'It's Very Difficult to Speak About': Jinger Duggar Vuolo Discusses 'Harmful' False Teachings

so let's Dive Right into your Memoir your book what made you want to write this book right now um I grew up in a system that was based on man-made rules I followed a teacher who taught a lot of things that were outside of the Bible but I thought that he was teaching the word of God to me and it was interesting um it's been quite the journey I shared publicly about these teachings promoted them most of my life and I it wasn't until I stopped and examined these teachings according to the Bible and I saw they just didn't line up and I realized at that time that I had a lot that I needed to work through and disentangle truth from error so that's what this story is about and why now is just because I feel a responsibility to share and all those years six years of working through this I just see how needful it is and I'm also at a much better place to be able to talk about it because it's very difficult to speak about sometimes you know something Ginger that I think is so fascinating and even kind of counter-cultural about your experiences you've written this book and it's critical of a lot of your upbringing and a lot of the the legalistic rituals that were in place but you're somebody who hasn't walked away from Faith either you still believe in God despite having had that bad theology that that maybe was attached to Faith tell us a little bit about how you've clung to Faith in the midst of processing and getting rid of some of the bad stuff that was surrounding it um yeah that's something that sadly in today's uh world we see so many people who are deconstructing and they are tearing their faith down to the studs never to build it up again and a lot of those people have been harmed within the church harmed by a teacher who claims to speak for God but doesn't and that's something that really um it's so sad to see and they think that's the only answer that I have to go that route but my story by God's grace has been one of disentangling truth from error so I use this analogy like if you get putty stuck in your hair you can totally just cut your hair off or you can take the time to slowly pick out the putty keep your hair and it's kind of it's It's also like a difficult process it's painful at times it's tough to do but it's so worth it in the end and that's what I've done with the theology that I was raised and that was very harmful damaging superstitious fear-based and just not biblical and so whenever I've compared those teachings to the word of God they just can't stand up for themselves it just falls apart and that all falls off when you see it's not based in Scripture yeah and I know it's painful I just want to underscore the fact and I can't speak for you but I could imagine it's incredibly painful to people you love your family right to be speaking out on what you believe to be true and know to be true when it sort of conflicts with their world view and the way they brought you up and and to do it publicly right you talked about feeling that responsibility but that is not an easy thing to do especially when they're going to see these things re potentially read the book how have you balanced that because that's a that's a really tough thing knowing they might see it but feeling that responsibility to speak it right yeah that's what I first took into consideration when I thought about writing this book because it's interesting being in the public eye being in that space um I know that things can get twisted and narratives can get written about why behind it and I um from the beginning I've sought to like share some differences with family and say this is why I don't see this in the Bible and so we've had some of those conversations throughout the years and at the same time I realized I wrote a book back in 2012 with some of my sisters which highlighted a lot of these principles Bill gothard's principles that is and um he would say like oh if you keep these seven basic principles your life will be a success if you don't it'll be one disaster after another so I would like promote all of that for years and so the responsibility side comes from all of those years of sharing this saying this is how you're going to please God Is by doing all these man-made roles and it's just not the case so with with the family side of it with trying to balance all of that I've sought to do it by God's grace hopefully in a Winsome way thinking how would this message be received by those inside this community I'm going to speak out very strongly against the teachings of Bill Gothard because he has very publicly taught this stuff and at the same time I understand that um even me being in the setting I was I had a sweet childhood even though I wrestled so hard with fear and all of this I can see uh both sides and I can see how I can come away not bitter not angry that I was raised in something like that but I can see okay I can see how other people have that perspective but I I have to speak out on truth it's the most loving thing to do and I hope that anyone inside that Community family friends could see that it's just a matter of the authority of scripture speaking for itself and us not following a man and saying that his words are more important than the words of God you know in a recent interview you said that Bill Gothard and some of those teachings that surrounded his his theology for lack of a better word has some cult-like characteristics to it for people who might not be familiar with who Bill Gothard is or or might just think you're exaggerating that's not actually true because I grew up watching the show obviously there's a lot going on that you you don't see behind the scenes so could you tell us a little bit about what what maybe you mean by by cult-like characteristics yeah Bill Gothard came on the scene in the 60s and 70s 70s promising families um a guarantee for success for their families so he would uh say it's going to protect your family from the sexual Revolution from you know sex drugs and rock and roll and your kids will turn out well they're all going to love Jesus they're going to be protected from harm and so that was the promise of guarantee for family so that's why so many got into it in my family at the very early years of my parents marriage in entered ATI iblp started attending conferences and so that's all I ever knew and it's interesting because you can you can see that and say okay well people on the show would see maybe good morals which some of those things are it was a wholesome show we had a lot of opportunity to like give wholesome TV and at the same time you see man there are damaging sides to this theology because it is I would say cult like a nature I won't go as far to say it is a cult because leave that to the experts but it's it's interesting it has a lot of those Tendencies because the community is so tight-knit and I think it's tough to leave because Bill Gothard would put so much fear and Superstition upon you wrapped up in the words of God and so it it's tough to leave that Community because he would say if you heard these teachings it would have been better for you not to hear it than to hear it and to depart from it like you're going to have greater judgment and you're gonna have greater Destruction come upon you because you knew these teachings and left it so even for me whenever I first began to realize oh these teachings are not grounded in the word of God um my husband now husband we were just talking and he had to listen to 60 plus hours of these teachings to be able to move forward in his relationship with me and that was probably one of the best things that could have happened because up to that point I kind of thought okay Bill gothard's teachings are Bible but my husband he started listening to some seminars and he was like let's pause this wait did you hear what he said compare that with the Bible what does the Bible say what does it actually say and that was what was so helpful for me was just taking out my Bible and comparing it and saying wow this is not only not in the word of God but this is very twisted and it's harmful because he would often like he would tell stories and he told one story of someone who before you come to Christ he said you need to clean up this mess because you can't bring this mess to Jesus so do my three steps and then come to Jesus and it's like how would I ever think that was okay I'm not sure but like once I I kind of like it was like an aha moment almost but God just opened my eyes to see that this was wrong and not based in scripture and then from there it was just walking out of those teachings because the more I would examine it with the Bible it would just fall off yeah the key there and I think it's really interesting because you've said this a number of times you know about going back to the Bible whether we're talking about very very very Progressive theology or con you know traditional theology we should always be checking what we believe in the communities that we're in and what they're teaching us against what scripture says right yes um and that's what you did and that's the thing I think part of it is if you're in a setting where they say don't question this then it it should at the end of the day anyone you should be able to question anything and stand up against the word of God because God's word is true and it will come out as truth and so if somebody's saying this is in the Bible but you you aren't really questioning it you need to examine it examine it according to the Bible with an Open Bible and say okay is what you're teaching me true um and so yeah that's that's something that I guess up to that point I I had thought I had done that but I really hadn't you know and you're now a a wife obviously and you're a mother to two daughters so I want to know how maybe that factored into some of your processing your upbringing and re-examining and rebuilding your faith how have your daughters been in mind and how will it change maybe the ways that you would raise your kids um yeah it's interesting now that we have two young girls they're four and two so they're still very very young um we just want to point them to Jesus and it's something that I think within the setting of iblp I would often feel like I had all the answers even for how I was going to parent down to like the small parenting choices because it was all mapped out for me in his teaching but once I realized oh wow now those those man-made rules they're not all accurate and they're not all based in Scripture it was almost it was almost like scarier to like um walk into parenting thinking oh wow like it's it takes away Bill Gothard being my Holy Spirit or anybody else and I have to rely on the spirit of God I have to pour into my kids the word of God and trust that God's word is sufficient that it's enough and that is a scarier thing than saying oh I'm gonna have all these rules for my kids and I'm going to do the what I know he said I'm gonna do to bring guarantee for success in their lives instead going to the word of God relying on the Holy Spirit to lead us as we're seeing the word of God and pouring that into our kids and praying for them because ultimately um like unfortunately like I mean Bill Gothard would promise this guarantee of like your kids will be saved they will walk with Jesus forever if you do this but it's just not guaranteed so praying for them and pouring into them and trusting God with them is harder than having this black and white success Realm that's really interesting and true you know and I know a lot of people have when they interview you they're obviously going to ask you about your brother they're going to ask you about Josh and I think a lot of times the questions are focused on him you know I've often thought about you and your siblings and your family and how you have journeyed through that situation you have obviously the normal pressures of normal Fame then you have an event like that happen a lot of people they retreat they don't even they don't want to write books they don't want to speak out they don't want to speak truth anymore they kind of want to just you know Escape how have you journeyed through that personally what has that been like for you in terms of the attention and just how you've processed it all that's probably been one of the hardest things to walk through um and I think that's one of the challenges there there are Joys and challenges of being in the public eye and God gives Grace for whatever that he will allow us to walk through and I've seen that to be true in every season of life and through this time it has been by far one of the most difficult things that we've walked through and I think for like being in a public space I wanted to speak to it in some sense because I think the glory of God is being dragged through the dirt again and again and we see that and so for I think this goes back to the heart of the book is no amount of man-made rules or standards can keep our hearts in a place that's honoring to God we can't put these things up on the outside and say well I don't listen to this music or I don't wear this or I don't go there and therefore I'm okay and I'm righteous and holy but no true transformation we can't do that and say that's going to keep us from sin but true transformation only comes from the inside out when God changes our hearts and salvation and not something that I think sadly the system um it tries to bypass salvation in regeneration where God is changing our hearts from the inside out and it tries to make it more about man-made rules gaining us favor with God and keeping us from sin which is just not the case because legalism it will breed sin often because it has a form of godliness but it's not godliness and so sadly that's what I've seen and how we've weathered this has been knowing that um the truth of God's word is what will change us and will keep me as a Believer Walking with God and so through the hard times through the good times that's where we find strength and help and it's so difficult like it has been the hardest thing and having to speak out in times where you'll learn of something and it's just heartbreaking in the moment and people are demanding responses from you because you're tied to it in a way like because it's your family or whatever that's hard and that's tough and so at the end of the day I just I I feel responsibility to speak because it's the glory of God it doesn't matter about my name but God's glory is being dragged through the dirt well I so appreciate you speaking to that and I know that's not it's not an easy question and you know it's it's difficult and you give a great answer and I appreciate your time thanks for joining us today thank you so much for having me the book is becoming free indeed my story of disentangling faith and fear we'd love to have you back again sometime soon I would love to come back thanks guys I appreciate it

Channel: CBN News

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Id: wAUpAc5yq5s

Length: 16min 0sec (960 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 28 2023