Jinger Vuolo, the sixth child in the famous Duggar family of TLC's 19
Kids and Counting and Counting On, recounts how she began to question
the unhealthy ideology of her youth and learned to embrace true freedom
in Christ.
When Jinger Duggar Vuolo was growing up, she was
convinced that obeying the rules was the key to success and God's favor.
She zealously promoted the Basic Life Principles of Bill Gothard,
fastidiously
obeying the modesty guidelines (no shorts or jeans, only
dresses),eagerly submitting to the umbrella of authority (any
disobedience of parents would place her outside God's
protection), promoting the relationship standard of courtship,
andavoiding any music with a worldly beat, among others.
Jinger,
along with three of her sisters, wrote a New York Times bestseller about
their religious convictions. She believed this level of commitment
would guarantee God's blessing, even though in private she felt constant
fear that she wasn't measuring up to the high standards demanded of
her.
In Becoming Free Indeed, Jinger shares how in her early
twenties, a new family member—a brother-in-law who didn't grow up in the
same tight-knit conservative circle as Jinger—caused her to examine her
beliefs. He was committed to the Bible, but he didn't believe many of
the things Jinger had always assumed were true. His influence, along
with the help of a pastor named Jeremy Vuolo, caused Jinger to see that
her life was built on rules, not God's Word.
Jinger committed to
studying the Bible—truly understanding it—for the first time. What
resulted was an earth-shaking realization: much of what she'd always
believed about God, obedience to His Word, and personal holiness wasn't
in-line with what the Bible teaches.
Now with a renewed faith of
personal conviction, Becoming Free Indeed shares what it was like living
under the tenants of Bill Gothard, the Biblical truth that changed her
perspective, and how she disentangled her faith with her belief in Jesus
intact.