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News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyAugust 20th, 2015
In response to revelations that he had accounts with affair hook-up site Ashley Madison and dating site OKCupid while working for Family Research Council, Josh Duggar (of the 19 Kids and Counting reality show) released the following statement:
Statement from Josh Duggar:
I have been the biggest hypocrite ever. While espousing faith and family values, I have been unfaithful to my wife.
I am so ashamed of the double life that I have been living and am grieved for the hurt, pain and disgrace my sin has caused my wife and family, and most of all Jesus and all those who profess faith in Him.
I have brought hurt and a reproach to my family, close friends and the fans of our show with my actions.
The last few years, while publicly stating I was fighting against immorality in our country I was hiding my own personal failures.
As I am learning the hard way, we have the freedom to choose our actions, but we do not get to choose our consequences. I deeply regret all the hurt I have caused so many by being such a bad example.
I humbly ask for your forgiveness. Please pray for my precious wife Anna and our family during this time.
Josh Duggar
I expect that the next thing we will hear from the Duggars is a new TLC reality series about how to keep your marriage strong after one party strays. These people have no moral center. At all.
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Nathaniel
August 20th, 2015
Actually, I am surprised they didn’t try to fight or deny it. He is not following the public figure play book on this: deny and argue that the evidence is circumstantial, or misleading; force people to dig deeper; finally, admit to and apologize for the lies (not the actual bad thing). I am also disappointed that he felt the need to say anything at all. His silence would have said enough. A statement says that he still wants attention.
Ben in oakland
August 20th, 2015
They do have a moral center. All they need to do is reach into their back pockets and grab their wallets.
And Jeeeeeeeeebussssssssssssss! Don’t forget Jebus. He has forgiven Josh.
Timothy Kincaid
August 20th, 2015
Not a big fan of the “jebus” stuff.
gar
August 20th, 2015
I was just wondering if he was going to say something now that his hypocrisy has been exposed. One wonders if he’ll gain consciousness enough to recant the nasty homophobia he’s been spewing since forever. I doubt it, but one never knows.
Timothy Kincaid
August 20th, 2015
Nathaniel,
I too am surprised he didn’t go with “I looked but didn’t touch”. Until, of course, women came forward.
gar,
I doubt that he’ll recant his homophobia. I don’t see a lot of sincere repentance here and I very much suspect that he views his sin as far far far less serious than the sins that he imagines that the homoSEXuals commit.
gar
August 20th, 2015
Tim: Agreed.
Sir Andrew
August 20th, 2015
“Yeah, I did something wrong. But god has forgiven me and I’ve asked you to forgive me, which you have to do since god has already done it, so, Ta-Da!! It’s all good now. And you’re not allowed to bring it up again. See you next season.”
Nathaniel
August 21st, 2015
What makes me sad is that there are 18 more kids behind him (I believe he is the oldest). If he is that screwed up, imagine how bad-off the youngest ones will be.
Ben in oakland
August 21st, 2015
Timothy, Jeebus is the mythical son of God that a certain class of so-called Christian prays to whenever they sin badly, and are caught in the toils of hypocrisy, lust, and megalomania. They desire to proclaim to the world that they have been forgiven of all the harm they have done to other people, mostly the innocent ones.
That is not the same character at all that other people pray to, and who makes their lives, and the lives of people around them, much better. The real Jesus doesn’t engage in hypocritical games to evade responsibility.
Priya Lynn
August 21st, 2015
The idea that Jesus can forgive your sins is nonsensical. No one can forgive your wrongdoings other than the person you wronged. If Ted punches you in the nose and I say “Ted, you’re forgiven” it means nothing if you don’t forgive Ted. A third party cannot forgive the wrongdoings of the transgressor.
Timothy Kincaid
August 21st, 2015
Ben,
No, “Jebus” is a term used to show contempt for Christians and Christianity.
I know that some who use it try to say that it only applies to some Christians. I give that the same respect as I do those who try to say that when they use the ‘n word’ they only mean some African Americans.
Irrespective of the “not you, of course” clarifications, these are words that are intended to hurt and demean. And they do.
Timothy Kincaid
August 21st, 2015
Priya Lynn,
I think you may be misstating the premise of prayer for forgiveness.
In Christian theology, there are sins against God and sins against man, and you have to attone for both.
If you’ve sinned against someone, you must make it right with them. But you must also recognize that sinning against others offends God and be penitent and contrite.
Asking God to forgive you for punching Ted in the nose is, in Christian theology, a good thing. It shows that you see the wrongness of your deed and want to change your behavior.
But you still have to go to Ted and make it right. Those who think that they can just ask Jesus to forgive whatever they do to you misunderstand their own religion.
Ben in Oakland
August 21st, 2015
Well, Timothy, that might be how OTHER people use the term, but it’s not how I use the term.
you know that I am an atheist. But, I have no problem with religion at all, even Christianity. It’s religion of the sort that says “Do what I say, believe what I believe, or I will hurt you.’ that I have a problem with.
Josh Boy said, “As I am learning the hard way, we have the freedom to choose our actions, but we do not get to choose our consequences.” But in Duggar’s case, that is EXACTLY what he attempting to do– choosing his consequences.
I have a REAL problem with the oldest Christian con game of all: “I am the most miserable of sinners. I have failed Jesus, but I know (absent any actual evidence)that he has forgiven me. So no actual consequences, right? We’re all good!”
Until the next time. Duggar has already had a number of those next times: serial child molestation, Serial attempted (if not actual) adultery, serial looking at women (on Xvideos. com?) with lust in his heart (also adultery, according to Jesus, but not Jebus), two different Ashley Madison accounts, a facebook account, and on and on and on and on.
Until the next time, where once again, Jebus will forgive him, because we are all sinners, doncha know?
That particular Jesus is Jebus the Sock Puppet, Jebus the Convenient, Jebus the enabler of self righteous hypocrites who wouldn’t know the real Jesus if he knocked on the door.
Duggar, like so many of his ilk– and he has so much ilk there– has a lot of empty headed people who are no better than he is, ready to forgive him of his blatant lies, immorality, adultery, and sexual obsessions– as long as he hasn’t harmed THEM– if he only utters the Three Magic Words: “God forgives me.”
If Duggars brand of Christianity– and that of ted Haggard, Newt Gingrich, Eddie long, Lonnie latham, Tchvidjian (grahams adulterous preacher grandson)and a host of others…
wants, demands, or even thinks it deserves respect, then maybe, just may be, it needs to start acting respectably.
If I sound angry, it’s because I am. I don’t really care about the sins of others– that’s between them, those that they harmed, and whatever agency they think is in charge of things. But I absolutely care about these protestations of morality and holiness that are the thinnest veneer of respectability on a stinking mass of bad behavior, which are then used ot harm people that these hypocrites don’t like.
By your own theology, they are sinners of a far worse sort than those who put their dangly bits to a use that the former don’t approve of.
Who denounced “scribes! Pharisees! Hypocrites!” No one important to this cadre of jebus-praising so called Christians.
Timothy Kincaid
August 21st, 2015
I have no problem with you disagreeing with Duggar’s theology (or mine or anyone else’s). Or being angry at their selfishness and harmfulness.
But I do object to slurs and bigotry.
And though one can use the word Jebus or nigger or kike or wetback without seeking to demean all Christians or African Americans or Jews or immigrants, that is what those words are designed and intended to do.
I have heard straight people tell me to my face that when they sneer the word “faggot”, they really don’t mean all gay people, just the ones who are “like that”. It didn’t make me think that they were any less of a homophobe.
And when you tell me that you, of course, don’t mean to demean me when you use “Jebus”, it doesn’t make me think, “oh, well in that case it’s okay”.
I don’t believe you are a bigot. But you are using a bigoted term.
Timothy Kincaid
August 21st, 2015
Or, to put it in perspective, I think that neither of us would enter a contest to who could draw the best cartoon of Mohammad fornicating with a sheep.
We wouldn’t think it was cool to wear a tallit out to a club.
We wouldn’t pack beef sandwiches for a picnic at a Hindu shrine.
We wouldn’t tell the children of an atheist that their daddy and mommy are going to burn in hell.
Yes, some people would do all these things. Let’s not be those type of people.
Ben in Oakland
August 21st, 2015
Timothy, I’m not looking for a flame war, but I think there is a failure of logic in your statement.
If I were to use the words kike, nigger, or wetback–I don’t, and I wouldn’t–I am intending to issue a slur about a group of people based upon my prejudices about them. This has little to nothing to do with them, and everything to do with me.
When I use the word Jebus, I have absolutely no intention of slurring or ridiculing a group of people. I am ridiculing a particular belief, and in this case, a particular belief of a particular person who makes far more mock of what he claims to believe than I have ever done, even when I’ve actually intended to do so.
In fact, I am doing precisely what you said you have no problem with: I am disagreeing with his theology. It isn’t the theology of Jesus, which you believe, but a particularly perverted and self-serving parody of your theology.
I don’t agree with the whole idea of Christian theology, but I can respect that belief, as long as those Christians are behaving respectably. I don’t think I have ever, on this website (or any other) done anything different.
but Duggar– and Tony perkins, and the Huckster, and a host of others– are not acting respectably. And duggar is disrespecting the very idea of what he claims to believe by making his Jesus into his own personal sock puppet, ready to forgive his most egregious and repetitive sins against others, just because joshy boy says so.
I don’t need to respect such a disrespectable idea.
Priya Lynn
August 21st, 2015
Timothy said “But you still have to go to Ted and make it right. Those who think that they can just ask Jesus to forgive whatever they do to you misunderstand their own religion.”.
Many christians would say it is you who misunderstands your own religion.
Priya Lynn
August 21st, 2015
God will still accept you into heaven whether you’ve made it right with those you’ve sinned against or not. The implication is still that god as a third party can forgive your wrongdoings against someone else which is not the case.
Timothy Kincaid
August 21st, 2015
Priya Lynn,
Again we reach that impasse in which I believe that I have at least a decent understanding of Protestant Christian theology, and in which you believe that your understanding surpasses my own.
As I have spent some time studying the faith, was raised in a parsonage, and have attended several denominations, and as you are basing your opinions on some exposure to some people, I’ll stick with my position.
No doubt you will do the same.
Priya Lynn
August 21st, 2015
“As I have spent some time studying the faith, was raised in a parsonage, and have attended several denominations”.
And as such you are not at all similar to the typical American christian.
As for me, it is not a matter of “some exposure to some people” as you would say about Peter Labarbera and gays, it is a matter of virtually everyone I know including all of my own immediate family being a christian.
Priya Lynn
August 21st, 2015
Not to mention that I was a christian at one time myself.
Timothy Kincaid
August 21st, 2015
Yes, indeed we are both sticking to our positions.
JohnInTheBayArea
August 21st, 2015
I think that his cheating on his wife isn’t quite as bad as his sexually abusing 4 of his sisters and another underage girl.
So, I guess that on some level his behavior is actually improving. Who would have guessed?
enough already
August 22nd, 2015
I am so disgusted by this man’s abuse of the Doctrine of Forgiveness, I have no words.
Richard Rush
August 22nd, 2015
If he hasn’t already, I’m sure Josh will eventually claim that Jesus has forgiven him. Will he have any documentation for that? Of course not. It’s like claiming to be a Born Again Christian, where, of course, there is no blood test or other documentation for verification.
Interestingly, though, there is always documentation when people like Dugger are found to be Porn Again Christians.
KZ
August 22nd, 2015
I too am not a fan of the “Jeebus/Christianists” slurs. Our society is way too polarized. It’s always Christianity vs. LGBTs when it doesn’t have to be. There are plenty of people of faith who are LGBT, and there are plenty of straight allies who are people of faith.
Spunky
August 23rd, 2015
Tim,
I always thought “J—-” was a silly euphemism for “Jesus”–I first heard the term in a Family Guy episode, and it wasn’t used in a (terribly) offensive way, and certainly not as a slur.
However, I didn’t realize it had this demeaning quality to it. I haven’t used the term before, but I certainly won’t use it again. Thanks for pointing that out.
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