Don't Ya Just Love Those Republi-CON Family Values

UPDATE IV:  "Five women are suing the Institute in Basic Life Principles, a radical Illinois-based Christian ministry that espouses a stringent patriarchal worldview, for permitting the systemic sexual abuse and harassment of its members.

The negligence suit comes more than a year after fundamentalist leader Bill Gothard resigned from his position as head of the organization after more than 30 women alleged that he harassed or molested them, some when they were minors.

In their lawsuit, the five plaintiffs claim that the Institute in Basic Life Principles acted with willful and wanton disregard for their well-being and conspired to cover up the allegations of abuse. . . conducting a bogus internal investigation of the abuse, for appearances only."

Read Slate, Five Women Sue Duggar-Connected Ministry for Sex Abuse Cover-Up.

See also Republi-CON Family Values, All In the Family Edition. 

UPDATE III:  BTW, the lawsuit "is searing in its criticisms of Doug Phillips. 'Phillips’s patriarchal movement teaches that men are, and should be, in the absolute control of women,' reads the complaint, claiming that Torres-Manteufel was therefore bullied into believing she had no choice but to submit to Phillips' alleged sexual abuse, even though she feared it made her 'damaged goods.'

In other words, women within this movement are perceived to exist only for the end-goals communicated by the male leaders that perceive themselves as the 'patriarchs' of this world,' the lawsuit reads. . .

The scandal around Phillips is just the latest in a long line of ugly shocks to the far Christian right that threaten to destabilize and possibly capsize the community. As The Wire reported in early March, Bill Gothard, the leader of the Institute in Basic Life Principles, resigned his position in the wake of a series of accusations of alleged sexual abuse from dozens of women in the organization. IBLP, like Vision Forum Ministries, is a major clearinghouse for adherents to Biblical patriarchy, teaching members to shun contraception, embrace extreme forms of female submission, and, of course, use homeschooling to shelter young people from the outside world.  Unsurprisingly, IBLP is also associated with the Duggar family, who participated in the organization’s many training seminars on embracing Biblical patriarchy and who called Gothard their 'number one recommended resource' for family advice. He has exerted political influence in other ways, as well, befriending Sarah Palin and bringing her in for his International Association of Character Cities conference.

Similarly, both Bob Jones University and Patrick Henry College—schools that were established in no small part to give these homeschooled and sheltered kids from far Christian right backgrounds a place to go to college—have been at the center of accusations of indifference and even of allegedly covering up reported sexual abuse on campus. BJU received a lot of heat when they fired an outside firm that had been brought on to investigate accusations of sexual abuse, only to rehire them when it looked like they were punishing the firm for being too thorough in exposing the problem. Patrick Henry College was the recent target of an exposé in The New Republic that explored how young women who brought sexual abuse complaints to the school were frequently drummed out of the college or made to felt that they had somehow brought the abuse on themselves.

The 'pitch' of Biblical patriarchy, as epitomized by Michelle Duggar, is that women will be coddled and worshipped in exchange for giving up their ambitions and the autonomy to practice an extreme form of female submission. The unpleasant truth is that a culture that teaches that women are put on earth for no other purpose but to serve men is not going to breed respect for women. Instead, these incidents show a world where men believe they can do whatever they want to women without repercussions. Is it any surprise that a subculture that promises absolute control over women will attract men who want to dominate and hurt women? Don’t believe the TLC hype. Biblical patriarchy is a sour, dangerous world for women, and luckily, that reality is finally being outed."

Read The Daily Beast, Sex Scandal Rocks The Duggars’ Christian Patriarchy Movement.  

UPDATE II:  On the issue of using religion and sex, meet Douglas Phillips, friend of the Duggar family and former "president of the extreme Christian right group Vision Forum Ministries, [who] admitted to, in his words, having 'a lengthy, inappropriate relationship with a woman.' . .

Phillips resigned in October, but now it seems that his public pronouncement regarding that 'inappropriate relationship' may have seriously downplayed what actually happened. Lourdes Torres-Manteufel, who says she was the woman Phillips confessed about, is now suing Phillips and Vision Forum for what she alleges was an abusive and manipulative relationship that caused her serious mental harm and distress."

The link is to the lawsuit, which describes something much worse, including sexual assault and battery under the guise of religion.

Read Slate, Woman Sues Christian Right Leader Douglas Phillips for Alleged Sexual, Mental Abuse.

Apparently Phillips has a history of "Ecclesiastical Tyranny and Abuse".

UPDATE:  The staffer is/was the wife of a "high school pal and campaign donor of McAllister's . . .she started working for McAllister the day after he won his seat.

Her husband, Heath Peacock, said McAllister 'has wrecked my life' and that he and his wife are 'headed for divorce.' He also claimed that, by the way, McAllister faked his devotion to religion to win votes."

Read CNN, Congressman a kissing hypocrite.

And guess who was "'removed from the payroll' within the 24 hours after their embrace was exposed"? Hint, it wasn't the Republi-con CONgressman.

"Just four months on the job, U.S. Rep. Vance McAllister, R-Swartz, has landed himself in hot water after a video surfaced Monday purportedly showing Louisiana's newest congressman kissing a married staffer."

He had won a special election to Congress in November, campaigning on 'Faith, Family, and Hard Work'. 


Read The Times-Picayune, Vance McAllister on video showing kiss with staffer: 'I've fallen short and I'm asking for forgiveness'.