Up North Progressive

Last week, Quiverfull cult member Josh Duggar admitted he had raped his sisters and girls in another family when he was a teen living in the home of the Christian patriarchy family brought into American homes via television. TLC has since canceled the show and several people within the religious fundamentalism movement, like Mike Huckabee, have come out in support of Josh Duggar and the Duggar family. The public so far has seen transcripts of confessions made by Josh Duggar, and we know now that the police officer who never sought charges against Duggar currently serves a prison term because he too is a child sex offender.

Most people know the Duggars are fundamentalist Christians and the family homeschools their children. What many people don’t know about the Duggars and other families like them is they are part of a strict religious cult that teaches the husband and father is the leader of the household, and his wife and children must submit to him in all things; including how to deal with a sexual predator son. This cult also demands they must have as many children as God gives them because God wants them to have them for the spiritual war that is coming to America.

Quiverfull is a main driving force in the homeschooling movement in the United States. It is through the Christian patriarchy movement that Quiverfull wives fulfill their role of raising children to be warriors for God. Boys are taught they will eventually be the unquestioned leaders of their families, representing the will of God in their home. Girls are taught to submit to the men in their lives in every way as women are beneath men according to the Bible. When Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar both enthusiastically say they want to have more children, that is Jim Bob talking for both of them. Michelle isn’t permitted to have an opinion on how many times she gets pregnant. In fact, if Jim Bob believes she is not being accommodating and pleasing enough in bed, he can go to their church and ask the church elders to discipline her for disobedience.

The main homeschooling organization for the Quiverfull cult was Vision Forum. The Duggars were very closely related to this homeschooling organization before the founder of the group confessed to having an extramarital affair. The therapy center where the Duggars took Josh, The Institute in Basic Life Principles, was founded by Bill Gothard. Gothard has since left the organization he founded after over 30 women accused him of sexual assault. Other members of this ministry have also been forced to resign for sexually abusing women and girls. It’s also worthy to note that one of the main funders for Gothard’s ministry is the Green family, owners of Hobby Lobby.

Many people have asked why the media hasn’t said more about Josh Duggar’s victims. Girls in two families were sexually assaulted by Duggar, and a look into the therapy he received from Bill Gothard explains why. Fundamentalist Christians teach girls within the cult movement that if a man has lustful thoughts of them, they are to blame for it. This is why they must always dress modestly in public, and never do anything that would send inappropriate signals to a boy or man. Josh Duggar was taught by IBLP that it was the victim’s fault he sexually abused them.

The boy sinned because the girls were not obedient and submissive enough.

Quiverfull and other fundamentalist religious cults that teach Christian patriarchy and submission of women all organize in the same way – homeschooling. Homeschooling organizations are where these people come together and this is how the religious right has infiltrated and turned the homeschooling movement into a training ground for more cult members. Vision Forum was a Christian homeschooling organization. Bill Gothard’s Advanced Training Institute also provides homeschooling curriculum. Accelerated Christian Education is another curriculum provider for homeschooling that also provides a model for churches to run a school. The emphasis on all of these programs is teaching children complete obedience to the father and church, and training to be warriors for God. Pasquale Battaglia’s attempts to open charter schools through Hillsdale College comes from the same fundamentalist Christian background, and it’s rotten to the core.

Not every religious fundamentalist is part of Quiverfull, but the same homeschooling background that requires complete obedience to God and a very strict, structured religious life is prevalent in a number of politicians currently serving in the state legislature in Lansing. They believe many of the same things the Duggars do, and very possibly practice a similar home life they believe all American families should live. Religious fundamentalism is as un-American as it gets, and the Duggars are showing us why. Keep this in mind as we get closer to the Supreme Court making same-sex marriage legal in the United States. They want all Americans to live the way they do, but consenting adults of the same sex wanting to marry are the immoral ones.