A lot of scary intel has been coming out lately about the Institute in Basic Life Principles, or IBLP — the strict religious ideology that the Duggar family has subscribed to for as long as they've been in the spotlight. Now, fresh accusations are emerging, accusing the IBLP leaders of promoting corporal punishment to their followers with children.
A source close to the IBLP is speaking out about what they say they witnessed.
As Duggar critic and vlogger Katie Joy of Without a Crystal Ball shared on Instagram on Tuesday, a source who claims to be connected to the Duggars says that the IBLP — and the church the family attended, led by Kendra Duggar's dad, Paul Caldwell — allegedly encouraged parents to physically punish their children.
Reportedly, pastors at the church were known for "telling members that corporal punishment was mandated and required by God because the pain is only temporary."
The insider described some truly horrifying behavior.
Katie Joy listed some of the punishments that the source told her were used by members of the church, which included "many families."
"Families using flexible plastic tubes to hit their children for even the most minor of infractions and misbehaviors. Children being ripped from dinner tables to be paddled for speaking out of turn. Children forced to kneel on the floor on rice while their parents paddle them with a wooden paddle" were just a few of the the punishments Katie Joy included in her Instagram post.
The source did not mention Jim Bob and Michelle specifically.
Katie Joy made it clear that these specific allegations aren't pointed at Jim Bob and Michelle, but they are tied to the church they attended.
"The church included many families & the above allegations are not related to the Duggars. When it came to the Duggars, they claimed that the boys were allegedly disciplined first and taken into a room for their punishment," she wrote in her post.
Michelle and Jim Bob have talked publicly about their own use of physical punishment.
More than once, the Duggars have spoken about using a controversial discipline method called blanket training: placing a baby who can crawl on a blanket, putting a toy off of the blanket and just out of the little one's reach, and smacking or hitting the baby with a switch if the baby tries to leave the blanket to get the toy, which they believe teaches obedience.
The technique comes from the parenting book To Train Up a Child by Michael and Debi Pearl, whom the Duggars have been associated with in the past.
Will Jinger mention this in her upcoming book?
Jinger Duggar's tell-all, Becoming Free Indeed, will be released next week and will explore her journey of leaving the IBLP and "disentangling faith from fear," which she says she felt a lot of during her childhood.
It's certainly going to be interesting to see if Jinger confirms these claims herself, but we hope there's nothing to confirm. It's too horrifying to think that any children may have faced these kinds of punishments from their own parents.
