I Won’t Applaud or Condemn Josh Duggar

 So can Josh Duggar and other sexual offenders change?  Absolutely they can, and many do.  Also, not every sexual offender is the same, some are more prone to reoffend than others.  The observed sexual recidivism rates of juveniles who commit sexual offenses range from about 7 percent to 13 percent after 59 months depending on which study you look at.  Juvenile sex offenders tend to have lower recidivism rates than adult sex offenders as well.  Statistically speaking, a relatively small percentage of juveniles who commit a sexual offense will sexually reoffend as adults. . .

Shane Vander Hart 

 

. . . "The first extreme I’ve seen are those who turn Josh Duggar into a hero of sorts because he confessed his sexual offenses, repented and turned his life over to Christ. Some have blindly defended the Duggar family as well which, in my opinion, is not appropriate. Instead of defending Josh Duggar, who himself said what he did was inexcusable, or Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar our focus should be on respecting Josh Duggar’s victims.

"The second extreme are those who desire to totally discount Josh Duggar’s repentance because he’s a sex offender. In the minds of some, sex offenders can never change. They also scoff at the forgiveness he was allegedly shown by his victims. Much of this vitriol has come from some on the left who love to point out the flaws of conservatives in general, and Christians in particular. What is alarming is how many Christians have jumped on this bandwagon.

"I want to offer four observations from the perspective of working with juvenile and adult sex offenders, as well as, juvenile victims of sexual abuse for a number of years.

 "The first and most important observation I want to make is if God can not save sexual offenders He can save no one.  It is mind-boggling to me when even some Christians doubt this.  If you have landed in this camp you need to repent because you are embracing a false gospel.  The Bible is abundantly clear.  The Gospel is the “power of God for salvation to everyone who believes,” (Romans 1:16 emphasis mine).  There is no exception clause here.

"Ephesians 2 is a little more poignant.  We were all spiritually dead and separated from God and the fact any one of us is saved is a miracle." . . .

. . . Third observation… It seems as though the victims have been lost in all of the hoopla surrounding Josh Duggar with both extremes.  The simple fact is that the news and social media backlash is making these girls (at least four were family members, one was not) have to relive all of this again.  Also juvenile victims are typically given privacy that has been denied the Duggar girls.  Some have asked why the family didn’t go public with this years ago?  Because juvenile victims and offenders are afforded privacy protections by law.  This doesn’t change just because they became the center of a TV show later on.

 Full article here. But this is his bottom line:

I am not going to condemn Josh Duggar as many have done.  From what I can see he is repentant and has changed his life.  There is only one Judge who can decide the true fruit of his repentance and I am not Him.  I also would not use the Duggars as a model under similar circumstances nor go as far to say Josh Duggar should not have resigned and the family should keep its show.  Unlike most of their critics I say that from a restorative perspective, not a punitive one.  It is time to let the Duggars, especially the victims, continue with the healing process away from the public eye.