Thread by @eaton

The latest episode of @CRightcast was a very rough one to research and record. Content warnings VERY much apply for it and this thread — it covers child sexual abuse, religious abuse, and the ways some fundamentalist groups explicitly silence victims and protect abusers.

The story that prompted this departure from our Reconstructionsm series was Josh Duggar's arrest for possession of child sexual abuse materials, and the Duggar family's connection to fundamentalist teacher Bill Gothard. rightcast.substack.com/p/episode-13

Gothard and his IBLP/ATI organizations are regarded as "extreme" and "legalistic" by the most Christians, even inside the Christian Right… but his bent towards authoritarianism and rigid enforcement of patriarchal gender roles is treated as "oldschool" rather than "dangerous."

He taught that dating was wrong and made fathers sign pledges to "shield their daughters" from its evils. That fathers should keep them at home until they married and passed over to another man's "protection." That should always wear long dresses and long hair for "modesty."

And chillingly, he and his org taught that sexual abuse and assault almost always involve "shared guilt" by the perpetrator and the victim. @RLStollar has done a lot of legwork in exposing the internal IBLP documents (and teaching materials) that explicitly blame victims.

About 5-6 years ago, though, a cloud of sexual harassment accusations — serious enough that Gothard was ousted as the head of the organization he founded — put a lot of those things in a different light.

The demands Gothard made of women, particularly young women: their appearance, their manner, the steps they were instructed to take if violated… Damaging for a host of reasons, but after he was ousted?

In light of the accusations against Gothard those teachings looked a lot more like a system built to supply abusers with compliant victims, then protect the abusers from repercussions.

So, around 2002, the Duggar family — years before they were the squeaky-clean public face of Quiverfull fundamentalism — discovered their 15 year old son had been molesting multiple girls, his younger sister included.

The Duggars took him to Bill Gothard's org for "help."

When that story broke in 2015 (before the accusations about Gothard and related legal battles became public), everyone familiar with Christian Purity culture and Gothard's approach to dealing with sexual abuse immediately knew it would go very, very badly.

And now, six or so years later, 33 year old Josh Duggar is facing charges for crimes that make it clear Gothard's teaching — and the purity culture "solutions" to predation and abuse — did nothing.

Unravelling and explaining the connection in this episode of the podcast was emotionally exhausting for both Kristin and I — thankfully we were able to lean heavily on the good work of folks like @RLStollar and others who cover the fundamentalist homeschooling movement.

Episode 14 will be broader — rather the ugly and soul-crushing details of one organization's abuses, we'll be examining the broader themes of Christian Purity Culture — how it intersects with familiar cultural battles over sex ed, "family values," and more.

For those who know me… yes, there's a diagram. Naturally.