His brainwashed stepford wife is loony and definitely won't leave him. If this is true then she is deeply entrenched in whatever nonsense he and the other men in her life feed her. Sadly, most of these extreme fundie women aren't too bright. It's not their fault. They are raised to be nothing more than baby machines. The only thing they are expected to know is motherhood.
One historical anecdote that always stuck with me in regards to brainwashed, enabling wives and religion is that of the Maquis de Sade, the God-King of degeneracy from which we get the term Sadism. His wife was super religious, and the Bible says "Obey your husband and devote yourself to him." So, as a result of said husband being the Patron Saint of Perverts, she ended up buying him hookers, organizing his orgies, helping him escape from prison, etc. One of the ultimate ideas of this was to be so good to him that he has an awakening and finds God through you and if he doesn't, you're just not being a good enough wife. Because if the husband doesn't become a godly man thanks to your perfect example, you're failing in some area: nurturing, obedience, patience, forgiveness, beauty, piety, etc and God is punishing you for it. As a wife, you get none of the authority and all of the responsibility.
Anna is definitely deeply entrenched. This is being framed to her as simply a "problem" Josh has that is being blown out of proportion by the evil secularists who want to persecute good Christians. Victim mentality and persecution complexes are also a huge component here, as most fundies have a desperate desire to be one of those Christians thrown to the lions while fighting a war for Christ. I wouldn't be shocked if she thinks most of the stuff on Josh's machines was planted there by evil Demoncrats taking advantage of Josh's "problem." A problem she will be able to fix if she just sticks by him and is a good enough wife.
She is definitely brainwashed and entrenched in this. Apparently Josh told her and her parents about diddling his sisters before they got engaged. Now, from what I've heard, her parents are major socialn climbers in the Fundie circles. By the time she started courting Josh, The Duggars had already had multiple Discovery Channel Specials and were in talks to produce 17 Kids and Counting. Jim Bob had also run for state senate. So the Duggars were already big celebrities in the Arkansas Fundie circuit and the overall Quiverfull sphere. So they were pretty "famous" and influential even before they became America's Most Famous Reproductive Clown Car. As far as her parents were concerned, they probably saw this as marrying their daughter to a crown prince. I would not be shocked if the pressure was put on her to dismiss what happened as a mere issue that had been resolved and was all in the past.
A couple of her siblings who got out actually offered her a place for her and her kids when the Ashley Madison scandal broke out. Anna stayed then, so I am not confident that she will see the light this time. No matter how horrible the material is, if you're convinced that it's all a conspiracy, it won't change your resolve. My fear is that this will end with those kids in the system and needing a lot of therapy.
This, pretty much all this. The Duggars aren't even really unique with this shit either, these attitudes and behaviors and the abuse that inevitably happens because of it are rampant amongst all conservative religious communities, especially more isolated ones. I grew up in the bible belt and have talked to lots of people who had crazy fundie parents, this shit is horrifyingly common.
All communities have sex pest but fundies are particularly bad about it, especially because of the level of protection they give perpetrators and blaming they do to victims (especially girls).
I'm glad Jill seems to be breaking away from that shit, I know she and her husband are still conservative but at least they're calling out Josh's bullshit for what it is and she wears pants and doesn't want to just pop out way more kids than they can care for. Unfortunately that's also why JB has banned her from visiting unless he's there. I guess a woman wearing pants is more unacceptable to him than his son being a violent sexual predator.
Yep. Jill isn't just "having a problem" like poor Josh, she is an aberration now. She's pierced her nose. She's imbibed a cocktail. She's worn pants. She may have even
touched a vibrator!!! 



But most of all, she committed the cardinal sin: she and her husband asked to be paid for their work. Jim Bob for years kept his kids under the impression that they were not paid for the show and that it was merely a "ministry" and that all their new stuff were just blessings from God. He then made the mistake of letting in a young man with an actual brain and some real world experience. While I do not like Derek Dillard's other views, he's smart as a fucking whip. He was able to play the good little evangelical baptist fundie long enough to get married to Jill. Then, after the wedding, whoops! It all comes out that he's a Calvinist who was raised by a
working mother with a career, was heading to law school, was okay with non-hormonal birth control, and
fraternized with homosexuals! He had Jim Bob's number and once he was in, he uncovered a lot about the family's finances, including the fact that his wife had had her entire childhood exploited for no compensation. This filthy Calvinist Radical Feminist Corrupter (in Jim Bob's view, anyways) had the heathen belief that
women deserve to be
paid for
work they do. Apparently the final straw for him was with
Counting On where Jill had not one but two difficult births on camera and Jim Bob still was refusing to pay them a dime unless they agreed to move onto the Duggar Compound and Derek sacrificed his own ambitions to come work for him. So Derek took him to court and ultimately they got compensation that amounted to well under minimum wage. Since Jim Bob's actual Gods are power and money, this is the ultimate sin.
In other news, apparently the next son-in-law Jim Bob chose (for Jessa, his "bossy" daughter) is a spineless little weiner who is just around to suckle from the Duggar teat.
Josh's "struggles", meanwhile, make him actually more dependent and under Jim Bob's control.