We are loath to give space and exposure to the Duggars, but I suppose a brief note is in order in an Encyclopedia like this. And Jim Bob Duggar actually did serve in the Arkansas House of Representatives between 1999 and 2002. The Duggars are followers of the Quiverfull movement and members of the Institute in Basic Life Principles organization, a Bible-based homeschooling program run by the deranged monster Bill Gothard. The oldest daughter, Jana Duggar, is a leader at the IBLP’s Journey to the Heart youth ministry. Josh Duggar, supported in all his antics by Mike Huckabee, is the executive director of Family Research Council Action, which would have been hilarious if it weren’t so tragic.
Jim Bob himself has enjoyed something of a star status among the crazier segments of the religious rights and did, for instance, give an appropriately inane speech at the 2013 Values Voters Summit, where he – as people like him tend to do – compared the US to Nazi Germany on the grounds that the majority of Americans fail to agree with his crazy, bigoted insanity. Then there is this (oh, yes). In a 2011 book Jim Bob and Michelle argued that women are “defrauding men” by dressing immodestly, since any abuse by men should be blamed on the women leading men into temptation. They clearly don’t know what “defrauding” means. Jim Bob is a realtor in his daily life.
Here is a discussion of the scientific musings of Jessa Duggar. Clearly the homeschooling she received did not include a focus on logic, reasoning or use of cognitive faculties, but what would you expect from parents like hers? Her husband, Ben Seewald, doesn’t like evolution either (and has no more idea of what it is than you’d expect from a Kent Hovind-acolyte).
Diagnosis: Repugnant monsters. These people are not only stupid; they’re evil. All of them (though Jim Bob, Michelle and Bill Gothard are primarily to blame – yes, even compared to Josh Duggar, since those three should be held morally responsible for that one).