01x01 - Meet The Duggars

[bunniefuu]

[interviewer] It would make perfect sense

that sitting down here
today would be too much.

What was it that recently changed?

Yeah, I mean doing an
interview like this isn't easy

and like I didn't wanna do it.
There's a lot there that like,

do I wanna open that can of worms?
It's just hard to go through.

There were a lot of families
in a similar situation,

but it was very different in the sense

that like my family was on television.

[narrator] You've probably
heard of the Duggar family,

Jim Bob, Michelle, and their
19 biological children.

It became like a phenomenon really fast.

[man] I want to name my child
Jim Bob. Jim Bob is the man.

Everyone knew who the family was.

[girls cheer]

I actually decided to save
my first kiss for marriage.

[creepy dramatic music throughout]

[Amy] I asked him, my uncle, "You don't
believe in TV. Why are you on television?"

And he responded with, "Well, this is a
ministry."

- 19 children.
- 19 Kids and Counting.

The whole world knows them for their hit
show on TLC's 19 Kids and Counting.

[Chad] Everyone keeps focusing
on Duggar, Duggar, Duggar.

What they do not focus on is
how the Duggars came to be.

[Jill] We were part of the Institute
of Basic Life Principles

from as early as I can remember.

[dramatic music continues]

[Chad] The Duggars were the poster
children for the Institute.

The leader of the Institute,
he believed Christian families

should have as many children as possible
in order to have more chances

to influence the world for Jesus Christ.

It's what we've trained our children,
their whole lives to do good in the world.

[Josh Pease] The show
explodes and there are spinoffs

and there are more families who are
getting their own reality TV series while

at the same time that that's happening,
there's more and more evidence coming out

of just the pandemic of abuse that is
happening everywhere this culture touches.

[Jim Bob] God has used this situation
with our oldest son, Josh,

really to purify our family.

Oh boy.

It's hard to actually let
yourself speak the truth.

[woman] These people in
this church who are supposed

to be keeping me safe
are harboring pedophiles.

In this community, the word
abuse doesn't really exist.

Punish him with the rod severely.

[woman] These are people who
are scarring their children

and doing it in the name of God.

[Josh Pease] They turned
every father into a cult leader

and franchised, spiritual, physical,
emotional, psychological abuse.

[woman] It's patriarchal,
it's authoritarian.

Women don't have rights, children break.

Instant obedience!

That's the society that they're building.

[Brooke] The IBLP
teachings aren't Christianity

they're something entirely different.

[Kristin] The homeschooling is kind of the
linchpin of this whole project.

Instead of learning math,
you're learning sl*t shaming.

It's infiltrating into
so many people's lives.

[man] The goal was to funnel
Christian homeschoolers

into positions of influence in government.

- [creepy dramatic music continues]
- [soldiers hut]

[woman] They're training
their kids to refashion America.

They operate as a cult in plain sight.
World domination was the goal.

And they believe that they're populating
the army that will help us get there.

The Duggars' TV show was the
engine for letting this thrive.

The shiny happy images is the sugar
and we're all high on it.

[Josh Pease] There's so much more to that
story. There's so much more there.

I didn't know what was
going on behind the scenes.

[dramatic music crescendoing]

They were just deceiving us all.

[uplifting music]

[peaceful music]

I'm Derick Dillard, I'm
from Rogers, Arkansas.

I'm Jill Dillard and I'm
from Springdale, Arkansas.

I'm the fourth born of 19
children in the Duggar family.

- Hello, I'm Jill Duggar.
- [laughs]

[Jill] I grew up on TV.

[Michelle] As she's
blossomed into womanhood,

I've seen the good qualities
of being very organized

with this friendly, outgoing
personality that she has.

[Jill] There's a story
that's gonna be told

and I would rather be the one
telling it than the tabloids

and anybody else who can
make up whatever they want.

My parents are Jim Bob
and Michelle Duggar.

The oldest in our family
is Josh and then twins,

Jana and John, then me, I'm
Jill, and then Jessa, Jinger,

Joseph, Josiah, Joy, Jedediah, Jeremiah,
they're another set of twins.

Then Jason, James, Justin,
Jackson, Johannah, Jordyn.

Uh, wait, Justin, Jackson, Johannah,
Jennifer, Jordyn, Josie.

We were on the TV show
on TLC about our family.

[dramatic music]

My parents met when my dad was out on
church visitation with a friend of his.

His friend had mentioned, "Oh, there's
this girl, she's a cheerleader.

She just became a Christian" and my dad's
like, "Let's go see her!"

[Michelle] I was the baby of seven.
I had a happy childhood, I have to say,

but I wasn't like Jim Bob.
I had dated, I had gotten mixed up

in that boyfriend, girlfriend mess.

[Jill] My dad invited her to his junior
senior banquet. She went and then.

[Michelle] We talked for four hours
about the things of God.

He opened up the word of God and explained
things to me that I had never heard.

That night I got on my knees
and I gave my life to God.

Somewhere in there, somewhere after that,
they got married. Pretty young actually.

She was 17, he was 19.

[Jim Bob] When we first
got married, we thought

maybe we'd have one or
two or three children.

Michelle went on birth control pills.

She was on that up until
we had her first son, Josh,

and then she went back on the pill.
And then she ended up getting pregnant

while she was on the pill, and so the pill
actually caused a miscarriage.

And so, at that point together
we just got on our knees

before God and we asked His forgiveness

and then right after that,
God blessed us with twins.

And then another one and another one.

[audience laughs]

We gave that area of our life to God
and He just kept blessing us.

[uplifting music]

[Jill] My parents believed you should have
as many kids as you're capable of having

until your body tells you to stop.

My grandparents, neither
one on either side

agreed with my parents
having a million kids.

They were like, concerned
about my mom's health

and like they would always
say, "Oh, is this your last one?"

[Jim Bob] Look at here, Grandpa,
this is your new grandbaby.

This is Jordyn Grace Makiya Duggar, yeah.

[Jill] My dad was working like three jobs.
He was working at a convenience store,

and he had a car business,
and then he had a tow truck service.

When I smell that diesel smell,
it reminds me of my dad with his sweet tea

in his lap, riding like one or two of us

in the truck next to him up
in the cab bouncing along.

We would find all of
the Kids Eat Free places

and like we'd just stay there for hours.

My dad and mom have like
a little bit of pride

where it's like, "Yeah, I think
we put him out of business."

My dad grew up very poor.

I think it made him feel like he probably
had to like grow up a little early

and try and like protect his family.

He had one sister and her name is Deanna.

My brother and I always had a really close
relationship and we got along really well.

We were brought up Missionary Baptist,
which is a conservative Baptist.

We weren't allowed to go to dances.

I was not allowed to
wear jeans for a while.

Being a cheerleader, I
couldn't be, I wasn't allowed,

so that's why I gave
my daughter, Amy, freedom

of anything she wanted to do
that I was not allowed to do.

I'm Amy King, I was the crazy cousin.

So I'm Dillon King, I'm just a supportive
husband. That's all.

[Amy laughs]

Everyone asks me if I'm gonna have this
many kids and that's a no. [laughs]

Amy isn't the same way as
us, but we still like her. [laughing]

[Amy] I am Jim Bob's niece.
I'm the oldest out of all the kids.

I literally grew up on camera.

It is a constructed regality,
you know you have to get the angles right.

You walk through a door 20 times.
If they miss part of an interview,

you have to look a certain way so it's
like, "Oh, it's the same day!"

Like, it's reality but it's not. [laughs]

The way that I was raised was rock and
roll, you know, this is life and enjoy it.

Teenage years was Jonathan
Taylor Thomas posters on the wall,

and NSYNC, and all the boy bands

and I got to have pool
parties and there were boys.

I had my first boyfriend
when I was in eighth grade.

[interviewer] Have you
ever kissed a guy before?

Yes, sorry, Aunt
Michelle and Uncle Jim Bob!

But I loved my cousins
and I loved my family.

I was over there every day.
This is how like country we are.

During recess, I would literally
sneak into the cow pasture

and go across the field to see them.

But every aspect of their life
was completely different than mine.

I didn't know what they
were being taught, you know,

I just knew they were homeschooled.

At a young age, you
realized really quickly

that it was a very strict household.

You know, you couldn't turn on the radio.

They don't have TVs either.

Yeah, or TV.

Um, you know, my mom used to call them
when there'd be like a tornado warning.

[meteorologist] God, we've
had numerous lightning strikes.

[Amy] Because they had no way of knowing.

You know, they had pantaloons
underneath their dresses

- and those are considered...
- I don't even know what that is.

[Amy] Pantaloons are white cotton pants,
T-shirt.

[Dillon] Pants under a dress?

But they're not just
pants, they're billowy.

You can't wear shorts, you
can't show your shoulders.

You just knew that... you just
didn't act like your actual self.

[Jim Bob] This is my niece Amy.
I love her very much.

I was there at her birth and it's amazing.
Now I'm here at your baptism.

I know!

And in the name of the
Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost.

[Amy] I admired my uncle.

He was a father figure in a way to me.

Back then it was just like, "Oh my
goodness, what? What can't this guy do?"

I just remember thinking,
is he gonna be president?

Like what? How far is this gonna go, you
know?

[crowd chatter]

[Jill] My dad heard about this pro-life
rally at the capitol.

[Jim Bob] When we got to the rally,
there was 2000 people

standing out in front of the capitol,
begging these representatives

and senators to ban
partial birth ab*rtion.

But that day, instead of going and voting
to pass that ban, they voted it down.

God put in my heart that
day to get involved.

[Jill] After this rally, we went and like

toured the capitol and met
the governor, Mike Huckabee.

For my dad, I think that started
opening his eyes to like,

"Hey, I should run for office
and maybe I can make a difference."

[Jim Bob] I was totally scared to death,
but we ran and the Lord put us in there.

[reporter] From Little Rock, Republican
State Representative Jim Bob Duggar.

[Jill] We moved to Little Rock for a few
months while they were in session,

which was obviously easier
to do when you homeschool.

We loved going to the Capitol.
You could take your school with you

and hang out in the balcony
and watch everything happen.

Josh, my big brother, loved
being there with my dad.

He got to go more than the rest of us
'cause he was the oldest.

[Jim Bob] A lot of the other state
representatives named him Little Governor.

They thought he has a lot of
charisma even from a young age.

[Jill] Josh had like a little boys club
thing with some of his friends.

No rugrats allowed.

[Jill] They named their club "Boycott",

Boy's Christian Outreach Team,
because the convenience store

at the end of our street, I
think they started selling,

it was either alcohol or
p*rn*graphy or something like that

and they were like,
we're gonna boycott them.

My dad ran twice, was elected twice,

served four years in the State
House of Representatives.

[dramatic music]

[Kristin] In 2002, Jim Bob sets his sights
on the US Senate.

I'm Kristin Kobes Du Mez.
I'm a religious historian.

For people like Jim Bob Duggar,

Christianity required action.

So Jim Bob Duggar and his family
are at the right place at the right time.

[Jill] All the kids we went in to vote
with my parents all lined up.

All of us in our weird dresses and stuff.

Somebody took a picture of us
and then it was printed in,

I think the New York Times.

Jim Bob loses his bid for the Senate,

but it's that picture that's going
to change the direction of his life.

Parents Magazine sees that
and they run a profile

on the Duggar family and that draws the
attention of Discovery Health.

[Jill] Discovery Health
reached out to my dad.

[narrator] This fall, explore medical
science on the cutting edge.

[Jill] The network was
always very much focused

on like surgeries and random stuff.

[narrator] Will George's fantasy
of a full head of hair become a reality?

[Jill] Like conjoined twins!

[narrator] Above the waist,
they seem to function independently.

[Jill] They wanted to do a one hour
documentary about our family.

[Kristin] Jim Bob is presented
with a new opportunity

which will give him the
power to present his values

to the entire country and an opportunity
to make a lot of money.

[narrator] Ladies and
gentlemen, meet the Duggars.

I'm Jim Bob, and this is my wife Michelle.
Welcome to the Duggar home.

[narrator] If you lost
count, allow us to help.

That was a total of 14
kids and two sets of twins.

And the keen observer might have detected
that, yes, number 15 is on the way.

That family of eight kids are the Holts.
Father, Jim has known Jim Bob for years.

[Jim Holt] Jim Bob Duggar and I grew up
together.

We went to Shiloh Christian High School
together from seventh grade on.

[Jill] And Jim Holt was one of my dad's
friends, one of his best friends.

- I'll let you go first.
- Ladies first.

No, don't do that to me.
Go ahead.

You want me to just talk
for you, like Jim and Bobye?

- No.
- Okay, just me?

Just you for you.

- Jim Holt.
- And I'm Bobye.

[Jim] We kind of met on a blind date.
I was 19 and...

And I was 14.

Well, we didn't know that.
I didn't know that at the time.

She was, she was developed,
she looked mature.

I was told by my cousin that she was 17 or
18, so I didn't know she was that young.

We all marry young in Arkansas, you know.

Did I tell you we're related? No, I'm just
kidding. [laughs] We're not.

So anyway, Jim Bob said,

"We need some people there at the ice
skating rink at the Jones Center."

And so we said, "Yeah,
we'll come there and skate."

And then they come up
and just stuck the camera

in our face right off the bat and said,
"Well what do you think about this?"

And I thought, "Well, what I do?"
And so, I did a little quick interview

but wished it wasn't that time.

- And you regret that?
- Yeah, I regret, I regret doing that.

♪ Jesus is my everything ♪

[narrator] The two
families composed the core

of what amounts to a homegrown church.

[Jim Holt] When we had our first
daughter, it was March 1st.

Well, Josh was born March 3rd.

[Bobye] Over the years, our relationship
with him had grown.

He was our first daughter's boyfriend
and we had known him since he was a baby.

My name is Joshua Duggar.
I may not be a household name,

but you might have heard of my family.

[all] We're the Duggars!

[Jill] Discovery Health did their one hour
documentary and it did really well.

Then they did a Christmas
special where we pretended

to have Christmas and it
was like really weird.

There was five of those specials.

[narrator] The small
house where the Duggars

currently live might seem crowded with
half the people with only two bathrooms.

When we moved from the smaller house,

which was like 2,400 square
feet into the bigger house,

which was 7,000 square
feet, I was a teenager.

There were a lot more bathrooms for all of
us, like nine bathrooms.

The kitchen is gorgeous.

[Josh Duggar] This is pretty much
my mom's dream come true.

[Jim Holt] Jim Bob needed
help getting his house done

and the show made arrangements
to help him finish his house,

which was $200 or several hundred thousand
dollars to get it finished.

[Jill] And then 2008,
the reality show started.

17 Kids and Counting,
16 Kids and Counting,

something like that, I don't know
which kid we were on by then.

One of 'em and counting!

[Deanna] The popularity grew very large.

[Amy] Everyone was mesmerized
by how you can have that many kids

and have a clean house,
have everything color coded.

The laundry itself is a story.

[Josh Duggar] Poor Jessa,
she's in charge of the laundry

with up to 10 loads a day.
Jessa needs some help.

[Jessa] Who's available to help with the
laundry?

[Amy] Grocery shopping was insane!

It was just such a different way of living
and in a way it looked good.

You know, there wasn't any drama.

The kids were never allowed to argue.
The mom and dad were peaceful.

They never had fights.
Everyone was like, who's this family?

Who's this family?
Who is this family?

[Josiah] Even though we're nine times the
size of an average family.

[Joy Anna] We somehow make it all work.

[Jill] We visited TLC headquarters,

they had this picture of us on their wall
and it was this tandem bike

that they had taken a picture and then
like photoshopped us all on one bike.

We realized this is a big deal.

Reality TV can sort of take a network

that's not exactly a juggernaut
in terms of performance

and really give it new life.

Other networks like Bravo,
VH1, and MTV quickly

learned these shows are
relatively cheap to produce

and at the same time, lots and
lots of people consume them.

My name is Danielle Lindemann.
I am a professor of sociology.

I am an evangelist for reality TV.

[Jill] This is the beginning
of Tater Tot Casserole.

19 Kids and Counting is kind
of the perfect reality show

to teach us about why we like reality TV.

How do they make casserole
for all these people?

And if that's the biggest
problem in an entire episode,

there's something relaxing about that.

Reality TV at its core, it's
incredibly conservative.

Your sister's going to jail,
have a little compassion.

[Danielle] The Kardashians
like, yes, they have sex tapes.

Like yes, they're really
extreme in a lot of ways,

but at the same time
they're super conventional

in terms of how they're
performing their gender.

I did not wake up like this.

[Danielle] The Duggars
also are performing gender

in this way where the women do the
cooking, women do the cleaning.

[interviewer] Do you believe that you are

reinforcing gender stereotypes by having
your girls do the cooking and cleaning?

[Michelle] I think there
are some gender aspects you

just can't get around and that's not bad.
I think that's a good thing.

[Danielle] Some people are watching
because that can be very comforting.

It's hearkening back to some
imagined pastime where things

were simpler and roles
were more clearly defined.

It's these kind of modern
day freak show programs

that have built TLC, Discovery
into this empire that it is today.

And then the cash cows of the series were
really these wedding and birth episodes,

which were bringing in
monster, monster ratings.

But then as their popularity soars, as
ratings soar, they keep producing kids.

So in season four, Michelle
gives birth to Josie.

That was a big deal because
she was medically fragile.

[interviewer] Were you
and Jim Bob surprised

to find out that you were
pregnant with your 19th?

[Michelle] I thought maybe it might not
happen.

[Jim Bob] Michelle's blood pressure
just kept going up and up and I knew it

would be life threatening
for her and the baby.

The situation is fixing to
change our lives...

...forever.

But you know, we praise God
when all the good things

are happening and we're gonna praise God
even through this difficult situation.

There she is, Michelle,
here she comes, oh my.

[Danielle] And so all of this kind of
feeds into this lifestyle.

The women, girls are
really like the engine,

keeping it afloat, keeping it running.

The Duggars were a big get for TLC.
They helped to put the network on the map.

Some might say that TLC went

from being The Learning
Channel to The Lurking Channel.

We're not necessarily tuning in to learn.

- [Big Ed screams]
- [Big Ed laughs]

We're kind of tuning in
more for the train wreck.

From these medical documentary shows
to these more contemporary freak shows.

[narrator] Julius' addiction to balloons

started when he was hospitalized
at just four years old.

Discovery ultimately became
a multibillion dollar company

and now they own Warner Brothers.

We're positioned to get 200 million homes,

300 million homes 'cause we have all the
content that people love.

And so I think coming together,
we're not just better together.

I think we're the best
media company in the world.

[Jennifer] The Duggars became a beacon

for the evangelical community,
the fundamentalist community.

And they finally saw
themselves represented on TV.

- We had had Christian programming.
- Father, we just praise you.

But never like this.

I brought my ticket
and I'm getting it signed by all of them.

They have good core
values and we love them.

My name is Jennifer Sutphin
and I run a YouTube channel

called Fundie Fridays where I do my makeup
while discussing Christian fundamentalism.

A fundie is kind of a derogative
term for a fundamentalist

and it's the entire starting point
for the Fundie Snark community,

which is the camp that I fall
into like, the Hate Watchers.

The show has devolved more and more

into just straight propaganda
as time has gone on.

But the Duggar Show is
just so insanely popular

that they doubled down and they started
making a bunch of other shows just like it

about Christian fundamentalist families.

♪ I've got the joy, joy,
joy, joy down in my heart ♪

♪ Down in my heart ♪

We prayed about it and we thought,

well maybe this is an opportunity
to share with the world

that children are a blessing
and a gift from God.

And so we went back to 'em and we said,

"We will do this documentary with you as
long as you don't edit out our faith."

[Jim Holt] It was March of 1980, I was 15.
Jim Bob was 14 at the time.

My family was pretty dysfunctional.
I had a stepfather that was pretty rough.

I had a few stepfathers that
were pretty rough on my mom

and then pretty rough on me.

Jim Bob said I was like the
brother he always wanted

and his mother called me like a own son.

But Jim Bob had problems too.

[Jim Bob] I grew up in a situation where
sometimes we had electricity shut off.

At one point we had our
house foreclosed on.

My dad did not really have
a spiritual focus in life.

It caused a lot of problems in our family.

The church said, "We're
gonna go to this seminar.

Y'all want to go?
We'll drive you."

Jim Bob and I went together.

That was our first time
seeing Bill Gothard.

[narrator] The Basic Seminar, a ministry
of the Institute in Basic Youth Conflicts.

As a high schooler, Bill
Gothard was concerned

about the wrong decisions that many
of his classmates were making.

The Basic Seminar offers
lasting answers for:

resolving family conflicts,
overcoming feelings of inferiority,

removing guilt and bitterness, conquering
destructive habits, establishing marriage...

[drowning applause]

Do you have a sig... a vision for what you
could do

for the kingdom of the Lord
that is worth you giving your life for?

If you have nothing worth dying for,
you have nothing worth living for.

Here's another way of putting it.
When you get to the end of your life,

what do you wanna be able
to look back and say,

this is what God
accomplished through my life.

Our lives were falling apart around us.
Our kids were rebelling.

So this institute in Basic
Youth Conflict saved my life.

I really can honestly truly say that.

That first night that Mr.
Gothard spoke, I just wept.

It was some of the most revolutionary
things I'd heard outta scripture.

It was about, you know, how to love God
more and how to show Him you love more.

'Cause that's the greatest commandment,

is love God with everything
that you have, right?

It was like one of the best things I'd
ever heard in my life.

I thought it was fantastic.

[audience applauds]

Most of the people in the
Institute thought Bill Gothard

hung the moon and Jim Bob was one
of 'em.

We have for every one of you the answer

on how to conquer any habit you have.

[audience applauds]

[Brooke] Growing up, my family
attended Bill Gothard's seminar,

the same program as the Duggars.

My name is Brooke Arnold.

I had really hesitated to talk
to you guys because to me,

the whole Bill Gothard thing
was this like hornets' nest

that didn't need to be kicked right now.
[laughing]

[interviewer] What do you know
about Institute in Basic Life Principles?

[Brooke laughs]

How long do you have? [laughs]

[narrator] Welcome to
the Children's Institute

of the Seminar and Basic Life Principles.

We learn about authority
and the importance

of obeying the spoken as
well as the unspoken wishes

of those who are responsible for us.

[Brooke] To me, you
know, Bill Gothard came

to loom over my life, almost
mythologically, and I just felt like there

was something important
I needed to find out.

I felt like the more that I
understood about Bill Gothard,

the more I would understand myself.

Bill Gothard, Senior was a minister.

He was actually head of
the Gideons Association.

The little Bible that you
find in every hotel room,

that's there because of the Gideons.

So, Bill Gothard kind of comes
from this evangelical dynasty

and he ended up going to Wheaton College,

which is basically the
Harvard for fundamentalists.

[Kristin] In 1961, Bill Gothard

establishes these local
workshops on how to parent,

how to raise your kids, how to discipline.
They teach the prosperity gospel.

Obey God, and God's going to bless you.

People were getting
this and then taking it

into their communities,
taking it into their churches.

[Brooke] In the late '60s,
people were really scared at that time,

you know, there was huge social, cultural,
political, economic shifts happening.

[Kristin] You have the
civil rights movement,

you have the women's rights movement,
you had student protestors.

People were wondering, you know,
is it Christian to have long hair?

Is it Christian to listen to rock and
roll? Is it Christian to watch television?

Bill Gothard says, you
don't have to be worried

about what the right thing to do is

because I know the right
thing to do about everything.

The simplicity of his
program was really appealing

to people who were kind of living
in these moments of extreme upheaval.

[majestic music]

IBLP is the abbreviation for the Institute
in Basic Life Principles.

- IBLP.
- IBLP Movement, thought process.

- I... IBLP. Okay.
- I said, IBLP right.

- IBLP.
- The IBLP.

- The IBLP.
- IBLP.

[Brooke] Bill Gothard has never passed up
an opportunity to use an acronym.

[Bill Gothard] This matter of authority is
so important.

[Brooke] Bill Gothard's teachings. There's
seven non-optional Basic Principles,

but the biggest feature of Gothardism
is the authority teaching.

Because we are living in a day

in which we wanna have equal authority.

Sons and daughters wanna be
on equal level with parents.

Citizens, equal level with government.

I mean, the whole attitude of
our day is equal authority,

but God didn't structure your life that
way and it doesn't work that way.

As long as we're under these
umbrellas of protection,

Satan cannot get through
with destructive temptations.

[Jim Holt] There's a lot
of good people in IBLP.

They go into it thinking,
I don't want my child to get in trouble.

I don't want them to go down some of the
path and have some of the guilt of some

of the sins that we've committed.

And so, they go into it
thinking this is a better life.

I had gotten to go to The
Basic Seminar in high school.

I think it was about 1980. Right after we
got married, Michelle got to go

to The Basic Seminar and that was one
of the best things that happened to us.

[Kristin] Jim Bob Duggar is influenced
by Gothard's teachings

including that of this Quiverfull idea
of having as many children as possible.

People say, well, how many
children should you have?

The answer is, how many blessings of God.

[Kristin] Within the Quiverfull movement,

to be faithful Christians,
one needs to open themselves

to as many children as God will give them.

Well, I mean the source
of it is from the Bible.

So whoever took it,
took it and ran with it.

As arrows in the hand of a mighty man,
so are children of one's youth.

[kids] So are children of the youth.

Happy is the man that hath
his quiver full of them.

[audience applauds]

[Michelle] Overpopulation is really a
myth.

The whole world population could fit into
the city limits of Jacksonville, Florida.

We have two children, a boy and a girl.

We have 11 children.

[Jim Holt] According to the IBLP,

the more children you have, the
more blessed by God you are.

- Good morning, everybody.
- [Duggars] Good morning!

Michelle, I'm almost
a little afraid to ask.

I understand you've got a big
announcement this morning?

We are expecting our 20th child, yes!

And just thrilled.

[Amy] Be fruitful and multiply.

That's what I heard when I was 12, when I
was eight.

- That is crazy to me.
- When I was...

[dramatic music]

[doctor] I don't see a heartbeat.

You don't see a heartbeat?

Oh...

[Jim Bob] Both of our hearts just sank.

There was no heartbeat and we just,
we both were just devastated.

[Amy] You know, with all of the babies
and with the popularity of the show,

they literally became the
poster child for IBLP.

If you have not gone
through The Basic Seminar,

I highly recommend it.

[Brooke] Bill Gothard was traveling around
playing to huge coliseums of people.

The Institute estimates
that over 2 million people

have attended Bill Gothard's seminars.

He was a rockstar.

[dramatic music]

[Josh Pease] In an age in
which Christian institutions

and authority was slipping,
here's a guy drawing crowds.

For people like the Duggars,
it felt like winning.

So my name is Josh Pease.

And several years ago
now, I wrote an article

for the New Republic about Bill Gothard,
IBLP, and that whole world.

[narrator] The Advanced
Training Institute

is biblically centered,
parent supervised, and home based.

[Josh Pease] In 1984, Bill Gothard
launches the Advanced Training Institute,

a homeschool curriculum that is basically

taking all of these things
he had been teaching

in these seminars and then turning it
into a curriculum for families.

The resources that at
ATI has are... are what we needed.

I couldn't do it, I don't think, alone
without the resources there.

[Jill] Growing up, it was kind of the idea

that like they wanted to
protect us from the world.

People go into the IBLP group
and all of these conferences and stuff

because it's fun and
exciting and community.

This is the key. They're all about the
keys to success,

the key to that, key to this.

The key that's gonna
like give us what we need

to be good parents and to
homeschool our kids and make sure,

make sure that our kids turn out right.

It's very appealing when you see an
organization that promises that to you.

[audience applauds]

[dramatic music]

[Jennifer] The Duggars were definitely
used as a recruiting tool for IBLP.

God has opened up a lot
of ministry opportunities for our family.

It's not a show. It's really not, it's
our life, it really is.

[Jennifer] Christian fundamentalism
was largely underground.

They had their own schools,
their own entertainment,

their own everything, really.

They had no reason to
interact with secular culture.

And then the Duggars came around
and it suddenly was mainstream.

[narrator] Tom Cruise, Scientologist,

I think it's a privilege to
call yourself a Scientologist.

[Josh Pease] Scientology,
sort of the gateway

for most people into that was Tom Cruise.
It kind of legitimized Scientology.

And in a lot of ways, that's exactly what
the Duggars were for Bill Gothard.

Duggar, Duggar, Duggar, Duggar, Duggar,
Duggar, Duggar, Duggar, Duggar.

[reporter] Michelle and Jim Bob have
now written their second book.

[woman] We've never had this many people
in our store ever.

[Michelle] The kids have been on TV for 10
years, but we never expected our family

to receive so much
attention everywhere we go.

- Are these all your kids?
- 18, yes.

My name is Joshua Duggar.

[Kristin] All of the
Duggar children were steeped

in Gothard's teachings and
Josh Duggar was no exception.

And as he comes of age, he kind of steps
into his own place in this world.

His star just continues to rise.

- We have...
- Hello.

How are you?

[Meredith] And Josh and Anna are with us
in the studio. Cut in.

- Cut in?
- [Meredith] Mhm-hmm. Any piece.

[drum roll]

- Okay, now flip it over.
- Wow.

- [Meredith] Do you know what that means?
- I think that means it's a girl.

The pink is for a girl!
You got a girl!

We have decided to
accept that that job in DC.

[Danielle] It's not unusual or unexpected
that someone who's like the golden boy

on a reality TV show would
also want to go into politics.

♪ This land is your land ♪

♪ This land is my land ♪

Hello, I'm Josh Duggar.

[narrator] Two years ago, Josh
accepted a high profile job

with the Family Research Council, a deeply
conservative lobbying group devoted

to promoting a Christian worldview.

[Deanna] You know, I was excited for them
to get their own show.

I felt like it was a good
opportunity for them.

[audience applauds]

But I didn't know everything.

I didn't know what was
going on behind the scenes.

Reality TV family in free fall.

[Megyn] A bombshell May 19th, 2015.

[reporter] Shocking
accusations come to light

that the eldest Duggar child
sexually abused children.

[reporter] After an anonymous letter
to the Oprah Winfrey Show,

Oprah's team called
the Child Abuse Hotline

and police started asking questions.

[reporter] Stunning, even
by reality TV standards,

the news came to light
when InTouch Magazine

obtained a decade old police report
detailing Josh's alleged molestation.

[Megyn] It reveals that
Josh, while 14 or 15 years old,

forcibly touched at least
five girls in 2002 and 2003.

[reporter] Some are
speculating the unnamed victims

are some of Josh's sisters.

[tense music]

[interviewer] Do you
remember when he was sent away?

Yeah.

Only what you're comfortable with.

I don't know, I just, I kind of don't
really wanna talk about all that, um...

Just because like...

We wish nobody had ever
found out about any of that.

Yeah, it's really hard for
me because I'm just like...

There were certain things
that like she shared with me

in confidence because we
were a married couple that,

with all of our hopes would
remain confident between us

until we both died and nobody
would ever find out about it.

This is something that like
is heavily guarded and...

I sho... And nobody should have
ever known about it.

So I don't like talking about it, um...

The moment that the reports,
everything was released,

that was the moment it was public.

[interviewer] When did you
first find out about Josh?

Well, how deep do we go?
'Cause that's a rabbit hole that's... man.

- It's really twisted.
- Um...

[Bobye] Um, we had known
him from a baby, you know,

and he was our first daughter's boyfriend.

[Jim Holt] And Josh says something like,

"I'd like to know if I'd be able to court
Kaeleigh for the purpose of marriage."

And we said yes.

[narrator] With lead son Josh, age 16,

how will the Duggars handle
the delicate issue of dating?

[Josh Duggar] I think that if you're
gonna give your heart away,

you need to be giving it to
someone who's gonna love you

and care about you and not
someone who's gonna simply

get carried away with their emotions.

[Jim Holt] So, March 30th, 2003,
when we found out,

I went out to the field and just bawled.

What Jim Bob had said to us was,
Josh had has gotten into some trouble.

You know, he is touched his
sisters inappropriately.

That was their big thing
that they would say, is it?

Yeah, he had said one time,
he molested his sisters.

And Michelle said, "Don't
you say that again."

He apparently been doing
it since he was 12,

but we found out about it when he was 15.

So, when were you gonna tell us?

And Michelle said, "We weren't gonna have
them tell you guys at all.

We were gonna have Josh confess
to Kaeleigh once they were married."

And so I asked Jim Bob, I said,

"So are you basically saying you
were kinda using my daughter

as like a carrot to get him
to behave the right way?"

And he goes, "Well, yeah, kind of."

Jim Bob had written a bill
that created a sex offender website.

I confronted him, I said, "Jim Bob,

according to your own
bill that you've written

and what you've told me,
your son should be on it.

He needs to make it right with the law

because he violated the law and
he needs to turn himself in."

He's like, "I'm getting ready to take Josh
in. Would you wanna go?"

I said, "Oh, yeah."
So I went right with him.

We met at the state trooper's office.

The state trooper sat down
and we told him the story.

Josh told him what we thought at the time
was everything that he had done.

He goes, "I'm gonna let you go this time."
He said, "But if you do it again,

I'm really gonna come down hard on you."

Well, we found out later that this guy
was a friend of Jim Bob's.

[Bobye] Jim was considering, "What should
I do? We gotta get him outta the house.

Where should we go?
Where should we take him?"

[Jim Holt] He took him to Bill Gothard's
facility down in Little Rock.

[Bobye] Which was an IBLP
facility for troubled boys.

[Amy] I was like, "Where's Josh?
Where is he?"

And they're like, "Oh, he is helping
families build homes at a camp."

And I was like, "Oh."

And they're like, "Yeah,
he's a good guy like that."

You just knew something was off.

Josh was away and they were
gonna do this Parent Magazine interview.

[producer] The one that led to their show?

Yeah.

[Jim Holt] And I was asking Jim Bob,
"What are you going to tell them?"

He said, "Well, we're gonna tell them
that Josh is down there ministering."

And I said, "Jim Bob, you
know that's not true."

So he actually just checked him out.

- Yeah, he didn't tell them.
- And brought him back.

He brought him back and he said he wanted
him there for his birthday.

It was right before Jim Bob's birthday.

- They didn't turn him in.
- Or like make a report.

They didn't write a report,
they didn't do anything.

[Jim Holt] I said, "It doesn't matter if
you're the best

Christian family to ever live.

If somebody finds out about this 20 years
down the road, they will eat you alive."

You know, it wasn't a blessing
to Josh, I'll tell you that.

No, a curse, it was a curse to Josh.

[Amy] It breaks my heart to
think about my sweet cousins

and anyone else in the IBLP.

[dramatic music]

TLC created a PR show
for Gothard's teachings.

[Jennifer] This is much
bigger than the Duggars.

There are a lot of other people who are

doing the same thing
who haven't been caught.

[Tara] This isn't the first time I've
heard about this happening

within this IBLP community.

I look at Bill Gothard himself
and what he has been accused of.

So much of the focus has been
specifically on the Duggars

and not on The Institute itself.

The Institute raises little predators.

[Bill Gothard] We're all proud of these
mothers, fathers

who obeyed the Lord in bringing more sons
and daughters into the world.

[audience applauds]

[Deanna] There's been so many people that
have been hurt by this so called ministry.

[Tara] People look at Josh
Duggar and they see a monster.

But, monsters are created.

[Chad] At this point, you know,
I've pretty much burned every bridge

in my family just by
being here, but whatever. [laughing]

[Tara] Being a homeschool kid, like
you can spot 'em a mile away.

[Brooke] Bill Gothard promised
that his homeschool program

would be the equivalent of a prelaw degree
and a premedical degree.

[Jim Bob] We teach our children
that evolution is totally unscientific.

When I first started watching the Duggars,
everyone is very meek.

[Michelle] Obey mama, sit really still,
look at me with big old smiles.

But they don't show how
you get to the calmness.

[interviewer] Did you see your cousins
being punished with rods?

[Lara] The audacity of Jim Bob Duggar to
say,

"I can bring a camera crew
in here for years on end

and nobody's gonna find out how we live."

[reporter] Do you ever worry that
the treatment didn't work?

No, Josh was a changed person.

A lot of abuse happened.

[man] Fear was a huge component.

I would dream about being burned alive.

[Brooke] Bill Gothard
taught that the creator

of Cabbage Patch dolls was a warlock.

This is what Gothard wants,
this is what God wants.

[woman] Everything about that world sets
you up to be the perfect victim.

[Jill] I just hope and pray that this
never happens to anyone else ever again.

[dramatic music]