Mike Huckabee got into a screaming match at a campaign stop in Iowa earlier this week when a woman asked him about his continued support for the Duggars. Mike Huckabee’s response? About five straight minutes of him yelling “You don’t know them!” over and over and over again.
A little over two months ago, former conservative reality star, former executive director of FRC action, and current sex rehab resident Josh Duggar was one of the first major celebrities exposed in Ashley Madison’s unprecedented data dump. At the time, we were able to confirm his two paid accounts using the associated credit card info. But now, thanks to tipster Nathan Turner, we also have his profile pictures. [See updates below.]
Five former members of the Institute of Basic Life Principles, a fundamentalist organization with well-documented ties to the Duggar family, have filed charges against both the organization and its board of directors, claiming they “enabled and covered up sexual abuse and harassment of interns, employees, and other participants in its programs,” according to The Washington Post.
For whatever reason, Bill Gothard, the 80-year-old life-long bachelor who founded the Duggars’ fundamentalist homeschool curriculum, decided that now would be a great time to put up his first Facebook post in almost two years. And since the post went live Wednesday evening, his page has been deleting allegation after allegation of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse.
Earlier today, the Duggar family confirmed that Josh has been locked away in a “long-term treatment center,” ostensibly for his self-described porn and sex addiction. And the most likely candidate by far is the Christian-based, North Love Baptist Church-affiliated Reformers Unanimous recovery center. A place that’s little more than a glorified, bible-based labor camp.
Matthew James McCarthy is a DJ/producer living in Hollywood and looking to make a name for himself. He is not, in fact, scandal-plagued reality star and former lobbyist Josh Duggar who made headlines last week after his name turned up in the Ashley Madison dump. But good luck telling that to McCarthy’s former high school teacher.
In 2013, conservative reality TV star Josh Duggar—of TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting fame—was named the executive director of the Family Research Council, a conservative lobbying group in D.C. which seeks “to champion marriage and family as the foundation of civilization, the seedbed of virtue, and the wellspring of society.” During that time, he also maintained a paid account on Ashley Madison, a web site created for the express purpose of cheating on your spouse.
TLC is trying to make lemonade out of 19 Kids and Counting’s Josh Duggar revealing he molested his little sisters as a teen. Although leaving the Duggars on the air would have been terrible PR, featuring Jill and Jessa Duggar—two of Josh’s victims—in a documentary special about child sex abuse strikes the perfect balance between acknowledging the problem and milking a big, troubled TV family for publicity.
Duggars be damned: It turns out presidential Easter ham Mike Huckabee has another alleged child molester in his coterie. A prolific co-author of Huck’s and other Christian moralists’ books left his church and escaped prosecution when the statute of limitations ran out on his alleged sexual assaults of a young girl.
When asked by interviewer Megyn Kelly about their initial reactions upon learning details of their case had been released to the public, the Duggar sisters responded emotionally. Jill, 12 at the time of the molestation, faltered and began to cry as she attempted to speak. Younger sister Jessa said that the victims were “pretty furious.”
On Wednesday night, Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar went on Fox News to discuss the molestation of four of their daughters by their eldest son, Josh. During the interview, they made vague allusions to Josh’s “counseling” at some sort of “training center.” There’s a reason they never got into specifics: Josh’s counseling was bullshit.
19 Kids and Counting stars Jill and Jessa Duggar, ages 24 and 22, would have been 11 and 10 when their older brother Josh molested them in 2002. They confirmed they were among the victims when they joined their parents, Jim Bob and Michelle, Wednesday for an interview with Fox’s Megyn Kelly.
There’s a lot more to ATI—the insane fundamentalist homeschool program used by the Duggars and thousands of others—than just bad science. In addition to revelations about cancer-causing semen, you’ll also be getting a whole section of fashion tips. Because if there’s anything god hates (more than lust and sex and logic and just you in general), it’s hairstyles that don’t complement the shape of your face.
You know about the Duggars, the evangelical Christian family whose 19 children catapulted them to fame through Discovery Health specials and TLC show, 19 Kids and Counting, and you know about Josh Duggar, the eldest son, who admitted last week to molesting several underage girls as a teen—including his own sisters.
