Like many in this country, I’ve made my way through Prime Video’s wildly successful series, Shiny Happy People. Unlike many in this country, I know a thing or two about fundamental logic. The disconnect between the actual evidence presented and the conclusions reached is a yawning chasm. It is a textbook case on how to use propaganda to reach conclusions that are, based on your evidence, a bridge too far.
Before I seek to make my case, a few bits of background information are in order. I know Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar. My wife and I consider them to be friends. We aren’t the kind of friends to take a vacation together, but are the kind that happily exchange (side) hugs when our paths cross. I’ve never met Bill Gothard though I have spoken to him on the phone briefly. As for the rest of the movers and shakers in the homeschooling world, almost all of them I know. Many of them have been friends, a few remain so. I and my family have been the subject of online vicious snark from the fellowship of the aggrieved for years and years. That is, many would see me as among the usual suspects.
And I have genuine guilt. I left an email address during my visit to Ashley Madison. I drove drunk with my two youngest in the car. It would be natural to me either, out of a sense of solidarity, to be defensive about accusations against my ideological friends, or to blast them with the utmost vigor to show they’re worse than me. There is, as always, plenty of guilt to go around. It’s just not where we’re being led to think it is.
First, Christians often find themselves presenting an image of themselves as better than they are. We want to look like shiny, happy people. The reason Christians are prone to this, however, is that Christians are people and people are prone to this. We’re sinners like everyone else. The difference is, we know it all too well and they seem surprised. One could argue that the shocking rise of social media is grounded in this reality. Instagram, tik tok, Facebook and Twitter are so many tiny reality television shows, produced by ourselves for each other. The difference with the Duggars is that they weren’t on social media but on national television. That, and that millions of people wanted to see them fall.
How many, I wonder, of the various commentators interviewed for the series have ever had their sins covered by the national media? Or the sins of their brothers or sisters? The producers of the program, did they offer up for the viewing audience their most shameful failures, or those of their family? Did they provide a copy of their own browser histories? How wildly ironic that the Duggars, who supposedly saw their tv program as an opportunity to show how much better than others they were, are now the subject of a tv show wherein everyone but the Duggars is there to show how much better they are than the Duggars. Such does not diminish the seriousness of anyone else’s sins. It does, however, reveal that the scales are not even.
Which brings us to the arguments themselves. Nobody is disputing that Josh Duggar’s failures are egregious. They have been scrutinized in a court of law, and he has been found guilty. I have no reason to believe that verdict was anything other than justice. The same cannot be said with respect to Bill Gothard. He’s had no trial. He may be guilty of what he was accused of. He may not be. How could anyone that wasn’t there pretend to know? Shiny Happy People had no interest in giving Gothard a trial. They simply let the accusations stand as if they were convictions, and from there smeared everything he’d ever touched. Leftist discomfort over homeschooling, large families, wives submitting to their husbands were presented as further proof of the evils of Gothard and the Duggar family, while Gothard and the Duggar family were presented as proof that homeschooling, large families and wives submitting to their husbands were evil.
Homeschooling, large families and wives submitting to husbands are not as central to the Christian faith as the deity of Christ, His death and resurrection, forgiveness through faith in His finished work. They are, however, all found in the Bible. Demonstrating such with respect to homeschooling is beyond the scope of this piece, but you can read my argument here. Without question the Bible provides far more proof of the virtue of homeschooling than it does morally “neutral” education by the state. The latter two are quite easy. Psalm 127:3 says children are a blessing from the Lord. Ephesians 5: 22-23 says wives are to submit to their own husbands.
The teachers and the students in homeschools, like their government school counterparts, are all sinners. Some are child molesters. Some are physically abusive. Some are greedy for power. Large families, like their small counterparts, are made up of sinners. Some cover up wicked behavior. Some toss their children aside when convenient. Wives and husbands, wherever if anywhere that submission might come into play, are likewise sinners. Some husbands are bullies. So are some wives. None of which demonstrates that the sin is caused by the ideology, nor that those embracing one ideology are morally superior in themselves to those embracing a different ideology.
Our sin, whether known or private, has zero bearing on the wisdom of God. Even unbelievers have historically recognized this logic- Abusis non tollit usum, abuse is no argument against proper use. Nor can the sin of one person cause the sin of another person. Josh Duggar’s sins were not caused by Jim Bob. Jim Bob’s sins were not caused by Bill Gothard. Bill Gothard’s sins were not caused by the Bible. Because the Bible is true, perfect, the very Word of the God of heaven and earth. That is what we are to believe, not those who object to God’s Word on the basis of the failures of God’s people.
The first propagandist, the devil, began his first message to God’s people, “Has God indeed said…” He has indeed.
