Hobby Lobby Funded the Duggars' Allegedly Sex-Abusing Cult Minister

[Galraedia]

The founder of a homeschooling empire championed by reality TV's Duggar family and Sarah Palin, Bill Gothard resigned earlier this year amid accusations that he molested dozens of women. No one, he says, was more instrumental to his now-controversial ministry than the family behind Hobby Lobby.

Mother Jones' David Corn and Molly Redden published a detailed investigation this morning showing that long before the Green family—which owns Hobby Lobby—fought to avoid covering contraception for its insured employees, it gave hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and real estate to Gothard and his controversial theocratic fundamentalist Baptist movement.

Considered by many mainstream Christians to be a cult, Gothard's Institute in Basic Life Principles has for decades advocated a cloistered, rigid conservative approach to raising children in Christ—which interested parties can learn about by paying, Scientology-style, for successive lectures, videos, seminars, and isolated boot camp-style experiences. Gothard is also associated with Quiverfull, a fringe movement championed by Jim and Michelle Duggar (of 19 Kids and Counting fame) that advocates wifely submission and mandates plentiful procreation and sees all forms of birth control as sinful—a philosophy that is not shared by most mainline Protestants.

Gothard tells Mother Jones that his ties with Hobby Lobby's Green family have been indispensable to his work. "The secret of their success is their generosity," he said, adding: "They're friends. I see and talk to them periodically."

More at: http://gawker.com/hobby-lobby-funded-the-duggars-allegedly-sex-abusing-cu-1599083411

[blue neen]

1. Hypocrite Lobby needs to be put out of business.

Pronto.

[silvershadow]

7. I am not so certain this debacle won't do just that, in the end. nt

[BrotherIvan]

2. They want you ALL - men and women - to live like the Duggars

Don't like it? FIGHT.

That Duggar show is nothing pro theocratic propaganda. That show needs to be put out of business too.

[kcr]

9. Agreed

It seems to work on a lot of people, too. Oh, look how shiny and fresh faced they all are, don't criticize them for their choices! :barf:

[BrotherIvan]

13. Yes, those girls just love taking care of babies full time while mom just makes more

And being sold off to a husband so she can make babies until she drops. It's no big deal, they look happy while the cameras are rolling. It's just tv! Saying we can't criticize this kind of behavior and the underlying misogyny is bullshit.

[yeoman6987]

15. I love the show

I know that some don't like it. But I just like the way that they all help each other. How respectful they are to the parents. And that they never get into trouble. I find them to be a great American family and more of us should emulate their behaviors at least.

[BrotherIvan]

19. You do know that reality TV is scripted fiction, right?

And just as the Duck Dynasty guys went from preppy to hillbilly, so too the Duggars are given a PR shine. The Discovery Channel made them, except for the brood mare part. They built them a house and supply all their food. They get compensation in many ways though they claim they don't. They pawn the older boys off onto relatives but keep the girls for free childcare. The children are completely isolated within the home and the siblings raise each other, not the parents.

The Duggars endorse the method in a book called To Train Up a Child. This book recommends severe forms of child abuse to get your children to be so "respectful" as you say. This book recommends corporal punishment starting at five months. It has been linked to the deaths of several children. So those children "who never get in trouble" have been beaten into submission off camera.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfeminism/2012/02/carefully-scripted-lives-my-concerns-about-the-duggars.html

There are tons of articles that list the behind-the-scenes truth about the Duggars. This was just the first one that came up. Unless your "love" for the show doesn't care that it is carefully scripted PROPAGANDA for a way of life that enslaves women and girls and is trying to mainstream cultish behavior.

[defacto7]

3. And what does that make the gang of 5 SCOTUS look like?

FOOLS!



of course we already knew that.

[delrem]

4. Nice that you included the modifier "allegedly" in the title.

Not good that the photoshop/jpg says:
"Hobby Lobby funded child molester ..."

Not good at all that this kind of targeted attack on individuals appears to be sufficient response to a real problem.

[LeftyMom]

5. He's been accused by a few dozen women and girls at this point.

They've all got very similar stories- apparently he's very interested in teenage girls' feet.

You have to understand this in context: for people in that subculture he's practically the pope. To accuse him is a big damn deal, there was a very real risk of being ostracized from their communities or even their families. Nobody called him out on his behavior lightly.

[delrem]

6. I understand.

However, at this point the matter is "allegedly".
Take it through the courts.
It ought not become a "Hobby Lobby" political talking point, regardless of the fact that "Hobby Lobby" is owned by an asshole who proved that the majority of the SCOTUS are assholes.

[LeftyMom]

8. It points to a the Greens' disregard for women. As do ATI's actual teachings, and the mistreatment

of the wards of the state and other "wayward girls" placed at their facilities.

[delrem]

10. I'm not defending any of these people.

If you think that, you weren't paying attention.

[rpannier]

11. Gonna go with Delrem on this one

Untgil he has been convicted of something it is alleged.
I've seen lots of allegations dating back years that 'had to be true' The Mc Martin Pre-School trials, Duke Lacrosse, the Salem Witch Trials, etc.
I don't know what he did, but I am willing to go with he is innocent until proven guilty

[Galraedia]

17. Bill Gothard practically admitted to it.

"This emphasis on outward appearance was also manifested by bringing selected young people to serve at the Headquarters and causing others to feel rejected and offended by my favoritism. My actions of holding of hands, hugs, and touching of feet or hair with young ladies crossed the boundaries of discretion and were wrong. They demonstrated a double-standard and violated a trust. Because of the claims about me I do want to state that I have never kissed a girl nor have I touched a girl immorally or with sexual intent." ~ Bill Gothard

Yet at least 34 women have accused him of sexual harassment and several women have gone on record saying that Gothard kissed them or fingered them while they were working at Headquarters as teens. And does Gothard honestly expect anyone to believe that a 50 or 60-year-old man could play footsie with a 16-year-old girl, hold and stroke her hands for long periods of time, caress her hair, etc., all without any “sexual intent”? Especially a 50 or 60-year-old man who leads a religious empire and teaches his followers that couples should not touch or have physical contact before marriage?

[ReRe]

12. As each day passes...

... since the HL decision one week ago, we learn more and more disturbing info about the Green family. And the more we learn, heavier is the indictment of the five winger Justices for ruling in their favor. Did the Judges know that this man, Gothard, the master brain-washer of evangelical fundamentalism, was affiliated with the Green family? There is an element in the Catholic Church that reminds me of this kind of cultism. I have a cousin who is a Catholic who has taken a vow of poverty, even though it has negatively affected the rearing of her children. She was a registered nurse. But she threw her education and experience out the window and dropped out in order to be a part of this wing of the Catholic Church. Truth be known, she is one of the women who protest outside of Planned Parenthood clinics, because abortion is her number one complaint. I don't talk to her much anymore.

Republicans are the ones who brought up the subject of "judicial activism." Blaming Democrats of purposely loading the SC with liberal Democrats. As I remember it, it came to the surface when Bork (sp?) was voted down by a Democratic majority in the Senate, late '80s?

[BrotherIvan]

14. It has been a concerted effort to mainstream cults

I'm sure some Christians are looking around going, "How did we get here?" The trouble is, they have so infected and distorted religion and politics in this country, it will be rather difficult to root them out. This wound might require cauterization.

[Tanuki]

16. This Hobby Lobby-funded scumbag's official "counseling sexual abuse " policy

places shame and blame on victims (see, especially, #4 below, "Why did God let it happen?&quot . I suppose that HL could substitute this for best practices treatment, now that SCOTUS has given them dominion over their employees' private health care decisions.
http://www.recoveringgrace.org/2013/04/how-counseling-sexual-abuse-blames-and-shames-survivors/

[BrotherIvan]

20. Oh puke!

[BlummberBee]

18. Sigh - Republicans have some strange "values"

sad to say