Just days after her husband, Joseph Duggar, was arrested for molesting a nine-year-old girl, Kendra Duggar has likewise been arrested on multiple counts of child endangerment and false imprisonment.
According to the Tontitown Police Department, following the execution of a search warrant in Arkansas that led to her husband facing extradition to Florida (where his crimes were committed), both Kendra Duggar and Joseph are facing:
- Four counts of endangering the welfare of a minor (second degree)
- Four counts of false imprisonment (second degree)
Kendra and Joe 5 children, including a newborn.
Reportedly, when police officers arrived to arrest Joseph, they found padlocks on all the children’s doors, locking them from the inside, which would make it impossible to exit in the event of a fire or other emergency.
Both charges are Class A misdemeanors, and the maximum punishment per count is a fine of up to $2,500 and up to one year in jail.
While these punishments could run consecutively if found guilty, they almost always run concurrently.
Along with these lesser charges, Joseph is facing between 15 years and life in prison for the Florida charges, which include:
- Lewd and Lascivious Behavior – Molestation of a Victim Less Than 12 Years Old
- Lewd and Lascivious Behavior Conducted By a Person 18 Years or Older.
6 responses to “Kendra Duggar Arrested, Facing Multiple Counts Regarding Her Children”
The result of the IBLP’s view of blind obedience to authority. What they teach is close to godly patriarchy, but not quite. The basic ideas concerning structure are not wrong, but the view of godly leadership is not Biblical. The most obvious being that one must submit to authority even when authority is not submitted to the Lord. That’s the wicked worldly form of patriarchy, not godly patriarchy.
In my younger days, I was a handful. The boys in the neighborhood, we all fought all the time. We played rough. We were about the opposite of the kids these days with parents making them wear helmets the second they walk out the door. We were turned loose. And we fought. I had a temper problem. I was very strong-willed. And I had not learned how to “in my anger, do not sin”.
Well, along about the seventh grade or so, the IBLP seminar rolled through town, and Mom took me. At that time it was called the Institute in Basic Youth Conflicts. I still remember some of that content. I still have the book packed away somewhere. And I can tell you that it did help me. One part I’ve never forgotten is that when we look at others we need to remember the Lord created them and loves them.
My parents did much more than that to move me in the right direction, and they were not ardent adherents involved in everything IBLP (their view of godly leadership and parenthood was more in line with scripture (don’t provoke your children to wrath, it’s not lording-over but service, and so on), but that seminar did help. By the time I reached high school, I was no longer violent.
If one in a position of authority is out of line, and is not submitted to the Lord, then there is no obligation to blindly obey. There’s a right way to deal with that circumstance, but there’s no obligation to blindly obey. Likewise if one is not a rightful authority, there is no obligation to obey. So on and so forth.
The supposed need to lock (apparently) unruly children in their rooms, is a very good example of lording over versus leadership. The former necessitates the strong assertion of absolute power and forcibly making others submit. The latter necessitates oneself willingly and graciously submitting to the Lord, such that others will want to follow.
You’ve got to WANT to submit to the Lord. When that’s what you want, then those whom the Lord has obligated you to lead, will WANT to follow you.
Then you won’t have the need to padlock any doors.
When the IBLP was more focused on youth conflicts, and more on children obeying their parents and others in rightful positions of authority, and so on, such teaching concerning obedience certainly wouldn’t have been ill-intended.
When such a wrong view of authority is coupled with a false gospel that essentially perverts the grace of God into a license to sin, a more antinomian sort of gospel, one that denies the power thereof, believe one can be born again yet continue in sin, then you’ve got very serious and compounding problems.
Lastly and importantly …
You have to be careful. As a lawyer once told me concerning the subject of refusing to obey unlawful orders of law enforcement, “you’d better know what you’re doing.” He was giving an example where he once disobeyed an officer and told him, “no, you do not have probable cause”. Right. And the same applies to scripture. If you do disobey, you need to be able to back it up with scripture. It needs to be a matter of honoring and obeying the Lord. A matter of going up the chain of command, so to speak. It must not be a matter of rebellion, but rather obedience when, where, how, why, and to whom obedience is rightfully due. The Lord must be put first always, and in all things.
It is very similar to what we call the “rule of law”. Even Jesus, to whom all authority and power is given, said, paraphrasing, “I’m not condemning you. The law is condemning you”.
That law officer has authority, but he has no power. There’s a difference. So if you’re going to disobey, you’d better be appealing to the law of the land, or you’re going to get yourself into serious trouble. Likewise if he acts, he’d better also be appealing to the law of the land, or he’ll get himself into serious trouble.
Godly leadership is about the same. We might have positions of authority, obligations to the Lord, jobs to do in that regard, but we don’t have the power, He does. And if we start feeling the least bit powerful, thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought to think (most of you know I’m referencing some well known scripture – don’t have time this morning to find the chapter and verse), that’s the moment we need to humble ourselves.
Now consider, why is it that in the body of Christ, leadership is not lording-over, but rather service (Matt. 20:25, etc.) ???
The implanted word. The work of the Holy Spirit to convict and comfort.
The appeal to that law … to God’s standards.
That’s how it works, and why it works. Whether you lead or follow, you’d better be appealing to His standards. Otherwise, you’ll get yourself into some serious trouble.
I’m led to say these things I’m posting here, and would not post otherwise. Like most of us all, I look forward to the day my work is done. Soon I’ll stop posting again, when it’s the right time. I do not mean to “hog the blog”.
[…] endangerment charges were for; it seems there are more answers now. A Christian website, Protestia, reported that when police officers got to the Duggars’ home to arrest Joseph, they found padlocks on […]
That’s the freedom of the Gospel. Those who are truly born again are like the employees who don’t need to be closely supervised. Our supervisor is the Holy Spirit. And our work instructions are in the implanted word. We know the job, and we do the job, without having to be forced.
Like Privates who carry orders from the General. Right. If any in the chain of command defy those orders from the top, we can and should pull those orders out of our pocket when necessary.
There’s rightful and Godly disobedience, and there’s defiant, prideful rebellion. The two are not the same. So be careful.
The world’s way will have you all over the place, pendulum swinging wildly from one side to the other. One minute you’re rebelliously defiant. The next you’re not defiant enough and become complicit in sin. Back and forth from sin to sin.
God’s way is steady right down the straight and narrow. His orders never change. His standards never change. There’s no jerking around all over the place (and also not submitting to being jerked around all over the place). And in that there is freedom and peace. No need for any padlocks on doors.
And so this his how and what to teach your children. Teach them first to be obedient to the Lord. And if they ever defy you for that reason, be grateful they did so.
You teach that first by example, and second by how you discipline. Be careful to discipline according to the commandments of God and not according to the commandments of men. If they sin, discipline them. But do not discipline them if they haven’t sinned. Never tell them to do anything that is sinful. Don’t sin against them. Don’t lie to them or deceive them. And take the time to explain why you’re doing what you’re doing, to teach them right from wrong. Show them the scriptures. Show them how you too are obeying the Lord, and that’s what it’s about. One day you won’t be around anymore. One day they may have children of their own. You’ve got to prepare them for that time. Not to look to you, but to look to the Lord.
That’s the job. That’s how you teach them …
The same goes for any leadership in the Body of Christ. Do that, and you just might be surprised to discover there is no need for padlocks.