Shiny, Happy, and Confused (My Thoughts on the Duggar Documentary)
Shiny, Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets is not for the faint of heart. Released June 2023, the four-part documentary covers the fall of the famously conservative Duggar family while exploring links to the Bill Gothard movement. If you aren’t familiar with the Duggar family, they starred in the TLC reality show 19 Kids and Counting. With 19 children, the Duggars quickly became the face of fundamental Christianity as they promoted conservative values, homeschooling, and extreme rules for modesty, dating, and more. The Duggars were involved in the Institute for Basic Life Principles, which was founded in the 60’s by Bill Gothard and provided resources and programs to Christian families. It became known as promoting the extreme fundamentalist lifestyle.
My family was not connected to or influenced by IBLP, and I really only knew about the Duggars from a few times that I would watch the show at a friend’s house. Still, the Duggar family seemed to be a positive, conservative Christian family (just with a few extra rules!). This is the exact image that the Shiny, Happy People documentary confronts.
The documentary isn’t the first time that the Duggar image has been questioned. Oldest son Josh Duggar has been the subject of several scandals and is now a convicted sex offender serving twelve years in prison. Duggar’s crimes are too heinous to describe here, and I feel sickened and disgusted by what little I do know of it. The documentary suggests that his crimes were covered up by his parents. Meanwhile, they also connect the Duggar scandals to multiple abuse allegations aimed at IBLP founder Bill Gothard. Teachings of the IBLP are explored and the extreme views on submission, punishment, authority, and families are criticized. The documentary goes as far as to claim that this is representative of Christianity. It implies that any Christian man is an abuser and predator, and any association to Biblical teachings is dangerous. But is this true? Here are three takeaways I have from the documentary:
The Dangers of Legalism
Legalism is dangerous. I understand that all Christians have varying levels of convictions about different topics; the rules taught by the IBLP and glamorized by the Duggar family were not just conservative, but they became a works-based righteousness. Legalism is a wrong view of holiness, and it is really a wrong view of God. Many Christian families and young adults have been deceived into the thinking that if they follow these extreme rules, God will bless them. Even good character principles taught by the IBLP and Duggar family seems to mimic moralism rather than Christian character for the purpose of glorifying God. The sad thing is that Josh Duggar’s disturbing sexual sins—which were ongoing at the time of filming 19 Kids and Counting—prove that even the most (seemingly) polished, rule-following person can have a secret, dirty, sinful life. The grace of the Gospel, and subsequent transformation, is sadly lacking in legalistic circles.
For more of my thoughts on legalism, read this post.
IBLP Does Not Represent Christianity
The documentary implied that IBLP represented Christianity as a whole. This is simply not true. Several ex-IBLP members, when interviewed for the documentary, referred to it as a cult. It was a relatively small movement in the broader evangelical religious world. IBLP twisted teachings of Scripture and it appears that some members operated in cult-like ways. Although it claims to represent Christianity, the extreme and legalistic views it presents are nothing like Christianity described from the Bible! However, I don’t believe that everyone associated with IBLP is an abuser or even subscribed to all of these extreme teachings. This does not excuse those who were, but we need to understand that those situations were a twisting of Christianity, rather than a Biblical representation.
Homeschooling
A large focus of the documentary was its negative portrayal of homeschooling. The documentary considered IBLP’s homeschool material to be educationally lacking. I personally have no knowledge of their program and I can’t speak to its quality; however, to imply that all homeschooling families provide bad education and indoctrination is simply not true! I know many homeschoolers from several different circles who are happy with their homeschool experience and thrive as adults. This is also true statistically; homeschoolers consistently score 15-30% higher than public school peers in standardized testing (https://brighterly.com/blog/homeschooling-statistics/#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20National%20Home,public%20schoolers%20score%20around%2050%25) and a higher graduation rate (https://www.thinkimpact.com/homeschooling-statistics/#:~:text=Homeschooled%20students%20perform%20much%20better,succeed%20in%20college%20and%20adulthood) Also, I would like to point out that some homeschool families do have bad experiences—just like some private and public school experiences do not go well.
To imply that homeschool families are simply birthing as many future political activists or militia members as possible is ludicrous. Again, while I can’t speak to the homeschool curriculum pushed by IBLP, I do know that there is a wide variety of substantial curriculum and educational resources available to homeschoolers. The documentary portrayal of homeschooling is not an accurate representative of the homeschool movement as a whole.
Conclusion: The Seriousness of Sin
This documentary exposed the hidden, dark side to the Duggar family and IBLP movement. I don’t doubt that sin and abuse have been covered up and my heart goes out to those who have been hurt by it. This series was effective as a warning about the seriousness of sin. Unfortunately, the documentary decided to paint the Duggars and IBLP as representative of Christianity, rather than a sick twisting of Christianity!
The Bible in no way commands believers to cover up abuse or trap others in legalistic lifestyles. It speaks in the strongest of terms against sexual sin. I am heartbroken that some who would claim the title of Christian have secret lives in which they hurt others and hide their sin. Just because some people are hypocrites does not mean that all Christians are, and it certainly does not mean that the Bible promotes this sin.
While the Shiny Happy People was a secular documentary and certainly sensationalized at parts, I have no doubt that it presented some serious sin issues. If you watch it, be aware that it is rated 16+ and contains references to sexual abuse, sexual misconduct, and some curse words. If you choose to watch it, please be ready to interact with those who might mistakenly believe that this applies to all Christians. Perhaps my three points above can be a starting point in that conversation.
Finally, as Christians we need to understand what it means to repent of sin and address sin. Those who claim Christ and yet become the latest scandal story in the news are a bad testimony of the Gospel. Call the sin for what it is, and continue to live the biblical truths from the Gospel so that your neighbors will see a true example of Christianity.
Image from Amazon Prime
