In a new Reel, Jinger Vuolo shares an audio clip from her memoir Becoming Free Indeed that highlights problems with Bill Gothard’s teachings and how they make unmarried women feel “worthless.”
Is this directed towards her sister, Jana Duggar?
The Duggar Family
The Duggars were the stars of 19 Kids and Counting from 2008 to its cancellation in 2015. After that, sisters Jill and Jessa starred in their own spin off Counting On which ran for 11 seasons.
Centered around Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar’s 19 children, the series’ followed the conservative Christian family through homeschooling and traditional courtships.
While most of the elder Duggars have now rejected the teachings they grew up with, the children still at home in the “big house” are most definitely exposed to the strict rules their parents learned from the Institute in Basic Life Principles.
Bill Gothard and the ILBP
The Institute in Basic Life Principles, referred to as the ILBP, is a fundamentalist group which was founded and led by Bill Gothard until he was asked to step down in 2014 because of sexual abuse allegations.
The IBLP has their own Christian homeschooling program which the Duggar children are/were a part of for their entire upbringing. The teachings of the Advanced Training Institute include traditional gender roles, strict rules about modesty and many other aspects of “mainstream” daily life.
Currently in the news because of the Amazon Prime docuseries Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets, the IBLP is coming under fire and being exposed for causing its followers years of mental, emotional, and sexual abuse.
Jinger Vuolo sends message about Jana Duggar
Jinger Vuolo, 6th oldest of the Duggar children, has written a memoir denouncing her old faith in exchange for a more accepting form of Christianity.
Recently she shared an audio clip from the book which seems to be directed specifically at eldest sister Jana Duggar.
In the clip from Becoming Free Indeed below, Jinger says the following… which many in the comments were quick to point out sounds exactly like Jana.
Unfortunately Gothard’s principles were also problematic for those who, like Gothard, never married. Women were told my Gothard, and others, that marriage and child rearing were God’s primary purposes for them. As the years passed, they remained single. Many of these women believed life was passing them by. They felt worthless like they couldn’t fulfill their God-given purpose until a man took interest. While they waited for marriage they could not start a career or even go to school because women were supposed to care for the home. They needed to remain at home, under their parents authority, no matter their age, submitting to their father’s leadership and control.
Is Jinger Vuolo giving us insight into why Jana Duggar still hasn’t left her parents property, and the true feelings she may have about it, or was this just a random clip she felt compelled to share due to the docuseries just released about her family?
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
