Janet and I want to affirm our support for the Duggar family. Josh’s actions when he was an underage teen are as he described them himself, 'inexcusable,' but that doesn’t mean 'unforgivable.' ... Good people make mistakes and do regrettable and even disgusting things.... he confessed his sins to those he harmed, sought help, and has gone forward to live a responsible and circumspect life.... It is precisely because we are all sinners that we need His grace and His forgiveness.If you believe that the desire to commit any sin at all can be prayed away, then you don't treat pedophiles as people who are always a danger. You tell yourself that they can purge their inappropriate desires if they seek God's help, and you leave it at that. That's why so many Catholic priests just got ineffectual counseling, or merely a stern talking-to. That's all the backers of Josh Duggar think he needed to transcend this.
Another aspect of social conservatives' worldview is that they utterly reject the notion that it's hypocritical for Duggar and his family to have engaged in anti-gay moralizing. To social conservatives, gay sex is sinful, and people who continue to engage in gay sex are sinning on an ongoing basis and not repent and asking forgiveness. To them Josh Duggar sinned and asked forgiveness. So, to social cons, Josh Duggar is unquestionably a better, less sinful person.
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And now for the next phase of this story. It will include a lot of pundit pronouncements that include the words "liberal hypocrisy" and "Lewinsky." That's already starting in right-wing comments sections:
I will note, however, that even some conservatives aren't buying that line of argument. Here are the responses to that comment (from a thread at Glenn Beck's Blaze):
So if you're wondering whether Huckabee's rush to back Duggar will actually help him in the presidential race, my response would be: with some people it will help, but with others, including people who might have been backers, it will seriously tarnish him.
13 comments:
I hope this story has a very short half life. No love here for the Duggars, but I'm loath to brand/punish an adult for his/her actions at 14. The sexual curiosity and drive of a 14 year old boy can be phenomenal and is sometimes directly inversely proportional to his judgement. Yes he lived/lives in a bizarre insular world that may have set the stage for his actions, and his parents reaction should have been sex education rather than the equivalent of a cold shower, but I don't fault any parent for not turning his/her child over to the authorities for something like this. Personally, I wouldn't advise getting the authorities involved in one's family unless the stakes were truly dire. Maybe this fits that description but I don't think it does based on what I know of the situation -- and I already know more than I ever wanted to about the Duggars, I hope I can preserve whatever blissful ignorance of their affairs I have left.
Huckster's kid tortured and strangled a stray dog as a teen. The boy Scouts kicked him out for it. Apparently they're the only institution left that holds powerful, rich white people responsible for anything. James O'keefe should probably investigate with his GoPro.
I'm all Duggered-out, and I never even watched a single second of their show(s)!
Another uber-"Christian" caught in a sex scandal.
Ho-hum...
Janet and I want to affirm our support for the Duggar family
The family, except the sisters Josh molested.
I don't know, mlbxxxx, it didn't sound like a simple case of two siblings "playing doctor."
He molested them while they were asleep. Reports also use the word "forcible" to describe it. He did it repeatedly over a period of time, perhaps couple of years.
That doesn't sound like someone who just got curious once.
It sounds like a habitual offender.
The point isn't that Josh did something normal like experimenting with girls around him--its that he molested four of his sisters (all,I think definitionally, younger than he) and someone outside of the family. The family had him "counseled" by a pedophile who is now serving time in prison (75 years!) and doesn't seem to have done anything for the girls he harmed. That's the offense. Not what he did at 14 but the fact that he has engaged in a coverup and, for all we know, has continued abusing girls just like his mentor the state trooper did.
The word of this family can simply not be trusted when it comes to sexual matters, incest and molestation. And they should lose their position as supposed moral authorities over it.Not because one of their children did something bad,and not even because they stood by him, but because they sacrificed, and continue to sacrifice, their daughters' wellbeing for their son's. And because they continue to attack other people for having consensual sex when they themselves have permitted non consensual sexual conduct within their own family.
Why do the parents still have children in their home? They not only confessed to child endangerment, they let it continue and did not seek any professional help even for their daughters.
And they should lose their position as supposed moral authorities over it.
What form might that loss of moral authority take? It seems to me that the values and mores they hold most dear are at the root of the pathologies at work there.
If you read the torrent of anti-Huckabee comments at his facebook page you will see that this is one of the fault lines even within the evangelical/right wing community, as it is between men and women. A lot of self identified supporters of Huckabee and self identified christians are coming out, under their own names, to blast Huckabee for his support of Josh Duggar. Christian women who have been molested are especially angry. And there seem to be rather a lot of them.
It's also fascinating that they equate this case with Ted Kennedy, Bill Clinton, and Anthony Weiner.
Anthony Weiner was engaging in sexting with a willing, adult partner.
Bill Clinton was indeed, it appears, a habitual horndog, but with willing, adult partners. To accuse him of "sexual assault" is slander.
We have no idea what sexual relationship Ted Kennedy had with Mary Jo Kopechne. He gave her a ride in his car when he was drunk and caused an accident that killed her. There's no knowledge (at least none I'm aware of) what their relationship was other than she was a campaign volunteer, an adult and, presumably, willing to be in his company.
Keeping score by comparing these men with someone who molested younger children while they were asleep is just a sick manifestation of how tribal political thought has become.
Steve, you're absolutely correct and right on target when you note
Another aspect of social conservatives' worldview is that they utterly reject the notion that it's hypocritical for Duggar and his family to have engaged in anti-gay moralizing. To social conservatives, gay sex is sinful, and people who continue to engage in gay sex are sinning on an ongoing basis and not repent and asking forgiveness. To them Josh Duggar sinned and asked forgiveness.
You add "So, to social cons, Josh Duggar is unquestionably a better, less sinful person."
They likely believe Duggar is a better person than most of the rest of us. However, social conservatives who truly are Biblically-oriented recognize that everyone sins and falls short of the glory of God. Hence, Duggar would (and should) be seen as no less sinful than anyone else.
The Huckabee defense of Duggar is perfectly understandable when you remember that the Huck is from Arkansas, where the definition of a virgin has always been, "a 12 year old girl who can run faster than her brothers."
Yours crankily,
The New York Crank
This is for you, Crank.
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