Jim Bob gives it away

Jim Bob gives it away

by digby

You can tell throughout the Duggar interview with Megyn Kelly that Jim Bob and Michelle really don't think it's a big deal that a teen-age boy would fondle a 5 year old girl. I just can't get past this. It's all abusive and incestuous behavior, of course, even that which took place between Josh Duggar and the sisters closer to him in age. But this report of him doing that to a very small child is just chilling on a whole other level especially since Josh Duggar now has little kids of his own.

But here's what Jim Bob said last night that shows how little this concerned him:
KELLY: What about that Jim Bob, as a parent, did you feel guilty when you learned that his behavior had continued and other girls in the house had become victims?

J. B. DUGGAR: Yes. I think as parents, you feel like a failure when one of your kids does something wrong. You feel like if I had done more training or maybe something else that this wouldn’t have happened. But the truth is that kids will make their own choices. And they will make their own decisions even though you’ve taught them what’s right and wrong.

KELLY: I’m asking you more as the father of your girls than as the father of Josh. You know, it must have been very hard to look at your little one and know the behavior had been ongoing, as difficult as your position was.

J. B. DUGGAR: Right. I was so thankful, though, that Josh came and told us. And our girls, even though this was a very bad situation, as we’ve talked to other families who have had, you know, other things happen, a lot of their stories were even worse.
One can only assume then that this behavior is considered normal among these fundamentalist families.

This story certainly confirms that there is a lot of what most of us would consider abnormal behavior in the religious homeschooling cult called the "Advanced Training Institute" to which the Duggars belong. It has a lot of political connections.

Including this fellow who spoke at their conference in 2005: