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MrCrowesGarden wrote:So for years, the Duggar family said gay marriage harms kids and transsexuals use bathrooms to molest children, all the while hiding a child molester in their own family? Interesting.

Yeah, it's pretty sick. My wife watched that show for years. So sad to think that all of those older girls were assaulted, never received counseling, and had to smile and pretend everything was super for the cameras while her parents (who kept it all nicely covered and out of the law's hands) made a mint pretending to be the world's awesomest parents, and meanwhile made political appearances and phone calls telling people that gays are pedophiles.

That stuff doesn't even surprise me anymore. It's almost a foregone conclusion at this point that an outspoken religious conservative will eventually get exposed for being worse than anyone they ever tried to condemn.

It wouldn't be right for them to be so outspoken and judgmental of others even if they weren't hiding this mess.

Can't believe I'm defending them...but in their defense the kid was a minor when it happened. There's a reason they seal the records of minors like that. The kid doesn't deserve to have his life ruined for something he did at such a young age, even if it was horrible. And they'd probably also do it to protect the victims also, who are going through a hard time. So I don't really blame them for the "hiding" part. That's done for the sake of all the kids. Hopefully the result of this is that they all go away and shut up like they should have done long ago.

OK I am hearing that the parents did not get the kid the treatment he probably needed? Yeah, that's really messed up.

pioneer98 wrote:OK I am hearing that the parents did not get the kid the treatment he probably needed? Yeah, that's really messed up.

I agree, pretty much. The tone of all the media coverage has been that this guy is a "child molester", usually omitting that he himself was a minor child at the time. One would think that the fault likes in the awful, awful home that those poor kids were growing up in.

pioneer98 wrote: Can't believe I'm defending them...but in their defense the kid was a minor when it happened. There's a reason they seal the records of minors like that. The kid doesn't deserve to have his life ruined for something he did at such a young age, even if it was horrible. And they'd probably also do it to protect the victims also, who are going through a hard time. So I don't really blame them for the "hiding" part. That's done for the sake of all the kids.

That's not their call to make, particularly when it involved at least one girl outside of their family as well. A group of "church leaders" doesn't trump the legal system. I can't believe you are defending them, either. They've made millions off of living a lie.

Stuff that he has freely admitted to doing doesn't (and shouldn't) just go away when you turn 18. Fourteen or fifteen isn't that young. Under current law, even if he was processed as a juvenile he would still be a registered sex offender for the rest of his life. Isn't he the exact kind of person you would want to know about? Meanwhile, people who had consensual sex with someone two years younger than them actually do have their lives ruined.

cardsfansince82 wrote:

pioneer98 wrote: Can't believe I'm defending them...but in their defense the kid was a minor when it happened. There's a reason they seal the records of minors like that. The kid doesn't deserve to have his life ruined for something he did at such a young age, even if it was horrible. And they'd probably also do it to protect the victims also, who are going through a hard time. So I don't really blame them for the "hiding" part. That's done for the sake of all the kids.

That's not their call to make, particularly when it involved at least one girl outside of their family as well. A group of "church leaders" doesn't trump the legal system. I can't believe you are defending them, either. They've made millions off of living a lie.

Stuff that he has freely admitted to doing doesn't (and shouldn't) just go away when you turn 18. Fourteen or fifteen isn't that young. Under current law, even if he was processed as a juvenile he would still be a registered sex offender for the rest of his life. Isn't he the exact kind of person you would want to know about? Meanwhile, people who had consensual sex with someone two years younger than them actually do have their lives ruined.

I think it's fairly common for 14 or 15 year olds to avoid the registry. I know of one specifically in our community. Basically, I think you just have to agree to counseling, show remorse, and comply with probationary guidelines. I don't think it has anything to do with church leaders.

I'm not going to defend them either, other than to say that kids can do really awful things sometimes, even with good parenting. I'm not saying that the Duggars are good parents, because I've never seen the show, and have no idea what the parents are like, but I do know that good parents have kids that make awful decisions sometimes, unfortunately.

Socnorb11 wrote: I think it's fairly common for 14 or 15 year olds to avoid the registry. I know of one specifically in our community. Basically, I think you just have to agree to counseling, show remorse, and comply with probationary guidelines. I don't think it has anything to do with church leaders.

I'm not going to defend them either, other than to say that kids can do really awful things sometimes, even with good parenting. I'm not saying that the Duggars are good parents, because I've never seen the show, and have no idea what the parents are like, but I do know that good parents have kids that make awful decisions sometimes, unfortunately.

The church leaders (led by Mr. Duggar) knew about it as it was happening and collectively decided sending him to work on a [expletive] construction site for a couple months was punishment enough. Legal authorities did not become aware until years later, conveniently after the statute of limitations had expired. Whether or not someone ends up on the registry is entirely dependent on the severity of the crime or the adult equivalent of what they would be charged with. I would assume repeatedly molesting children as young as 5 years old for at a minimum several years would meet that threshold.

If a set of parents raise their kids in an oppressive environment under a belief system that treats women like objects and places equal blame on victims as offenders, and keeps their daughters in that same environment with no treatment or counseling for anyone involved, and lie for years to everyone outside of their little cult while cashing those checks....you probably shouldn't need to spend too much time trying to sort out if they qualify as good parents.

Yeah, as I said, I know nothing about the Duggars. I was just speaking in general terms.

I'd say that since the kid was 14 years old, and there was no intercourse (only fondling), I'd be pretty surprised if he was put on a sex offender list even if the authorities had been alerted immediately.

Socnorb11 wrote: I'd say that since the kid was 14 years old, and there was no intercourse (only fondling), I'd be pretty surprised if he was put on a sex offender list even if the authorities had been alerted immediately.

The law specifically designates 14 as the age when people are considered "old enough to know better" when it comes to sex crimes. We know he was molesting kids at age 14 and 15, possibly longer. I'm not prepared to just believe there was no intercourse, since this is the family's version of events that was never thoroughly investigated. Their track record with the truth is kind of spotty. The girls were never examined by a medical professional as far as I know. Even if this is the true and full extent of what he did, molesting multiple victims repeatedly over the course of years is kind of the definition of a sexual predator is it not? What else does he have to do to qualify in your eyes?

I wonder what the reaction to this would be like if he wasn't a prominent christian.