Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Have you been too cheerful lately? You might take the time to watch the Neflix documentary series, “Shiny happy people.”
Seriously, you should watch it. I know some are warning against it: “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.”
Christians should never be afraid to look.
While I’m at it, let me also recommend the documentary from “Christianity Today” magazine, “The rise and fall of Mars Hill.”
If you’re a podcast listener, check out episodes 148 and 149 of the Bare Marriage podcast and hear the voice of a victim of so-called “purity culture.”
Here’s the spoiler alert in these recommendations. All is not well in the kingdom.
“Shiny happy people” exposes some of the inner workings behind the wildly popular TLC reality show, “19 kids and counting.” The show followed the lives of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar and their 19 children. They became Christian celebrities. Many were thankful for their consistent, bold witness for Christ. The show made them wealthy and propelled Jim Bob to office in the state Legislature. It all crashed and burned, though, after the eldest son admitted to molesting at least two of his younger sisters. Later, he was jailed for possession of child pornography.
The series interviewed members of the Duggar family, close friends, and relatives. It exposed the role played in their lives by the Bill Gothard organization. He was a popular teacher in the 1970s and 1980s who, bizarrely, became a big authority on marriage, parenting, and homeschooling though never being married; never raising children; and, never attempting to homeschool anyone. His own celebrity status was finally destroyed by multiple, credible accusations of sexual harassment.
One practice, recommended by Gothard, and apparently followed in the Duggar home, was called “blanket time.” A toddler is placed on a blanket on the floor. She is told by her parent that she is not allowed to leave the blanket or will be in trouble. Then, something she loves, like a favorite toy, is placed in her sight, but just out of her reach. Whenever she crosses the boundary of the blanket to reach for it, she is spanked for rebelling against her parent’s instruction. She might also be spanked for crying too loudly. This could continue for an hour. The expressed purpose, the stated goal, was to break the child’s will.
Gothard’s teachings have permeated evangelical, Christian culture, especially among the most conservative homeschoolers. It makes me want to re-use the word “bizarrely,” which would be poor writing. It baffles me.
As an evangelical myself, this series made me wish there was a different label I could use. To my mind, the environment of the Duggar home, and countless others infected by Gothard in the same way, was made toxic by the embrace of two anti-Christian doctrines.
The first was the insistence on a strict, hierarchical power structure to which women and children must submit instantly and mindlessly. I’ve written against coerced obedience in this space repeatedly. My next article will focus on the other element of this poisonous brew: purity culture, which makes women and girls responsible for the sexual sin of men. Until then, please pray for the Duggar children.
Gordan Runyan is the pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Tucumcari. Contact him at: