In recent months, Jim Bob Duggar’s bizarre belief system has come under closer scrutiny than ever.
Back in May, the Amazon Prime docu-series Shiny Happy People shined an unflattering light on the Duggar family’s checkered past.
Earlier this month, Jill Duggar published her debut memoir, and the book has drawn even more criticism to Jim Bob and his abusive parenting.
In the wake of all this unfavorable coverage, several members of the Duggar family have found themselves facing uncomfortable questions about their beliefs.
Specifically, fans want to know if any of the Duggars are still involved with the Institute in Basic Life Principles.
The IBLP is the cult that warped Jim Bob’s fragile mind and convinced him to create the culture of abuse in which his children were raised.
IBLP founder Bill Gothard resigned amid sexual assault allegations in 2014, but the organization still has many adherents, including Jim Bob and Michelle.
Thankfully, it looks as though most of their kids have distanced themselves from Jim Bob’s beloved cult.
The latest Duggar to be questioned about the IBLP is Jessa, who earlier this week denied any involvement with the organization.
“Do you and Ben follow IBLP?” a follower of the former reality star asked during a live Q&A session on Monday.
“No, we do not,” Jessa promptly replied.
The denial comes on the heels of a video posted by Joy-Anna Duggar in which the younger sister also disavowed the IBLP.
“We started distancing ourselves from those functions,” Joy said in response to a question about her involvement in IBLP events.
“We’d always talk about when we were dating that we weren’t gonna use their literature and stuff like that … Just kinda distanced ourselves.”
“No, we never were, you and I as a couple,” Joy’s husband, Austin Forsyth, chimed in.
Leading the way in terms of the willingness to publicly cut ties with the IBLP was Jinger Duggar, who published her own memoir back in January.
In her book, Jinger revealed that while she’s still an evangelical Christian, she is not an adherent of her parents’ ultra-strict religion.
“Fear was a huge part of my childhood,” Jinger said in an interview following the book’s release.
“I thought I had to wear only skirts and dresses to please God. Music with drums, places I went or the wrong friendships could all bring harm,” she continued.
“[Gothard’s] teachings, in a nutshell, are based on fear and superstition and leave you in a place where you feel like, ‘I don’t know what God expects of me,’” she explained.
“The fear kept me crippled with anxiety. I was terrified of the outside world.”
Thankfully, Jim Bob’s daughters have found a way to escape the cult that destroyed their childhoods.
Hopefully, their example will help other victims do the same.
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