Reading Time: 3 minutes
Amy Duggar recently spoke at length about her extended family’s latest scandal.
She has expressed, among other things, a belief that perhaps Josh and Joseph were victims themselves as kids.
Her mom, Deanna, joined in for part of the interview.
Together, the two called for every member of their extended family to be investigated. Good idea?
‘They should be investigated’
During another portion of Amy’s interview with The Sarah Fraser Show, her mom participated in the call.
“In my opinion, I do believe that they should be investigated,” Deanna Duggar expressed.
She explained that she believes that an investigation would be appropriate “just because of everything that has happened.”
Deanna confirmed: “Everybody should be checked out in that family.”
Amy chimed in to agree, suggesting that Josh and Joseph’s evil may be informed by their life experiences. “It stems from somewhere,” she shared.
Deanna also added that she believes that her niblings “should be in therapy.”
Amy shared that her coucins have probably “suppressed a whole lot” of what they have endured.
She then admitted: “I don’t understand how someone becomes a monster overnight.”
That is another clear reference to Josh and to Joseph.
“It blows my mind when I hear about these double lives and how quickly they can make a decision that’s so heartbreaking,” Amy stated, echoing similar remarks that she has made.
‘You don’t protect children’
Additionally, Amy confirmed that she has a lot of distance with most of her extended family.
She explained that this is because Jim Bob and most of his kids still believe “in IBLP and you don’t protect children.”
For this reason, they cannot be in her life.
Deanna, meanwhile, said that she’s relatively open to communicating with Jim Bob again. But she’d need “boundaries” in place, and it would need to be on her terms.
She also shared that her brother tried to make nice last year. “I said, “It’s not the time or place to talk right now,’” Deanna revealed.
There is sometimes a concept that suggests that all who prey upon children were once victims of such crimes themselves.
This is not only untrue, but has the pernicious effect of making society suspicious of survivors of childhood sexual abuse. (In reality, the vast majority of survivors do not commit such offenses as adults.)
We would not expect Amy or Deanna to know this. Though they are not part of the family cult, they are still part of society’s fringes. Amy herself holds extreme and bigoted beliefs and this surely clouds the lens through which she views the world, including her disgraced cousins.
An investigation into the welfare of the children of that family would be a good idea. It would be an even better one if we lived in a society with laws that actually protect children more effectively. But then, if we did, the Duggars as we know them wouldn’t exist in the first place.
Amy’s right about her cousins needing to be in therapy. Real therapy. Even if Josh and Joseph were innocents, all of those children have suffered from growing up in an abusive cult.