My Two Cents: The Duggars ... Again

I knew it would only get worse for the Duggars and I seem to have been correct.

A new police report has been released detailing the sexual molestation of five minor girls by Josh Duggar, and the most damning revelation is that Josh told his father, Jim Bob, not one time, as the Duggars have suggested, but on THREE SEPARATE OCCASIONS that he’d been molesting his sisters — one of whom was just five years old at the time — and a family friend; and that there were at least SEVEN acts of sexual molestation.

What I find just as disgusting as Josh molesting these defenseless girls, is that even after telling his parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar waited another 16 months before speaking to anyone about the crimes.

Jim Bob claims in the report that the family talked about what happened with the minors — some of whom were his own children — and since only one had any memory of the molestation ... she said she woke up to find Josh 'taking her blanket away' — so nothing was done about it because, well, if the girls don’t remember their brother sexually assaulting them, then let’s just not talk about it, and do nothing about it.

Even worse is, at that time, the Duggars did not get Josh — or his victims — any form of counseling; in fact, to this day they refuse to say if the counseling that finally did occur came as a result of a court order after the Families In Need of Services and the Arkansas Department of Human Services became involved in the case.

For covering up Josh’s crimes, Jim Bob and Michelle could have been faced six years in prison, but this didn’t happen because, by the time an official police report was taken, in 2006, the statute of limitations had run out. So, let’s be clear: Jim Bob, Michelle, and Josh all broke the law and all got away with it. Great family values, and true Christians, but then they had a TV show to protect and an agenda — anti-LGBT — to carry on.

All this comes on the heels of a new interview with Joseph Hutchens — the police officer, now in prison for possession of child pornography — who says Jim Bob Duggar lied to him saying Josh had molested one girl, one time — as though that makes it better.

Josh Duggar, for his part, and only after the first police report emerged, issued this statement:

“Twelve years ago, as a young teenager, I acted inexcusably for which I am extremely sorry and deeply regret. I hurt others, including my family and close friends. I confessed this to my parents who took several steps to help me address the situation. 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.”

Notice he never says he molested anyone, but that he just acted ‘inexcusably;’ funny that, since molestation is a criminal offense and not an inexcusable act. Oh, but he's suffered for his crimes, y'all; he was forced to step down from his job at the virulently anti-LGBT Family Research Council, and he had to move back to Arkansas from Washington DC with his wife Anna — expecting their fourth child — and their three children. 

And as for Anna; after the story broke, she reaffirmed her support for Josh, saying that he had confessed his “past teenage mistakes” two years before he proposed to her. So, he told her that he had molested children and she went ahead and married him and had children with him because, in her mind, pedophilia is just a teenage mistake.

And then Jim Bob and Michelle released their own statement:

“Back 12 years ago our family went through one of the most difficult times of our lives. When Josh was a young teenager, he made some very bad mistakes, and we were shocked. We had tried to teach him right from wrong. That dark and difficult time caused us to seek God like never before.”

Bad mistakes? A difficult time for the family? Young girls, children, were molested and they make it seem as though it was nothing at all. Sexual molestation of a minor is not a ‘very bad mistake,’ it’s a crime.

Of course, this is the same Jim bob Duggar who, in 2002, knowing that his son had molested several girls, including his own daughters, said incest and rape should be punishable by death. Unless, I’m guessing, you’re a Duggar and went away to Construction Camp.

And this is the same Michelle Duggar who, just last year, compared transgender individuals to 'child predators' even though she’d known for twelve years that her own sin was a sexual predator. But then, transgender is bad, and Duggars just make mistakes.

Last night Jim Bob and Michelle were interviewed by Megyn Kelly of Fox News … of course. Kelly said her aim is to get the entire story, but that details of the molestation are off-limits because, well, let’s continue to protect Josh Duggar, pedophile, for his ‘mistakes.’

Here’s some of what the Duggars spun last night …

Kelly, at one point, asked about Michelle Duggar about that robocall she made, and Kelly said she felt that it “suggested transgender people might want to go into the bathrooms of girls, locker rooms of girls, and that they may be child molesters.”

Michelle Duggar responded:

“I think that protecting young girls and not allowing young men and men in general to go into a girls’ locker room is just common sense.”

Well, let’s all get it that Michelle Duggar knows nothing about trans people except the lie the voices in her head tell. But Kelly pressed on, saying Michelle Duggar “injected child molestation into it.”

Well, then Jim Bob got his knickers twisted and said his wife used the word “pedophile” in that anti-LGBT robocall, and then explained what a pedophile is:

“Actually a pedophile is an adult that preys on children. Joshua was actually 14 and just turned 15 when he did what he did. I think the legal definition is 16 and up for an adult preying on a child. He was a child preying on a child.”

Oops, my bad. Josh Duggar is NOT a pedophile, y’all, and the Duggars want you to know that; he’s just a sexual predator and a child molester and a fondler and a fingerer and a pervert … but NOT a pedophile.

But what galls me is that when Megyn Kelly asked if the Duggars could understand the reactions of some people to the news, this is what Michelle said:

“I can understand that. But I know every one of us has done things wrong. This is more about, there’s an agenda. And there’s people that are purposing to try to bring things out and twisting them to hurt and slander.”

We’ve all done things wrong, but how many of us crept into our siblings rooms while they slept and sexually abused them? How many of us hid our child’s crimes and sent him away to Construction Camp instead of getting him help? How many of us broke the law? The Duggars did all of those things, and to continue to play the Poor Us card because now people are just being mean.

Go.Away. And that might happen, fingers crossed. The Duggars show, 19 Kids and Counting has been pulled off the network in the wake of this scandal, though TLC has not announced if they will cancel the program altogether; a spinoff, featuring some of the Duggar girls had been planned though it’s fate is also up in the air.

However, the show has been removed from Hulu, and major advertisers including General Mills, Jimmy Dean, Pure Leaf Iced Tea, Ace Hardware, David's Bridal, ConAgra Foods, Party City and Behr Paint will no longer advertise on the program, while other companies, including CVS, H&R Block, Ricola and Keurig have said they will no longer advertise on the network at all if the show returns to air. 

Look, it’s clear the Duggars aided and abetted a child molester, their own son, and waited just long enough so that no charges could be filed against him, for being a pedophile, and against them, for helping him hide his crimes. And let’s not forget their crimes as parents, when they allowed a known sexual predator back into their homes to sleep down the hall from the girls he sexually abused.

And let’s not let TLC off the hook, because, unless and until they take this show, and any spinoffs, off the air, they are also guilty of acting as though child sexual abuse is not a big deal, if the family involved brings in big ratings and big revenues.

It’s time all sides were held accountable — as much as Josh and his criminal parents can be since we actually have a statute of limitations of pedophilia in this country — and we stopped celebrating these kinds of families, and these kinds of television networks.

And it’s time we took our politicians, and religious leaders, who stand by child molesters and those who hide the crimes of child molesters, and fail to stand up for the victims. You cannot, and should not, ask to be the leader of this country while acting as though child sexual molestation is no big deal; you cannot, and should not, talk to me about God, when you stand in a pulpit and say that a few months of a building project is all the rehabilitation a pedophile need.

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