Jinger Duggar Vuolo revealed that she “had loved ones” who were “very cruel” to her when she denounced the church she was raised in.
The 31-year-old, along with her 18 siblings, was raised to be a devout follower of the Basic Life Principles Institute, founded by rejected minister Bill Gothard.
Under the organization’s modesty restrictions, women and girls were prohibited from wearing pants and were required to wear skirts or dresses that reached below the knees.
He was also prohibited from dancing, dating, or listening to certain types of music, and was left in constant fear of straying from the boundaries of the church’s teachings.
Although she left the organization in 2017, she remained a Christian and published her memoir Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith From Fear in 2023.
He has now reviewed his reactions to the book, including some of the “very harsh things” said in an interview with People.
Jinger Duggar Vuolo revealed that she “had loved ones” who were “very cruel” to her when she denounced the church she was raised in.
Jinger married her husband Jeremy Vuolo in 2016 and the couple has since welcomed two daughters together: Felicity, six, and Evangeline, four.
In October last year, they ecstatically announced that they were expecting another baby due in March of this year.
Now he’s promoting a new memoir called People Pleaser: Breaking Free From The Burden Of Imaginary Expectations, which will be published next Tuesday.
Jinger, who grew up in front of TV cameras on her family’s reality show 19 Kids And Counting, has now revealed her thought process on leaving her church.
He tried to “focus my thoughts on how I can love and serve the people who have been so hurt by this teaching” despite “what all the critics are going to say.”
Jinger decided, “I’m going to put all that aside and say, no, I want to do what I feel called to do and that is tell the truth.”
“So let me put the blinders on and focus on that and share my story, and then whatever the outcome is, I know I’ve done what I’m supposed to do.”
Once she broke away from the church, she found it “very liberating” to not let herself be “consumed by this fear” of talking openly about her problems with its rules.
The Duggar family with parents Jim Bob Duggar and Michelle, are shown in a promotional image for the canceled TLC show 19 Kids And Counting.
‘Yes, there was criticism. Yes, there were people who said very harsh things. “There were loved ones who said very unpleasant things,” he said.
‘It wasn’t easy. But at the end of the day I realized it was the best decision. “It was the best thing I could have done: love these people by sharing the truth.”
Jinger reflected, “That was something that was liberating for me because… the more I think clearly about the ‘why’ behind me I want to tell the truth, I need to stand up for the vulnerable. My ability to please people before never happened.” would have allowed me to do that. I would have remained silent.
She continued: ‘When I first realized I was a people pleaser, I saw elements of it when I was younger in my life. There were many times where I thought, “Oh man! I hate being so consumed by what everyone thinks of me,” but I just didn’t know how to get out of that thought pattern.
Her first book helped kickstart that process, she revealed, stating, “I think once I finished writing Becoming Free Indeed, I started to see that there was a change in my heart. There was a big change from that serious longing and desperation. ‘
And she added: ‘I will say that I am not perfect. I’m not there, I don’t have all the answers, but I’m just sharing my journey and how I’ve seen steps to be able to think differently. I think everything starts in our thoughts.’
Jinger and her sisters Jill, Jana and Jessa have previously opened up about their parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar’s, reasoning for not allowing the girls in the family to wear pants.
They wrote in the 2014 book Growing Up Duggar: ‘We don’t dress modestly because we are ashamed of the body God has given us; quite the opposite.
Jinger married her husband Jeremy Vuolo in 2016 and the couple has since welcomed two daughters together: Felicity, six, and Evangeline, four.
“We realize that our body is a special gift from God and that He wants it to be shared only with our future husband.”
Jinger took a different line after leaving the church and, while promoting her 2023 memoir, compared her famous family to a “cult.”
She revealed in a wide-ranging interview that she became “paralyzed with anxiety” and “terrified by the outside world” as a result of the rigid “cult-like” rules she was forced to follow as a child.
The former TLC star was raised by her parents Jim Bob, 58, and Michelle, 57, who were both devout followers of the Institute of Basic Living Principles, which is a denominational Christian organization that acts as an umbrella organization for others. ministries and was established by rejected Minister Bill Gothard.
Jinger noted that Gothard’s teachings were “based on fear and superstition” and left her wondering what God really wanted from her, leading her to believe that she would be “harmed” if she deviated from the rules or made a mistake.
Jinger and her husband appear on Instagram in April 2021
She detailed a time when she debated wearing something other than a dress, but then remembered that God would be “so disappointed” in her for disobeying the rules that it would bring her “harm.”
The reality TV star explained that modesty became a very important point in her life and that she constantly lived in “fear” because she was not allowed to listen to certain types of music or even be friends with select people.
‘I thought I had to wear only skirts and dresses to please God. Drum music, places I went, or the wrong friendships could cause harm,” Jinger told People.
The Duggar family’s reality show, 19 Kids And Counting, was canceled in 2015 after it was reported that Josh Duggar, 35, had sexually abused several underage girls, including four of his brothers, when he was between 12 and 15 years.
Josh, who has seven children with his wife Anna, was found guilty in December 2021 of receiving and possessing child pornography and was sentenced in May 2022 to 12 years and seven months in prison.