Shiny Happy People

I'm still reeling after watching the whole series (accidentally, it just happened). I was raised very similarly to the Duggars and we were aware of their show, although ironically our family was so strict we didn't have access to the their show (no cable, only PBS and CBS). I'm the oldest of 8 and could have easily ended up like Josh. It was such a disservice to shelter us so completely and not explain "the birds and the bees". It was treated as the most taboo subject and anything remotely related was heavily censored and suppressed. Any abuse in our community was swept under the rug. My father was "the king if the house" and anything he ordered was on the level of God ordering it. His rules were absolute and could not be questioned. I'm now 31 and no longer in that belief system. I've carried guilt and trauma for many years and I'm very sad that this BS still goes on around the world. People use the Bible and Christianity as a cover or smokescreen to justify and hide a tremendous amount of evil.

I've spent a lifetime trying to explain my life in IBLP/ATI and I was extremely nervous about how this docuseries would present it. The sense of relief and validation after watching Shiny Happy People (several times) is indescribable. I'm thrilled to be able to point people towards this now and not have to explain the abuse and horror over and over again. Thank you to each one who told their story. It's incredible to see other people who I've never met tell of such similar experiences. Trying to navigate the world around me after learning only what Bill Gothard wanted was nearly impossible, and this series pointed out so many of the deeply ingrained reasons why.

If you think that drag queens, trans folks or anyone from the LGBTQ+ community are out to harm your children, think again. If you think this buckle up. I highly recommend that you watch this mini series. Bill Gothard, Jim Bob Duggar, Josh Duggar and folks like them that are still part of the IBLP or anyone that is part of a fundamentalist Christian organization/cult or holds these harmful views, and there are many, are the real child predators. Not to mention how they treat woman. It's pure evil.

This is a very eye opening series to show how male power and ego can destroy peoples lives. Men that demand power and respect are cowards and weak. Full stop!

The blanket training that they preform on babies is sickening and made me angry and nauseated. If the video of the young boy being spanked at a seminar wasn't horrifying enough, that child predator old man's hand lingered way too long on that boys bottom should be. Why haven't child safety organizations, like CPS, swooped in and raided these places and took these children away? Clearly the system is broken.

These folks are being trained to infect politics throughout the USA as well as other parts of the world. The amount of coverups that this organization has goes WAY deeper than these 4 episodes can dive into.

I'm happy some folks have escaped this tyranny. Their CPTSD runs deep. I wish them well. Folks like Derick Dillard that escaped the IBLP are still spreading their hateful rhetoric and infecting people especially youth with their poison.

These people call themselves Christians but they couldn't be further from Jesus. Jesus taught love and compassion, forgiveness, acceptance, understanding, kindness and sharing for everyone. Not just for people that agreed with him. Jesus never taught whatever these people are teaching. They are teaching and living the compleat opposite of Jesus. I wish they would stop doing outrageous things then hide behind Jesus. I'm not religious but I can defiantly spot the hypocrisy here.

These folks and folks like them are the real monsters. There is no question.

After the second episode, I was unable to watch anymore. It is so vile in how children are treated by these adults.

The first episode did not contain much to be alarming. But, the second episode delved deeper into the headlines. Its when the preview of the 3rd episode was shown, I knew I could not watch any more of this show.

Anyone who has experienced abuse should be warned that this is a very intense show.

Given that, people should watch to learn the pain that was and is inflicted on members of this religion. It is not anything a family should expose their wives or children to.

This religious cult needs to held accountable.

Like I suppose many people I only had heard of the Duggars, I knew they had lots of kids, I knew they had been on a reality show which I never saw, but I knew nothing about the core belief system that guided them. This docuseries, four parts on Amazon Prime, digs into all that. The main interview contributors are some of the Duggar children, now adults, and friends and relatives who know them well.

Jim Bob and his wife Michelle came to be Fundamental Christians on their own, but then were greatly influenced by the IBLP religion espoused by what many now call a cult leader, Bill Gothard. A basic tenet is the husband is the absolute head of the family and the wife submits to him. Plus children are home-schooled as a way to shield them from the many sins of society.

But a deeper and more sinister goal was for couples to have as many children as they could (19 for the Duggars, with at least one miscarriage) as an ultimate goal to have armies of followers to infiltrate government, and especially the Supreme Court, as a mechanism to converting, over a few generations, the country into a deeply Christian country embracing only fundamental Christian values.

The problem with a strong leader and his cult is that eventually a few, or many, will see the light and the truth and will break away. That is the source of this docuseries, former IBLP devotees who now are eager to expose the truth. Jim Bob and Michelle, as well as Gothard, all declined input into this series but now that it is out issued this statement, "The recent 'documentary' that talks about our family is sad because in it we see the media and those with ill intentions hurting people we love," and calling it "derogatory and sensationalized."

My wife and I found the series fascinating. In some ways it reminded me of a documentary a couple of years ago that revealed sexual abuse of minor girls in some cult-ish Amish communities, covered up and never reported to authorities.

Streaming on Amazom prime in four parts, roughly 3 hours total running time.