'Painfully familiar' pattern: Duggars questioned after third family member arrested

Last week, another one of the Duggar family brothers was arrested after questions over inappropriate actions with a minor, but now his wife has been taken into custody too on a completely unrelated matter. It's leading to a lot of questions about what is wrong with the famous right-wing religious family.

It was reported Sunday that Arkansas police have arrested Kendra Duggar, whose husband, Joseph Duggar, was arrested last week. Something he allegedly did years ago to a minor who was just 9 at the time is coming to light now that the minor has turned 14. Kendra Duggar is being accused of of endangering the welfare of a minor and second-degree false imprisonment.

Out Magazine columnist Josh Ackley alleged that the men appear to be following a "pattern that is, by now, painfully familiar. A child. A trusted adult in a private setting. A disclosure that comes years later, when the cost of speaking has already been paid in silence."

Ackley wondered if the "deeply patriarchal form of conservative Christianity" is part of the problem, as it isn't unique to such religious sects. The harm there can unfold "quietly, where disclosure is complicated, and where the response is often shaped less by the child's needs than by the need to preserve the system around them," wrote Ackley.

The allegations against the family that began in 2015 came after Josh Duggar, Joseph's elder brother, was found to have molested five children, four of whom were his sisters.

Amy Duggar King, who is known for being the more outspoken cousin of the reality TV family, took to social media over the weekend to express her shock but said she was"not surprised."

“In light of the recent allegations involving my cousin, Joseph Duggar, I am sickened, heartbroken and deeply angry,” King said in a Friday statement to People. “My first thoughts are with the victim, a child who deserved to be safe, protected and surrounded by people she could trust. The courage it took for her to come forward, especially after years of carrying something so heavy, cannot be overstated. That bravery deserves to be honored above all else.”

That was before Kendra Duggar was arrested, days after her husband. After that arrest, she said simply that she's deeply worried about the children and making sure that they are all safe.

Influencer "ClassyRedneckLady," retired voice actress Alison Viktorin, said on Instagram that it tells her that the police have their eyes on the Duggar family.

"This makes me think there's dark stuff happening in their compound and the police are paying attention," she said. The allegations come from the sister of Kendra Duggar, and the police found the children's doors were locked from the outside.

She said that people should keep an eye on such families, calling them an example of "satan families."

In his column, Ackley describes it much like the way that the Catholic priest molestation scandals played out.

"And what people knew, even when they did not say it out loud, was how those situations were often handled. When a parent discovered what was happening, the instinct was not always to go to the police. It was to go to the church. The response would take place internally, through counseling, through spiritual intervention, through processes framed as protecting the family, but which also had the effect of keeping everything contained. The harm did not disappear. It was managed in a way that shielded the system, and often the person responsible, from outside scrutiny," he said.

Novelist and columnist Mark James Miller wrote, "More right-wing family values hypocrisy. Arkansas police arrest Kendra Duggar on child abuse charges."

Publicist ‪Tommy Lightfoot Garrett‬ commented, "I keep telling you about these Biblebillies."

Surveillance video from inside the jail shows the officer processing Joseph Duggar and asking whether he'd been there before. He explained that his brother had.

In the true crime podcast "Without A Crystal Ball," Katie Joy explained that often police go into the home after the arrest as part of their ongoing investigation into the person and search for additional information. What likely happened in this case, she said, is that they did that here, and that's when they found the locks on the outer part of the doors. Then it becomes more than simply a "Joseph problem" because parents have a duty to protect their children.