While Jinger Duggar Vuolo has, like some of her siblings, strayed from the ultra-conservative rules that were instilled by her parents Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, the mom of three revealed this week that there are some films that aren’t welcome in the Vuolo home, including a certain Disney princess movie that “goes into voodoo.”
On a recent episode of The Jinger & Jeremy Podcast, Jinger and her husband Jeremy Vuolo discussed the topic of Disney movies, with Jeremy posing the question if Disney movies are “demonic.” During the episode, the former Counting On star explained that her parents didn’t allow her and her 18 siblings to watch Disney movies growing up, as the films often featured themes involving magic, which was a big no-no in a house running on Bill Gothard‘s logic.
“Magic was something that they, I think it makes sense as a Christian why you would want to avoid that,” Jinger said, as reported by People. “I don’t know if that was a teaching of [Institute of Basic Life Principles founder] Bill Gothard or not, but definitely thinking about the spiritual world and those things that we don’t wanna mess with, I think that was something that a lot of Christians shied away from.”
Jinger went on to explain that because Disney “promoted a lot of that magic,” the Duggar family opted instead to watch movies that were about the Bible or historical figures.
Though Jinger recalled a time when she and her siblings were allowed to pick out a few movies from the Disney store, she said that they selected “The Shaggy D.A. and “Herbie the Lovebug,” noting that a movie like “Fantasia” that features a lot of magic would’ve never been permitted on Duggar family movie night.
As for her own children, seven-year-old daughter Felicity, four-year-old daughter Evangeline Jo and eight-month old son Finnegan, Jinger said that she and Jeremy try to keep their kids away from screens all together, though they’re fine with allowing the kids to watch certain PBS shows and movies.
“I like the slower-paced movies, the older movies, even older Disney movies,” she added. “It’s kind of fun to let the kids watch that.”
While some Disney movies have received Jinger’s stamp of approval, she revealed that there’s one particular Disney princess movie she won’t allow her children to watch.
“It’s like the green princess dress, I don’t even remember the name, but it’s with the frog and the princess dress. Is it Tiana? I don’t even know,” Jinger said, referring to the Disney movie “The Princess and the Frog.”
“ … I watched a section of it one time, and it goes into voodoo and I’m like, I’m not gonna let my kids watch that because I don’t believe that’s true,” Jinger said. “I don’t want them thinking that’s good.”
“But when it comes to, like Mickey, and there’s like this magic, there’s some of that that seems pretty harmless,” she added. “But also, there are times where I’m like, ‘OK, do I want our kids thinking that they have power to control things? Or is God the one that has all power? That’s also something that I’ve wrestled with, and we still wrestle with it…”
Jinger said that her daughter Felicity often talks about how much she likes something but is careful to clarify that she “doesn’t love it more than God.”
“She’ll ask, ‘Is that character powerful?’ on a show and we’re like, ‘Yeah, on the show they are’ and she goes, ‘But they don’t have more power than God, and they don’t actually have power because God gave them power. God has all power.'”
Jeremy agreed with Jinger’s take, though he expressed concern that other Disney movies and shows may also have “an undercurrent of influence” on children.
“I heard a parent talking the other day about the princess themes of Disney movies and how, if you really think about it, Disney characters, like the main characters in Disney movies, are rewarded for disobeying their parents,” he said. “And it’s so often the parents coming back to them at the end of the movie going, ‘You were so right. Thank you for saving all of us. We’re glad you didn’t listen to us.’ And you start seeing certain themes emerge. And I don’t think that’s crazy conspiracy.”
Back in 2015, Jinger’s dad Jim Bob gave an interview with remarkably similar opinions about why he didn’t allow his kids to even watch wholesome television shows, like “The Andy Griffith Show.”
“The Andy Griffith Show is…a very wholesome show, but when a crisis comes up, they leave God out of the equation,” Jim Bob said in the interview. “They don’t pray to God asking for his help. Usually they solve the problem with deceit or manipulation. It’s really teaching how to live your life without God. Even though we watch those shows, we usually have a discussion afterward about how things should have been done differently.”
(If you want to read the complete Jim Bob interview from 2015, click here. It’s quite the hoot!)
Anyway, while discussing her childhood on the episode, Jinger said that she, like “a lot of Christians,” was raised to believe that if you engaged with “darkness in any form,” then that the darkness would “overtake” you unknowingly. She called this way of thinking “a fear that can grip you.”
As The Ashley recently told you, Disney movies weren’t the only thing the Duggar family didn’t allow in their home. Duggar cousin Amy Duggar King– who occasionally appeared on the Duggar’s former TLC show 19 Kids & Counting– revealed in an interview on the Group Text YouTube show last month that the word “hate” wasn’t permitted in the Duggar home, nor was any language that “was negative.”
Amy’s claims about the strict Duggar rules are seemingly backed up by the rules posted to the official Duggar Family website around 2010. Under the “Duggar House Guidelines” listed on the site, it noted that Duggars were to “always use soft words, even when you don’t feel well,” and that Duggars were to display “joyful attitudes, even if you have been mistreated.” The family was also instructed to “never argue, complain or blame.”
Watch the latest episode of The Jinger & Jeremy Podcast below.
RELATED STORY: Amy Duggar Claims Duggar “Family Unit is Just Freaking Crazy” for Supporting Cousin Josh’s Efforts to Get His Prison Sentence Vacated
(Photos: YouTube; TLC; Instagram)
6 Responses
What Joshy was watching was faaaar worse than any Disney movie. And what “soft” words can be used to describe what he did to his sisters?
Unpopular opinion, but I feel like there’s teaching kids about God and then there’s this. Every single thing doesn’t have to revolve around their religion. It’s okay to actually enjoy life. If they are so sure and secure in Gods goodness than they don’t have to try this hard to force it on their kids.
I work at a retirement convent. Literally a nursing home for nuns. Mass every day before lunch. They are completely normal people to talk to.
The Duggars would just spend the day with their collective mouths hanging open. No husbands, no kids, just masters degrees and decades of running schools and entire hospital systems on their own.
Well yes, I was possessed by the dark side from a young age. Fantasia is an absolute favorite of mine. I find a lot of religion fascinating. I think it’s very sad that they see “evil” in so many. Especially when their religion is actually the sickest of all.
I didn’t like my little kids using the word hate either. I encouraged them to use better language when they didn’t like something. There are more mature ways to express a negative emotions than to just shout I HATE YOU/THAT. My daughter doesn’t raise her kids the same way so my 3 year old granddaughter is in a phase of hating everything. She’s mad, I hate you. She doesn’t get her way, I hate this. She doesn’t want her dinner, I hate that. It’s annoying tbh.
It isn’t what they are not allowed to watch on TV that is going to confuse them