Jinger Duggar is opening up about the response to her first memoir.
It turns out that some members of the ever-growing Duggar family and their controversial church weren’t exactly doing cartwheels with enthusiasm.
Jinger didn’t just get backlash from strangers.
Some of her own “loved ones” said harsh things to her in response to her speaking out.
Everyone is a critic, Jinger Duggar learned with her first book
In Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from FearJinger Duggar condemned the toxic cult that had, in many ways, shaped her life.
Her family’s involvement with the IBLP, an ultraconservative fundamentalist organization, is beyond controversial. Between its infamous founder, Bill Gothard, to the promotion of abysmal “educational” materials and a series of scandals… every survivor’s story is also a horror story.
As an adult, Jinger had to unlearn a lot of this. In a new interview she said People that he tried to “focus my thoughts on how I can love and serve the people who have been so hurt by this teaching,” instead of caring “what all the critics will say.”
“I’m going to put all that aside and say, no, I want to do what I feel called to do and that’s to tell the truth,” Jinger Duggar confirmed.
“So let me put my blinders on and focus on this and share my story,” he decided. “And then whatever the outcome, I know I’ve done what I had to do.”
Ginger talked about the value of “not being consumed by that fear” of speaking out. He expressed that “it was actually so liberating.”
This memoir saw Jinger receive backlash from ‘loved ones’
“Yes, there were critics. Yes, there were people who said very harsh things,” he admitted.
Jinger added: “There were loved ones saying things that were very rude. It wasn’t easy.” We would imagine not.
“But at the end of the day, I realized it was the best decision,” Jinger stressed. “It was the best thing I could do, to love these people by sharing the truth.”
“That was something that set me free,” Jinger Duggar said afterward.
This was “because… the more I think clearly about the ‘why’ behind which I want to tell the truth, I have to stand up for the vulnerable,” she thought.
Jinger later admitted, “People who were happy before would never let me do that. I would be silent.”
What is this about people pleasing?
Jinger, of course, was giving the interview about her newest book, which has the obnoxiously long title: People Pleaser: Breaking Free from the Burden of Imaginary Expectations.
It is extremely common for children raised in abusive and otherwise toxic households to be eager to please, even desperate to please. This is because they grew up in an environment where their personal safety depended on the moods and feelings of adults who were supposed to love and protect them.
Obviously, Jinger has her own take on this book – just like she did with her last one. Not all of Duggar’s critics share her priorities. But her insights into her own trauma can be interesting, even if Jim Bob hates not being in control of the narrative.