How Josh Duggar Was ‘Cured’: Cleansing, Lust Counseling… and Carpentry?

The Duggars reportedly sent Josh Duggar to faith-based treatment as a teen, after they learned he had sexually abused underage girls.

The Daily Mail says the now defunct facility in Little Rock called the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) treated Josh with a combination of cleansing, lust counseling and carpentry.

According to former IBLP leader Bill Gothard, who left the organization last year after allegations of sexual harassment, the Duggars went to him for advice. He recommended they go to the police to report the misconduct and remove Josh from the home, which they did.

“They sent him to a godly mentor in Little Rock, and it was there he really became a Christian,” Gothard said, adding that Josh received one-one-one counseling to “cleanse” him of his sexual thoughts.

His mentor Harold Walker worked with young men and “helped them grow spiritually.”

The program also focused on the seven stresses — including lust — and the seven commands Jesus gave that relate to the seven.

Gothard said the faith-based training teaches that lust can affect the immune system. "The endocrine system consists of about 16 or 17 or so glands throughout our body and they are affected by our sexual drive. Lust can have a positive or negative effect on the body, depending on what it's for. God designed us to have an attraction to the opposite sex for marriage, but whoremongers will be damaged by their own system."

While there, Josh also participated in the Integrity Construction Institute program, learning carpentry and helping to renovate a dilapidated hospital purchased by the IBLP.

Gothard insisted that what Josh did to the girls was “totally wrong,” but says the “19 Kids and Counting” star left a changed person.