Watching the latest breathless installment of the Duggar scandal on the news last evening, I unaccountably found myself thinking of the famous opening line of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
What I haven’t heard any commentator mention yet is that, though the details vary from one instance and family to the next instance and family, there is nothing very interesting about the progression of the Duggar story; those of us have who given serious attention to abuse in religious environments know the all-but-invariable pattern inside-out: Rally around the offender, ignore or scorn the victim, turn criticism into a narrative about “the world’s” hatred of Christians.
Robert Jeffress, for instance, the pastor of FBC-Dallas, thinks there is a Lefty plot afoot:
.@robertjeffress on new attacks on Duggar family: “The left I think is using this tragedy for its own agenda.” #KellyFile #DuggarInterview
— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) June 5, 2015
Seriously: These small and stupid people are totally oblivious to the squalor of their behavior. And with far less publicity, on this very day, a drama similar to the Duggar story is playing-out in churches all across the country.