The Duggar Family provokes a lot of controversy, but this latest one might have gone too far. As the nation reels from the discovery of the 13 tortured Turpin kids, the reality television Duggars are allying themselves with child-beating advocates Michael and Debi Pearl. The Pearls' notorious book "To Train Up a Child" has been linked to the deaths of children and may well have triggered the Turpins' cruelty. Reality TV fans of "Counting On" are incensed.
Duggar family camp hosts Pearls
Debi and Michael Pearl teach parents how to spank, whip and beat children, using weapons and hands, and to coerce then with mind games.
The Duggar clan of "19 Kids and Counting" promoted and sold the book on their website. Then, some parents ended up killing their children using "Train Up a Child" principles. The "Counting On" family disassociated from the Pearls but now the pro-spanking couple will teach at Fort Rock family camp where Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar attend and are featured celebrities. A Facebook page devoted to the Duggars is calling for a boycott of the event.
Turpins' biblical house of torture
Was the Turpins' "house of horrors" inspired by Michael Pearl and are the Duggars supporting that? David Turpin and his wife kept 12 of their 13 kids, ages 2-29, padlocked to beds in their own waste. They starved, beat, and choked the children, and molested at least one.
They sadistically terrorized the children by making them look at food but not eat it. This was done under the Bible's teaching to "spare the rod and spoil the child." "To Train Up a Child" encourages psychological torture, spanking of infants, food deprivation, sitting on children, and whipping with hoses, paddles, switches and sticks.
The Turpin family's model seems to be Pearl advice taken to its logical conclusion.
Duggars, Turpins, and Pearls
Folks were already seeing David and Louise Turpin in Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar. The Turpins wanted a reality TV show like the Duggars' "19 Kids and Counting." Fort Rock Family Camp is owned by Joy-Anna Duggar's father-in-law, with the "Counting On" clan as charter members.
After the Josh Duggar scandal, the camp is one of the few speaking gigs that the celebrity couple can get. Austin Forsyth's parents will host the Pearls at their huge home in Arkansas and at the Fort Rock event. Folks say that the timing with the Turpin family discovery is coincidental to say the least.
