Jinger Vuolo Extends Grace: “I’m Not Mad at My Parents” Despite IBLP Upbringing 🕊️

Jinger Duggar Vuolo came to her parents Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar’s defense this week regarding their decision to raise her and her siblings under the controversial fundamentalist Christian teachings of the Institute of Basic Life Principles (IBLP). 

Jinger revealed her thoughts on the matter during a recent episode of her and husband Jeremy Vuolo’s The Jinger & Jeremy Podcast after receiving the question from a listener. After Jeremy read the question to his wife, Jinger insisted that she wasn’t angry at her parents, noting that many parents who followed the IBLP– as well as its controversial founder Bill Gothard– “were well-meaning.” 

“ … I can say that very clearly because I see how so many families … wanted the guarantee for success for their kids,” Jinger said. “They were promised it. And they said, ‘If you do this, your kids will turn out.’ And so I think that a lot of parents who walked into [the IBLP], they were well-meaning.” 

Despite the “challenges and struggles” Jinger admitted she has faced as a result of her family’s involvement in the IBLP, she said she understands why the organization was appealing to her parents. 

“ … Looking at it as a parent now, I can see how easy it was for my parents to get wrapped up in that teaching,” she said. “They went into it thinking, ‘This is how we’re going to teach our kids to love Jesus,’ and who doesn’t want that?”

Jinger also noted that many of the things promised in the IBLP– including “success”– aren’t always achieved by its followers, which is something she finds “heartbreaking.” Still, she doesn’t fault her parents, as she claims they made decisions that they believed were right for their family. 

“ … I don’t have any anger toward them for it because, I mean, I just see [that] they did their best,” she explained. “They did what they thought was right in the moment.” 

Though Jinger doesn’t have ill feelings towards Jim Bob and Michelle for raising her in the IBLP, she’s made her criticism of the organization itself widely known. 

As The Ashley previously told you, Jinger blasted the beliefs she grew up in her 2023 book, Becoming Free Indeed, calling the IBLP both cult-like and fear-driven.  

“The teaching I grew up under, it was harmful,” Jinger told People while promoting her book in early 2023. “I want to be vulnerable to share my story and hopefully it will help even just one person to be free from this.” 

Jinger also claimed that the “harmful teaching” she grew up in caused her to be “confused about who Jesus was,” and even threatened her to “leave Jesus.” Jinger said that while she was already starting to “come out” of the IBLP teachings around 2017, an IBLP conference she attended around that time really opened her eyes to what was going on in the organization. 

“When I went back into that setting, it really broke my heart to see people who were still there and believing all of these things and [seeing] how damaging it was to their lives,” she said. “People were leaving Christianity all together, leaving the Bible all together, because they were just so confused by this teaching … . 

“The [IBLP] teaching in a nutshell is based on fear, superstition and really leaving you in a place where you’re like, ‘I don’t know what God expects of me. He could be pleased with me one day and angry at me the next,’” she continued. “ … It was so confusing. The fear kept me crippled with anxiety, not sure where to turn.” 

Last month, Jinger– who recently released a second book about her life in the IBLP– admitted that her books and decision to speak out about her family’s faith has created some strain between herself and some of the Duggar family, including her parents, with whom she said her relationship is “complicated.” 

“There are definitely difficulties, things that we don’t see eye-to-eye on,” she told Entertainment Tonight. 

Despite not seeing eye-to-eye with Jim Bob and Michelle, Jinger noted that she was “very thankful” she and Jeremy got to visit the Duggars in Arkansas for the Christmas holiday, calling the visit “peaceful” and “so amazing.” 

“I love my family more than anything,” she added.