The Duggar family isn’t talking (until their televised special interview on June 3) about the sex abuse scandal involving oldest son Josh Duggar, but a few fringe members of the 19 Kids and Counting clan have given their thoughts on the ordeal. We’ve heard from Cousin Amy Duggar, and Michael Seewald, father-in-law of one of the alleged victims, Jessa Seewald.
We have yet to hear from Jessa’s husband, Ben Seewald, or Jill’s husband, Derick Dillard. However, Derick’s brother, Dan Dillard, who is Jill’s brother-in-law, took to his private Facebook last week to give his thoughts on the scandal that has plagued his family-by-law since In Touch broke the news that Josh molested five young girls, including some Duggar sisters.
Like Ben’s father, Dan seems to be on Team Duggar.
Although he didn’t specifically mention Josh by name, his Facebook post was obviously aimed at Jill’s brother.
“Many people are so quick to pass judgment on others without even so much as glancing at their own lives,” Dan wrote on May 24. “That’s the thing about people of the world… they often don’t recognize that Christians are not perfect, but simply forgiven. Plain and simple.”
Dan also added a Bible verse to help justify his thoughts.
“For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.” -1 Corinthians 11:31-32”
Neither Jill nor Jessa have posted anything to their social media accounts since the scandal exploded. It is unlikely that they, or any of the other Duggar children, will participate in the Fox News. It will most likely only be the Duggar parents, Jim Bob and Michelle.
To read all of The Ashley’s previous coverage of the Josh Duggar Sex Abuse Scandal, click here.
38 Responses
They put these reality shows out.Almost about everything. The reality is a horrible injustice has been done.If true the victims will be scared for life that’s the true reality of this all.
Michelle this is to you why wouldn’t you let Jill deliver Anna sisters baby she was in no wrong more than your son was the Bible says judge not lest ye be judged so it sounded like to me you are judging I’m sure she got forgiveness to just thought you just got forgiveness I love your show but right is right and wrong is wrong.
Michelle Duggar you don’t want people to judge you but yet you judged others for instance Anna’s sister that was pregnant and your daughter was too good to righteous to deliver a baby out of wedlock what the Bible says judge not lest you be judged so now you r being judged my people I love your show has a lot of respect until this come out I’m just saying don’t act like you’re better than anyone else when we all have skeletons in our closet
Patricia, I think the harder people judge, the bigger the secret they hide. Michelle looked down her nose at people for a long time, her secret is out and I wouldn’t be surprised to hear more secrets come forth. It’s really hard to feel sorry for someone when they wake up one morning deciding to be superior to everyone and it back splashes. She’s not the only person around with a secret past, she just went about it in a very tasteless way by belittling others.
To continue to quote the Bible…God forgives when you repent to go to Heaven.God is not thecCourt system that frees us from rightful prunishment on earth
Jim Bob ran for government office, he !yltsted molesters and pedaphils should be killed. Josh molested his sisters he was punished by the church of Jim Bob. He is guilty and the Duggurs obstructed justice. These and his children are not safe. He cheated the system that all of us Christians must face when we break a law. Quite quoting the bible to hide a sick preverted man! Jim Bob and Michelle are not law abidind citizens and should lose their children for covering up a sick pedophile. Next time i speed a 100 miles an hour in a school zone will Jim Bob get me off. Your idiots
Enough about this filfty family who next to make a statemen josie
“Many people are so quick to pass judgment on others without even so much as glancing at their own lives.”…. THATS ALL THE DUGGARS HAVE EVER DONE, and now the shoe is on the other foot! KARMA
Lol! I look at my life and i never molested anyone
EXACTLY! this is what I’ve been thinking as well!
Very well said Lexii! One must learn to shut their pie-hole and be less judgmental of others when their own house is not in order.
Is he saying that we shouldn’t judge someone who molested five innocent girls?
I’m so disgusted with this family! Molesting children is never okay!
Being a Christian we do have forgiveness, also we have consequences… however I don’t condone such conduct,I also don’t know the whole story I’ve chosen not to research deep, in the fact that something are private and we don’t need to pry into people’s lives such..I understand they put themselves in the public eye and deserve what is thrown at them, but I think we can also be Christ like, be kind, doggie hate that has been done but love the person..It’s hard to do,I have have three daughters and wouldn’t wish that upon them or my husband and I to have to deal with, but I would want it not to define me character or there’s…we all make mistakes it isn’t like he was an adult, and we don’t know the whole story, and just because the fight for Christian rights in this world and he has some wrong doing doesn’t mean he should be redicude by the world, it isn’t our place to judge, less we be judged our selves…God is powerful and will prevail and is will, will be done in this matter..be will be judged by his heavenly father not by man in the end…
Totally agree with you. We don’t know the full story or how the family dealt with it. I am sure it wasn’t pushed aside and forgotten. I am sure that whatever they did the last thing any of those 5 girls wanted was for the whole world to know what happened to them. There are 5 victims here that no one is supporting. Just trashing the family. Not cool.
I agree. The very first comment on the top of the page calls the whole family “filthy”… It is rather disgusting the broad reaction IMO rather then 1 Duggar MAN’S actions.
Well said, what he did was beyond this world wrong however he did seek forgiveness and knows what he did will never be forgotten by the victims but if they did indeed forgive him then we should forgive as well
I’m so sorry to the girls who were victimized in this case and that they had to continue to see the person who hurt them on such a constant basis. I couldn’t imagine this happening to my children and then making them spend the rest of their lives raising my other 5 million kids. I think that it is really important though that people are able to look at this situation and learn how crimes like this get swept under the rug in extreme religious communities and hopefully more will be done to keep women in these groups safe. I think it really says alot that all the in laws are pro josh instead of pro his victims who are possibly their daughter in laws/sister in laws. Hopefully women in these groups will have people fighting for them to have a better life and teach them that their voices and feelings are important!
Yes….there IS a world of difference in a felony and a mistake. Agree totally! Also, the defenders keep saying that “people are judging….Christians make mistakes…etc”. Yes…..true….however, how many of US are up on tv publicly judging other people ( premarital sex, LGBT, right to choose) all while deceiving the “fans” of the show who were made to believe that these holier than thou Duggars are so moral? I have always hated the stupid show just because of how brainwashed all the girls are by the men. This whole thing with Josh, who seemed to be the weirdest one besides Michelle, is the last straw. Take this hypocritical crap off the air!
Well of course all their family will support them..there is money involved. .
Judging that’s all this family does is judge others because they do no wrong they are constantly judging gays and their rights at least they don’t sexual assault children I am so sick of their lying life’s stay off the air and make monies the right way
What is it with the girls’ in-laws opining on this? I can’t decide if vague-booking is better or worse than releasing an actual public statement.
Yeah, I don’t get this in-law support at all. It’s almost as if they are saying, we still like her, even though she’s been touched. I hope those poor girls husbands help them through this rough patch. So far it seems all about Josh! I agree, he’s a sick man who needs help, but what about the girls? They are victims.
It sounds like its all about josh to me too. I don’t get the impression that they really care about their new relatives, its just like the girls don’t exist at all to them and josh is all that matters. Seems like women, to them, are just supposed to crank out kids and stay out of the way. It’s really really sad.
Sorry if I implied that the in-laws shouldn’t like them because of Josh’s actions. It was meant in the sense of odd that they thought that their views were significant enough to warrant releasing a public statement. It had an uncomfortable fame-seeming vibe.
I agree on all the focus being on Josh. While it’s unfortunate that the fact little girls were repeatedly victimized by him doesn’t seem to register in the media, at least those little girls aren’t being hounded (that we know of) by reporters to relive it fifteen years on. Of course, one or more of them might really want to release a statement but are being prevented from doing so. All hypothetical avenues with this family in up in a creepy back alley.
Don’t apologize Atomic city, I know what you meant. I was just riding on your post because we are on the same page. Good post!
It’s all about Josh because he’s the only one talking. No one had the right to tell the story of the girls other than the girls. Everyone keeps complaining “what about the girls? !” It’s the girls place to tell their story if they choose to, and if they don’t, no one has a right to hear it. As a victim my self of incestuous rape, no one will ever tell my story or speak about my experience but ME. It is my place to decide who knows. That right was ripped away from these victims by some heartless, insensitive jerks who decided their hatred for the Duggars superceded the rights of victims. Victims don’t have to speak out to have dealt with their trauma, they don’t have to tell the world to be at peace with their lives and their situation. Every person is different, every person deals with grief and trauma differently. There is no right answer for that. And they did receive treatment, the police report says so. So everyone should just stop with that BS line too. People can’t read apparently.
I agree. If the girls wish to discuss their past, they will. If they don’t, they shouldn’t have to. It is not right to assume what happened, how they feel or that nothing was done for them. Just because society doesn’t agree with how their family dealt with their circumstances, doesn’t mean they’re wrong. This WAS 12 years ago and since Josh has done nothing since and they have had no cause for concern with their daughters, they did the right thing for them. They have rarely wavered from their faith or convictions. They have always done things differently. Honestly, I can say my family may have done the same thing. They would’ve dealt with it privately, within our family and church.
As for the Duggars judging others, Jesus taught us how to judge righteously and spiritually. I would rather be judged here, now, by others and myself, than later by God.
All disobedience is Sin. Unrepented Sin is wrong. Josh’s life is a reflection of the change that took place when he asked for forgiveness. Whether we agree or not, he is forgiven. If we want our sins to be forgivens, we must forgive too.
I just pray that whatever happens, God gets all the Glory. His Will will be done.
It’s not about religion. It’s about the LAW. What Josh did is a FELONY!!! It’s a CRIME!!!! And his parents aided and abetted in his not being held accountable for the FELONY OFFENSE he committed.
Wait I thought they did turn him into police and additionally sought mental support. I think the parents actually did do the right thing. Imagine how hard it would be to turn in your child knowing it will be on record and haunt them for the rest of their life. On one hand you hate to see that their actions as a child will continue to hunt them but on the other hand you need to do what is right to protect your other children and make sure it doesn’t happen again. The whole thing is very sad but I think it’s a especially sad when everybody else gets caught in the crossfire of Josh’s bad decisions.
This is the story confirmed in the police report: His parents never voluntarily brought him to the police. A family friend found out about what was happening because they found a letter about it in a book they borrowed from the Duggars (probably written by one of the girls as a plea for help), then the neighbor went to the police. The Duggars immediately got a lot of lawyers involved and generally protected Josh from the police as much as possible. They never sent him to any counselor or therapist, Michelle admitted all they did was send him away to a friend to do some manual labor on his house. I hate how Michelle and Jim Bob keep acting like they did all they could. They did all they could to PROTECT JOSH.
They didn’t turn him in to police. Jim Bob took him to a family friend who was a state trooper. Jim Bob lied to the trooper and told him that it had only happened once when really, it had been going on for at least a year, with 5 victims. The trooper gave Josh a stern talk and that was the it. It was Oprah and her production team that turn Josh in after receiving a letter about his molestation.
Now that state trooper is in prison for the second time for child porn. They didn’t turn him in they just went and talked to this trooper… why? Cause they knew what he liked to do and it was the same thing. If the trooper was so good at keeping the secret, they could get some good pointers. Duggars said they paid for counseling what else did they pay hush money. Josh never received and treatments, his parents sent him to work at a friend’s construction company. That kind is never healed with even professional help but construction work will… Don’t think so. I was a victim of assault and was never allowed to tell, the man that made me that victim was never held accountable and he continued to assault not only other children but his own also. Is Jose also still assaulting, his own? Good wife could never say a word about it. She is to be his wife have kids and keep her mouth shut. Forgive…not in my vocabulary! He needs to be in prison just like the trooper that didn’t want to do his job.
It would be incredibly hard to turn in your own child, but when you have an entire household of children in danger from him, of course it’s the right thing to do. He should have been removed from the home permanently. The Duggars should have taken a long hard look at what caused the abuse instead of just calling it a “mistake”. Boys don’t molest pre-adolescent girls for no reason. Either they are pedophiles at heart, which is incurable, or their normal sexuality has been horribly twisted due to things like brainwashing about male “headship” in the family (leading to a sense of entitlement), isolation from the normal sexual outlets available to most 14-year-old boys (leading to unnatural expressions of curiosity), etc. Both cases require professional counselling. Forcing the girls to forgive (what choice did they have?) so it could be forgotten, and then whoring yourself on TV for years as a paragon of Christian virtue is sick, greedy and hypocritical.
If you don’t know what you’re talking about, don’t post it. I work at a treatment center with 14 year old sex offenders, just like Josh WAS. The percentage that offend again after receiving treatment is ridiculously low. If you can’t rehabilitate KIDS why do they bother having treatment centers. That’s where they send juvenile offenders first, treatment centers. Not jail, not juvenile hall. And if they comply with treatment they don’t even have to register as sex offenders typically. You may all now proceed freaking out about the number of juvenile sex offenders you don’t know about because they never had to register and they aren’t famous like Josh so they aren’t being exposed, thankfully.
Here’s the thing….no evidence or witnesses willing to speak. He was reported on and without anything else to go on and everyone in the household got interviewed….they basically used religion as to why he couldn’t go to a regular juvenile facility. That’s all, not much more to the crime then that. Sorry for your thirst for DRAMA.
If Josh was charged after an investigation, it would’ve been sexual assault in the fourth degree. In Arkansas, that is a Class A misdemeanor, which holds a statute of limitations of 1 year.
He may have spent one year in jail and while in there, the parents worried about the environment he would be in. They felt being mentored by a fellow Christian would be best. And I can’t say I blame them for thinking that way. They were trying to prevent something from happening again or things from escalating. And I think they did the best for all their children. I don’t know what they did to help their daughters, but I won’t assume nothing was done either. I also don’t know what his sisters and friend had to deal with or what any of them, including Josh are going through, but I do know that NOTHING is incurable or impossible with God.
To the critics who believe the parents purposely waited for time to pass, it doesn’t apply. If Josh did serve his time, starting in March 2003, he may have been released before March 2004. The investigation that was launched because of Harpo Studios receiving an email, began in December 2006.
Then again, if the parents did what others would’ve done, maybe they would’ve appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show and none of this would’ve been leaked. Or maybe because it was the Duggars and the punishment wasn’t harsh enough, it still would have. Every state views laws, crimes and punishments differently and justice for some is not justice for all.
Because no charges can be filed and digging up the past only hurts those who were there and not here yet, it is best to let it alone.
Whatever happens, I pray for the family and family friend and hope God gets the Glory. His Will will be done.
I think the Duggars have made enough money duping the public. Shame on the parents for exploiting their children.
There is a world of difference between simply being imperfect and making mistakes, and molesting your own siblings. So now Michael and Dan are both supporting the man who molested his daughter-in-law and sister-in-law, respectively. Smh.
Your absolutely right. Still think Jim Bob has a sick mind. I also think Josh is covering for his dad.