Beyond the Duggar Headlines

The media will chew on the Megan Kelly interview of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar. This never came up - three abusers were very close to the family:

1. Bill Gothard - They routinely attended training at the Gothard conferences. Josh and Anna Duggar met at one Gothard confab. Over 30 women reported being abused as youth by Bill Gothard, while Gothard's brother committed adultery with the women staffers.
2. Doug Phillips - This home-schooler's hero moved a young woman into his home to serve as a nanny and as his intimate, much like the Gothard approach. Like Gothard, he had to resign when the facts came out.
3. State Trooper Joseph Hutchens, a re-offender in state prison for the rest of his life, was a child pornographer.

This cluster of offenders around the family should tell us something about their toxic influence on the faith and actions of the Duggar clan. Gothard was a blatant false teacher among Evangelicals. Phillips was offended anyone brought up his disgusting behavior, because he was out of a job now. 

In Gothard’s booklet Establishing Biblical Standards of Courtship there is a page for sons and daughters to cut out which is a covenant they sign with their fathers to “…demonstrate your commitment to God’s plan for courtship instead of man’s philosophy of dating….”22 

The young person must say to his or her father, “I will wait for your full release before entering into marriage.” The father, in turn, tells his daughter that “I will protect you from unqualified men.” To his son the father says, “I will protect you from strange women.” This covenant is “between a father and a son as witnessed by the Lord Jesus Christ” and must be signed by the child, the father, and the family’s pastor.

Veinot, Don (2003-08-25). A Matter of Basic Principles (Kindle Locations 4219-4225). Midwest Christian Outreach, Inc. Kindle Edition. [GJ - Sound familiar, Duggar fans?]

Someone wrote me:

Your blog helps a lot, no question about it.  Just think about the people who have been abused in the church.  If even one finds your blog and is able to retain their faith because of the comfort they receive, isn't that fulfilling the will of God?

And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold [water] only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward. Matt 10.42

I am only using the Duggar cluster of abusers to warn people away from similar situations in their own "conservative" Lutheran synods.

The Mother of the Year Award
came from an Evangelical leader who kept a hawt nanny in his home -
for his children, of course.
LCMS founder Martin Stephan did the same,
and left Dresden "In Pursuit of Religious Freedom."

Those who enable and empower these abusers are the worst criminals of all, yet they are at the top of the food pyramid, devouring the estates of widows and orphans, pointing their crooked fingers at anyone who questions their infallibility. I know another Josh who willfully erased the evidence of criminal behavior of synod leaders on the group blog he helps to edit - at the command and by the authority of Matt Harrison.

"Put not your faith in princes" - and that includes the princes of the visible church. 

Doug Phillips and Bill Gothard
must have shared tips on grooming young women for the harem.