Becoming Free Indeed
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4.2 • 335 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
New York Times Bestseller
Read by the author.
Jinger Vuolo, the sixth child in the famous Duggar family of TLC's 19 Kids and Counting and Counting On, recounts how she began to question the unhealthy ideology of her youth and learned to embrace true freedom in Christ.
When Jinger Duggar Vuolo was growing up, she was convinced that obeying the rules was the key to success and God's favor. She zealously promoted the Basic Life Principles of Bill Gothard,
fastidiously obeying the modesty guidelines (no shorts or jeans, only dresses),eagerly submitting to the umbrella of authority (any disobedience of parents would place her outside God's protection), promoting the relationship standard of courtship, andavoiding any music with a worldly beat, among others.
Jinger, along with three of her sisters, wrote a New York Times bestseller about their religious convictions. She believed this level of commitment would guarantee God's blessing, even though in private she felt constant fear that she wasn't measuring up to the high standards demanded of her.
In Becoming Free Indeed, Jinger shares how in her early twenties, a new family member—a brother-in-law who didn't grow up in the same tight-knit conservative circle as Jinger—caused her to examine her beliefs. He was committed to the Bible, but he didn't believe many of the things Jinger had always assumed were true. His influence, along with the help of a pastor named Jeremy Vuolo, caused Jinger to see that her life was built on rules, not God's Word.
Jinger committed to studying the Bible—truly understanding it—for the first time. What resulted was an earth-shaking realization: much of what she'd always believed about God, obedience to His Word, and personal holiness wasn't in-line with what the Bible teaches.
Now with a renewed faith of personal conviction, Becoming Free Indeed shares what it was like living under the tenants of Bill Gothard, the Biblical truth that changed her perspective, and how she disentangled her faith with her belief in Jesus intact.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Jinger Duggar Vuolo’s memoir reveals that navigating your personal relationship with your faith isn’t easy—especially when you’re doing it on reality TV. Vuolo starred with her parents and her 18 other siblings in reality shows including 19 Kids and Counting and Counting On. During that time, the Duggars followed a Christian organization called the Institute in Basic Life Principles, which controlled every aspect of Vuolo’s life with cultlike strictness. In this inspiring memoir, she chronicles her journey to embrace spirituality on her own terms—though that doesn’t mean she glosses over the tough stuff. Vuolo is incredibly candid, and you can hear emotion in her voice when she’s discussing how IBLP impacted her eating disorder and the revelation that its former leader Bill Gothard had inappropriate relationships with young followers. Becoming Free Indeed is full of what Vuolo’s life seemed to lack for so long: honesty and hope.
Customer Reviews
Some of these reviews are odd.
This is book is essentially a story about her life & her discoveries. U don’t know why many people are getting all up in their skirts about her conclusions and her opinions. If you have known anything about her past, then you should know this book is going to be about her past, christianity, and be spiritually focused. It is saddening to me to listen to what religion can do to christians, but also what to much liberalism can do as well. Just like Joshua 1:8, we should not the book of the law, the bible depart from our mouth, and we should meditate on it day and night, though, we should do these things out of a Love of pleasing the Lord, and not for any other reason. The Holy Spirit is gentle, forgiving, and loving, my prayer is that we do everything to please him! Ask him for direction. This book is a great reminder of checking in with Him. There are way to many people who are offended by her theology, rather then her book.
This book is super triggering for people with religious trauma
Jinger surely has an important story to tell but this is still reinforcing a lot of the issues with purity culture and sexism co opted by the evangelical movement. This book is evangelical and disparages people who have left the church for their own well being. Further within the first hour she describes the civil rights movement as “racial tension” and has a concerning pro-life chapter. This isn’t it, this is a more palatable way to tell Christian women they can wear jeans but they have to still submit to their husbands.
Very eye opening!
I chose the audio version of this book. I really enjoyed it because I could listen while getting ready for work or doing house work. And it was nice to hear it and Ginger’s voice coming from her.
I feel like she did very well at explaining everything. I liked that she was not bashing, her parents, but yet explaining the truths and differences of the teachings from how Christians really should live. Very eye opening to even some of the ways I grew up and some of the teachings of how you have to live otherwise you’re not in Gods favor!