by Primo Encarnación

I have spent a lot of time avoiding these folks.  The whole Quiverfull movement makes me quiver.  It falls right in line with all the other weird fundie perversions of Scripture, where the men act like gods, and the women are stepford martyrs with rubber wombs.  I’ve avoided getting deeply into it, the same way I avoid reading about flesh-eating bacteria: intellectually I know it’s out there, but it skeeves me out and I don’t care to know more.

Then  oldest spawn, Josh, was scooped up by Tony Perkins’ Family Research Council and given a job running their PAC.  FRC is an anti-LGBT hate group (so identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center) and, of course, it seemed the perfect place for young Joshua to turn his family franchise into the big time political career his dad, Jim Bob, tried and failed to spark off his own after a brief stint in the Arkansas legislature.

Again, I ignore the FRC and Focus on the Family and all that other BS for much the same reason I ignore Duggar Dynasty:  it’s a carnival sideshow, designed to separate credulous Christians from their widows’ mites.

Now it comes out that teenage Josh Duggar was a bit of a perv, molesting at least five girls including up to four of his yonger sisters.  Growing up in such a household, learning that women are there to serve the man and prohibited most if not all forms of sex, except to set off your own population pipe bomb with your covenant wife – hell, it’s  a wonder he didn’t turn into an axe-murderer…yet.

Again, I didn’t much care; yet another sex scandal among the holier-than-thou crowd… yawn.  And this one was 12+ years ago, and the “molester” was himself still a pretty young teen.   So, now his hate-friends don’t want him in their gang no more?  Yay, my schadenfreude said, then rolled over and went back to sleep.

But then it got interesting.

As the Josh-is-a-perv story was getting legs, I imagine that tons of FOIA requests started wending their way towards the Springdale Police Department.  But the day after the story broke, an Arkansas judge ordered the police records destroyed.

Hello, what have we here?

Here we have the reason why schadenfreude should wake up and pay attention, because this is no longer just an uber-christian TV family dealing with something that happens all the time to all sorts of people.  This is now Watergate-y, where the pretty predictable crime, given the kid’s effed up upbringing, is now about to be overshadowed by the political cover-up.

I looked again at the timeline.  Josh’s late-night gropes come smack-dab in the middle of his dad’s political career.   Twelve years ago is when they allegedly stopped – 2003 – but March, 2002, was when the family first becomes aware of improper touching.  In 2002, Daddy Jim Bob also runs for US Senate and loses in the May primary.  In 2003 more of this comes out and Josh gets sent for “treatment.”  In 2004, Dad runs for state senate and loses.

Around this time, as well, Josh was “betrothed” to the daughter of Jim Holt, another quiver-nut , who ran for the US Senate in 2004 and lost to Democrat Blanche Lincoln.  In one of those three races – stories vary –  the blame for the loss was placed by the candidate as “sin in the camp” and for years now – YEARS mind you – the rumors have been that Josh’s diddling of little girls was that sin.  The betrothal with the Holt girl ended, and then in 2006, as all their “## kids and pregnant!” specials were about to lead to a big Oprah appearance, both Harpo Studios and a tipster contacted state authorities.

Jim Bob had submitted Josh to a lecture from a trooper friend later found to be a pedophile (as was also suspected of the founder of Josh’s little re-training camp, who left under a cloud for molesting women).  But by the time the actual cops did some investigation, lo and behold! the statute  had run on Josh’s documented crimes.  All that remained were the ghosts of internet rumors, a tight-lipped community of homechurchers who know some of the story, and a police file which now no longer exists.

Folks, this isn’t about Josh.  This is about the yearning for power by Jim Bob and others like him (Mike Huckabee, you are HIP DEEP in this mess) who feel themselves above man’s law and want to bring this country under their god’s law, one theocratic state at a time.  And if their crazy, unbalanced methods create crazy, unbalanced children by the quiverfull, well, that’s all to the good, so long as they can place them in the halls of power.  Josh was groomed – and re-programmed, when needed – to lead the next generation to the Promised Land, and wage war on the non-believers along the way, just like his Biblical namesake.

Flesh-eating bacteria seem cuddly in comparison.