Joe.My.God. LGBT News
Yet another scandal for one of TLC’s Christian reality shows. NBC News reports:
The patriarch of a family featured on the TLC reality television show “The Willis Family” was arrested Friday and charged with rape of a child stemming from an alleged sexual encounter around 12 years ago, authorities said. Toby Nathaniel Willis, 46, was arrested in Greenville, Kentucky, by agents from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the bureau said in a statement. The TBI said Willis traveled to Kentucky “in an effort to avoid law enforcement.”
The law enforcement agency said authorities began investigating Willis on Aug. 29, and agents “developed information Willis had a sexual encounter approximately 12 years ago with an underage female.” More details were not released. The TBI said the investigation remains ongoing. Willis is featured in the TLC show about a musical family in Nashville. The network apparently removed the show’s page from its website Saturday. TLC did not immediately return requests for comment.
From Raw Story:
Willis and his wife Brenda — like Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar — are Quiverfull parents, adherents to a Christian dominionist sect that encourages married couples to produce as many offspring as possible in order to raise an army of believers. The word “Quiverfull” comes from the Old Testament Psalms of the Christian Bible. Psalm 127 says, “Children are a blessing from the Lord…happy is the man who has his quiver full of them.”
The Duggar family has had problems of its own, with eldest son Josh confessing to molesting underage girls — including his sisters — as a teen. Then Josh was revealed to have cheated on his wife through the website Ashley Madison. When reached for comment about Willis’ arrest, a spokesperson for TLC said, “We are shocked to hear this news.”
(Tipped by JMG reader Scott)