I was scrolling through my Facebook page as I do about once a day and noticed another DPS, “Dugger Bashing Session.” They come on my feed from time to time.
In case this doesn't run across your feed, it is the ongoing conversation about the Duggar family who had a score of children and a prime-time television show that showcased their conservative Christian mindset in raising them.
The show was canceled a couple of years ago I believe because their son was accused of molesting his sisters. And as is usual in these cases the Duggar family went from being the quaint darlings of the media to being the Devil family incarnate.
This banishing session, if I understood the points, was that the Duggar mom and dad need to be shot, drawn and quartered, hung and other wise censured for their evils due to attending the Institute in Basic Youth Conflict seminars that was started by Bill Gathered in the late 60s and early 70s. Their evils are due to the seminar teaching “servant leadership” of the husband and father. The ministry was a cult. And the founder himself was beset by allegations of at least sexual harassment or worse.
As my writing ministry surrounds examining Christianity in the modern culture, I feel compelled to put my two cents into the mix. It has been many years, but I attended several of these seminars and was part of the conservative Christian family movement in the past. This I feel qualifies me to have an opinion in in the matter along with everyone else who has no more personal experience in the situation than the hermit crab in the South Pacific who is flipping through his Facebook account.
Although it is sometimes painful it is a good idea to listen to our enemies and critics to keep a humble honest opinion of ourselves as Christians. And as the Dugger’s represent Christianity whether they wanted to or not I feel it is necessary to respond to the points on the behalf of fair play. I was part of both of movements even though I have moved away from much of the thinking and have not been involved in it for many years.
I don't want to address the son's guilt or innocence because I do not know enough to have an opinion and except for the family, the potential victims, the son, and the investigators, no one does. We can have all the opinions we want, but he could be completely guilty or completely innocent and anything we would say are just opinions. If he is guilty, I pray that he repents and finds forgiveness, mercy, and grace from God and takes responsibility for his actions. If he is being falsely accused may the truth come out so that true justice is served.
I do not know the Duggars personally, but I know people who know them. They may be the evil incarnate people the media is making them out to be or as Mr. Bennett said in Pride and Prejudice about Mr. Darcy, “I think we will find that Mr. Darcy is no more of a black guard than any other rich man.” I think we will in the end find that the Duggar mom and dad are no more sinners than any other Christians. My goal is to neither defend them nor castigate them. It is to look at the world's hypocritical response to their life and the church's sometimes Dunder Mifflin Paper Company response to their situation.
As far as the world is concerned and the humanism that runs it, their response is completely predictable. The fact of the Duggars are conservatives and Christians means that they are fair game for every possible abuse that can be heaped upon them. I expect nothing better from the world. If they want me to answer for any hypocrisy in my life as a Christian, I expect them to answer for things like completely ignoring Epstein's Island and that all the people involved in it made anything the Duggar’s or their son did look like preschool. It's time that the humanistic world is called out like they relish calling out Christians.
Lawyer heal thyself.
Since the article was placed online, they are making the accusations and therefore invite the public to render judgment as to their merits, let's examine each count against the Duggers here.
No matter how he arrived at this evil philosophy, Mr. Dugger is accused of practicing “servant leadership” as a husband and a father. It is obvious that the humanistic community has judged this as completely unacceptable because a father showing any leadership is a tyrant who needs to be censured and exposed. In our culture men should stay the oldest immature kid in the home and be the least listened to. In a culture that accepts the idea that a person can legitimately believe themselves to be a mermaid, they have lost all credibility in the claim that they are intellectually and morally superior to the scripture.
But we as Christians need to look back to the scripture to judge this. It should be the final arbiter of whether our defendant is guilty. So, I am going to do deep a study in this matter from God word.
Studying…. Studying…Studying… just kidding, I don't have to.
If Christians don't get this one right, they need to sit down and actually read the New Testament. You know, those 27 books at the end of the Bible. I would say that 30 years ago a third grade Sunday school class could get this one right and I'm scared that most Christian adults can’t today. That is what a friend of mine would say is “patheta-sad.”
Of course, the Christian father is supposed to be the servant leader of his home. The Christian world today may bristle at the idea that the New Testament teaches that the man is supposed to be the spiritual leader but that's exactly what the scripture teaches. The fact that fathers and husbands may not be able to live it and families may be so rebellious they refuse to follow does not negate the fact that that's exactly what the Bible teaches.
So, to count number one I hope Mr. Dugger is found guilty. If he was making the attempt on any level, he was doing something right even if he failed. Sadly, there are plenty times in my life where I would not be found guilty of this charge, and neither would my family. So, I throw no stones.
Charge number two was the Duggers were associated with the Institute in Basic Life Conflicts which was a cult, and the founder was corrupt. As I stated above, I attended these seminars from my early teens into my middle adult years. I cannot speak for the leadership of the movement as I was not involved but I can to the teaching.
So, I decided to go into my library and pull out my books from The Institute to review the teachings. I have not been involved for a couple of decades, so I wanted to make sure I was being accurate. The basic seminar which lasts for a week surrounded the subjects of self-image, responsibility, clearing your conscience, yielding rights, freedom from sin, success in the Christian Life, God's purpose for your life, and picking friends.
The material which helped people of all ages was originally written for teenagers and so tended to have that bent to it. As far as the authors of the article saying that the institute in Basic Youth conflicts was cultic, I would just say that the material for the basic was excellent material. The material helped thousands of Christians be better Christians. It taught Christian principles that every Church today should be teaching. If there was anything heretical about it, it must be deeply hidden because I have studied the scripture for over 40 years and find it still to be pretty good stuff.
The advanced Institute was more on the level of practical application. As a result, it probably was where most of the controversy came from. Its teachings on spiritual gifts were excellent and it had lots of other good material, but it did advocate having large families, homeschooling your kids, and the mom staying at home. It also advocated becoming financially free and other concepts that were the movement’s application of scripture but were not heretical violations of scriptural principles.
Many of the points I do not agree with, but I still contend that there is nothing overtly heretical about the teaching. It is a way of looking at the Christian faith that some people find successful, and others do not. Mom's do not necessarily have to stay at home to be a successful family. Kids do not necessarily have to be homeschooled to be a successful Christian. Some of those concepts are debatable but not heretical.
There were other programs, and I do not have time to go into all of them. I cannot say that there was not a cultic atmosphere to his other programs. I know people that attended some of them and benefited from them, but I can speak to the fact that the Institute in Basic Life Conflicts was an instrument that God used to saved thousands of souls and helped thousands and thousands of Christians become better Christians.
I attended several seminars in the 70s and early 80s in Portland, Oregon and a friend of mine who got sick and had to lay down and was ushered into a back room to see medical staff. She walked through several rooms with scores of Christians that we're praying that the people would be saved, and the people's lives would be changed. Whatever the Institute did wrong or whatever failures they may have had at least they were out there attempting to try to get people right with God. And they were following a pattern it certainly is scriptural. Bill Gothard may have been a tyrant bully and inappropriate or sinful with how he dealt with ladies. But the movement is self-did much for the kingdom of God.
And my next point would be so what if this is true or not true what is this have to do with the Duggars? What does this institute's successes or failures have to do with their life? That is not any different than if somebody works in a business and at the head of the business is laundering money for the mafia or doing something illegal does not make the employees or the people that are associated with the business guilty. So far, all the article has taught me is that the Duggars are guilty of being involved in a parachurch ministry that I know to have helped many people over the years despite its failures and sins.
So, the charges should be dropped for lack of merit. They attempted to live the life in the principles of the Institute, and I suspect if I investigated their life, I would find that they were successful in some points and not in others, sounds like real life Christianity to me.
As to the charges against Bill Gothard I was so helped by this ministry and so were so many people that I am sad that this happened and anything that he is guilty of I am profoundly sad over but again that has nothing to do with the Duggars.
The last charge that the Duggars were part of what I called the Conservative Christian Movement of a generation ago. The 60s and 70s of the American Church were the highest time of influence. We held great sway over the culture and certainly was making a cultural difference towards of the kingdom of God on some levels. But as time went on the church moved into a form of legalism and institutionalization that denied the power of the Spirit and therefore the church's influence began to wane. As a result of that movements across the Americas were formed to bring the church back to its former glory. The Conservative Christian Movement was a call to move back to the basic principles of scripture and have a living Christianity, not a dead Institution. It carried with it the idea that the church should be actively doing things and changing its behavior not just giving lip service to being a Christian.
As to this one I would say that our intent was great, but the application did not work. The one thing that I observe, and that many Christians have found out, is that one cannot force people or children into doing the right thing and change their hearts. Until the heart is changed by the power of the Holy Spirit rules will avail nothing. So, we may have acted better on the outside but many of us and our children were not necessarily better on the inside. That was the Conservative Christian Movement’s failure. As a result, neither the dying institutional church or the Conservative Christian Movement of the time was making any difference to the culture that was increasingly ignoring the church and its influence.
The Millennial and Digital generations born after 1980 and 2000 absolutely hate a Christianity that requires a change of behavior. They cite that this is because it turns into legalism, which it often does, but the opposite of this is a Christianity that is only one in name only and has no more Spirit than the Conservative Christian Movement of a generation before. I intend to address this in my next article.
Again, Lawyer heal thyself.
Before I could finish this article there was already another DBS over Mr. Duggar being supposedly involved in some sort of a shady real estate deal. But I am getting disgusted by it. Again, if it's true then may he be held accountable and if it's not may he be protected from the constant lies that are spread about him. The humanist anti Christians running America have lost all credibility with me whether it's true or not.
As far as I'm concerned this illustrates that the church in America, regardless of the generation, has a lot of work to do and we're all getting a lot of things wrong. This family is suffering for our sins as well as theirs.
