Josh Duggar Update: Josh Duggar's Rehab Founder Accused of Sexual Abuse
Jennifer Spurlock is just one of many who have accused influential Christian minister Bill Gothard, who has close ties with the Duggar family and is the founder of the center where Josh Duggar was sent after he molested his sisters, of decades of sexual assault and other forms of harrassment.
Gothard is the 81-year-old founder of the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP), which is the parent organization of the homeschool program used by the Duggars and was frequently featured on the Duggars' now-defunct TLC reality TV series "19 Kids and Counting." Gothard retired as president of the IBLP in 2014 after news of the sexual allegations first broke. He had been running the organization for the last four decades.
Spurlock, who is one of eight new plaintiffs who recently joined the lawsuit against Gothard and IBLP board members, told the New York Daily News, "To have your education ripped from you and to have your childhood ripped from you, it's extremely difficult. It's just evil."
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According to court documents that she filed on Wednesday, Feb. 17, Spurlock was between 15 and 18 when she was assaulted by Gothard at one of the IBLP training centers in Indianapolis. Spurlock was sent to the IBLP for "counseling" by her parents because she had a boyfriend and was playing sports, which they considered immodest.
"Mr. Gothard was just staring right at me, so much so that other girls would say 'You're so lucky, he couldn't take his eyes off of you,'" Spurlock revealed. "We were referred to as 'Gothard's girls.' People knew. It was actually a privilege."
According to an investigation conducted by InTouch, Josh Duggar, the eldest Duggar sibling, was also sent to an IBLP training center after he confessed to molesting four of his younger sisters and a babysitter as a teenager.
Meanwhile, as Josh works on his issues in rehab, his family is reportedly working on a rumored reality TV return. According to Entertainment Tonight, a source claims that the family has been filming for a new show or special for the past few months and was recently seen shopping with a camera crew along. But this bit of news hasn't sat well with the residents of Springdale, Arkansas, where the Duggars live.
"There is a lot of hate regarding the family," ET's source said. "After all that has happened, this isn't the same family in many people's eyes."
