I am appalled

You and me both, Sister.

In the eight years since I sat down on the sofa here in the Den, like any snarky soul would, I've been compelled to call out a few of our nation's 'celebrities' for their shenanigans. The list includes the family Spears (Britney, et al), Lindsay Lohan (at times just too easy a target), and the Kardashians. I've also popped off about how creeped out I was by the Duggar Family. I could never put my finger on the exact reason why, but they creeped me out. What bothered me most was Jim Bob's unrelenting patriarchal order and his wife's eerie vacant stare. It was like she was straight off the set of a horrible Lifetime production of "The Stepford Wives Go To Arkansas!" Something just wasn't right at Casa Duggar, if you asked me. On more than one occasion, I was told by a few Duggar fans that I was terribly judgmental and disrespectful of such a model family for having such suspicions.

There is now no need for me to rehash the headlines of the past couple of days involving the Duggars. What has been admitted by the perpetrator is awful and tragic. What is worse is how the parents hid it for a year and how they 'resolved' the issue. I didn't think there was a family in America that could be more appalling than the Kardashians. I was wrong. I never thought I'd be white knighting for the K's but at least you know what they worship (money) and they are 100% open about it and hide behind nothing. Appalling, yes? Honest in a gross way, yes. The Duggars, honest? Not so much but even more appalling than the K's.

We should all be appalled at how a father knowingly hid incidents of child sexual abuse from authorities for a year. We should all be appalled that the parents' fix was sending the perpetrator, their son, to a family friend for a "stern talking to." Said friend is now serving 56 years on child pornography charges. Why is this OK? It's not. It is so not OK. If you want a powerful perspective on why this is not OK, read here.

Ma and Pa Duggar once said, 'You don't have to compromise conviction to be compassionate.' What conviction would you not compromise in order to show compassion to the victims (allegedly your daughters) of this abuse? While I'm no Bible scripture master, I can't think of a single verse that lets them skate by on this one. I can only hope there can be some healing now for those who were victimized.

And as for that compassion, perhaps the compassion was in one of the checks from TLC?