I aspire to be a kind, open-minded person. But at least once every day someone comes along and ruins it for me. Yesterday it was the Duggar Family. For those of you who don't watch TLC, the Duggars are a family that has gotten famous for having many, many children. Their eighteenth child is due in January. Yeah - Michelle Duggar has actually GIVEN BIRTH to EIGHTEEN children.
And she homeschools them all.
I don't know what form of Valium you can take when you're pregnant, but I like to think that Michelle has a prescription. I don't like to think about Michelle's uterus, because I'm pretty sure that it must be about to fall out. She's been pregnant SIXTEEN times (two sets of twins).
I also don't like to think about the Duggars in relation to the problems of over-population, sexism (only girls cook and they must wear long skirts) and their cult-like adoration of dad Jim Bob.
But perhaps what disturbs me the most about the insular Duggar family is what I saw on last night's special. Apparently the oldest got married last month. He's twenty. And he did not even get to kiss his bride before the wedding. Sounds kind of third world arranged marriage, doesn't it?
But no, shockingly, after not being allowed to date or "court" or interact with non-family females until he turned twenty, this young man fell in love with his first girlfriend. And, again shockingly, after following the family dictum of doing nothing but holding hands until the wedding, he wanted to get married as soon as possible.
The young couple even had to take a chaperone (usually a younger sibling) on all their dates. Presumably they are now allowed to be alone together. But I've still lost all respect for the Duggars.
If you can trust someone to make an appropriate decision on a marriage partner, shouldn't you also trust them to be alone with that person? And what century are we living in that kissing is on the same level as premarital sex?
There are a million reasons to hold off on sex (not, actually, that I want my own children to wait until marriage, but that's beside the point). . . .but kissing? Seriously? How are you supposed to learn anything? And how controlling are these parents? The way this twenty year old repeated his parents' beliefs and sayings just depressed me.
They talk about Jesus and Christianity a lot, the Duggars. But I think they missed the part about free will.
Any thoughts?
