14 DAY TRIAL // Call this the mother of all ironies, but also the best example of why the Duggars, stars of TLC’s hit reality series 19 Kids and Counting, are now coming under heavy fire, after their eldest son, Josh, had to admit he molested 5 minor girls when he was a teen.
The admission of guilt came, of course, only after he was exposed in the media, as police records of the 2006 investigation were obtained by one of the US glossies. The incidents occurred between 2002 and 2003, and some of his victims were his sisters. The parents knew about them since 2002 and ultimately helped him avoid prosecution.
In 2002, Jim Bob ran for a Senate seat in Arkansas. In his platform, he maintained that abortion is a crime (unless both the mother and the child are in mortal danger), and he went on to elaborate that rapists and those who commit incest should get the death penalty.
“Rape and incest represent heinous crimes and as such should be treated as capital crimes,” he said. His answer in full is still available online on a cached version of his website, as Gawker discovered.
Chances are that Jim Bob gave this answer at a time when he didn’t know yet what Josh had done, but it’s not like he changed his stance once he did find out.
“Practice what you preach” comes to mind right about now.