Inside the ‘pandemic of abuse’ surrounding Duggar family ‘cult’
Producers of the new Duggar docuseries say they were “shocked” by the “far-reaching quality” of the infamous family’s controversial church.
“Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets” claims to “expose the truth” about how the Institute in Basic Life Principles negatively affected the extensive reality TV family.
Guided by parents Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, the children were raised with IBLP’s strict teachings — such as the idea that women should be obedient to their husbands and everyone should avoid dating, listening to music with drums and following pop culture.
The religious organization that became IBLP was founded by 88-year-old minister Bill Gothard in 1961. He has since been forced out under allegations of abuse, accusations he has denied.
Docuseries executive producer Olivia Crist told People that those who worked on this project discovered “how far and wide the IBLP ideology went.”
“It went into our police system. It went into the military. And I think also, just how far and wide, like I said, the ideology spread,” Crist claimed.
“You can speak to a family who is part of IBLP Australia or part of IBLP and live in Tennessee, and you’re going to see the same exact thing happen in terms of really just this pandemic of abuse that Gothard’s teachings inhabit,” she continued.
The Post reached out to IBLP and Duggar reps for comment.
Executive producer Julia Willoughby Nason admitted she was surprised by how the church’s ideology is “so ingrained in our modern-day culture.”
“That’s shocking to me. And what’s shocking to me, too, is listening to the survivor stories,” she told People. “I feel like being a woman in this culture, whether I’m coming from a place of a high control system as IBLP or coming from not that place, just inherently being a woman, I could identify with the themes of abuse and trauma that we’re going through these people’s lifelines.”
The four-part limited series — which is set to premiere Friday, June 2, on Amazon Prime Video — features Jim Bob and Michelle’s second-oldest daughter, 32-year-old Jill Dillard, and her cousin, Amy King, 36.
They have previously spoken out about their upbringing.
The docuseries quotes other sources as well. One person is heard in the trailer claiming, “Gothard turned every father into a cult leader and every home into an island.”
Another woman in the trailer alleges, “The biggest feature of Bill Gothard’s teachings is authority. Kids obey the parents, wives obey their husbands, everyone obeys Bill Gothard.”
The Duggar family rose to fame thanks to the various iterations of their show “19 Kids and Counting,” which ended in 2015 following allegations that eldest child Josh Duggar, 35, inappropriately touched several minor girls when he was a teen.
The spinoff show “Counting On,” which focused on the older children in the family, was canceled in 2021 following Josh’s arrest on child pornography charges.
He was found guilty of receiving and possessing child porn at trial and sentenced last year to about 12 and a half years in prison.
In her 2023 memoir, “Becoming Free Indeed,” Duggar daughter Jinger Vuolo, 29, compared Josh to Gothard.
Crist said there are enough IBLP stories that the team would consider a second project about former followers.
Jim Bob, 57, and Michelle, 56, have not publicly commented about the docuseries.
