Duggar Family: Culture of Abuse to Be Exposed In New Documentary

For years, high-budget documentaries have exposed evils lurking in plain sight.

Blackfish. Framing Britney Spears. Going Clear. LuLaRich. They have opened people’s eyes.

Now, it’s time for the Duggars to be exposed, but that disgraced family won’t be alone.

Amazon and the team behind LuLaRich are dragging the Duggars, the Bates, and the Plaths into the light.

A powerful new documentary will air either late in 2022 or in 2023.

The logline for the show spells out exactly what the documentary promises to expose.

“On the heels of Josh Duggar’s explosive criminal trial,” the logline begins.

The logline continues: “The untitled project will expose shocking connections.”

These are connections “between some of reality television’s most famous large families and The Institute in Basic Life Principles.”

IBLP is “a controversial fundamentalist organization and homeschooling empire.”

“In addition, prominent commentators, writers, and social media voices will explore the broader zeitgeist of reality television, social media, faith, fundamentalism, patriarchy, and power,” the logline adds.

The invesgiation will not be limited in scope to the Duggars and IBLP.

The Plaths of Welcome to Plathville and the Bates of Bringing Up Bates will also be in the spotlight.

It is not difficult to guess why this is happening.

With the recent trial, the long-overdue canceling of Counting On by TLC, and more, there is a lot of attention on this topic.

For too long, the Duggars have been allowed to sanitize their extreme beliefs to seem palatable to viewers and marketable to advertisers. That is now changing.

Josh Duggar’s latest scandal was not only a source of shame and media attention.

It was a recent, prosecutable crime.

Earlier this month, Josh was convicted by a jury of his peers for possessing and receiving child sexual abuse materials.

Throughout the buildup to the trial and in court itself, it was impossible to ignore the ways in which this was not solely just about Josh.

Yes, the disgraced former reality star was the one who used peer-to-peer software to download vile photos and video of little girls’ lives being ruined.

But his parents had actively covered up his former crimes against little girls, and at every turn moved to protect him — prioritizing his reputation over their own daughters.

Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar’s unthinkable behavior, at the expense of their little girls, is not an isolated incident.

As we here at THG and numerous others covering this horror story have repeatedly acknowledged, this is totally consistent with the teachings of their church and cult.

The Institute for Basic Life Principles, or IBLP, crafted the ideal environment for a budding sexual predator like Josh. And he’s not the only one.

Numerous survivors of IBLP families have spoken out about outrageous abuse suffered while living that extreme lifestyle.

There must be countless more who escaped from the toxic purity culture, brainwashing, and cruelty but have yet to speak out.

Perhaps this documentary will give more people an opportunity to share what they have endured.

We cannot emphasize enough that there is more to documentaries like this than simply shining a light in dark places followed by water cooler discussions.

If we look at how things have gone for the past several years, widely watched documentaries have the power to influence political policy, launch criminal investigations, and more.

Exposing what these families are really like when they aren’t faking nice for the cameras could be a vital first step into policy shifts to protect more children and bring more predators to justice.