Sex abuse scandals rock far-right fundamentalism. The Duggars, Bill Gothard, Doug Phillips.
From Slate today:
Duggar Revelations Are Just the Latest Sex Abuse Scandal to Rock Far-Right Fundamentalism
The family's fame guarantees this story will stay in the public memory for a while, but it's far from the first sex abuse scandal in the tight-knit world of far-right fundamentalism. As I wrote last year for Slate, Doug Phillips of the far-right group Vision Forum was forced to step down after admitting to "a lengthy, inappropriate relationship with a woman." The woman in question, Lourdes Torres-Manteufel, claims it was more than "inappropriate," noting that they met when she was 15 and that he "methodically groomed" by moving her into the house as a nanny and becoming "the pastor of her church, her boss, her landlord, and the controller of all aspects of her life" before pushing for sex. The Duggars were tight with Phillips and Vision Forum, which promoted a lot of Duggar-related material.
Remember Bill Gothard?
Another hardcore fundamentalist leader who had a mentorship relationship with the Duggars, Bill Gothard, was also caught up in a sex abuse scandal last year. Gothard was the leader of Institute in Basic Life Principles, an organization that promotes the "quiverfull" philosophy—particularly its emphasis on forsaking contraception and having as many children as possible. Gothard resigned after more than 30 women accused him of sexual harassment and abuse. Prior to this, Wire reports, the Duggars were "devotees of Gothard's Advanced Training Institute seminars. Until recently, the Duggars' official website called Gothard's Embassy Institute (which he also founded) their '#1 recommended resource' for families (that page now displays as blank)."
Vision Forum, the Institute in Basic Life Principles, and the Duggar family are arguably the three most influential groups promoting the "Christian patriarchy" movement, which promotes homeschooling, wifely submission, extreme pre-martial chastity (no hand-hugging or kissing), no contraception, and the idea that women's only real role in life is as wives and mothers. Having all your major leadership eaten up by sex abuse scandals is no small thing. Even before the Duggar revelations, the head of Patrick Henry College, itself an extreme religious-right organization, was distancing himself from the Christian patriarchy movement. When even big-time fundamentalists are jumping ship, maybe it's time for TLC to consider cutting the Duggars loose.
Updated to add: TLC has pulled 19 Kids and Counting.
More about the Gothard influence. From 2012
Carefully scripted lives: My concerns about the Duggars
4. Bill Gothard and IBLP
The Duggars are big fans of Bill Gothard and are enrolled in his Institutes for Basic Life Principles. Outside of the circle of his followers, Bill Gothard is frequently regarded as a cult leader. He teaches, for instance, that troll dolls delay labor, that cabbage patch dolls are possessed by demons, and that Christians today must follow Old Testament sexual purity codes, including abstaining from sex the evening before weekly worship. Oh, and he teaches that tampons take girls’ virginity.
Until 2002 Gothard ran a group home for delinquent children in Indianapolis, Indiana. Children were sent there by the juvenile justice system for years until the place was closed down under allegations of abuse, including Gothard’s notorious “prayer closets.” There has been a growing movement among young people raised on Gothard’s teachings to expose the abuse, physical, emotional, and spiritual, they suffered at the hand of Gothard and his multiple ministries, including orphanages in places like Russia.
What bothers me most about the Duggars’ involvement with Gothard and IBLP is their use of his “re-education” camps (my term). When Josh Duggar was showing some signs of being “rebellious” years ago, they sent him to Gothard’s military boot camp for young men, the ALERT Academy. He returned much subdued. They’ve done the same with some of the girls, sending them to Gothard’s Journey to the Heart programs, where they are reminded of how wicked and sinful they are and told again and again that following God means obeying their earthly parents.
It bothered me to read at that link that the Duggars use "blanket training."
The Duggars have stated that they use blanket training. What they do is place a baby on a blanket and tell the baby not to get off. If the baby crawls off, he or she is spanked on the leg, told “no,” and placed back on the blanket. If you do this for long enough, the baby will learn to stay on the blanket, and then you can safely leave the baby there while you cook lunch or school the older ones. This all seems counter to the nature of a naturally curious baby.
Authoritarian discipline shuts off questions and leaves little room for children to explore. The emphasis on obedience overrides anything else, and as I’ve written before, this can be highly problematic.
= new reply since forum marked as read
acting out in the most bizarre ways. In all probability because their loony-tune "churches" see all normal, consensual sexual expression as "sinful." Believe stupid shit and you wind up acting in stupid ways. 
Authoritarians are almost always the freakiest pervs.
They call it like it is.
Calling out hypocrites. 
Sounds like something the Pearls would do. 
It's by some who grew up with Gothard's philosophies. It's called Recovering Grace.
There was an article there yesterday, very long, but with a familiar ring.
http://www.recoveringgrace.org/2015/05/gracenote/
In light of recent news events, we are republishing an older article on the danger and flaws of IBLP's teachings on counseling sexual abuse within families. Our hearts go out to all the families under Bill Gothard's influence who have suffered this tragic abuse. The teachings are horrific in both their blame of victims and lack of true help for young perpetrators.
The Duggars remained loyal to Gothard even after all the info came out and he was forced to resign from his institute.
That is to say, I was a dumb kid, and wanted to please my dad and I bought into it to a truly troubling degree.
The only thing that gave me a key out of it was all their nonsense about having more babies.
I had heard in my science classes (hooray public education!) that the world was severely over populated, but these guys were saying that the world was pretty much empty.
Proof? All of humanity standing shoulder to shoulder could fit into Jacksonville Florida.
Even in my dumb, brainwashed state I thought, "But, how much FARMLAND does it take to support each person?"
Just that one little irritant, that one bit of doubt....it eventually led me to question their whole house of cards.
Took me years, and I'm still deeply scarred....but I finally made my way out.
I hope you are on your own path to healing.
Gothardism is so little known, I often felt very alone on my journey.
