Albanyguy

One of the biggest selling points of the Gothard cult was telling ordinary, insignificant men that IBLP would elevate them to near God-like status. No matter how unsuccessful they had been in the real world, they would rule as kings at home. Their wives would give them endless fawning attention and deference and their kids would instatntly obey their slightest command. For insecure dweebs like JB and Derick (or for men with a hidden mean streak like Jim Holt), this was irrestible stuff.

I love the idea of Dave secretly reading our comments about Jill and cackling in glee.

I don’t wish anything bad on anybody, but they’re really pushing their luck. Sooner or later it’s going to catch up with one of them.

Well, she is a Duggar. If the Lord wanted them to work for a living, He wouldn't have made them so special compared to the rest of us mortals.

I think Pa is afraid of confronting Jill and risking a tantrum. I have the feeling she can be really mean and scary when someone tries to tell her "no". He may have learned to keep his head down and stay out of the line of fire.

I think any kind of a Duggar/Bates courtship and wedding was out of the question as long as they had shows on competing networks. And now, I don’t think either patriarch would approve it. The Bates family was dropped from UP under very murky circumstances that they’ve successfully been able to keep under wraps. The last thing they would want is the scrutiny that a match with the scandal-plagued Duggars would bring. As for Jim Bob, I would not be surprised if he harbors a long-standing grudge against the Bates family. He made the mistake of bringing them on his show and giving them a shot of national exposure. Next thing he knew, they were given a special of their own and parlayed that into a reality series on a competing network. I think Jim Bob would take this as a betrayal of sorts and he’s probably still stewing about it.

Hmmm. He's not allowed to talk to Anna on the phone or purchase snacks from the commissary. Wonder which one will upset him the most.

That makes sense. A lot of Fundie women are probably not allowed to socialize away from their husbands and children unless it’s a gathering centered around domesticity (bridal and baby showers) or Jesus (religious conference). But a night out with girlfriends just to go bowling, play tennis or have a glass of wine and talk? God forbid!

Make sure the whole world knows that Timothy isn’t drinking…oh, horrors…a BEER!

I wonder if he's still their buddy now that they don't have a TV show and their public image has been destroyed by Josh's crimes.

Timothy honors God by honoring his parents’ desires? Fundie parental manipulation at it’s finest.

It will most likely lead to increased bitterness, resentment and self-pity, especially since he’s probably convinced that he didn’t really do anything wrong and doesn’t deserve to be there.

They’re a great deal more familiar with pop culture than they’re willing to admit. I think they watch a great many “forbidden” movies and TV shows on the sly. And, of course if you watch it on your laptop or phone, you can claim that you don’t watch “television” without actually lying.

Only in the sense that they're related by marriage to the Kellers who, in turn, are related by marriage to the Duggars. And now that the Duggars' brand has been so badly tarnished, you'd have to be way, way down on the Fundie pecking order to be impressed by that.

I'll bet she gets very few suckers who come once and then sign up again the next year. And the word may have spread to potential first-time attendees that it's not worth the money they'll have to shell out. BTW, it seems like she's stopped going on about her tragic, SEVERLY painful miscarriage. Maybe she didn't get the outpouring of sympathy/donations she was hoping for, I really expected her to play the "soldiering on through the pain" card to guilt people into signing up for her weekend (I know that sounds callous, but I don't believe for a minute she actually had a miscarriage, I think she made the whole thing up).

Especially now that Josh had been locked away for the foreseeable future. Anna was hellbent on producing a new Duggarling every other year like clockwork, despite Josh’s obvious distaste for fatherhood. Having to shut down the baby factory must have been a huge blow to her.

If the Duggar daughters are genuinely beginning to accept the idea of controlling their own bodies and planning the size of their families, that would be a far more radical change than wearing pants or cutting their hair. And considering their lifelong indoctrination, it would be a slow and painful journey.

Being pregnant at the same time as your adult daughter is the Holy Grail of Fundie motherhood, even better than having twins. Michelle Duggar, of course, as achieved both, which must really drive Jill crazy.

I find it strange that Priscilla would break the news that Jill had a miscarriage and that Jill wouldn't immediately jump in and start carrying on about how much physical and emotional pain she is in (and you can all help her heal by sending money). Even if Jill had been planning to hold off on announcing the miscarriage until she had crafted the perfect heartbreaking story, once Priscilla spilled the beans, I think Jill would have moved quickly to strike while the iron was hot. It occured to me that Priscilla, who has never seemed like the sharpest tool in the box, may have simply misunderstood what Jill was saying. I can see Jill telling a bunch of women the story of one of her previously miscarriages in such a dramatic and graphic manner that Priscilla got the impression that it was something that had just happened. Priscilla then went off half-cocked and repeated the story and Jill was honestly surprised to hear that she had just had a miscarriage. She's probably concocted a big story about being pregnant and miscarrying, but has to convince her family and friends that it really happened before going public with it. Look for the grifting to begin soon.

I do remember that Jim Bob showed the kids the place where King James wrote the Bible.

I usually take WOACB with a grain of salt the size of Mount Everest, but I'm willing to believe this one. The details are plausible and it certainly fits everything we know abour Josh's character.

I wonder about the effect these visits are having on the kids. Even though it’s a low-security facility, it still must be confusing and frightening for them. And I can’t believe that Josh cares that much about seeing them (except for photo ops, he barely seemed to interact with them at home). I think that it’s possible that, after the initial shock of Daddy suddenly being gone, the kids settled down and now don’t seem to miss him at all, so Anna drags them to the prison to make sure they don’t forget him and that they are made aware of how their family is being persecuted: “Daddy is here because he was blamed for bad things someone else did! He’s suffering for the sins of others, just like Jesus did! And he’s saving souls here! You should be proud that he’s a hero for the Lord!” Or perhaps Anna brings the kids (or her sister Priscilla) because she and Josh really have nothing to say to each other and she needs a buffer to avoid sitting in uncomfortable silence.

Oh, no! Will the persecution of innocent Christians never end?

Yes, and even if Jim Bob was ready to throw in the towel on Josh, I can’t believe Michelle would allow it. If it were possible for me to feel sorry for Michelle (which it isn’t), this would be the moment. Josh is one of the few kids she actually loves and the thought of him being in prison must be reducing her to an emotional wreck. I’ll bet she’s in a constant state of sobbing and rehashing the past, relieved only by heavy medication. Discontinuing the appeals process would be admitting that Josh won’t be coming home anytime soon and, more importantly, that he will never be “vindicated” by having his conviction reversed. That might just snap the last remaining threads of her sanity.

Albany, NY here: one copy in our library system (ten branch libraries), seven holds on it.