Jinger Duggar: I Was Raised In a Cult. My Parents Used Fear to Control Me.

For months now, fans and critics of the Duggar family have been eagerly anticipating Jinger Duggar’s upcoming memoir, Becoming Free Indeed.

Jinger has long been considered the most “rebellious” of her parent’s children, and many hope that she’ll speak her truth like never before in the book.

And if the comments she’s given in recent promotional interviews are any indication, it seems that those fans will get exactly what they want.

Jinger gave the most candid interview of her career to People magazine this week, and her comments have likely left her parents very concerned about what revelations might soon follow.

“Fear was a huge part of my childhood,” Vuolo told the outlet during a Zoom interview from her home in Los Angeles.

“I thought I had to wear only skirts and dresses to please God. Music with drums, places I went or the wrong friendships could all bring harm.”

Yes, Jinger was the first Duggar woman of her generation to wear pants, and she did so only after marrying Jeremy Vuolo and receiving his permission to do so.

The strict dress code she grew up with was just one tool that was used to keep her in a subservient state, “terrified” she says, of defying God’s will and being condemned to hell.

Jinger says that when she engaged in any secular activity, such as playing sports with friends, she would often become overwhelmed with anxiety for fear that she was angering God.

“I thought I could be killed in a car accident on the way, because I didn’t know if God wanted me to stay home and read my Bible instead,” she told People.

The source of her parents’ most controversial beliefs was an organization called the Institute for Basic Life Principles.

IBLP founder Bill Gothard was forced to step down in 2014 amid allegations of sexual harassment, but it seems the disgraced leader continued to exert a great deal of control over Jim Bob and his family.

“[Gothard’s] teachings in a nutshell are based on fear and superstition and leave you in a place where you feel like, ‘I don’t know what God expects of me,’” Jinger revealed.

“The fear kept me crippled with anxiety. I was terrified of the outside world.

“His teachings were so harmful, and I’m seeing more of the effects of that in the lives of my friends and people who grew up in that community with me,” she added.

“There are a lot of cult-like tendencies.”

For years, outsiders have alleged that Jinger and her siblings were raised in a cult-like atmosphere, but this is the first time that one of the Duggars publicly admitted as much.

Thankfully, Jinger says she’s enjoying a much more liberated life these days.

Jinger credits her husband for allowing her more freedom than her mother ever knew.

She also says that her brother-in-law Ben Seewald was instrumental in helping her find a new path.

Jinger reveals in her book that Seewald introduced her to a more modern and less fear-based brand of Christianity.

And her goal these days is to pay it forward by showing others that there is life beyond the world of cult-like isolation she endured in her youth.

“That’s the beauty of this journey,” Jinger told People.

“The teaching I grew up under was harmful, it was damaging, and there are lasting effects. But I know other people are struggling and people who are still stuck,” she added.

“I want to share my story, and maybe it will help even just one person to be freed.”

Jinger’s memoir, Becoming Free Indeed, is set to hit bookstores on January 31.

Jinger Duggar: I Was Raised In a Cult. My Parents Used Fear to Control Me. was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip .