Jinger Duggar Shares the Real Reason Why Jana Duggar Can’t Move out of the Duggar Home
Duggar family member Jinger Duggar Vuolo is currently promoting her new book, Becoming Free Indeed. Within its pages, Jinger reveals how she disentangled faith from fear and why she believes her religious beliefs as a member of the religious group IBLP were harmful. However, in a new podcast interview, Jinger, the sixth of Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar’s 19 children, slipped about the religious doctrine that keeps women in their family homes until marriage and applies to her oldest sister, Jana.
Fear kept Jinger Duggar bound to a set of religious beliefs she believed were harmful
In an interview with People Magazine, Jinger touched on her life as a member of the IBLP, a non-denominational religious group with a Christian slant. According to the group’s official website, the Institute of Basic Life Principles, or IBLP, is an umbrella organization for different Christian-based ministries. Christian minister Bill Gothard’s beliefs still influence those who continue to follow the IBLP, like the Duggars.
Gothard has a set of rules that his followers must adhere to. These teachings included that women should be subservient to their husbands and that their followers should shun dancing, dating, and much of modern popular culture.
Gothard stepped down from his role in the IBLP in 2014 under accusations of sexual misconduct and molestation. However, the Duggars followed the IBLP’s rules and Gothard’s teachings.
Jinger told People Magazine that “fear was a huge part of my childhood. I thought I had to wear only skirts and dresses to please God. Music with drums, places I went, or the wrong friendships could all bring harm.”
Jinger Duggar slips about the real reason her sister Jana can’t move out of the Duggar home
In a new interview with podcast host Allie Beth Stuckey, Jinger explained the doctrine that keeps women living in their family home until marriage. Without mentioning her sister Jana directly, her statements describe why the 33-year-old still lives with her parents, Michelle, Jim Bob Duggar, and her younger siblings.
Jinger cites an “umbrella of authority” within families, where the man of the household is the authority figure over the women in their home until they marry. Then, their husband takes over the headship.
She shared, “Even if you’re 40, you should remain at home. This umbrella of authority that Bill Gothard taught [Jinger then uses her hands to show that God is at the top, followed by Gothard, then the parents, and finally their children], how you come out of that is by moving out of the home.
“If you get a job or move out, you’re opening yourself up to Satan’s attacks because you don’t have an umbrella to protect you. So that’s what I believed wholeheartedly, and that’s why I stayed,” Jinger explained.
The former reality star says the IBLP has a lot of ‘cult-like tendencies’
To further her point, Jinger shared her belief that the harmful teachings of the IBLP have a lot of “cult-like tendencies.” Although she remains a devoted Christian, Jinger realizes many of the beliefs she grew up with were “harmful.”
In 2017, Jinger realized Gothard’s “teachings were so harmful.” She admits to understanding “the effects in the lives of my friends and people who grew up in that community with me.”
“There are a lot of cult-like tendencies,” she reveals to People of the religious sect. Her new book Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith From Fear hits bookshelves on Jan. 31, 2023.
