Amy Duggar King Makes Most Scathing Criticism Yet About Uncle Jim Bob's Religion

Amy Duggar King helped blow the sanitized cover off her family when she appeared on the Amazon docuseries, "Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets." She and other interviewees blasted the Institute in Basic Life Principles, the controversial ministry of which her uncle Jim Bob Duggar is still a member. In particular, King blames the IBLP for its culture of silence in cases of sexual abuse. This mindset, she says, led to the cover-up of Josh Duggar's earlier wrongdoings and empowered him to commit even more serious crimes. (Josh is currently serving out a 12-year prison sentence, and just got the bad news his appeal for a new trial was denied.) 

But King isn't stopping there. She continued to speak out against the Duggars' faith group* most recently in a video interview with the Daily Mail. There, she made the strongest accusations yet, saying the organization "brainwashes every wife and every daughter." Even more alarming, she added, "The IBLP, it kind of breeds predators ... it breeds little predators, and it's true because [girls] are not taught about sex in a healthy way." Women in the organization are raised to believe their dress and behavior are responsible for men's lustful actions. "You know, what's crazy is that they won't allow tampons, but they'll allow predators in the home," King added, referencing the fact Josh was allowed to live at home with his sisters even after admitting to touching them inappropriately.

Amy Duggar King still enjoys a close relationship with some of her cousins. She often gets together with Jill Duggar Dillard, who is also estranged from patriarch Jim Bob and has spoken out against the Institute in Basic Life Principles. But she worries for other family members, particularly the youngest Duggar daughters. Johannah, Jennifer, Jordyn, and Josie are still teens — Johannah just graduated from her homeschooling program — and so continue to be raised in the ministry. 

King tells the Daily Mail she hopes her cousins have a "happy life," but at the same time, she calls their future a "question mark" because they're still being raised under the toxic structure of the IBLP. The ministry teaches that women are the "weaker vessel" and must submit to the authority of their fathers and husbands. Unless they decide to defy Jim Bob even more radically than Dillard did, it's probable the Duggar girls will follow their expected path of early marriage and motherhood. "I just hope someday they can truly know Jesus and know freedom the way that we know freedom, and not be tied down to all these man-made rules," King says.  

She isn't as optimistic about her estranged sister-in-law, however. King recently had an icy encounter with Josh Duggar's wife, Anna, in which Anna refused to even talk to her. In a TikTok post she made about the incident, King said, "She made it clear she does not want our help."