Josh Duggar resigns from Family Research Council after sexual abuse allegations
“Josh Duggar, of TLC’s ‘19 Kids and Counting,’ resigned his position at the Family Research Council Thursday after reports surfaced that he allegedly sexually assaulted four female siblings in the large family, plus an additional female victim.” Josh Duggar resigns
Related: What You Need to Know about the Josh Duggar Police Report
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Every 12 year old boy who touches a girl’s breasts without permission is a criminal who should be locked up until they are 21?
This is what I mean by going on so little information.
We are so eager to label every violation as a criminal act in children.
I am not defending the Duggars. I can honestly say I have not seen ONE SECOND of their program. I am talking about society in general. And I think we are criminalizing every mistake kids make.
[Mark_Smith]You are the pastor of a church. A 12 year old girl says a 13 year old boy touched her breasts in Sunday School in an intimate way. Do you call the police?
The media in this story says unequivocally yes. What do you think? Is there latitude here?
If you would call, we need to be teaching our boys early to not touch girls (and why), so that your little Jimmy doesn’t wind up in the Youth Detention Center with a criminal record as a sex offender at 13!
Given that pastors and even volunteers in churches are often mandatory reporters, probably not much room for discretion. And yes, we do need to be teaching young people that you don’t just grab the private areas of someone you’re not married to…..um, are we not teaching this already? Seriously?
(and yes, I’m referring to kids of say 10 years old and older…..people for whom the other sex does not have cooties and all that)
Now I understand that there ought to be some discretion in differentiating between a boy who gets caught….red-handed and curious from a boy (girl) who does this all the time. To figure that out, you figure out who the accused interacts with and get someone to ask them whether they have ever been touched in such and such a way, and by whom….and hopefully the DA has enough common sense to differentiate that, too.
Some would argue that where we are today is overkill, and maybe they’ve got a point, but keep in mind that only about 20 years back, very few people (police, pastors, you name it) did any good work in punishing the very real abuses that occurred to children and teens. You have to understand where we are in light of where we’ve been.
I’ll draw a picture. About 35 years back, my brother and I had an impromptu sex ed class from our (male) babysitter. We told our parents about it, and it resulted in the babysitter losing his job, and the revelation that the husband of my 5th grade teacher had been molesting the babysitter and others. The babysitter’s father didn’t have confidence in the police bringing the matter to trial, so he did the next best thing; he told the teacher’s husband (also a teacher) to get out of town and never teach again. The message was clear; the law may not get you for abusing my son, but neither will they punish me if the local fire department has a blanket party for you.
That’s where we were. We’re at a different place now, thank God, and hopefully we haven’t overreacted too much.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
My sons are 6 and 2. I don’t go around telling them about molestation. Do you?
As a matter of fact, I do, in simple language that they can understand. We have a family member who is a self-admitted pedophile. We know of 20 boys he molested in the States. We know of a few people he molested on the mission field, but who knows the real number.
If our boys are spending any length of time away from parents, I give them the spiel. They are not allowed to go to public restrooms by themselves and must have a sibling with them. They also know the code sentence that we have gone over many times so that they can call home and get picked up immediately with no questions asked until they are in a safe place. They also know that most abuse occurs with people they know and trust, not a “stranger.”
So, yes, my 5 boys know about sex abuse. They know about safe touch and inappropriate touch. They know that if they ever feel uncomfortable in any situation, they can call and they will be removed from that environment. There is no fool-proof way of protecting our children, but I believe I have done the best to educate my children and warn them of the dangers and what they can do to get themselves out of potentially abusive situations.
[Joeb]Josh was 14 and 15 at the time and it was repeated offenses and he more then touched their breasts. On top of that it was his sisters. This was not one little mistake. Not a couple youmg kids playing doctor. Josh violated these young girls and its not just going to first base once and saying Oh dad I made a little mistake here.
According to the police report, he did it while they were sleeping. Imagine waking up to that as a child.
We need to not only be teaching this touching as inappropriate but CRIMINAL! Big difference.
[Mark_Smith]We need to not only be teaching this touching as inappropriate but CRIMINAL! Big difference.
Per Romans 13, shouldn’t government be proceeding from Biblical morality here? So in this case, they’ve gotten it fairly right, which in today’s society, is really something of a nice change, donchathink?
Agreed that we need to teach that it’s against not only God’s law, but also man’s.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
I think the whole place has gone NUTS. That’s what I think.
Teaching one’s children about the “privacy” of their private parts.
It was a long ago (my kids are all in their 30’s), but what I told them was in essence: you have private parts and no one is supposed to touch you there. This was not a 1 time conversation.
The pastor is not called to make these decisions. He is not the judge and jury over these matters.
They aren’t private parts. They are criminal parts now. Touch and you go to juvenile hall. The cops will come and take you…
What if the cops don’t think much happened… they don’t pursue. Then 10 years later, you are called on the carpet because you didn’t MAKE the police arrest the kid. Sound familiar?
If the Duggars had chosen the quiet life, this would not be newsworthy. I’m sure many a child has “played doctor” with a child of the opposite gender. Wrong? Yes! Criminal? Well that would be all sorted out. Juvenile criminal is different than adult criminal.
For a juvenile to touch his sister’s private parts in her sleep. That seems rarer too me.
But the Duggars chose the public life? For what reason? To promote their faith? Was their money in it for them? Did they need the money? AND after knowing about their son’s indiscretions, they continued the very public life. Seems like a huge lack of judgment to me.
“Gosh, yet another anti-gay alleged Christian defender turns out to be a garden variety scumbag”
He was a kid! 14. And labeled a “scumbag”.
Any chance the Gothard clinic actually helped him? Nah…. Let’s destroy him!
[Mark_Smith]“Gosh, yet another anti-gay alleged Christian defender turns out to be a garden variety scumbag”
He was a kid! 14. And labeled a “scumbag”.
Any chance the Gothard clinic actually helped him? Nah…. Let’s destroy him!
- It was a youthful wrong. Was it criminal? I commented above that there is juvenile crime and adult crime.
- The Duggars were wise to get the kid away from his sisters
- Josh Duggar is not legally a criminal.
- He could have / should have chosen a career less public than the Family Research Council
- And Mom and Dad should have kept their family away from the klieg lights of reality TV
Discussion