Expressing Empathy for the Duggars

This is not a political blog. It is largely a blog for my own self-reflection. Today, I was informed about the situation that had occurred in the Duggar family back in 2003. A child molested his siblings; it must have been a shocking and horrific situation to handle. Many of the pundits are lacerating the family for its supposed secrecy, for its cover-up, for its ignorance, for its hypocrisy. I have to say I see things another way; and I think Michelle and Jim Bob handled the situation in the best way that they knew how to do so.

There are also some dreadful things being said about Josh Duggar as well, that he is a child molester, that he should be shot, or stoned, or what have you. In a certain sense this may be true. However, once again, I see things from a different perspective. Religion aside, I think if we evaluate the situation from a legal perspective, we will see that in truth Josh is neither a child molester -- as we typically understand this descriptive title -- neither is he a predator, or one who is at risk to molest his own children.

From a legal standpoint, there is a reason why we have juvenile court. We know, as a society, as humans, as people who have been there, that teenagers do asinine things. When these things involve criminal behavior, teenagers get remanded to juvenile courts. They can be remanded to superior courts, but there is an intense hesitancy to do this. Most of the time -- nearly all -- the juvenile records are sealed. What is this so? It is because we recognize that in juveniles, the character is not entrenched, and there is opportunity to change, and an implicit hope that they can leave their childish behavior behind -- even when it is criminal -- and move on to become productive and constructive citizens within our society.

In other words, we know that critical intervention offered at the right time can be opportunely and extremely corrective. This is the purpose of our juvenile courts, to offer critical intervention, and to offer it in time so that these behaviors will not follow a child into adulthood. This is precisely where I admire the Duggars. They chose to intervene in the life of their child, in progressively more instructive and constructive ways, in order to excise criminality from the heart of their child, and yet also to rescue him, so that he would be productive and constructive in his adulthood.

I spent part of the afternoon today going through the records of the police investigation. It was clear to me that the Duggars followed a sensible path in addressing their son's misbehavior. They first tried to solve the behavior within the family unit. One must always address behavior within the family first. There are two reasons for this: one, it is the responsible thing that a parent must do, and two, there is no need to burden the overworked justice system with issues that really need to be worked out by the parents.

When it was clear that the behavior was not going to subside, the Duggars looked outside of the home for help and support and assistance. They went to their church  and to their elders for what was clearly a more public confrontation. They sought help from a friend, an officer of the law, clearly without knowing that he was also a vulture. (Had they known about the officer's criminal activities, I am certain that they would have exposed them.)

Finally, they went to the law. They sent their child away from the house to seek outside intervention. I am guessing that they would have went even further that this if they had felt like there had been the need. But they did not believe that there was a need, for they truly believed that they had now addressed not only the issue, but that they had achieved the change of behavior that they had so desired.

Here is a critical thing. One should never take a situation further than it is necessary to take it. Since the discipline was finally corrective, they chose to leave it at that. It is senseless and stupid to ruin a child's reputation and productivity forever. If a child can be rescued, even from criminality itself, then it is imperative that we do so, but also that we do so in such a way so that it does not permanently cripple one's children.

Josh has shown himself to be worthy of respect. He has lived his life responsibly as an adult and has contributed to the society in which he has lived. Now that his past sins have been exposed, he has taken responsibility. He has resigned from his prominent position. He had not deferred blame to those who were the victims of his impositions. And he has accepted the shame, without lashing out; for I think that he realizes that this is one of the inevitable consequences of his actions.

Thus, I am empathetic of the Duggars position. It is a horribly painful and shameful situation, a personal trauma, a horrible nightmare, a radical calling into account. And yet, I think they will come through it all with high marks; for I believe that we will see them handle it responsibly and respectfully, and with the grace and mercy which will mark them out as being honest and true followers of Jesus.