Atheism & the Duggars

[Rev. Rye]

I am not. And, frankly, I salute them for having this level of detail devoted to the Duggars' batshittery. And while I occasionally browse certain subs (and never post), the Duggar Snark one ain't one of them. Though it probably should be.

Also, doing a bit of surfing on the subreddit, I found this post, and it turns out the OP has a lot of experience, not only with child custody cases, but with being a CSA/DV survivor, and also a former fundie. So, it's safe to assume she's probably as close as one can be to being familiar with all sides of the "Anna needs to divorce Josh or else she was always complicit" controversy. And her top comment goes into more detail. It turns out that, unless Jim Bob ends up being EXTRMELY supportive of her decision, which I highly doubt will happen, the consequences of leaving would be dire: Anna has no job experience (and thus no income and no paystubs), finding a place for her and her seven kids to stay will be a logistical nightmare (Section 8 has a years-long waiting list, the one emergency family center near her may not hold her for more than a day, most landlords would balk at having to house a family with seven kids even if there was a proper income), and even if she has the gumption to demand child support payments, in practical terms, with the pittance he'd receive from prison work, it'd be about $125/month (I still had a higher income than that when I worked on a stipend at the candy store). And that's not even getting into the level of indoctrination that would have kept her convinced that divorcing him was a sin (and one that, if I understand their reactions to certain sins accurately, might seem even greater than what Josh did to them), and how high the bar would likely have to be if this wasn't enough for her to reach it, and say what Huck Finn once said: "All right then, I'll go to Hell."

I'm currently watching Maid on Netflix, and I suspect that, if it's that difficult for Our Heroine and her daughter to even get a handle on the lowest tier of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, it'll almost certainly be worse for Anna and her brood. About the only leg up they have on them is their fame/notoriety, and, even in the best case scenario, that's not likely to get them far, unless, maybe there's a kickstarter that gives her enough money to get her on her feet, pulls enough strings to get a place for them all to stay, and maybe find a job for Anna.