It really is difficult to pin down the most disgusting moment from Wednesday night's
appearance of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar on Fox News' "The Kelly File" to explain away their son Josh's serial molestation of five young girls, so let's just go with every word uttered between 9 PM ET and 10 PM ET. For an hour, these paragons of "conservative Christian values" made excuses for their son, talked about their pain, while barely mentioning what their daughter's endured beyond assuring their sympathetic host that the abuse was "over their clothes" (except when it wasn't) and that "they didn't even know he had done it." So, apparently, no harm, no foul.
According to the Duggars, Josh "had a tender conscience," but "his heart had gone astray" and he "made some bad choices," but he was "just curious," and remember, "this was not rape or anything like that." (And besides, he would always be crying when he confessed his latest crime). And perhaps the most important thing to realize, says Jim Bob, is that Josh is not pedophile because he was only a curious 15-year old when he decided to molest his five-year old sister, so really "he was a child preying on a child."
As for the victims? Hey, lighten up, man! It was almost always over the clothes and they didn't even know it had happened, except for the times it was under the clothes and while they were awake—"but it was like a few seconds"—which was okay because even then, according to their loving mom, "they didn't probably even understand that it was improper touch."
And after the Duggar's sent Josh off for a few months of manual labor and mentoring by a good friend of Jim Bob, Josh was cured and all was right in the Duggar world. Until they were victimized by a media that "pounced" on this story—possibly because of their Christian beliefs—and they're now just "trying to regroup from these attacks."
Disgusting doesn't even begin to cover it.
Head below the fold for a few excerpts from the interview, to get more of an idea of what sick, sick people they are (if that wasn't already crystal clear).
And for more discussion on this, go to Christian Dem in NC's diary.
"I think we had one ray of hope in that Josh had a tender conscience and he was the one that came and shared on his own, even though the others really didn't know anything of his wrongdoings." (Michelle)
"He said he was just curious about girls and he'd gone in and just basically touched them over their clothes while they were sleeping. They didn't even know he had done it." (Jim Bob)
"Well, one by one, as we talked with them, none of them were aware of Josh's wrongdoings." (Michelle)
"They really didn't know. Actually, what happened was we asked them at first if anything happened and then it was after some other things happened that we actually shared with them and we actually, but we took a lot of steps." (Jim Bob)
"Right. Nothing ever happened like that again in the girl's bedrooms after that, okay, we had safeguards that protected them from that, but there was another incident where, two different incidents, where the girls were like laying on the couch and it was a, and he had touched like over the couch and actually touched their breast while they were asleep and so, over their clothes, and so it was a, it was a very difficult situation ... [talked with others and] a lot of families have said they've had similar things happen in their families and so, I mean this is, for us, this is public shame that our son did this, back 12 or 13 years ago." (Jim Bob)
"He was still a juvenile, he wasn't an adult. And so there was a couple more times that he came and told us what he had done and we were just devastated. Now all these, again, this was not rape or anything like that, this was like touching something over their clothes. There was a couple of incidents where he touched them under their clothes, but it was like a few seconds and then he came to us and was crying and told us what happened. And it was after that third time he came to us is where we really felt like, you know what, we have done everything we can as parents to handle this in house, we need to get help." (Jim Bob)
"You know I talked to somebody that worked at one of those juvenile, youth, sex offender facilities and he described how they actually take care of these situations down there and the success rate is not very good. And so we felt like that going from a perspective of, of really reaching his heart first would be important, and so that's the reason we sent him down to Little Rock." (Jim Bob)
"You know what, as parents you're not mandatory reporters. You are, the law allows for parents to do what they thinks best for their child." (Jim Bob)
"It was more his heart, his intent, he knew that he, it was wrong, but in theirs, they weren't even aware. It was like, you know, it wasn't to them, they didn't probably even understand that it was improper touch." (Michelle)
"And actually, none of the victims really knew about this or understood what he'd done." (Jim Bob)
"As parents you feel like a failure ... but the truth is, kids will make their own choices." (Jim Bob)
"We don't let boys babysit." (Michelle)
"We want to be an advocate for protecting juvenile records because the mistakes juveniles make when they're young should be sealed." (Jim Bob)
"And actually, a pedophile is an adult that preys on children. Joshua was actually 14 and just turned 15 when he did what he did, and I think that legal definition is 16 and up for being an adult preying on a child, so he was a child preying on a child." (Jim Bob)
"I feel like this is more about (long pause) there's an agenda and there's people that are purposing to try to bring things out and twisting them to hurt and slander." (Michelle)
"They've been victimized more by what has happened in these last couple of weeks than they were 12 years ago because they honestly, they didn't even understand or know that anything had happened until after the fact when they were told about it." (Michelle)
