Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has “affirmed” his support for his pals, the Duggars, in the face of revelations that one of their sons molested his sisters. Not only that, Huckabee attacked the “blood-thirsty media” for sensationalizing the story and not having a more Christian attitude toward the family. But there’s something crucial about the story that Huckabee missed.
If you’re not familiar with the Duggars, they’re a family of evangelical Christians and reality TV stars. But it wasn’t until this week, when InTouch reported that son Joshua had molested several underage girls when he was a teenager, that the family admitted they were not quite the models of conservative living they they made themselves out to be.
Of course, there have been repercussions. TLC has reportedly pulled the family’s reality show from its lineup and Joshua has resigned from his position the Family Research Council.
But Huckabee is standing behind the family – in the name of God. In a Facebook post, Huckabee congratulated himself for his Christian good will:
Janet and I want to affirm our support for the Duggar family. Josh’s actions when he was an underage teen are as he described them himself, ‘inexcusable,’ but that doesn’t mean ‘unforgivable.’ He and his family dealt with it and were honest and open about it with the victims and the authorities. No purpose whatsoever is served by those who are now trying to discredit Josh or his family by sensationalizing the story. Good people make mistakes and do regrettable and even disgusting things.
…
No one needs to defend Josh’s actions as a teenager, but the fact that he confessed his sins to those he harmed, sought help, and has gone forward to live a responsible and circumspect life as an adult is testament to his family’s authenticity and humility. …They are no more perfect a family than any family, but their Christian witness is not marred in our eyes because following Christ is not a declaration of our perfection, but of HIS perfection. It is precisely because we are all sinners that we need His grace and His forgiveness. We have been blessed to receive God’s love and we would do no less than to extend our love and support for our friends. In fact, it is such times as this, when real friends show up and stand up. Today, Janet and I want to show up and stand up for our friends. Let others run from them. We will run to them with our support.
But Huckabee is quite a bit less charitable with those who have a different view:
The reason that the law protects disclosure of many actions on the part of a minor is that the society has traditionally understood something that today’s blood-thirsty media does not understand—that being a minor means that one’s judgement is not mature.
…Those who have enjoyed revealing this long ago sins in order to discredit the Duggar family have actually revealed their own insensitive bloodthirst, for there was no consideration of the fact that the victims wanted this to be left in the past and ultimately a judge had the information on file destroyed—not to protect Josh, but the innocent victims.
Believe it or not, I agree with Huckabee to a degree. I’m all for protecting minors from their own bad behavior. If the Duggar family has resolved this problem and Joshua Duggar has gone on to live the kind of exemplary life the family would want from him, more power to him… and them.
But here’s what Huckabee is not considering in his eagerness to bask in righteousness: All this time, the Duggars have presented themselves as models of Christian living. I’m not advocating that they should have aired the specifics of their family laundry but they turned out to be not quite the brand they were fronting. That’s not just dishonest but a betrayal to their public. And we have every right to be angry or snarky or smirky.
Graphic credit: DonkeyHotey via photopin cc
Whether its the Duggars, the Palins, or Bill O’Reilly, there’s no right wing family or individual whose mistakes, no matter how big, can’t be washed away by Fox News.
Not so the case with either President Obama or the Clintons; after all these years, Fox can scarcely mention either the former without also bringing up Bill Ayers/Jeremiah Wright, or the latter without blathering about Whitewater, Monicagate, Filegate, Travelgate, Vincent Foster, Benghazi, etc.
.
Instead of To Catch a Predator, with Huckabee they can call it, To Catch a Hypocrite.
What’s especially horrifying is that Duggar has three children of his own (1 of whom is a daughter).
Furthermore, the state trooper who Papa Duggar got to “talk” with Josh is currently serving a 55-year prison sentence (I believe it’s kiddie porn-related). AND, Papa Duggar waited a FULL YEAR before reporting to any authorities.
TLC cancelled the Honey Boo-Boo show because her mother was dating an alleged child molester—even after Mama stood up for him. TLC has NOT yet officially pulled the plug on the Duggar’s “reality” show (my cable guide still has episodes of “19 and Counting” and one of its spin-offs on the schedule for Wednesday morning just as it was listed more than 12 hours ago) despite the show’s heterosexual child molester’s presence.
It’s worth noting too that Huckabee isn’t exactly the model of parenting—given his son’s propensity as a teenager for torturing and killing animals (usually such behavior is seen as the starting point for serial killers)—so his support of the Duggars isn’t all that surprising.
For Huckabee to be playing his little “concerned Christian” act seems incredibly hollow. The Duggars (especially that b!c# of a mother) have had the audacity to attack gays as threats to children for well over a decade (you might recall the robocalls the b!c# made to defeat the LGBT protection laws in Fayetteville, AR)—all the while, they’ve had a real threat to children living among them. And his little blast about “protecting the innocent victims” is just bull. The records weren’t destroyed to protect the victims—they were destroyed to protect the predator.
Just for what it’s worth, has anyone considered the irony that the Duggars are some of the same far-right Christians who usually love to denounce Islam by bringing up the Prophet’s relationship with his youngest wife, the prepubescent Aisha. BUT when one of their own is molesting children (of unspecified ages—those destroyed records would’ve included the victims’ ages), they actually defend him and put it off to “youthful” indiscretions.
And Jayelle’s point about Huckabee’s lecturing the Obamas over the girls’ listening to Beyonce just points even more to Huckabee’s total lack of moral high ground (as well as his hypocrisy).
Their flip labeling of this as simple “teen mistakes.”
I’m sorry, but are we talking about him taking the family car for a joy ride… Or him molesting his sisters? No, I’m sorry- I agree that Josh should have been given some level of discretion, and protection from some of the worse fallout he’ll get now that it’s out, but you don’t get to say things like “Oh, it was just a mistake, it’s OK now because God says so!”.
No-It doesn’t work that way, Duggar. Josh committed a serious crime, some of the victims are your other children. And he was turned over to a Christian counselor that turned out to be another pedophile, instead of a therapist that could have diagnosed possible disorders. And then it went to the police, where it would be on publicly accessible records anyways after statue.
Way to look out for the girls there, guys. And even if it turns out you kept a competent eye on him down the road, this is some truly, truly monumental bad parenting. You let one of your children skate on abnormal, possibly dangerous behaviour at a young age, because of your interpretation of what a pedophile, and the sky man you worship said. Bad judgement would be putting your religion aside, and seeing if he had schizophrenia, Schizophrenia, a sexuality disorder, or something that couldn’t be cured by changes to his lifestyle.
GOD- Is there even a word for judgement this bad? Never mind if the scrutiny on him for this coming back turns up new crimes against children. And why are the sisters this so reluctant to speak up?! Not just the ones he molested, any of them… I can’t imagine they’re cool with this.
And I’m done. I just can’t, beyond letting that out. Sorry about the phrasing, this is just what I would say if I had an opportunity to confront them.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/12/04/documents-expose-huckabee_n_75362.html
