19 Kids, Some with Problems

19 Kids, Some with Problems

I’ve never watched 19 Kids and Counting.  I spend enough time counting my grandkids, of which there are 19, thank you very much.  Quite frankly, all these reality TV shows have gotten a little out of hand.  Let’s see, we have Survivor, Dancing with the Stars, American Idol, America’s Got Talent, and that one where pairs of people or couples travel around the world looking for clues for where they are supposed to go next.  Let’s see, let’s not forget Dual Survival and that weird one with people running around the jungle where they “aren’t wearing nothin’”, Swamp People, and the lumberjacks, gold diggers, crab fishermen, settlers in Alaska who talk funny, and any number of people trying to be millionaires and answering 500 questions.  Let us not forget Dirty Jobs and those guys that go around looking for antiques.  Good Grief!  (I’m missing some, I think.)

Anyway, I don’t watch that 19 Kids thing.  I never have and it appears that I never will.  Even if I could in the future I wouldn’t.

I guess the back story on 19 Kids is that they are a squeaky clean Christian family.  And now that a family member, Josh Duggar, has been found to have been a child molester when he was younger, the cable network airing the series is going to pull it.

Excuse me?  Since when has any typical commercial cable TV network been a righteous judge of morality?  Don’t get me wrong.  I think that if the story is true about Josh Duggar (and I have no reason to doubt the story), that his behavior is inexcusable.  However, since when have American families made it through a generation or two without a skeleton in its closet?  Are we supposed to sit back and be judge, jury, and executioners of people who have done the same sort of things—or worse than maybe our own family members have done?  Seems to me that good Christian people ought to remember something about casting the first stone.  Yes, his behavior is inexcusable but it is also forgivable. 

Besides, this is the sort of thing that makes for good TV viewing!  What an opportunity for America to sit back and watch and explore how another American family works through this startling revelation!  Here is an opportunity to learn about real gut-wrenching trials.  Here is a strong dose of reality.  Here is an opportunity for people to learn of activities that are probably more wide-spread than can be imagined.  Here is a topic that should make you squirm as you ponder upon what has (or is) going on with the people on the other side of town or down the street or with the next door neighbors.  Maybe it has happened with Cousins Joe and Mary.  Maybe it has happened in your own home.  The fact is that the activity that Josh Duggar is accused of doing is much more prevalent than what anybody wants to believe.  Here is an opportunity to view firsthand the devastation that results when such valued trust is violated.  More importantly, here is an opportunity to see how a family copes and how it recovers.  Perhaps here is an opportunity to see how professionals (and I’m not talking about Dr. Phil) and perhaps clergy work with people facing the challenge of a lifetime.

I don’t know.  Maybe the pain would be too great for the Duggars to air this on national TV.  Whatever.  One thing is for sure.  It would be much more educational than watching trucks driving across ice roads or swamp people catching alligators.  And maybe, just maybe it would open the closet and start a national discussion on the family.

I bet it would bump up the network’s ratings, too.