47 pages • 1 hour read
Jill Duggar, Derick Dillard, Craig BorlaseCounting the Cost
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Cultural Context: Christian Fundamentalism in America
Since the advent of imperialism in what is now the United States of America, Christianity has been the country’s primary religion. According to Pew Research data, around 70.6% of Americans were Christian in 2014 (“Religious Landscape Study.” Pew Research Center). As of 2021, that number had dropped to 63%, while the number of religiously unaffiliated individuals had risen significantly (“How U.S. Religious Composition Has Changed in Recent Decades.” Pew Research Center). While there are many denominations of Christianity in America, Evangelical Protestantism is the most popular, accounting for a quarter of the nation’s population in 2014. Since the late 1800s, some Christians have begun to follow doctrines of Christian fundamentalism. Most fundamentalist denominations are Protestant Evangelical denominations; to be more specific, most fundamentalist Christians in America are Baptists.
Over the course of the 20th century, Christian fundamentalism grew in popularity. It was primarily a reactionary movement prompted by cultural changes and new scientific ideas. In the early 20th century, some Christian groups began heavily promoting biblical literalism in opposition to Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection. Fundamentalists looked to the Bible to promote a doctrine of young-Earth creationism that states that the Earth is only 6,000 years old and that it was created in seven 24-hour days. This belief received national attention during the 1925 Scopes Trial, which sought to establish whether teachers in Tennessee could teach the theory of evolution. Fundamentalist Christians almost always oppose (and have historically opposed) abortion, birth control, LGBTQ rights, the separation of Church and State, immigration, racial equality, gender equality, gun control, universal healthcare, all forms of social security, and any policies that target climate change. Many Christian fundamentalists are active as politicians and lobbyists.
Ideological Context: Bill Gothard and the IBLP
William W. Gothard, Jr., known as Bill Gothard, is an American former preacher born in 1934. He is most famous for founding the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP), which he led from its 1961 inception until 2014. Although the IBLP is technically non-denominational, its teachings are aligned with Evangelical Protestantism and Christian fundamentalism. As the leader of IBLP, Gothard preached to large audiences at regular conferences. He promoted what he called the seven Basic Life Principles: “design, authority, responsibility, suffering, ownership, freedom, and success” (35). Most members of the IBLP belong to large families. Gothard encouraged his followers to have as many children as possible and to refrain from using contraception under any circumstances. He also promoted a homeschool curriculum to teach children IBLP’s values from a young age. According to Gothard, children must remain under their parents’ control so that they are safe from the dangers of a sinful world. This parental control continues even after children get married.
Gothard’s IBLP doctrine enforced a strict gender hierarchy wherein the father/husband was the head of the family and everyone else followed his will. Despite his enthusiastic promotion of (heterosexual) marriage and nuclear families, Gothard himself never married or had children. It was an open secret among IBLP families that he sometimes behaved in a predatory and violent manner toward young women, but this was generally ignored. In 2014, 34 women accused Gothard of sexual harassment and sexual assault. In response to the allegations, which he denied, Gothard resigned as head of the IBLP. The scandal caused the IBLP to go into decline, but the organization still exists. Some have described the IBLP as a cult because of its strict control over members’ lives. IBLP doctrine promotes, among other things, physical abuse of children, marital rape, a wife’s total financial dependence on her husband, and arranged marriages.
