TONTITOWN, ARKANSAS: The new four-part docuseries ‘Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets’ released on Amazon Prime Videos on Friday, June 2, and gave viewers an insight into the dark truth that lies beneath the joyful veneer of the Duggar family as shown in TLC reality show, ‘19 Kids and Counting'. It also exposed the role of the cult-like religious group The Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) and the teachings of its founder Bill Gothard in the lives of the children.
Olivia Crist, the co-director of the series, said that the Duggars, who laid the foundation of their family based on Gothard’s teachings, were merely “the front-facing image of this insidious organization.” During the show, several ex-IBLP members shared the heartbreaking and haunting details of Gothard and IBLP’s teachings, from the so-called “wisdom booklets” to the normalization of alleged abuse, that was glamorized by Duggar’s TLC show.
How were children raised under Bill Gothard and IBLP’s teachings?
As per the interviews of former IBLP members shown in ‘Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets,’ the organization provides children with “wisdom booklets” from Gothard’s homeschooling program as equivalent to educational books. These booklets allegedly instructed children about sinful temptation and often asked them to identify the “eye traps” in different female outfits.
“In the wisdom booklet, there are these drawings of women, and they’re wearing various different outfits,” recalled ex-IBLP member Brooke Arnold. Children were then asked to identify the “eye traps” in females or things that might attract a man's “lustful attention” from every picture and instructed on what they could do to alter them. “And so you circle, ‘Oh, it's the lace right here. Oh, it's the mid-calf leaf shirt,’” Arnold continued. “Instead of learning math, you're learning s**t-shaming,” he added as per Salon.
The booklet also mentioned women who wink and alleged that men and boys who “fall to her w****dom are stripped of resources and vibrancy of life," as per Salon. The publications also preached about God’s greater knowledge and perspective and instilled the idea that “no one but God has full knowledge.” The ex-members also claimed that Gothard’s “umbrella of authority” suggested that women’s faithfulness to God is achieved through complete submission to the male members of their family, first their fathers and then their husbands.
Marriages, in that instance, were allegedly viewed as a transfer of power rather than a union of two souls to celebrate love. The suppression of women in the family was also allegedly characterized by chaperoned dates, no permission of kissing until marriage, and the presentation of a “wedding night” instructional CD the day before their marriage. Children were also often entrusted with parenting roles under the mask of “the buddy system.” The majority of pre-teen and teenage siblings were given the responsibility of taking full-time care of a while the entire labor required to keep the household running was allegedly bestowed only to the girls in the family.
Further chilling revelations highlighted the normalization of the practice of alleged abuse inside families. The series claimed that Gothard allegedly used biblical passages to justify punishment by the “rod” to “break a child’s will." IBLP allegedly promoted the practice of “blanket training,” in which an infant or toddler is placed on a blanket along with multiple toys, and parents are allegedly asked to repeatedly hit a child when they reach for one, as per Salon.
‘The story is terrifying’
Before allegedly being placed on administrative leave over accusations of sexual harassment, Gothard ended up in a similar controversy involving his brother Steve, back in 1980. The latter was allegedly accused of sexually harassing, abusing, and preying on the former’s female employees. “People are coming forward and saying that Steve has sexually abused and harassed multiple people in the office,” pastor and journalist Josh Pease said in the Amazon docuseries.
“So what Bill did was take his brother, send him out to a campus that has even less oversight than the main campus [of IBLP] and then [leave] Steve to basically do whatever he wants out there,” he alleged. Former IBLP members shared that girls who “disobeyed” Gothard were allegedly sent to Steve at the remote campus. “Bill keeps trying to find ways to keep Steve in the organization. And one of his solutions is, ‘Why don't we have him marry one of the women,’” Pease continued. “And when you try to get an understanding of what was going on in this culture and how women were viewed and how sexuality is viewed, the story is terrifying,” he added as per Salon.
At one point, Gothard himself was allegedly caught with a young woman in a cabin, which prompted employees to confront the brothers. Gothard’s methodology was reportedly rejected by other higher authorities of IBLP. As part of his solution, Gothard stripped his brother of his position and introduced a new teaching called “Matthew 18.” The teaching was dubbed “biblical” and made it “impermissible to gossip,” thus preventing people from making allegations against IBLP leaders.
‘An absolute monster’
In the wake of the docuseries, several social media users took to Twitter to slam Gothard and his teachings. “Hope this gets a lot of viewership. Bill Gothard is an absolute monster who has ruined many lives,” one wrote. “Bill Gothard is a hypocrite,” another said. “Bill Gothard manipulated all of them and making a lot of money from them #ShinyHappyPeople,” they further added. “We finished #ShinyHappyPeople! It was really very very very good. Clearly well researched, deeply understood, took care with victims, and really exposed how evil Bill Gothard and the IBLP are. And did so with nuance and compassion and attention to detail. Really really well done,” a third commented. “I was curious, so I watched all of Shiny Happy People tonight. I have a lot of thoughts, but what I want to say most is that I’m deeply sorry for everyone who grew up under the cult teachings of Bill Gothard and IBLP. You deserved so much better. My heart breaks for you,” another tweeted. While another added, “Bill Gothard was an evil man. I’m not sure how he fooled so many of us!”
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