Guilty pleasures II

This one really hurts to admit, but I feel I will be stronger for it.

This show airs on TLC. I hear there's an hour-long show on Discovery Health but I don't get that channel.
I'm hooked on The Duggars.

They are about as opposite from me as white middle-age people can be opposite from each other. They are devout capital-C-Christians who believe that capital-G-God has a plan for them and they are subject to His Will. Their "desire is to make Christ known and for others to see that the Bible is the owner’s manual for life."

I, on the other hand, am not, and I don't.

Let me state specifically that I do not watch this show wearing my Sarcastic Irony Hat (patent pending). I'm not writing this to belittle them.

So, then, what's the point? Why am I so fascinated with people who believe something so fundamentally (ha!) different from my experience as a liberal atheist blue-stater that it seems almost freaky*? If I'm not watching to mock them, what can I possibly find to relate to?

I think it's that they walk their talk. They respect each other and their kids. I'm no patron saint of parenthood, but there are some fundamental (ha!) parenting principles that so many people simply don't get. The Duggars get it. Even though theirs is wrapped in a cloak of religiosity, it boils down to simple love, respect, and responsibility.

I tried to watch Supernanny a few years back but couldn't even make it through a whole episode. I mean, I enjoy a little familiar dysfunction as much as the next person, but to see so many fucking clueless and selfish parents... couldn't do it.

So even though I am a godless heathen left-wing radical wacko, I think Jim Bob and Michelle and I are probably closer in some ways than any of us would care to admit.

Oh, the other reason I watch it? Mr. B can't stand to be in the same room when it's on. It totally weirds him out, and that cracks me up.
:)

* I also read the Left Behind series as science fiction. Actually, it was pretty good until the last book, when it just got silly. If you like post-apocalyptic speculative fiction, I highly recommend the first book.