MaryAnneSpier

You all are assuming the clock even works. I bet the battery died three years ago, and sexy hunk has been too busy to change the battery out.

I think it's actually better to have a more experienced mother of a brood to give this talk, or have a couple who've been married 20 years to give a workshop on marriage to newlyweds. They have more perspective- I view it as mentorship. This is much more appropriate than having Duggars who've been married mere months give sermons on marriage.

Go ahead and add me to that as well. Thank you!

Didn't Amy and her husband appear on like a celebrity marriage boot camp reality program at one point early on in their marriage?

I think it's akin to when a company wants to fire you, but they have no real justification to do so, so they set new goalposts without telling you what they are or how to achieve them. The when you're fired, they can say you didn't meet expectations. It's just a workaround to put on paper that their firing was just, when in reality it wasn't. This forum has a certain demographic in race and age that doesn't appeal to DEI initiatives, so the way to boost their numbers to something more pleasing is to close down forums that are predominately their undesired demographic. It's all a game, and we're the losers in the game.

I'm saddened that this doesn't seem unusual to me. I'm grateful that I am no longer part of a group like this but of course, I'm saddened that this is reality and not everyone gets an opportunity to leave. It's awful but expected from the men in positions of authority to behave like this. It took many years of living in the real world and more and more distance between myself and church before my initial reaction to someone's pain or embarrassment wasn't to laugh at them. True empathy and compassion for others are lacking, especially in the male groups from what I have observed.

And it's still in Red Light territory. I figured it would at least have been notched to Yellow if the new administrators wanted this to stay around. I really think they're just playing with us, giving the illusion and false hope that if we behave and follow their rules, they'll be gracious enough to "allow" us to keep our forum. I think come April, the whole Duggar corner of Primetimer will be unceremoniously dropped.

The relationship between Gabby and her husband is relevant because it's another example of the lifestyle and views of gender roles in their brand of Christianity. Cade will not allow Gabby to have the spotlight- he always ensures that he not only tags along but tries to take over and gain more attention than she does. It's quite similar to the dynamic between Jinger and Jeremy- she was a D-list reality TV celebrity, and he consistently tries to outshine her instead of taking the backseat. Gabby and Cade are/were friends with the Vuolos, and knew them well enough to have Jeremy officiate their wedding, which Jeremy happily posted all over SM. If it's being posted by the parties on their socials, I don't think it's overstepping to continue conversations about them in the thread for their "friends".

We're being treated like Kindergarten children. We have "Red, Yellow, Green Lights" to let us know about our behavior level. And now we get stickers for following the rules. This is just plain insulting.

How are improvements supposed to be made when threads have been locked? We can't post anything, either good or bad, so there's no way to get feedback about what's appropriate and what isn't. I think the whole Duggar page is finished. I've been here, both as a poster and as a lurker, since early 2015. I feel this site was very respectful toward different points of view- good, healthy debates without making it nasty toward each other. In a way, the Duggar board was one of the resources that has helped me through my religious deconstruction, before I even knew that was a thing. I don't like Reddit, but I suppose that's where I'll have to go now.

Is the daughter on the right the one who had her hair horribly hacked off by Mahmo? If so, it looks a lot better now that it's grown out a bit (and maybe had professional help to clean up).

Just yesterday I found that Gabby and Cade are going to be in a thriller/ horror movie. And it’s not a director who makes “Christian horror” films, so that is a bit puzzling. I saw Gabby’s name in the cast list and then was both surprised and not surprised that further down, Cade was listed as well. That dude needs to quit riding her coattails.

I love the last part of Kaylee's post about the KJV 1611 Bible being the TRUE and ONLY inspired Word of God. Gotta make sure to point that out and defend taking a Ramsey course before the other members of your branch of Christianity call you out for listening to a near-heathen who uses a more modern translation of the Bible.

For those who don't quite understand how MLMs work, there's a great podcast I listened to a few years ago called The Dream. I only listened to the first season, which is maybe 8-10 episodes long. I knew a lot about MLMs beforehand, but that one really added a lot more about the history and background. I highly recommend it. Also, the documentary Betting on Zero is a good way to understand them as well. The Amazon limited series about LuLaRoe is good too. Anyway, it's no surprise that a lot of the ultra-Christian women get roped into the MLM world. There's a lot of overlap between the more female-centered MLMs and Fundy/Evangelical churches. Their church structure is quite similar: quickly push "the product" (salvation), get invested in it (tithes are required with extra offerings and service to the church), recruit more to join (witnessing), and make sure the members are so entrenched that they fall for the sunk cost fallacy (if I leave this church, I lose my friends and possibly even my place in heaven).

I just recently watched a YouTube video about Christian courtship that referred to a few Fundie influencer couples. Two of the three couples shown seem to really dislike each other, and I think Ben and Jessa exhibit the same body language and facial expressions as the couples who courted God's way and married within a year of meeting each other. Honestly, I used to sort of feel kinda bad for both Jessa and Ben, but I can't muster much sympathy for them at the moment. I just hope they at least have a civil relationship.

It’s not a chain all throughout the USA, the Half Price Books is another book store with actual building locations.

I just read Jill's book this week, and the one thing that was interesting to me that I didn't see discussed when the book first came out is that JB wasn't going to pay for the girls' lawsuit against the county officials and the tabloid (the one that Josh tried to get in on too)... JB said he could loan the girls the money, but he wouldn't pay for it outright. In the long run, they found an LA-based law firm through a connection Jeremy had who agreed to do it on contingency. Now, how many hundreds of thousands of dollars do you suppose JB has spent over the years, out of the collective family fund, to keep Josh out of trouble? Jill doesn't really dwell on this point in her book at all, but reading that made me see red. Edited to add: this is discussed on page 160 of the hardcover book. I don't know if ebook versions are the same or not.

They likely would never confirm this, but I suspect the family is on all the welfare available to them in their state. If Dave gets a real job, they'd possibly make too much money to qualify, so it's better for him to be a "minister" and "run a printing business". That way Jill can keep an eye on him at all times, plus they get more money in state benefits than if he were away at a real job. Plus, he's just plain old lazy and seemingly not-too-bright.

At least they uphold the same standard of "purity" for both the boys and girls.

It will be interesting to see what a Rodriguez wedding looks like when the groom is the Rod. I think it will be much nicer than Nurie and Kaylee's.

What I don't get with these people is their exceptional lack of work ethic. I grew up AoG, and the denomination has a lot in common with IFB. I had it drilled into me from the pulpit and my parents' example that you work diligently, to the best of your ability, and then some. You work overtime, you go to work when you're very ill, you show up on time every day to your job. And then you dedicate your free time to the church on top of it. There's a Bible verse that I memorized from a young age about whatever you do, work at it with all your heart because it pleases God. The thought of being on any sort welfare was nearly taboo and a huge shame that was necessary to hide because it meant you were lazy and bad with your money (budgeting was a popular topic as well). Does the IFB not hammer all of these points home? I know the wimmin-folk ain't supposed to work outside the home, but the men seem so unmotivated, lazy, slovenly, unambitious. If they're following the Bible as they ought, the men are to be providers and protectors.

Whoa. If Timmy proposed to Heidi while his parents were out of town, that seems like a big "screw you, Mama" from Tim to Jill. Interesting that it seems a young, sheltered woman (is she even 20 years old yet?) appears to be the spine Tim has been missing.

My favorite Bible verses are the ones where the prophets and Jesus himself tell the people of their time the guidelines to determine if a healthcare coverage company is holy or not. Time and time again, I go to the parable of the Pious Invalid who turned his life around after Jesus told him to pay 20 percent of his income to the Heart of Fire Cana Clinic. After years of faithfully paying his dues, the board determined he did indeed meet their moral standards to receive surgery, and they would cover 10 percent of the final cost. My aunt pushes this stuff, along with the other typical Fundy MLMs and companies, on her social media. I have had to turn off notifications from her so I don't say anything I might regret to her.

To be honest, I probably give Derick more credit than he deserves. I really detest Jeremy so much and am quite hard on him because I have seen this exact dynamic happen to one of my female cousins and my sister-in-law. Both are meek followers in Christian marriages, and their personalities and interests now mirror their husbands' even though that wasn't the case before they met the men. My cousin and her husband hit a rough patch about three or four years into their marriage because she finally started speaking up and standing up for herself; prior to that, her husband viewed their marriage as wonderful. My sister-in-law's transformation is exactly like Jinger's: she's colored her hair blond, wears expensive clothes and handbags, has a smug attitude, works at her husband's company when she had a good job elsewhere before they met, and doesn't appear to do anything without him ever. It makes me both sad and angry to see this happen to women that I know and care about.

Was Renee’s boyfriend part of a Duggar or Bates family or one of the families connected to them (like a brother or cousin of Kendra or Lauren)?