Jinger Duggar Admits Parents Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar ‘Denied’ Certain Bill Gothard Teachings
Jinger Duggar admitted her parents, Jim Bob Duggar and Michelle Duggar, “denied” certain teachings of IBLP leader Bill Gothard while raising their 19 children.
“I can remember Bill Gothard even at one time telling a girl before she came to Christ that she needed to do his ‘steps,’ and then she could find freedom,” Jinger, 30, explained on the Wednesday, May 1, episode of the “Grace & Truth” podcast. “So there were things that were taught throughout the teachings, which my parents would have denied or pushed out and said, ‘Kids, that’s not right.’”
Jinger emphasized that Gothard would “hold on to things outside the scripture” and she encouraged others who grew up in the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) system to examine the religion themselves away from those views.
Jim Bob, 58, and Michelle, 57, raised their children under the non-denominational Christian organization founded by Gothard in 1974.
IBLP “was established for the purpose of introducing people to the Lord Jesus Christ,” adding that they are “dedicated” to providing others with a “clear institution and training on how to find success by following God’s principles found in Scripture,” according to the Institution’s website.
Aside from studying the bible, Gothard’s teachings included controversial topics like “male superiority and female obedience,” guidelines on how men and women should dress, homeschooling curriculums and Bible memorization, according to a July 2016 article in The Chicago Magazine.
Jinger was vocal about her journey to “disentangle” her views on religion in her 2023 book, Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear.
In the memoir, she explained that her older sister Jessa Seewald’s husband, Ben Seewald, encouraged her to interpret religion on her terms. “I noticed his church read the Bible in its entirety and preached scripture that way,” the Counting On alum wrote in the memoir. “I feel like now I’m in a much better place. I see God as amazing.”
While she condemned Gothard’s teachings in her book, she also claimed the organization created an unhealthy “fear of God” in her, which she equated to “more of a terror.”
“I was probably one of the most sensitive people in my family, so I was a rule follower,” she explained on the “Cultish” podcast in March 2023. “If that was an inch on a skirt, I would be like ‘Oh, no. I can’t sit down with this skirt on.’ Because it would barely show like a quarter of my knee. I was a legalist to the extreme because that’s what Bill Gothard said would protect you.”