Jinger Duggar grew up in the public eye as a member of the Duggar family. TLC made Jinger famous along with her supersized clan. She quickly learned to adhere to her parent’s strict religious doctrine as life in the spotlight grew brighter. However, behind the scenes of Counting On, Jinger reveals in a new tell-all, Becoming Free Indeed, that her fear of the world outside her strict religious family kept her “crippled with anxiety.”
Jinger Duggar moved away from her family’s religious beliefs
Jinger tried to adhere to the many doctrines of her family’s faith throughout her childhood and young adulthood. The Duggars followed the rules of the IBLP (Institute in Basic Life Principles) founded by Bill Gothard.
The IBLP movement teaches women to be subservient to their husbands as the umbrella of authority in their families. Its followers do not dance, listen to secular music, or date. The Duggar’s wholesome family image allowed them to grow in popularity through the late 2000s. However, Jinger struggled to follow her family’s teachings behind the scenes.
“Fear was a huge part of my childhood,” Jinger said in an interview with People Magazine. “I thought I had to wear only skirts and dresses to please God. Music with drums, places I went, or the wrong friendships could all bring harm.”
In her book, released on January 31, Jinger shares how in her early 20s, her brother-in-law Ben Seewald (sister Jessa’s husband) prompted her to take a hard look at how she was living her life. “Growing up, I had a set of standards that I took as givens.… [But] my convictions were changing,” Jinger wrote in her 2021 memoir, The Hope We Hold, co-authored with her husband, Jeremy Vuolo.
Fear of the world outside of Jinger Duggar’s strict religious upbringing kept her ‘crippled with anxiety’
People Magazine spoke to Jinger about her book, where she detailed how the “harmful” teachings of her religious upbringing caused her to reconsider her religious beliefs. “[Gothard’s] teachings, in a nutshell, are based on fear and superstition and leave you in a place where you feel like, ‘I don’t know what God expects of me,’ ” she explained.
“The fear kept me crippled with anxiety. I was terrified of the outside world,” Jinger continued.
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“His teachings [Gothard] were so harmful. I’m seeing more of the effects of that in the lives of my friends and people who grew up in that community with me,” she admits.
Jinger also said the IBLP displays “a lot of cult-like tendencies.” She walked away from the religious sect altogether but remained a Christian.
Ultimately, the former reality star realized the ‘fear’ that once controlled her no longer kept her captive
This has been the hardest thing I’ve ever done.
But I think it’s the most important.I’ve written a book called “Becoming Free Indeed” about my spiritual journey of disentangling truth from lies.https://t.co/t5K6QzSq4M
— Jinger Vuolo (@jingervuolo) November 7, 2022
Jinger, who married Jeremy Vuolo in 2016 and welcomed two daughters, Felicity and Evangeline, now lives in Los Angeles, thousands of miles from her extended family. However, she remains invested in those relationships even though many of her siblings still believe in Gothard’s teachings.
She remains steadfast in her core belief that if her story could help one person, writing this book would have been worth it. “That’s the beauty of this journey,” she says.
Jinger concluded, “The teaching I grew up under was harmful, it was damaging, and there are lasting effects. But I know other people are struggling and people who are still stuck. I want to share my story; maybe it will help just one person to be freed.”
