https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/interactive/2023/christian-home-schoolers-revolt/
The
new Amazon Prime documentary on The Duggars (Shiny Happy People) is apparently
one of the most popular shows of the year, even breaking all kinds of viewing
records. What a sad thing. This is what they've brought on themselves – an on
the larger Church.
I could spend a great deal of time interacting with the
Duggars and Gothard and all that was touched on in the documentary but there's
little point in it and it would take a long time. At the end of the day Jim Bob
Duggar is a pimp as I have long argued. Mammon is his god and his children are
a commodity, a product for him to capitalize upon. I don't apologize for that
harsh assessment. The documentary only
confirmed my earlier evaluations of what he is all about.
And that well-trod mammon road always ties in with the quest
for power. They are all but inseparable and with this also comes a kind of decadence
that all too often leads to an insatiability that manifests itself in forms of
undue lust. We see it over and over again and sadly these Christian leaders
fall prey to it as well. Maybe Jim Bob hasn't but it makes sense to me in many
ways that his son would. I have repeatedly stated there is a very off-putting
swagger among the young men in the larger Dominionist movement. In fact from a
spiritual perspective it's alarming. On a related note, as I read Crawford
Gribben's Survival and Resistance in
Evangelical America: Christian Reconstruction in the Pacific Northwest, I
was thinking of groups like the Gothardites and the permutations and confusion
such a movement is want to spawn, as well as many of the other young men I
encounter who are literally 'high' on Dominionist ideology.
Gothard for his part is obviously a man with deep personal
problems and his hypocrisy is (it would sadly seem) not altogether uncommon for
someone in his position. The documentary doesn't go 'deep' enough with him and
his background. He obviously represents something of the nexus between the
Fundamentalist and Dominionist worlds. I have interacted face to face with some
of his disciples and I am not impressed. They know his checklists and
legalistic points but they don't the Scripture and certainly cannot elaborate
upon it. Once again, in the end it's all about power and money as he has sought
political alliance and influence – the documentary reveals more of this than I
had previously understood. He wants numbers and disciples not living thinking or
truly spiritual Christians.
It's all especially frustrating as with all of these folks
there is a mixture of truth and error – and often truth thrown into a bad
context and distorted by its interaction with that error. Consequently the
entire picture along with many of the larger truths is distorted.
There is an important voice missing in the documentary as
well as the Washington Post story that I've also linked above – voices within
conservative Christianity that can navigate these waters, voices that can
condemn Gothard and The Duggars even while not simply embracing the attitudes
and judgments of contemporary secular culture.
The ex-members of these groups while worthy of some sympathy are
nevertheless apostates. Their apostasy is something they must own but at the
same time there's no doubt the likes of Gothard also bear much of the blame –
and he too will answer for it. It was unclear to me whether or not some of the
interviewees were still (maybe) within the larger Evangelical realm. If so,
they are the worse for it. And yet it was pretty clear that many of these
people have simply walked away from the faith altogether. As such, their
thinking and judgments are skewed. This is not to grant anything to those who
misled them, but the missing perspective – that of Biblically minded Christians
who reject the world and yet also reject the Gothard/Duggar models are needed
if the documentary is to be of any real value to Christians.
For Christians to watch the series and simply get disgusted
with Gothard and embrace the world-influenced perspectives of the ex-members
would simply add another layer of tragedy to these already tragic events.
Not everything Gothard has argued for is wrong, though when
placed within the matrix of his larger system of thought – it becomes wrong.
There are truths he upholds but he distorts them and they are warped by
legalistic frameworks. Much of his teaching is in the end little more than his
completely subjective (and very culturally shaped and biased) opinion and it is
destructive as it distracts from far more salient issues. The Gothardites I encountered
were obsessed over questions of dress and grooming but didn't know their Bibles
at all – or at best clung to some very obscure narrow clause that became the
basis for determining not just questions of one's obedience but nearly their
salvation. Since that time some years ago when I had this encounter, these same
folks have abandoned all his teachings – the mom now runs around in shorts and
a t-shirt and they attend some Praise-team driven Evangelical Church with of
all things a thumping drum beat. I may reject Gothard's ridiculous arguments
about music but at the same time I too reject the rock-style worship they now
engage in. But such questions are nuanced and thus beyond the scope of his
followers. They don't do nuance or wisdom. They obey a list or abandon it.
The whole thing is a mess and it's very sad to me that this
has now become a major television event. So much for your 'ministry' Jim Bob
Duggar. You've brought great shame to the Body of Christ – but I don't get the
impression that he's repentant in the least. He's simply after more money and
in the process he's leaving an ever wider path of destruction. I have before
related how I've known families that looked up to the Duggars and wanted to
emulate them (even down to speech patterns and how they dressed their kids),
not understanding that the life they portray on the show is staged and also one
of wealth and for an hourly wage-worker with a huge family – life is going to
be a little different to say the least. Let me be clear here, I am not arguing
for birth control in order to maintain a middle class lifestyle. Far from it. I
embrace poverty or at least relative poverty in the context of Western culture.
It's not mandated but in many cases Christians who are faithful to New
Testament doctrine and ethics will find themselves disadvantaged – and that's
just fine, even as it should be. This is antithetical to the Evangelical ethos
of standing, security, respect, and influence – what is tantamount to their
baptising of American middle class norms.
In other words, I have no issue with a large family
struggling to make ends meet. What I'm saying though is this – if they're
taking their cues from the Duggars and their affluent lifestyle and all their
little contrived outings and adventures, they're going to be frustrated and
disappointed. When their lifestyle falls far short of all that and they are
struggling – it won't seem glamorous or fun.
It's sad to see people deceived and used. Do these Church
leaders ever reflect on the destruction wrought on the families that followed
their programme and example and yet failed? I can think of so many.
Has Gothard repented? No, there's no evidence of that. The
same is true of Duggar. And so, rather than exalt Christ, they instead have
brought great shame on the Church. And now for families that have a wife that
stays at home, or dress modestly, or have lots of kids – they will be
associated in the public eye with this larger 'package' and movement, and the
clouds of scandal that hang over them. The Church (in some generalised sense)
should be challenging Gothard and Duggar and calling them to repentance, but
that too is unlikely.
I hope at least that Christians will understand that there
are more than two alternatives – it's not the Gothard model or the alternative,
a full embrace of feminism and the like. Let it be understood the Gothard model
apart from its sheer error is also characterised by a lack of wisdom. This is
what I encounter with people taken in by the Gothards, the Ezzos, or the
Pearls. Its right to have foundational principles but like any law it must be
applied in a context and that requires wisdom. These systems don't foster
wisdom, they simply call for one to follow a checklist or flow-chart and
condemn those who deviate. This is not only folly when it comes to something
like child rearing but it's simply not how the New Testament presents Christian
ethics. Life is complicated. The answer is not to boil everything down to
simple formulae. That doesn't create mature believers with the tools to
navigate life. It creates automatons and when the system blows apart or fails –
they're left with nothing, absolutely nothing. That's why I'm not surprised to
see where these people have ended up. They turn to the culture which gives them
a voice and even a vocabulary (as seen in the film) for expressing their
frustration and rage. And while it's understandable on one level, they have functionally
turned from one form of foolishness to another, from one prison to another.
At times I was just filled with grief watching the show.
The same is true when reading the Post article about
homeschooling. We homeschooled our kids and I think Christians are literally
insane (and in sin) if they send their kids to public school. The schools were
bad enough when my wife and I were growing up back in the 70's and 80's and yet
today, it's just unthinkable.
That said, I know there are people in impossible situations
and homeschooling seems an impossibility. At that point the Church should
intervene and maybe instead of spending thousands on lawn care and sound
systems, they can make sure these families have other options – a Christian
school at the very least, though I think many of these are also problematic for
different reasons. But that's another discussion for another time.
Once again, something good is distorted as seen with the
whole Generation Joshua project of the HSLDA – something that comes up in the
Duggar documentary. I've written about this for years, and though homeschoolers,
we never joined the HSLDA. I've always been put off by them and what they're about.
Dominionism drives these organisations and like the Duggars and Gothard, their
efforts have also generated a great deal of shame and even evil it must be
said. Once again, this is what power does – every time.
For the Beall family in the Post article it seems clear
enough that they want what the world has to offer. Combined with personal
frustrations and perhaps the growing extremism in the movement, they have
seemingly decided to jump off a cliff. As already stated when the system breaks
or the checklists fail, there's often nothing left. Wisdom for all it is
invoked is neither fostered or encouraged. Maybe they think they're exercising
it but what I see is people who have a very distorted understanding of the
Christian life and are in the process of swinging from one extreme to another.
In this case the answer is not the compromised middle but rather a completely
different model altogether.
Like the ex-Gothardites in the Duggar documentary, the Bealls
have embraced the concepts and vocabulary of the world when it comes to their
critique of the Homeschooling movement. There is wisdom in the courtship model
but it can be absolutised to the point of abuse – where it becomes simply a
checklist being followed and the spirit of what it's all about is missed.
It's clear enough these folks after emerging from their
isolation and having a great deal of contact with the world, have been
overwhelmed by it. And this is where I also differ with many families who like
mine have a wife that stays at home, homeschools their kids, and so forth. We
never believed in sheltering our kids in the same manner. We have never bought
into the cultural narratives of these groups and so we've been dismissive of a
lot of the legalist checklist mentality. We exposed our kids to culture but did
so holding their hands when young and helping them to understand what they were
seeing or hearing – and yet we obviously in some cases had to censor certain
things. I can't give the reader a how-to because every situation is different
and every child is different. I could give specifics that in some cases might
raise eyebrows and be misunderstood – you let them watch what? You let them
listen to that?
The bottom line is this – our kids have a very strong sense of antithesis and yet as young adults entering the world they have not been overwhelmed. We never had any interest in Abeka, Answers in Genesis, or many of the other popular curricula, and in fact in many cases found ourselves to be in disagreement with these people – we're not big fan of Abeka's Right-wing nationalism and historical narratives, nor a lot of what passes for 'Creation Science', though we certainly reject Darwinism in toto. Our kids have not struggled at all out in the world as far as their education and in most cases seem to be miles ahead of their peers and even many adults these days. I'm not sure what some of these people think they're going to get from the public school. Aside from the threat of mass shootings and the subversive aspects of gender ideology, we have found that many kids graduating from public school these days struggle with even basic reading and math. My son who attends a public university brings home tales from the classroom that leaves us with our jaws resting on the floor. Many of these kids would have never been considered for college even a generation ago – and a lot of them would have struggled to finish high school. Today, they're in college which simply testifies to how 'dumbed down' the college system has become in order to accommodate these kids – kids that can't show up half the time and struggle to write even a one page paper. Apparently in the middle and high schools it's not uncommon for kids to rain profanity and obscenity their teachers, throw things, and refuse to do any work at all. There's a complete collapse in the education system that reflects a larger parental and social collapse.