Updated with video.
Jinger Duggar Vuolo and her husband Jeremy have been in the news a lot lately, namely for being the biggest names in the 19 Kids and Counting family to speak out against the upbringing. That growing up experience led Jinger to feel a pervasive sense of “shame” and led her brother Josh Duggar to ultimately end up in jail after being found guilty on child pornography charges. It wasn’t easy writing a book about her experiences. It wasn’t easy speaking out against her brother, but now the married couple is being honest about exactly why they felt it was the right thing to do.
In a lengthy interview touching on a variety of topics, one thing Jinger and Jeremy honed in on over and over again was speaking out even though it was difficult. Growing up, Jinger said her parents pushed having a good heart, but she also noted, “I think you see even within that setting the performance-based thing.” She and her husband candidly informed Allie Beth Stuckey that you can see this with Josh. How outwardly he looked like a follower of Christ but that there was a whole other side to her eldest brother that made him two-faced.
Why Josh Duggar Has Two Sides, The 'Outward' And The Inward
It was Josh's behavior -- from the molestation report to his Ashley Madison cheating scandal and ultimate arrest on possessing and receiving child abuse materials -- that led Jinger Vuolo to write her new memoir. She said she finds it hard to “talk about” what she’s seen with her brother, but that she wants to make it clear that Christian belief is not what has been manifested in her brother after a lifetime of “shame” and “purity” teachings.
It’s really hard to talk about that for one, but I see with my brother there has been –it is the same heart of going to these standards, putting up all of these outward things to make your heart look good before others and I think that is really why I wrote this book. In that time when my brother was about to be arrested I was looking at all of these and thinking, man the glory of God is just – it’s going to be dragged through the dirt because people think this is what it is.
Josh Duggar and his wife Anna seemingly had a perfect Christian relationship. Their courtship followed the rules their beliefs had laid out for them. They had a bunch of Duggar babies and for a time he worked for the Family Research Council, a nonprofit Christian organization that focuses on "pro-life" and "pro-marriage" education and that Duggar reportedly used to help him "live a lie." He was a bit of a pillar in his religious community, all while maintaining a habit of downloading child abuse materials.
Vuolo went on to note:
He’s claimed to be a Christian and he’s had all these outward things that made him look good but when everything falls apart and no one saying anything, we have to speak out for the glory of God. So that’s where I thought, ‘We want to make a distinction between like putting on roles and what the heart of true Christianity is. We’re not going to come to God with anything, we’re not bringing our religion into this'…
She's been open about Josh Duggar being a "phony" in the past, but her latest comments really make the connection to her upbringing and how it leads to falseness clear.
Why Jinger Duggar Vuolo Spoke Up About Josh And The Bill Gothard Teachings She’d Grown Up With
Jinger said she made the choice to write her new book Becoming Free Indeed even though she straight up says she knew there would be pushback. She and Jeremy Vuolo talked about the environment she'd grown up in, an environment that was so into "purity" she says her parents couldn't even have candid conversations with her about what would happen if she were married.
[There was] talk about purity about keeping yourself pure. Almost viewing talking about sex with your kids, all of that at appropriate ages, and like about how your bodies are changing, that’s totally pushed out. There’s not even a healthy view of like, ‘OK, marriage is a gift from God. Within marriage you’re to be able to enjoy this.’ There’s such a focus on pushing out all of that as almost like evil.
Since she was part of the 19 Kids and Counting clan and this growing up experience was documented throughout most of her life on TV, she says she knew there would be pushback to writing her book.
You put something out there and you’re in a public place you know there’s gonna be pushback and there’s gonna be some people who hate it. And so, I’ve experienced a little bit of that. But, like I said, more of it has been positive, which I was surprised how much positive feedback I’ve gotten.
While some of it has been positive, she does feel some detractors have made assumptions about her motivations and the direction of her life that just aren't true, or kind even.
You know I think some people really hoped this book would be something other than it was. They thought, ‘Maybe Jinger will start to walk away from Christianity.’ And they hoped for that. Then we also had, you know, a couple people who are still in these teachings of Bill Gothard’s wanted me to not say anything. And so, I know that is always going to be there because a lot of them would view him as like a prophet sent from God to tell us this truth and so I can see how they would view that, speaking out against him. So, a couple of different places we’ve had pushback.
While Josh Duggar's actions and arrest didn't push her away from God and Christianity, she and Jeremy Vuolo were very clear that they no longer prescribe to Bill Gothard's teachings. She and her husband prescribe to a gentler, more open version of Christianity. She said she wants to have candid conversations with her children about sex and marriage, so they don't "feel guilty" when they catch feelings as she did. Per the former reality star, "that was totally missing from Bill Gothard’s teaching and that whole setting," and ultimately that's why she and Jeremy left to start a new life in Los Angeles.
