Thread by @joshuadpease

"Shiny Happy People" did a great job linking the Duggar family to the Industrial Gothard Complex, but you can't unpack everything about that world in 4 eps. I'm still haunted by one specific aspect of IBLP I covered in my reporting that got briefly mentioned in the doc [thread]:

The damage done at IBLP campuses is unlike anything I've personally encountered. Working at a campus was an honor, & many well-meaning parents shipped their kids off to these training centers thinking it was an amazing opportunity. The carnage was catastrophic.

Kids were trapped in an insular world with no way to escape, a public phone to call your parents was the only lifeline to the outside world. They were worked grueling hours, seven days a week, overseen by peers. It was like Lord of the Flies meets 1984 meets The Scarlet Letter.

I heard stories from Russia, Indianapolis, the middle of TX, but they all went the same: "I tried so hard to serve the Lord, but it was never enough, & it broke me, body/mind/soul."

Several people I talked to were years removed, but still suffering the physical effects.

Collapsed nervous systems. Systemic health issues. Infertility. One woman died early of cancer and the doctors attributed it in part to the extreme trauma she endured.

What IBLP did to people was more than religious and sexual abuse: it dissolved peoples' personhood.

This is infuriating & horrifying no matter what your beliefs, it's just as someone trying to take this Jesus thing seriously, there's a specific kind of rage I feel. As I understand it, God created humanity body/mind/soul & called us good. We are stamped in God's image AS HUMANS.

(Gonna get pastory here for a sec) A guy named St. Irenaeus once said "the glory of God is man, fully alive." In other words: God takes joy in human thriving. God's desire is health. Wholeness. Completeness. That's true relationally, sexually, emotionally, mentally, & spiritually

What IBLP did was dissolve peoples' personhood, violate it and abuse it to where nothing was left but a husk. God wants people fully alive. IBLP systematically worked to do the opposite. It is evil. To use a Christian term: it is antichrist.

For so many of us we've seen versions of this in religious settings, where to be good, righteous, holy means some form of self-mutilation. And I want to say this: you will know you have found a truly Christian community of faith when what you are experiencing is life, not death.

In a healthy Christian community we WILL be invited deeper up and deeper in to the mystery of following Jesus, totally and completely. It's just that as we do that, we'll find ourselves MORE ourselves, not less, like the outline of us is being filled w/ vibrant colors.

No church is perfect. It's led by imperfect people [raises hand], & will be messy like ALL of life. But: a community centered on Jesus will be a place where over time you feel MORE whole. More alive. More like a loving God's masterpiece, not a sadistic God's chew toy.

If you are one of the wonderful, beautiful non-religious people following me this isn't a sales pitch. Just know I really like you. I'm writing to those who are either IN one of these communities now, or deeply burned by them and wondering if anyone else sees. I do. I get it.

IBLP told kids to give up their lives to them, & tried to annihilate them in return.

Jesus said give up your life to him and you'll actually find ABUNDANT life in return. Jesus's one seems better. So if you're doing this Christian thing, choose his path. [end]