Looking Back, the Duggar Kids Get Reprogrammed Whenever They Stray From the Flock

Josiah Duggar was sent to ALERT Academy for a suspiciously long amount of time.

He's not the only one — Joe and Jeremiah have done programs too, maybe even willingly. But Josiah went missing for a heavy part of 2013 and 2014, leading Free Jinger commenters to speculate he was acting out and being sent away for re-education. This makes sense if you believe the "Josiah is a rebel" narrative. Homeboy was the only one outwardly pissed off at the announcement of Duggar #20, running out of the room. He was seen less and less on the show shortly thereafter.

The thumbnail synopsis of ALERT is that it's an IBLP boot camp of sorts that, possibly, is used as a punishment to correct "prideful" behavior. However, it's framed as a place where you work on sort of character flaws (i.e. free thought) through insane physical workouts. One anonymous attendee revealed this involved activities like, "hiking with 60-80 pound backpacks at nothing short of a speed-walk pace which often turned into a jog for miles on end without ever disclosing how far or long we were going." Yikes.

Upon his graduation, Josiah posted a glowing recommendation on his Instagram, teasing in the caption, "Can you find me in this photo?" And staring at the uniformed, faceless cadets I can only respond, "No, Josiah, and I think that's the point."

Jana Duggar had a more extroverted personality before Journey to the Heart.

"Jana used to be very outgoing," twin John-David said in an episode of Counting On. "Whenever she was younger, she was very rowdy." This is a version of Jana we've only heard about because now, the Duggar sister-mom seems quiet and laid-back. However, an old theory on the FreeJinger fan forums is that Journey to the Heart is the reason Jana became more subdued. Now granted, other Duggar sisters have been sent to this strange sort of Fundie Girl Scouts before, but Jana has notably taken multiple trips, disappearing off the grid a handful of times.

While Journey of the Heart doesn't necessarily apply the same intensity as ALERT, hearsay is that its practices and preachings are meant to beat out rebelliousness of teen girls. And in a 2011 podcast, Jana implied that friction with her family may have led to being sent to JOTH to straighten her out.

"The past few months I've just been struggling with different attitudes or things towards different members—or different people—that I've come in contact with," she shared. "I was asking the Lord, 'Why am I struggling with having this contention towards them?' and the Lord showed me this week that I had pride in my life… he showed me that with pride cometh contention, and so I really need to love my family and have the right attitudes and obey my parents."

Uh, did the "Lord" show you that, or were the camp counselors brainwashing you into servitude? Furthering that, how do we know this wasn't about Jana and Jessa? Or, understandably, about Jana being unable to forgive Josh for all the damage he caused?

Of course, that isn't necessarily why Jana's involved with the program (she might just need a break from the house) or why she's more introverted. Anything from the molestation to the simple passage of time could've encouraged her to "stay sweet" as the Fundies like to say.

Joy-Anna was socialized into shedding her tomboy-ish ways…and doubts about her faith.

Look at that little girl with the over-curled hair. Does she look like she wants to talk about what kind of husband she likes? Because in this video of the Duggar sisters talking about what they want, that's the topic of conversation.

Thing is, Joy-Anna was sandwiched in between a ton of brothers and grew up with a rough-and-tumble personality, a tomboy willing to get her hands dirty. Once she hit puberty, however, Michelle decided this unladylike behavior had run its course. In a blog post on modesty, Mama Duggar stressed that while it's fine for little girls to play without reserve, once they get older they need to learn how to be sweet and reserved. "It's not like, shame on you, it's more like, we're going to learn to be proper and be a little lady instead of a tomboy that climbs in the tree all day long."

Of course for Michelle, this meant the training was passed on to her four older daughters because f–k parenting.

But wait, there's more! When the gang was celebrating Joseph and Kendra's upcoming wedding, Joy-Anna gave a speech revealing she at one point struggled with her parent's teachings. "First of all, I want to say that Joe, I’m so thankful for you," she said. "You really did change my life. Just through my teen years, I think I was having a hard time taking my parents' faith as my own and you really befriended me as an older brother and being some of the first to say in the morning 'I love you' and 'what are you doing today?' and stuff like that."

The simple statement says so many sad things about the Duggar family, namely that when a child starts to step back from the faith, simple human interaction is able to sway them back.

Josh was sent away — eventually — after he confessed he was molesting his sisters.

We have to talk about Josh. I don't want to, and you don't want to, but it's essential for the larger story as a whole.

The first time Josh admitted he had groped his sisters, Jim Bob and Michelle decided to handle it "in house" and by that we mean send him away. For three months in 2003, Josh was sent to the Institute in Basic Life Principles Training Center in Little Rock, Arkansas which — oh wait! So apparently this is a network of programs that include Journey of the Heart and ALERT. Terrifying. Whatever it was, Josh was sent over to the Little Rock center for "treatment" and according to one Gawker insider, his head was shaved as part of the shaming process. In fact, you can even spy it in their first special, 14 Kids and Pregnant Again.

There's no doubt that something should've been done about Josh, just like there's no doubt the Duggars mishandled this entire thing from the moment they failed to report this to the police. And twist of twists, Josh has since been sent to Christian sex rehab following the reveal of his porn addiction and Ashley Madison account. Uhhh, maybe this is a low-key sign that these facilities don't work?

Jill was baptized around the time that Josh started molesting her.

There's a lot of theorizing here, but it's worth talking about. When the Dillards updated their website recently, Jill recounted the story of her faith, and there seemed to be a time when it wavered. And what makes us question things is that she became fearful at age 12 — approximately when Josh was known to be fondling his sisters.

"One evening when I was 12, I was talking with my mom," she said. "I realized I wasn’t sure that if I died I would have eternal life. I did like it says in the Bible (Romans 10:9), 'if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. I confessed all the wrong things I could remember to my mom and God. I asked Him in prayer to take complete control of my life and take me to heaven when I die."

There are a lot of things that are suspect here, so let's break it down bit by bit. The first interesting bit is when Jill says she "wasn't sure" if she died she'd have eternal life. It's hard to tell if she means she started showing doubts or she started getting fearful. It's also interesting that this realization comes up when she's talking to Michelle; naturally, Duggars are great with the whole "independent thought" thing, but we've seen this woman steer her children in all sorts of extreme directions.

And then the baptism itself is, well, strange. Is this to imply that by 12 years old Jill, born to an extremely religious family, hadn't been baptized? Or did Jim Bob dip Jill in a horse trough as a fake re-purification ritual? There's something off about her making a point of the ceremony, to say the least.

I think if you read between the lines, you could infer that Jim Bob and Michelle may have pressured her to strengthen her vows because she was showing signs of fear or doubt. And if you factor Josh into that context, well…it makes sense that a girl raised to believe all she's worth is her "virtue" would feel tainted, disgusting, confused. And it makes sense that the parents feeding her this would insist on a cleansing.

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