TLC's Ultra-Conservative Plath Family Follows A Specific Religion
TLC's newest reality show Welcome to Plathville centers around the unique lives of the Plaths, a family of 11 in rural southern Georgia. The flaxen-haired family, headed by mom Kim and dad Barry, has a couple of unique rules, from no television to no soda or ice cream. But more important than these rules is their faith. Although the show doesn't explicitly get into the family's religion, it's clear that it's an important part of their lives. So which religion do the Plaths follow?
The Plaths are Christian fundamentalists, meaning they closely follow the teaching in the Bible. Although their oldest son, Ethan, says that growing up, the family went to smaller home churches rather than a large organized church (because his parents "didn't agree with how a regular church system functioned"), they have often been linked to Baptist churches, with their family band performing gospel music at several baptist churches around the south, according to their family Facebook page and website.
Kim and Barry have said both on the show and on their family website that religion has played a major part in their lives, including how they ended up together. On Welcome to Plathville, Kim and Barry explained that God told them they were going to get married. And in 2008, when Kim accidentally ran over and killed their 17-month-old son, Joshua, she says it was God who helped her to recover from the emotional trauma.
"Mother’s day weekend, God healed me," Kim wrote on their website. "I can’t explain it other than He re-wrote the bad coding in my brain. He took the ruts in my brain that had been running that same movie in my mind and filled them with His Spirit. The movie stopped. I wanted to live again."
Although not all Baptists have such strict rules as the Plaths, which include extremely limited technology access, dressing modestly, and homeschooling, it does sound reminiscent of another TLC reality show family: the Duggars of 19 Kids and Counting. But are the two families of the same religion? The Duggars identify as independent Baptists, so it's definitely a possibility.
And there is at least one known connection between the two families — albeit a loose one. When the Plath's oldest daughter Hosanna got married, her friend Nurie Rodrigues was a bridesmaid. As it turns out, Rodrigues is now engaged to the younger brother of Anna Duggar — wife of the Duggar's oldest son, Josh. So we can likely expect to see at least some of the Duggars and the Plaths in attendance at the wedding.
A post shared by David Jill Noyes Rodrigues (@rodriguesfamilyservingjesus) on Nov 30, 2019 at 11:22am PST
Welcome to Plathville airs Tuesday nights at 10 p.m. on TLC.
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