[LINK] "Inside the Christian Cult That Told the Duggars to Blame Their Daughters for Their Abuse"

[rfmcdonald]

Mic's Scott Bixby has a distressing article about the structural muisgyny and victim-blaming of the Duggar family and the Quiverfull movement

For most of America, InTouch Weekly's revelation that reality star Josh Duggar is a serial child molester came as a sickening shock. But to some self-described survivors of the "Quiverfull" movement of evangelical Christianity to which the Duggar family belongs, the family's story of secrecy, victim-blaming and denial is all too familiar.

Former members of the insular religious movement, which promotes procreation by forswearing all forms of birth control and conscripting women into a life of perpetual pregnancy, describe a cult-like movement obsessed with public appearance and deeply at odds with its dogmatic beliefs on sex.

"[The abuse] is not at all an aberration to Christian teachings about family values," Vyckie Garrison, a former adherent to the Quiverfull movement, told Mic. Garrison is the founder of No Longer Quivering, a blog that serves as a "gathering place for women escaping and healing from spiritual abuse." She believes the religious fundamentalism of the Quiverfull movement is a recipe for all kinds of domestic abuse, and sees the Duggar family's tragedy as a "crystallization" of the hypocrisy rife within the movement.

[. . .]

The family's devotion to the fundamentalist Quiverfull movement has been viewed more as a curiosity than a liability, and the seemingly wholesome brood became a fixture on TLC's programming lineup with the hit show 19 Kids and Counting (formerly 17 Kids and Counting and 18 Kids and Counting, which premiered in 2008). The show was a ratings smash for the network; in October 2014, 4.4 million viewers tuned in to see daughter Jill Duggar walk down the aisle and share the first kiss of her life with her new husband — TLC's highest-rated telecast in four years.

But there was darkness behind the scenes. While the Quiverfull movement the Duggar family proselytized was seen as a harmless quirk by fans of the series, its archaic view of sex and the role of women created an atmosphere where public image was valued above all else — and where victims of sexual abuse are blamed for the crimes committed against them.

Much more at the site.