Jinger Duggar Faced Family Backlash After Exposing Toxic Church

Jinger Duggar is opening up about the response to her first memoir.

It turns out that some members of the ever-growing Duggar family and their controversial church weren’t exactly doing cartwheels with enthusiasm.

Jinger didn’t just get backlash from strangers.

Some of her own “loved ones” said cruel things to her in response to her speaking out.

Jinger Duggar participates in a remote interview in August of 2023. (Photo Credit: YouTube)

Everyone’s a critic, Jinger Duggar learned with her first book

In Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear, Jinger Duggar condemned the toxic cult that had, in so many ways, shaped her life.

Her family’s involvement with IBLP, an ultra-conservative fundamentalist organization, is beyond controversial. Between its notorious founder, Bill Gothard, to its promotion of abysmal “educational” materials, and a litany of scandals … every survivor story is also a horror story.

As an adult, Jinger had to unlearn a lot of that. In a new interview, she told People that she tried “to focus my thoughts on how can I love and serve the people who’ve been so hurt by this teaching,” instead of caring “what all the critics are going to say.”

As with so many YouTubers, Jinger Duggar ends her video by asking people to like, subscribe, and turn on notifications for her video and channel. That might take some commitment. (Image Credit: Jinger Duggar/YouTube)

“I’m going to just put all that aside and say, no, I want to do what I feel called to do and that’s to speak truth,” Jinger Duggar affirmed.

“So let me just put on my blinders and focus on that and share my story,” she resolved. “And then whatever the outcome is, I know I’ve done what I’m supposed to do.”

Jinger spoke of the value of “not being consumed by this fear” of speaking out. She expressed that it “actually was so freeing.”

Jinger Duggar and her husband, Jeremy Vuolo, appear in a YouTube video. (Image Credit: YouTube)

That memoir saw Jinger receive backlash from ‘loved ones’

“Yes, there were critics. Yes, there were people who were saying very harsh things,” she admitted.

Jinger added: “There were loved ones that would say things that were very unkind. It was not easy.” We would imagine not.

“But at the end of the day, I realized it was the best decision,” Jinger emphasized. “It was the best thing that I could have done, to love these people by sharing truth.”

Jinger Duggar released a memoir in January of 2023. (Image Credit: Amazon)

“That was something that was freeing for me,” Jinger Duggar then pointed out.

This was “because … the more that I’m thinking clearly through the ‘why’ behind I want to speak truth, I need to stand up for the vulnerable,” she reasoned.

Jinger then admitted: “My people-pleasing before would never have allowed me to do that. I would’ve been silent.”

At the table, Jinger Duggar and Joy-Anna Duggar enjoy their dinner. (Image Credit: Jinger Duggar/YouTube)

What’s this about people-pleasing?

Jinger was, of course, giving the interview about her newest book, which has the displeasingly long title: People Pleaser: Breaking Free from the Burden of Imaginary Expectations.

It is extremely common for children who grew up in abusive and otherwise toxic households to be eager to please, even desperate to please. This is because they grew up in an environment where their personal safety was contingent upon the moods and feelings of the adults who were supposed to love and protect them.

Obviously, Jinger has her own angle for this book — just as she did with her last one. Not all Duggar critics share her priorities. But her insights into her own trauma may be interesting, even if Jim Bob hates not being in control of the narrative.