview for an article published by Religion Dispatches, Don Veinot, a conservative Christian and founder of the Midwest Christian Outreach, accused Gothard of “creating a culture of fear.” Gothard has been accused of emotional and sexual abuse by some of his former followers, “happening as far back as the mid- to late-1970’s and as recently as this year.”

Responsive Ed and Character First may have removed the references to God and Bible verses from the curriculum that is being used in public schools, but it is clear that the line between church and state is still being blurred. And nothing that Gothard has created should be allowed near children.

Responsive Ed has plenty of connections to other fundamentalist right-wing organizations as well. Its website’s “Helpful Information” section directs parents to Focus on the Family under the heading of “Family Support.” Under “Values” it steers students to the Traditional Values Coalition, whose website includes a header that says, “Say NO to Obama. Stop Sharia in America.”

Creationism in Texas public schools: Undermining the charter movement.