(CBS NEWS) — After standing by her brother Josh throughout his sexual molestation scandal, Jessa (Duggar) Seewald is finally taking a stand.
The “19 Kids and Counting” star, who had initially stayed mum when it was revealed that Josh’s email address was found in the hacked Ashley Madison database, finally made it clear that she is no longer going to defend her brother, even after her parents did not condemn him in a blog post, instead saying they are praying for him and sending him to a treatment center.
“Go to http://seewalds.com and read the post on the Ashley Madison scandal,” wrote the reality star.
Jessa linked to a post her father-in-law Michael Seewald wrote about Josh. Michael is in no way vague about his condemnation of the married dad of four; he had harsh words for the brother of his daughter-in-law. He said while he was understanding of Josh during the child molestation scandal, now he believes Josh has not learned his lesson.
“After hearing of Josh’s scandal when he was a teenager, I publicly stated that Josh appeared to be a changed man, was walking above reproach, and living out the faith that he professed,” wrote Michael. “I stood in solidarity, encouraging him to use the scandal to build humility and grace. Sadly, he had deceived us all.”
He also called Josh a hypocrite, and called him a “pretender” who was clearly not making a real effort to be a faithful Christian.
“He claimed to be a Christian, but by his deeds he has suggested otherwise,” he wrote. “With the name of God on his lips he lived a covert and extensive lifestyle of evil. While proudly saying things like, ‘Our family is like the epitome of conservative values,’ he was looking at porn and soliciting affairs. He took a job at the Family Research Council that exists to promote the traditional family, all the while undermining his own family by violating his marriage covenant.”
He even said that Josh was a shame to the Christian faith: “The thing that is so hurtful is that he was a loud voice endorsing Christian ethics and he has been shown to be a fraud. I am profoundly grieved that he attained such a platform only to bring shame on God’s holy name and the Christian faith.”
Michael, father of Jessa’s husband Ben Seewald, echoed what many pundits and social media users had been saying all along. The difference is that this time, Jessa was listening.
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