Anna Duggar - Merge

[antwan]

I don't think Anna will leave Josh. However, I DO think Josh might "leave" her. I seriously think he could contemplate suicide over the fallout of this; lost job, public opinion, resurrection of a family secret that the Duggars fully hoped to permanently hide.

I think this is why Michelle loves Anna so much, because Anna was either naive enough to be snowed by the story she was fed previously, or because she did know all along, and agreed to marry Josh anyway.

I personally am not in the camp that believes Josh would hurt his children, but will refrain from sharing why I feel this way. BUT...this whole story and how it came out WILL hurt them. That deeply saddens me. I don't wish this fallout on Anna and their children (and don't take any pleasure in seeing this family fall), but there are consequences for actions, and the Duggars will now suffer the consequences (as it should be) of Jim Bob and Michelle intentionally taking on a family values show with this particular skeleton carefully tucked into the proverbial closet.

[VixenToast]

I worry about suicide. This is the kinda shit that makes some men eat a shotgun and as much as Josh disgusts me, I hope to God he doesn't have those tendencies. I wish none of this had happened.

Don't get me wrong here, I'm still cackling with glee at how the mighty have fallen, but I was 5 when my babysitters son "forcibly fondled" me. But only once. I can't imagine it happening more than once and by YOUR OWN BROTHER. We do stupid shit as kids but this isn't a childhood mistake as some are trying to make it out to be. ANNA OPEN YOUR EYES AND CHOOSE WHATS BEST FOR YOUR CHILDREN AND YOU!

Personally, I think she'll stay with him, unless he does something to the children.

:trainwreck:

I wanted a train wreck but NOT THIS WAY!

[iknowright]

She will have to grow up, get an education (or skills), and become empowered. I would not be able to stay in that. Not only is she completely unprepared to handle life without Josh, he is completely unprepared to handle life without TLC.

I blame JB and Michelle for becoming involved with Gothard the cult leader and not getting help for their son when he too was so young. Now he is an adult who has a VERY high chance of trying to find new victims. Sorry, but repeat rates are extremely high even with quality psychological care.

[Mylnijya]

I thought of the suicide risk as well. It is definitely something to be concerned about. I feel like I would need some sort of medication just to sleep if I were Anna. But she's pregnant! So none of that. I also didn't see him as being a risk to his kids... until people on here started saying that his youngest victim was 4 or 5. That's horrible. I was under the impression that he was a 14 year old doing this with a 12 or 11 year old. Still creepy for sure. But I was thinking maybe because he was so sheltered and had no normal interactions with other girls and was taught even masturbation was off-limits, that he just became a bit of a weirdo in puberty. But it is a completely different matter if it was a very little girl.

I also am deeply saddened by this.

Edit: Also, did anyone notice how on the police report it said that his favorite subject was Spelling? What 14 year old says that? That is so weird to me. Freshmen in high school don't view Spelling as a subject at all. So it really does highlight what sort of education he was receiving.

[Jdawg]

I don't think any of us can understand just how devastating this going to be for Anna and the kids, but I think we must remember that Anna is a thoroughly indoctrinated fundamentalist who will consider this a time of trials and tribulations for her marriage and family. She will cling to her man and her faith, being reinforced by the community of Josh's supporters who feel she's doing the right thing sticking with him. Josh and Anna will both use this to make a more compelling "testimony" for reaching out to sinners and continuing to be self-righteous, albeit on a much smaller stage (I'm guessing they'll be doing tent revivals or prison ministry with Anna's dad). Anna was already getting Michelle-esque crazy eyes, she has the "keeping sweet" mechanisms down and will delude herself into thinking everything is just fine because Jesus is on their side and Josh is now a righteous man of God.

There's no way Josh is going back to the car lot. Plenty of born agains might be defending him online, but that's not to say that everyone in his small hometown is going to overlook this. He may even need to look over his shoulder for fear some redneck good old boys might get drunk and decide to met out some vigilante justice on his sorry ass. I don't think Anna can imagine that people could be just that angry about this because she must also underestimate the extent of the damage done to his victims since his victims were women, who in their cultue are devalued and objectified to the point of being mere vessels for reproductive purposes. :ew:

I think Anna's going to have trouble with the more "worldly" comforts to which she has become accustomed. Anna grew up so sheltered and poor an overcrowded trailer. Marrying Josh introduced her to a lifestyle she could have only dreamed of: being filmed and recognized by strangers , traveling the world, dining in fancy restaurants, hobnobbing with Washington's conservative political elite. It even seemed as though she was moving more toward some kind of normalcy, with the way she dressed and discarding the nasty a crunchy hairstyle, even having made some mainstream friends such as the couple (with the wife in the armed forces) that came over with their kids. All of that is going to end for her and it will be sad for her to see her kids missing out on all the benefits of their cushy life in the D.C. Suburbs. However, she will probably remind herself that all those things don't matter and continue further down the fundamentalist rabbit hole.

[JenniferJuniper]

My question is will this drive Josh over the edge? Can he really handle this kind of pressure? A new baby coming, no job, public shaming, destroying his family's livelihood, what he actually did, the shame of his children knowing his sins...

Can Josh survive this? He has no real support system. This may end badly.

I've been sort of thinking the same thing.

He's been shamed in the worst way possible. All across the globe. His employer basically said "We had no idea. Go. Now" The show is over. A baby is coming in a few weeks and they have to pack up and leave DC. Who knows whether his wife really accepts it all. And somewhere a pecan thief is smirking.

I can't look at a picture of his youngest victim at the time he molested her and not think he deserves it all. But really, his parents are even bigger perps. Not only did they subject their daughters to the horrors of living with and cooking and cleaning for their abuser, they set their son up for the chickens to come home to roost. They are just awful, awful parents and people.

Maybe Josh is a sociopath who will take it all in stride, Aaron Hernandez style. But if not, it may be a cold, scary world for him for a long time.

[AuntCloud]

All of a sudden, "The Good Wife" seems like the best-case scenario.

[MisUndrstd]

Unfortunately, Josh, JB and Michelle hold all the power over Anna. JB and Michelle hand picked her for Josh, they picked the one that would give them least resistance, someone who would drink from the Duggar punch bowl and not ask what is in it. The sad reality is I think Anna really adores Josh and Smugger acts like she is an annoyance, she gets on his nerves and affection he shows toward her seems forced at best. But Anna, she is just in too deep. She idolizes Mullet, accepts JB's authority as the holy grail and loves a man who is not capable of loving her back.

Her level of stress has to be through the roof, she probably feels very lost and when she turns to the man she loves for comfort he pushes her away. I fear this could cause her to go into early labor and maybe have some complications with this pregnancy. Thankfully she is far enough along that if she delivers early the child will have a good chance of survival. I don't think she will give up on Josh easily, she's hang tight for as long as she can, but there will come a time when she realizes for her mental health and the well being of her children she must leave and build a life elsewhere. I feel sorry for her because I know she doesn't have the means to be a single mother, I just hope when she finally cuts the Duggar umbilical cord her family will step up and help her weather the storm, provide for her and the children until she can figure out how to get on her feet. It's sad, extremely sad!

[JuJuBee8]

In fact, as somebody raised Catholic, it irks me to no end when other people, particularly the fundies I live among, seem to just think that's a "Catholic" problem and that anybody who talks the talk within their community can be trusted with their kids.

Yes! Anybody can call themselves a Christian. But that doesn't make it so.

"Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves." That is Gothard to a T. Jim Bob was taken in by the worst sort of charlatan masquerading as a follower of Christ.

[Captain Obvious]

If you guys have read any of the articles about the Gothard method for dealing with sex, it makes sense that a boy would sexualize a little girl. Their learning material states that boys should not change baby girls diapers because that may lead to stirring up desires. So, messages like "stay away from your baby sister, Josh, she's 3 months old and sexy as hell" Was what Josh grew up hearing. That's some sick shit. But Anna grew up hearing stuff like that too so it's also possible that she blamed the victims more than josh

THIS.

I think Anna will be fine, for this reason. Their whole culture says that mens' sexual desires (and boys') are uncontrollable, inevitable and liable to be provoked by the mere sight of a girl's uncovered knee.

So while what has happened is awful for the girls and understood as abuse in all other circles, in their circle it's easy for them to downplay it as just a "mistake", especially when viewed from the male's perspective, as it has been viewed.

Let's face it - there would never have been a police report if not for an unusual chain of circumstances. The Duggars didn't report it because they really didn't care about what happened (boys will be boys!), although evidently other members of their church were concerned. I don't think Anna cares either, TBH.

The clincher though is whether Anna would put her own daughters in danger. From what I understand, Josh's behaviour at 13 doesn't guarantee that he would repeat the behaviour as an adult and there are no signs that he ever repeated it. None of that would matter to the Duggars though because as far as they are concerned Josh has already prayed away the problems.

So for Anna it is a non-issue now. Her statement confirmed that. Only pretending to be concerned because she has to pretend.

[snark_bait]

She has 3 small children, a jobless household, and and she's watching the single worst Duggar fallout happen ringside. She's pregnant. Her wedding vows are an oath directly to God and Josh in her eyes. I think she'll stay out of obligation, but I pray that she surrounds herself with family and a therapist trained in dealing with situations such as these. It would be abnormal for her to handle this well without help, devout Christian or not.

[antwan]

Edit: Also, did anyone notice how on the police report it said that his favorite subject was Spelling? What 14 year old says that? That is so weird to me. Freshmen in high school don't view Spelling as a subject at all. So it really does highlight what sort of education he was receiving.

Yes, the spelling was...odd.

Also, one of the girls was asked about friends, and vomited the Quiverfull/ATI/Mally(Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends) hogwash, "I like being with my brothers and sisters. If you can get along with your siblings, you can get along with anyone." Oy vey! :roll:

[VapingindaCity]

In Growing Up Duggar: It's All About Relationships, Josh recalls: 'As I became a young man, I was constantly tempted to have a lot of wrong thoughts and often battled to keep my heart right. One of the greatest things that helped me in my struggle was my parents' commitment to accountability.

'I often had failures in my early teenage years but found that I had a clear conscience only when I was willing to speak to confess my thoughts and temptations quickly to God and to my parents

i really doubt josh knew the extent of the problems, as u can see from this excerpt taken from Their book GROWING UP DUGGAR how he talks about his young teenage mistakes... but if u moslested kids how is your heart pure before God? Which she said was the most Important part of getting to the Marriage Altar? ?

I really hope she doesn't become a the Perfect Picture of Standing by ur man, even tho the leftist Agenda is trying to Destroy Conservative Values... like those Mormom Weman who Knowingly marry Gay Mormom Men

[lookinggoodforjesus]

Re the topic name of this forum:

I sincerely hope that Anna has a meltdown. She damned well should. Any regular person would, in this situation.

[NjoyingNsanity]

First I think the sexually repressed way he was brought up certainly was a contributing factor to what Josh did, I also wonder if he wasn't abused at some point.

I doubt Anna was told the full extent of what happened and I can see a meltdown in her near future wait till she's postpartum and dealing with this nightmare of a scandal along with no money, a newborn, 3 other kids, hormones, sleep deprivation, and a possible move back to Arkansas.

I wouldn't be surprised if there isn't a suicide attempt by Josh, Anna or one of Josh's victims.

If Jill or Jessa were victims I wonder if that was disclosed to their husbands before their wedding. I genuinely hope that they wouldn't think less of them if it wasn't.

I do wonder if Josh only abused his sisters or if he may have abused some of his brothers as well and Dim Bulb never thought to even ask his younger sons if Josh had touched them in a sexual way.

CPS needs to investigate and make sure Josh hasn't molested his own children.

I see Josh and Anna possibly going overseas to do missionary work probably somewhere very remote and third world where they'll hope to outrun the scandal. Maybe Josh will suddenly be called to join the brother and sister in-law in Zambia.

I do wonder where they'll be living after this sadly I expect it will be in a mobile home somewhere on the family compound once the TLC money is gone.

Only way the Duggars could keep the TLC money rolling in is to maybe let them film the family going through therapy.

I wonder did Grandma, Amy or any of the extended family know and if they did WHY didn't they report the abuse?

I see a series of meltdowns with the kids who never knew a life before TLC who are used to all the perks and expensive vacations.

Does anyone else think this is the real reason why the Duggar girl sleep fully clothed, and they put the girls and boys bedrooms on opposite ends of the house?

I'd put money on a tell all book coming out of at least one of the Duggar kids sometime in the next couple years.

It's going to suck for those kids growing up with people knowing they belong to the weirdo family that had umpteen kids and let the oldest son molest his sisters.

[iknowright]

It just occurred to me she has TWO siblings who have completely pulled away from Gothardism for years now. That is alot of outside-the-cult support. She can't count on her parents, but when the news reports die down and TLC runs away, and she has FOUR young children to care for and her husband has to have a tremendous low profile and their only income will be outsourced by JB, she may think about how disgusting her in-laws are and that she doesn't care about Josh's "confession" as much as she thought she did.

If she wants out, she will have support. She won't want out now, but I could see it down the line.

[eh02]

It's interesting that in some ways, Suze might be one of her siblings who is actually BETTER off, and she was the "black sheep."

Anna still has a sister off living in poverty with a bunch of young kids in a developing country somewhere, doesn't she? Priscilla's husband is awful, Anna's husband is surrounded by scandal and can't support their family anymore...yeah, being a single mom of one doesn't exactly sound like the worst of these options.

[jacduggar]

Coming out of lurkdome.

No way. She's a mini-Michelle. Ever since marrying into that family, she's been taught over and over that she is fundie royalty. They don't think Josh's heinous acts of abuse are more than a "mistake", and why would they? They have their church, ATI, and lawmakers backing them up. I truly don't believe this is going to knock Josh off his high horse (in his mind) and Anna is groomed to be the person he stands on to get up there. It's really sad but you can absolutely tell that she thinks she married a king.

[iknowright]

You may be right as well. It's all speculation. I can see it going either way.

[eh02]

Coming out of lurkdome.

No way. She's a mini-Michelle. Ever since marrying into that family, she's been taught over and over that she is fundie royalty. They don't think Josh's heinous acts of abuse are more than a "mistake", and why would they? They have their church, ATI, and lawmakers backing them up. I truly don't believe this is going to knock Josh off his high horse (in his mind) and Anna is groomed to be the person he stands on to get up there. It's really sad but you can absolutely tell that she thinks she married a king.

I totally agree that she wants to be a mini-Michelle, but I think that fantasy is over now, personally. Anna will NOT be fundie royalty anymore. She will not being invited to DC cocktail parties anymore. She'll be moving back to Arkansas or who knows where, back to the same boring life.

I think Anna will be 100% behind Josh and say "all the right things," at least for the next year or two. But they won't be able to recover from this. I really think they will be divorced within 3-5 years.

[lascuba]

I totally agree that she wants to be a mini-Michelle, but I think that fantasy is over now, personally. Anna will NOT be fundie royalty anymore. She will not being invited to DC cocktail parties anymore. She'll be moving back to Arkansas or who knows where, back to the same boring life.

I think Anna will be 100% behind Josh and say "all the right things," at least for the next year or two. But they won't be able to recover from this. I really think they will be divorced within 3-5 years.

I don't know. Time will tell, of course, but I really think the family's standing among fundies will remain unchanged-they'll still be keynote speakers at homeschool conferences and other fundie events. Politically, I agree that they're dead, though I wouldn't underestimate the hypocrisy and depravity of conservatives. Could be in a few years, GOP powerhouses in DC would welcome them back with open arms.

[iknowright]

And that is their undoing - they have received fame and fortune from outside the fundie world and not only wanted to retain it, but grow it. Now, they have to shrink back into a hole with a huge mess to constantly hide, change, defend etc...

I think it will take a few years, but if Anna decides to get closer to the siblings who have walked away, she will pull away as well.

Priscilla on the other hand....uh no...

[Buzzard]

My guess is that within the next year Josh will be a housedad and Anna will be the one with a job. They'll have money to support themselves for a while, but Josh is politically untouchable. Unless he goes back to a used car lot Anna is going to have to be the breadwinner.

Maybe they'll move to Indiana and open a homophobic pizza shop!

[eh02]

And that is their undoing - they have received fame and fortune from outside the fundie world and not only wanted to retain it, but grow it. Now, they have to shrink back into a hole with a huge mess to constantly hide, change, defend etc...

I think it will take a few years, but if Anna decides to get closer to the siblings who have walked away, she will pull away as well.

Priscilla on the other hand....uh no...

I wish someone could swoop in and save Priscilla. :( She breaks my heart. Unless TFDW runs off with another wo/man and leaves her, or, well, dies, I don't think there is any hope of her ever getting out of that relationship. and David is SO awful.

[SPHASH]

Anna also has a brother Daniel who left the cult. He married a girl named Candace who had family issues of her own and wasn't from the cult. Pa Keller actually shunned Daniel cuz he chose to treat his wife as an equal and not as his subordinate.