Did the Duggar family officially break ties with ‘cult’ IBLP after Josh Duggar imprisonment?

Did the Duggars officially break ties with the IBLP following Josh’s imprisonment for possessing child p*rnography?

After being featured in the docu-series Shiny, Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets, there is a big clue the 19 Kids and Counting family no longer supports Institute in Basic Life Principles…

The Duggar family

Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar are the head of the household which includes 19 children total. The Duggar family participated in two TLC reality series: 19 Kids and Counting and Counting On. The supersized crew is large in part due to their strict Fundamentalist religion.

One of the conservative organizations that the Duggars have been vocal supporters of in the past is the Institute in Basic Life Principles. After many years of speculation, the 2023 docu-series Shiny, Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets confirmed that the IBLP is rampant with sexual, financial, and physical abuse.

Whether or not the Duggar family supports the controversial IBLP has been a question for years, with several younger siblings, like Jessa Seewald, publicly denouncing the organization. The Duggars did attend IBLP events up until COVID-19 though… so what in the side-hug is going on?

Do the Duggars support the IBLP?

While it does appear that the younger Duggar children still attend the Advanced Training Institute, getting their schooling under the umbrella of the IBLP, its very possible that Jim Bob and Michelle no longer support the larger organization. The Duggars have been a public face of the Institute in Basic Life Principles for decades, but this big clue may indicated that times are changing.

Jim Bob and Michelle have frequently attended, and spoken at, Institute in Basic Life Principles conferences across the nation. Big Sandy, the largest conference of the year, is the place to be if you are a Fundamental Christian following leader Bill Gothard’s teachings. Held at ALERT Academy in Big Sandy, Texas, The Duggars attended every year through 2019, and then… they never went back.

Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar have not participated in the Big Sandy conference since they spoke at it in 2019. In 2020 it was cancelled due to COVID restrictions, and since then, there have been no sign of any 19 Kids and Counting stars attending Big Sandy.

According to the snark account Duggar Family News: Lie is not all pickles and hairspray, the entire conference was poorly attended:

Is it a coincidence that Josh Duggar was arrested on illegal underage pornography charges in April 2021? Are Jim Bob and Michelle hiding themselves out of shame in their son?

Ashley Marie is a writer for Starcasm and the personality behind Twitter’s @RealityByAshley. You can contact Ashley via Twitter or email at realitybyashley(at)gmail.com