The Duggars, Purity Culture, The Gospel, and Why It Matters
by Jennifer Moodie
5/29/22
On May 28, 2022, Josh Duggar was sentenced to over 12 years in prison on charges of child sex abuse material. When he gets out, providing he serves his entire sentence, his youngest child will only be 12. His family and friends have rallied around him the whole way, claiming his innocence, writing letters to the judge begging for mercy and leniency. Here are some of the letters (trigger warning):
It seems that the Duggars, amongst many others, forget that while God is a God of love and mercy, He is also a God of justice. Without justice there can be no mercy and true love.
Deuteronomy 10:17-18
For the LORD your God is the God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God, showing no partiality and taking no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner, giving him food and clothing.
Deuteronomy 16:19-20
Do not deny justice or show partiality to anyone. Do not accept a bribe, for it blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous. Pursue justice and justice alone…
Micah 6:8
He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the LORD require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
Psalms 33:4-5
For the word of the LORD is upright,
and all his work is done in faithfulness.
He loves righteousness and justice;
the earth is full of the steadfast love of the LORD.
Psalms 37:28a
For the LORD loves justice;
Matthew 23:23
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.”
All of these letters reiterate the 'Umbrella of Protection" teaching from Gothard. According to Gothard's teaching, the husband is the God ordained authority over his wife, and she must submit, and stay under his leadership. Failure to do this is considered rebellion and she is then removing herself from under God's protection and opening herself and her children to the attacks of Satan. So for Anna and her children to not have Josh at home for them to submit to as the "spiritual head of the family" is damaging the umbrella chain and opening the family to the wrath of God and attacks of Satan. This teaching completely negate the priesthood of the believer.
Here is a great podcast episode discussing why this is not Biblical and is in fact damaging. The Sola Sisters on Facebook is a great page to follow to learn more on this topic. I highly recommend subscribing to the Theology Gals podcast as well.
This teaching is actually called 'patriarchy'. I don't have time to discuss the problems with it, nor with the foundation of the teaching which is called Eternal Subordination of the Son (ESS), nor with Nouthetic Counseling which often blames victims of sexual assault, and often calls pedophilia "affairs", but I HIGHLY recommend you do some reading on Jay Adams and nouthetic counseling, and read this that discusses how Josh Duggar, his victims, and many others had been and are counseled. Josh's attitude and the attitude of those around him are a direct result of the teachings I just mentioned (not to mention Josh's potential psychopathic tendencies...that is a different issue).
From Rachael Denhollander, a gymnast who was a victim of and testified against Larry Nassar, said it well in 2021 (again, Trigger Warning):
"I don’t even know where to begin with what we need to learn from this situation with Josh Duggar. If you haven’t paid attention to updates, you should, because it is a glaring example of the problems we have in our legal system, and especially in conservative Christian culture.
"The images and videos Josh downloaded for his own sexual pleasure were of toddlers and babies being sexually assaulted. 18 months to 3 years old. He literally found sexual gratification in watching the sexual torture of babies and toddlers. He was sexually aroused by toddlers and babies being painfully and violently abused. The FBI agent who conducted the investigation said it was some of the worst material he’s ever had to go through. Josh searched for it, and enjoyed it. Sit with that reality.
"He was able to view those images even though he had a program like Covenant Eyes on his computer, because he downloaded special software that allowed him to bypass it. And his reports were going to his wife – a homeschooling mom of six with a 7th on the way (let’s simply leave it at, she’s way too busy and exhausted to be expected to also babysit her husband’s porn problem.) Not only did he have software that allowed him to bypass the program, he had partitioned hard drives and browsers to access the dark web. This wasn't an accident. This was planned, premeditated, and probably going on for a long time.
"I’m also going to add, out of every woman I’ve ever walked with whose husband had a porn problem, it was NEVER a surprise. NEVER. It’s pretty much guaranteed that somewhere along the way Anna knew Josh still had a porn addiction, but she was left to deal with it and fix it in silence and on her own, because that’s how we counsel couples in Christian circles. And she certainly couldn’t tell anyone, because that would not be submissive. That’s how we counsel wives in these marriages.
"When Josh was arrested, his father began calling people in the church asking them to be Josh’s custodian until trial, so that he could be released on bail. He found a man willing to take him in. Except that man’s wife teaches piano lessons to children, and she was not comfortable having Josh home with her all day, because she would be alone with him while her husband was at work.
"That didn’t matter to the husband, however. She has to find a new place to teach all those children because her husband wants Josh to live with them until his trial. Every single family who takes piano from her, and the wife herself, has to uproot their routine, livelihood and the child’s music education, because Josh. Everyone is expected to bear the cost, except Josh.
"And the wife’s own very reasonable fears about being alone all day with a man who enjoys the sexual torture of toddlers didn’t matter to the husband either. The FBI agent recommended to the judge that Josh be kept in custody, especially since the wife was afraid to have him in the home. But when she was called to the witness stand and asked if she was in agreement with having Josh live with them, she responded that “her husband had made the decision, and she was here to support him”.
"Because under that theology he has the authority and her job is to submit. No matter what.
" So Josh was released. And not just released, but released with visitation rights to his own children who are, by the way, in the exact age demographics of the children he was watching being sexually tortured. Anna is required to supervise the visits. And she will. Because she can’t protect her children from their father, or push him out of the home. It would be unsubmissive. And God hates divorce. Cherry-picked and twisted theology yes, but it’s much easier than hard exegesis and the long work of helping a wife and children escape a dangerous marriage. And the men make the decisions and tell the theology, so the cost of it – well, that’s on someone else.
"Whether or not the children could be abused, or already have been, doesn’t matter. And keeping Josh in their lives pretty much guarantees they will not disclose. But anyway God hates divorce.
" Everyone – EVERYONE else, from Josh’s own children, to a woman afraid to have him in the home, to his own wife, are bearing the risks and costs of his behavior. And they are being told it is godly and right to do it. Each man in the situation, from Josh’s dad, (who isn’t protecting his own grandkids or caring about the risks to anyone else), to the judge, to the husband who decided it was fine despite his wife’s very justified fear, make the decisions. The women and children who pay the price, are expected to submit, forgive, and support, no matter how foolish or wicked the decision.
'This is the exact same mindset that allowed this to happen in the first place, when so many were warning years ago that the minimization and sin-leveling were signs that this wasn’t in control and wasn’t being taken seriously. The cost and impact is being born by everyone but the perpetrator, and the men given free reign to be “leaders”.
This is abusive culture. This is toxic Christianity. This is not manhood. This is not womanhood. This is depraved.
And the worst part is, I know literally hundreds of women are the receiving end of this garbage. Josh, and this situation, aren’t the anomaly. They are the norm.
Because we actually don’t think it’s that big of a deal. Not the judge who deemed Josh safe to be around his children, not the Christian men who minimized and downplayed from day one.
We don’t think it’s a big deal in secular culture, because we’re used to the idea that “boys will be boys” and we’ve peddled the lie that porn is harmless, when it’s really the gateway to an abusive mindset and actions.
But we don’t think it’s a big deal in Christian culture because we’ve also peddled the “boys will be boys” mindset. Except we’ve added Scripture to it, and told women they’re responsible for men’s lust and addictions. That if they don’t have sex enough, his needs won’t be met and he’ll stray. We’ve talked about his sexual needs like it’s impossible to go more than a few days without release, but couched her sexuality as existing solely for his benefit. We’ve turned women into dangerous beings who control whether men “fall”, and also into the solution for it. And yes, defining women and sexuality this way is the norm, it’s not the exception. Telling women to be more sexually available to help their husband keep it in his pants is the norm, not the exception. Women are taught as the cause and solution to men’s sexual perversions.
Until our theology changes to actually reflect Scripture, we shouldn’t be surprised at any of this. It’s a story I see every single day. It’s wicked. It’s evil. And it’s long past time that we called it that – not just the abuse, but the twisted theology that fuels it."
It is worth noting that Josh had Covenant Eyes filtering software on his computer, yet stealthily was able to get around it. He had installed dividers on the computer to store and access his child sex abuse material and to hide it from the filters and accountability that Covenant Eyes supposedly gives.
You can read much at Recovering Grace to learn more about the IBLP/ATI Bill Gothard cult that the Duggars were heavily involved in and what they taught, but let me highlight something that I find relevant here: There Is No Victim shows how IBLP handles sexual assault. It’s atrocious.
Purity Culture taught people like the Duggars, Josh and Anna included, that objectification of women was normal for men, that men have insatiable sex drives that must be taken care of whenever the desire arises or else turning to pornography, affairs, and children was the logical outcome. It taught them, and people like me, that men just couldn't help their sexual urges and it was up to women to both fulfill those urges, and protect men from them. I have written in the past (here, here, and here) how purity culture is a false gospel and objectifying, and I have done a podcast interview discussing this topic as well. Purity culture blatantly teaches us that it is what we do and don't do that makes us pure, not the shed blood of Jesus Christ that makes us pure. It teaches that purity is without us, not within us; that we can be 'pure' because we haven't lost our virginity. That is dangerous and leads the way in downplaying the damages of pornography. Because porn isn't actually having physical sexual intercourse and physically involving another person in the flesh, it isn't as damaging as the physical relations, and therefore doesn't technically make one 'impure'. This cognitive dissonance can be clearly seen in the Josh Duggar case. I have also been muted from a ‘Reformed’ group for saying that pornography consumption is the same as adultery. I was told I was wrong, that it was not the same. Obviously the Duggars agree. This mindset is all too common amongst Christians today and is heartbreaking and incredibly damaging.
Purity culture, and teachings like IBLP/ATI and others, teach in so many words and implications that it isn't the gospel that changes us, it just saves us from hell, and we need to work hard at changing ourselves through the practice of godly disciplines— not dating, making sure we have daily devotions, attending church whenever the doors are open, evangelize every chance we get, not wearing certain clothes and not listening to certain music, etc. They presume that we are righteous before God based on our good works, as is clearly evidenced by the letters written at the top of this page. I recommend this podcast on the topic: Theocast on disciplines. The entire foundation of purity culture is law keeping.
The Heidleberg Catechism states it this way:
HC Q60: How are you righteous before God?
A: Only by true faith in Jesus Christ; that is, although my conscience accuse me, that I have grievously sinned against all the commandments of God, and have never kept any of them, and am still prone always to all evil; yet God without any merit of mine, of mere grace, grants and imputes to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ, as if I had never committed nor had any sin, and had myself accomplished all the obedience which Christ has fulfilled for me; if only I accept such benefit with a believing heart.
HC Q61: Why do you say that you are righteous by faith only?
A: Not that I am acceptable to God on account of the worthiness of my faith, but because only the satisfaction, righteousness and holiness of Christ is my righteousness before God and I can receive the same and make it my own in no other way than by faith only.
HC Q62: But why cannot our good works be the whole or part of our righteousness before God?
A: Because the righteousness which can stand before the judgment-seat of God, must be perfect throughout and wholly conformable to the divine law; but even our best works in this life are all imperfect and defiled with sin.
Matthew 23:27-28
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”
It is true that when we are redeemed, good works will flow from us as a result of the Holy Spirit working His fruit in us and sanctifying us. It is God's grace that makes it so that we aren't having to work to earn favor with God. That is a very comforting thought. However, a result of the Holy Spirit living in us also is evidenced by repentance. Repentance is defined as a turning around. It is more than just remorse, but is a turning from one direction to another. We see our sin, confess it, ask for forgiveness, and repent with the power of Christ, and we do this often. This is an outworking of the gospel work in our hearts. And Josh Duggar has neither confessed, asked forgiveness, nor repented. This is not the marks of one who is redeemed, and is indicative of one who should be marked and avoided-- he lives in unacknowledged, unrepentant sin. 1 John 1:8-9 says "If we say, 'We have no sin', we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
The premise of purity culture and the teaching of the Duggars is that law keeping us our goal, and makes and keeps us righteous, while the gospel says Christ kept the law for us, and became our righteousness.
Amen
Soli Deo Gloria
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