Anna Duggar can forgive Josh without continuing their marriage. She can separate from him, divorce him, remove his kids from him, because he violated the vow he made to her–and she can still forgive him. To forgive does not mean that you return to the same relationship you had with someone before they hurt you. In fact, sometimes wisdom demands that you make changes to a relationship even as you forgive. 

Earlier this week, word got out that Josh Duggar–of 19 Kids and Counting infamy–had two accounts with Ashley Madison, the website that was like Uber for cheating on your spouse. Ashely Madison, whose tagline is “Life is short. Have an affair,” was the target of an enormous hack which exposed the email addresses and some credit card information of its nearly 37 million users. Duggar’s is not the first famous name to be associated with the site, and as people continue to sift through the expanding database, it surely won’t be the last.

But this post isn’t about Josh Duggar. This post is about Josh’s wife, Anna, and the misguided notions of forgiveness that some Christians subscribe to.

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