Josh Duggar and Osama Bin Laden: One Family Man's Saint Is Another Family Man's Terrorist

And like Osama Bin Laden, we may never know the whole story about the Duggar Family.

One family had 19 children, the other had 20. Both were extremely religious. Both had loving, doting parents. One parent was a professional father, showing America how one large Christian family copes. The other was a professional terrorist, showing the world how Al Queda copes.

(CNN) In his final years hiding in a compound in Pakistan, Osama bin Laden was a man who at once showed great love and interest in his own family while he coldly drew up quixotic plans for mass casualty attacks on Americans, according to documents seized by Navy SEALs the night he was killed.

(ReligionNews)The Duggars, the reality TV family famous for its progeny (19 Kids and Counting) and its conservatism, is reeling now that oldest son, Josh, has been forced to acknowledge he was investigated for molesting underage girls when he was a teenager in Arkansas.

The week of May 18th was a week frought with family values disclosures - going in opposition directions: Osama Bin Laden's image got a slight re-adjustment while the Duggar family's image got trashed. And while not in the terrorist league, the Duggar family is suffering a fall from the Righteous Right pedestal that would certainly amuse Bin Laden.

And while Osama Bin Laden's family values were given short shrift by the media, it was Josh Duggars past exploits that dominated the headlines. It was as if the fall of the Christian Right's poster family was more important to America than the analysis of Bin Laden. Such are the ways of America and its hunger for scandal.

Josh Duggar, Rhetorical Terrorist

Everyone jumped into the fray, from Montel Williams, who called Duggar a "scumbag" and a rhetorical terrorist" to Mike Huckabee who came to the Duggars' defense. Analysis of Duggar values and ideologies came to the fore:

Sarah Posner (Religion Dispatches):

This week, a recap of their television show on their blog discussed how Jim Bob and Michelle “encourage their kids to take a chaperone along on all their dates so they have someone to keep them accountable and ensure that they stick to their courtship standards.” In their family, they police sex outside of marriage. In politics they police sex between consenting adults, sex between people of the same sex; they are “pure” and “godly” because they police and condemn other people’s sexual lives. But now the public knows that this family which enforces “purity” has covered up the sexual predations—against children, even their own children— of their star son.

Posner points out that the "Purity" of the Duggar family never really existed, something that die hard supporters like Mike Huckabee find hard to believe.

In Stumbles Huckabee

The fallout from the scandal is incredibly far-reaching: not only has TLC pulled 19 and Counting, but Mike Huckbee's support of the Duggars has enraged his most ardent fans:·

Karla Jensen As President you will support incestuous child molesters but not gay people. Good information to have prior to the elections

Kristen Blair Bowman What about accountability for Jim Bob and Michelle? They weren't minors and they didn't report this to protect even their own daughters. I have a way bigger problem with that action (or, inaction).

Aimee Bruckner NO NO NO, This family has done tremendous damage not only to their own family, but to an entire group of people in this country. You do NOT get to lobby discriminatory legislation and claim that gay/transgender people are immoral and harmful to children when the WHOLE time, this "religious/traditional" family is doing DIRT and covering it up while profiting from it. That is deplorable and inexcusable Mike Huckabee get a clue!!

Marie Kelichner McCormack My question would be how do we know he's STOPPED??? My biggest worry is that he now has at least one daughter. Hopefully someone is protecting HER!! Pedophiles don't become miraculously "cured"

Perhaps the most hypocritical statement from Huckabee was:

"He [Josh Duggar] and his family dealt with it and were honest and open about it with the victims and the authorities."

Coming from someone who has secreted ten years of sermons for fear of what they might divulge concerning PWAs (People With AIDS) and complicity in evicting them from their homes, it's an egregious statement at best: Mike Huckabee's credibility is shattered. Even Duggar's own Family Research Council is remaining mum, stating only that it accepts his resignation and prays for "everyone involved." This is a far cry from the praise Duggar received when first coming into the FRC fold:

Drawing from his unique experiences in family, entertainment, politics and business, Josh seeks to use his God-given platform to encourage others to be engaged in the political process.

Where's The Focus?

Knowledge (given to him by God, of course) of the "political process" certainly marks Duggar as THE poster boy of a Christian Right lobbying firm. And the focus of the scandal has been on the fall of that poster boy. But what of the victims? Not only those siblings whom he molested, but the LGBT community he steadily attacked and the American public he duped. Where are they in this mess? They are left waiting in the wings, depending upon voices like Montel Williams and disgusted social media.

They are also insulted by the "political process" of the Duggar family:

(Hollywod Life)The record regarding the almost decade-old investigation into Josh Duggar, 27, has been expunged. The news of the destroyed record comes just one day after Josh broke his silence about the allegations that he molested five young girls when he was 14 years old and resigned from his position at the Family Research Council.Judge Stacey Zimmerman ordered the 2006 offense report regarding the case involving Josh to be destroyed on May 21, according to the Associated Press.“The judge ordered us yesterday to expunge that record,” Springdale Police spokesman Scott Lewis said on May 22. “As far as the Springdale Police Department is concerned this report doesn’t exist.”

But scandals involving the unlicensed "treatment center" (for which the Duggars were regular volunteers) may have started to shift focus on Jim Bo's b and Michelle Duggar's roles in all of it:

(Raw Story) The founder of a chain of Christian “treatment” centers Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar sent their eldest son to for molesting five girls — including his sisters — resigned in 2014 under a cloud of accusations that he had “sexually groomed” and harassed young women and teens in his ministry.

Dr. Gail Stalz had an inciteful take on Duggar's "treatment" (or lack of it) and what it meant for the victims (see below). In many ways, Josh Duggar is taking the blame for what the Duggar family failed to do. 

Manipulation

It seems clear that even in the wake of the scandal, the Duggars are manipulating the American public: having records expunged, distracting people away from victims and cover ups, while Josh Duggar is crying mea culpa. It all adds up to a contempt for America owned by terrorists - rhetorical or otherwise.