Jinger Duggar reveals having crush was considered 'sin' and 'evil' in IBLP cult's 'toxic purity culture'
SAN FRANSISCO, CALIFORNIA: Jinger Duggar has been vocal about opposing the type of culture her parents cultivated for her and her siblings while growing up. Recently Jim Bob's daughter called out the IBLP cult for making her believe that having a crush was a "sin." She also talked about having a "toxic purity culture."
Jinger and her husband Jeremy Vuolo opened up in an interview with Alley Beth Stuckey's channel The Blaze. The 'Counting On' alum threw countless critiques on IBLP theology that step from Bill Gothard. She opened up about childhood shame and guilt that scarred her and was the reason for much abuse in the community. Keep reading to know everything in detail.
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Jinger Duggar slams Bill Gothard's ideology of 'purity'
When asked about the legalistic theory of the Duggar community and the conflation of Josh's behavior with the gospel, Jinger claimed one of the reasons for everything going wrong to be Bill Gothard's setting. She said, "There's so much of that talk about purity, about keeping yourself pure and almost viewing like even talking about sex with your kid or like all of that at appropriate ages and like about how your bodies are changing. That is totally pushed out." She added, "So, there's not even a healthy view of like, okay, marriage is a gift from God that's to be enjoyed within marriage..." Jinger further claimed that instead of pushing people to enjoy their marriage there were always pushing out on considering it as an "evil." However, Jinger and Jeremy differ from this view of Gothard. Jinger added that even having an attraction toward the opposite gender was also considered "evil" in the society.
Jinger Duggar claimed she felt 'guilty' of having a crush
Jinger further slammed Gothard's "single service commitments." It was a 10-year or 5-year commitment where people abstained from getting married or even thinking about it. Jinger claims this commitment would have been okay if someone is 15 years old or someone 20 but not for someone who is 30. Jinger claims, "When you are 30 and you're making single service commitments, there's a problem there." She referred to Gothard and claimed, "He wanted them to abstain from thinking about another person they're attracted to." And, if a person has an attraction that was almost looked at as a "sin."
Jinger then continued to talk about herself. It was not that Jeremy was the only one to whom she felt attracted. There were other "godly" men. But, having the attraction made Jinger feel "guilty." She said, "I would feel guilty if I was attracted to a young man who is godly, who had good character. I would feel so guilty and I would never talk to my sisters about it because I was like, that's almost sinful." Jinger further explains that this "purity culture" makes people think that this is how it is meant to glorify God. She went on to say that since it stifles children's natural curiosity and encourages them to explore things in other ways, this is essentially the primary cause of sin in the Duggar society.
Jinger and Jeremy said they feel sad for all the families who did not talk about sex or any other such things while they were growing up because of which the kids had to figure it out by themselves.