Im late in joining the thread but wanted to share my thoughts somewhere. Im an american Christian who has lived in the UK for 16 years. Im saying that because when I became a christian, roughly 17 years ago, as a young adult, I found there were a lot of things within Christendom to 'wade' thru. Knowing Christ was one thing, understanding christianity was something else altogether. I remember coming across a lot of things the Duggars believe. I dont know if this has been mentioned earlier on in the thread but they are involved with a huge religious organisation that does closely resemble a cult. I say 'resemble' almost sarcastically, but I say it because on the outside it looks like a group of people who love God and want to honour him in every area of their lives. This is something all genuine believers in Christ want, I believe. The organisation looks legit from the outside... like way outside. Now, being outside the US for so long, in fact my entire adult life, I only recently caught wind of the Duggars on tv. They looked like a really nice christian family, even borderline amazing in how they have 19 kids and how happy everyone seems. This is coming from someone who wasnt aware of their political affairs or anything. With that said, having watched a few episodes, I did get a 'creepy', 'wierd' vibe. I noticed something was amiss. Body language, and the way things seemed so contrived. I heard of the name Gothard within the last few weeks and did a little digging, all just before news of Joshua Duggars crimes make the headlines, just within a few weeks, tho. Bill Gothard was the man who started up the organisation that teaches everything the Duggars, the Bates, and a lot of those within this 'movement' stands for. Bill Gothard recently stood down from his position as head of the organisation he started because 30+ women came forward claiming he behaved inappropriately towards them. Whether there was actual sexual assault or not, is not made known, the news stories just mention sexual 'harrassment'.
My point is that, in my opinion, the Duggars are indeed invovled in a cult. A HUGE and very profitable organisation that teaches some crazy junk... doctrine that I believe many christians, even nondeviant, genuine believers (as in not actually involved in cult activities) in Jesus Christ will possibly agree with. I think christians are in a time when they need to really take a step back and question everything. What doctrine have we picked up along the way that doesnt hold itself up to the standard Christ laid out for us? We've made a HUGE mess. I think we are standing up for things that Christ never intended for us to stand up for. Or against. When Jesus said 'Take the plank out of your own eye before you attempt to remove the speck of dust out of your brother's eye' (Im paraphrasing obviously), I dont believe he was saying that the behaviour of 'your brother' was not 'sin'. He was saying that in order to understand, even have a basic understanding about how to help someone else understand what sin is or how to deal with sin in their lives, you must deal with yourself. You must really really understand and take time to examine yourself, your attitudes, hang ups, heresies, misunderstandings, everything about how you deal with other human beings who were also created in God's image.
I think we've screwed up so bad. I think that if you are a genuine follower of Jesus Christ, no matter what 'denomination' its probably a good time to take a step back and really examine ourselves and what we've been taught. For me its time to do a lot of research. I will remain a Christ follower, but I will have nothing to do with the way of thinking that comes from modern false doctrine. What happened to those girls is abhorrant. Not just the abuse, but the brainwashing that lead to the abuse and its cover up, the excuses, and its happening all over christendom. I hate it and want nothing to do with it, I dont want to be associated with it, not just the actions of one family, but the entire way of thinking. This goes far deeper than the actions of a family on tv. This is huge. I hope its a huge wake up call for christians, seriously. Maybe its just huge for me and christendom will (most likely) carry on the way it has been with hate speach and politicising every single thing everyone else does. However, I challenge every single christian reading this to take a step back and re evaluate everything. Im going back to reading about Christ and his actual teachings about God's love, what sin really is and what God did to bring about the remedy for it. I think if we take a step back, many of us will recognise that those with the loudest voices in christianity, the ones running for political office, making huge issues over things Christ didnt make issues out of, they resemble closely the people who actually crucified Christ in the first place and hopefully realise that its not a good thing to sound or look like them. Id rather look like Jesus Christ any day. I hope there are lots more christians who speak up and are willing to say the same thing.
As far as the Duggars are concerned... I would be very happy if there were an indepth investigation, just to see if there are any crimes to be discovered. I dont even need to know about it, I just want it to be stopped or prevented. If Jim Bob and Michelle have committed any crimes it would be a good thing if it were dealt with legally.
I had to find somewhere to say my peace about this issue. Its been a long time since I posted on CF and I just wanted to vent my opinion somewhere.
