Shiny happy groomers

Homophobe and professional liar Tony Perkins is president of the Family Research Council, an anti-gay group which currently claims gays are openly admitting they’re groomers, defined as “deceptively building a relationship of trust with a child, most often utilizing a position of authority, in order to take advantage of a child sexually.”

Evidence offered? None. Just the old argument that as gays can’t reproduce like heterosexuals, they have to recruit new gays by turning kids. No, actually: new gays will come along without any effort on anyone’s part. But the point I’m getting at is, if that’s your definition, the religious right is a hotbed of grooming, as I’ve mentioned before. Just take a look at Amazon’s new documentary series, SHINY, HAPPY PEOPLE: Duggar Family Secrets.

The Duggars became famous after a TV special on Jim-Bob, Michelle and their nineteen kids drew huge ratings and led to a series. Underneath the family’s lovable appearance and Jim-Bob’s used-car salesman smile (it’s a kind of doesn’t-reach-the-eyes smile I see on a lot of religious conservatives), they’re followers of Bill Gothard’s Institute in Basic Life Principles, a very conservative, very misogynist Christian group. As the documentary shows, Gothard’s church is one of those that teaches women should be under a man’s thumb at all times; women have to constantly guard their sexual signals for fear of becoming “eye traps” for men; legs, boobs, skin, all can be eye traps (while Perkins insists it’s Hollywood that sexualizes everything). Men are always in charge. It’s no surprise that multiple women have accused Gothard of being a sexual predator.

If you want to see Family Research Council’s definition of grooming in action, you’ll see it here. Multiple women interviewees talk about how their lives and marriages were decided by their parents — guy from church wants to marry you, your father approves, it’s a done deal. Josh Duggar molested his sisters; his parents covered up for him. After Josh got busted for child porn (according to the show child torture porn), the Duggars’ show died so two of their daughters and their families became the stars of a new spinoff show. One of the daughters said all the money went to Jim-Bob.

All of this happens in a subculture where women are taught that it’s their fault guys lose control (a view that’s not unique to patriarchal Christianity, of course) and that their duty is to submit. It’s like a buffet for predators. And telling men they’re entitled to control women only aggravates the problem. As Kristen Kobes du Mez says, if you tell men they’re lord and master over the women in their family, that attitude won’t stop there. The churches’ willingness to cover up abuse (more here) makes it that much easier (see here too). Mike Huckabee, right-wing theocrat politician, had no qualms sticking up for Josh Duggar (there’s a scene of him doing so in Shiny, Happy People). Patriarchy and misogyny protects its own.

This kind of grooming, the religious right has little interest in stopping. Heck, for some of them, the younger girls marry, the better.