The 18th Duggar

By now most of you have read or heard about the Arkansas couple Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar and their unusually large family. Mrs. Duggar just gave birth to her 18th baby, bringing the count to 10 sons and eight daughters.

The Houston Chronicle carried the story and while I was glad to know mother and baby were doing well, I was even more interested to read some of the many reader comments that followed.

They were, not to my surprise, overwhemingly vitriolic in their tone. Also overwhelming? The degree of ignorance about this family and how they live. Any fool who wanted to write from an informed position could google the Duggars and get the real scoop, but it's more fun to lie or speculate, I guess.

Case in point, a couple of nights ago my family and I went out to eat at a local Mexican restaurant and we were seated next to a table of two adult couples. I guess the margaritas had gone to their heads because they were talking quite loudly and, much to my chagrin, vulgarly about -- you guessed it -- the Duggar's 18th baby.

I couldn't help but overhear one of the men say, "Yeah, they probably get big money from the government for every one of those kids and not just tax breaks but welfare, ya know?" The woman across from him said, "Yeah, you KNOW they get welfare. What's wrong with them anyway, breeding like rabbits. That's just sick and there's no way those kids can be happy."

The man next to her chimed in with a profane exclamation before adding, "It oughta be a law that after so many kids it's snip-snip for him and snip-tie for her, heh, heh."

On and on it went until at last their food came and they opted to eat rather than share their opinions. Fortunately, my children were so busy talking and coloring their placemats I don't think they picked up any new vocabulary. Praise God!

For the record, the Duggar's probably do get tax deductions for each of their children -- but so do I! It's the law and I'm glad, especially since the Duggars, like us, pay property taxes to a local school district they do not use. All their children are homeschooled.

As for other "welfare," I am sure they are given things, in fact I know they willingly accept hand-me-downs and buy secondhand or at cost when possible. When did thrift become a dirty word? When did it become wrong to give your castoffs to a family who could use them? The government bails out financial criminals to the tune of billions, the president pardons thugs and drug dealers left and right, why is it wrong for the Duggars to take gifts offered to them?

Some critics who can't think of anything else to poke at, note the female Duggars' conservative dress and long hair and decry their "fashion sense." Isn't it always the way when women are involved? If you can't find some reason to question their intelligence you go after their looks.

All the Duggar kids are clean, fed, educated, musically talented, and have learned the greatest lesson of all -- that family led by God should be the center of your experience.

Shame on Jim Bob and Michelle for teaching their children faith, morals, a work ethic, a servant heart for those younger or more vulnerable, a sense of family and home, the miraculous nature of new life, and practical skills such as auto repair, home maintenance and construction.

Why, just think if every family regardless of its size did the same thing? Our prisons might be a little emptier, our public schools even more so, and our workforce made up of more than automatons with pieces of paper their only proof of competence.

If I had the choice between 18 well-taught, well-trained and faith-filled Duggars or the four morons who assailed my ears with trash talk the other night, I'd take the Duggar bunch any day.

Congratulations Jim Bob and Michelle. Every child ought to be born into a family as large and loving and capable as yours.