If the Duggars weren't so fixated on sin and repentance, maybe they could have gotten their son the help he needed

“I was sickened by it. I was just sickened by it,” Santorum, a Christian conservative who had the support of the Duggar family during his first presidential campaign in 2012, said. “I pray for those girls in particular.”

“I believe that the family, particularly Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, were following what they considered to be biblical principles in dealing with this sort of situation rather than seeing it as a crime and looking at it, you know, according to the law or according to therapy and sort of the secular disciplines,” said Vyckie Garrison, who writes the No Longer Quivering blog.

For example, she cited the family’s refusal to address the question of whether they spanked their children, “which they obviously did, while telling the world over and over again about their positive approach of praising good behavior.” Anderson described that behavior as “[d]eceptive at best.”

For people who don't watch lots of reality TV — to say nothing of those who don't watch lots of TLC reality, which is almost a genre unto itself, focused on families from outside the American mainstream — the whole thing can sound like a particularly strange satire of how far the television industry will go to garner big ratings.

But it's not.

The results of the investigation into the Duggars and Josh’s trial are sealed. But a source familiar with the Duggar investigation told In Touch it was likely that Josh “appealed the DHS decision or finding from their investigation.” The source notes that DHS had the authority to apply “restrictions or stipulations about him being at home with the victims.

As I became a young man I was constantly tempted to have lots of wrong thoughts and often battled to keep my heart right. One of the greatest things that helped me in my struggles was my parents’ commitment to accountability. They were faithful to talk with each one of us children — if we were willing to share honestly and openly with them — to maintain a clear conscience. I learned quickly that great freedom can be achieved by accountability but that deep accountability requires humility and openness. I often had failures in my early teenage years but I found that I had a clear conscience only when I was willing to confess my thoughts quickly to God and to my parents. (See 1 John 1:9).