Sweet Fellowship: Duggars and Friends (aka the Bates Family and Other Featured Families Thread)

[emma675]

Those poor girls. I wonder if they ever get a second to themselves, without Jill horning in on everything they do? 

[lianau]

19 hours ago, Temperance said:

And now it's time for the Bontragers and their "Mighty Men Camp".  This is a weekend of camping is for teenage boys men. It's not until May, but they're already advertising so you can register and pay in advance. 

Here's the official blurb:

"Join us to be prepared for life, adversity, and manhood. At this training bootcamp, you will be stretched outside your comfort zone physically, spiritually, and mentally. You will discover what it means to truly be a man, in your disciplines, character, passions, pursuits, and conversation. The event will feature pushups, sit-ups, rigorous hikes, Bible studies, manly conversations, and practical challenges from God’s Word. You will leave emboldened and equipped with the courage and skills to battle the enemy by the power of Christ."

Both Joshua Bontrager and the main Bontrager family blog are advertising this camp. The two men in charge of it 20-year-old Denver Bontrager and his brothers' brother-in-law Charlie Bowers (around 20 years old). 

The Bontragers aren't the only fundies with a man camp. Dwain Swanson, Lauren's father, also ran one at one point. 

It's not until May 14-17, but if you register before March 14, you get the early bird price of $167.  

That's sound like a script for a gay porn . 

[crazy8s]

seriously Jill can only foresee time with them is in them all crying over Nurie?? WTH

[andromeda331]

22 hours ago, ginger90 said:

 

I guess reading the Bible is pretty quick when you skip over all the kindness, helping others, compassion, stuff about wealth and everything else. 

[JoanArc]

29 minutes ago, GeeGolly said:

I'm not going to mention their hair.

This picture is so sad to me because this really is their lives. Sing in church, perform in church and sit in church. Churches filled with strangers. If they're lucky a family or two (who they don't know) will show them a good time in between. I can't imagine a less fulfilling life than the lives of the JRod kids.

The Maxwells, that girl that wrote Before You Meet Prince Charming, etc...

[BradandJanet]

1 hour ago, ginger90 said:

 

Jill and her daughters are going to hang out at coffee shops? Who does she think she's fooling with this nonsense? This crew can't get basic meals without someone else paying, but lattes? 

[Temperance]

53 minutes ago, JoanArc said:

The Maxwells, that girl that wrote Before You Meet Prince Charming, etc...

The Maxwells have more money than Jill, so do the Mallys. (Sarah Mally is the woman who wrote Before You Meet Prince Charming.)

Being single doesn't make your life less fulfilling even if you're fundie. Sarah Mally seemed happy enough as a single woman, and now she's getting married (May 2nd) and she still seems happy.  Plenty of women aren't fulfilled even when they are married and have children and are fundies. 

[Westiepeach]

2 hours ago, ginger90 said:

 

The sad thing is, poor Kaylee and Renee... there is no way they will ever find a husband as good as ANNA DUGGAR’S BROTHER. Apparently he is the most godliest and bestest and most everything son-in-law EVER!

Edited February 29, 2020 by Westiepeach

[Sew Sumi]

There is another single brother, David. I think he's 21. 

[JustRosie]

2 hours ago, ginger90 said:

 

So she whipped out her phone and took a pic during a church service?

[Sew Sumi]

2 minutes ago, Namaste said:

So she whipped out her phone and took a pic during a church service?

I don't put ANYTHING past Jill. 🙄

[JoanArc]

33 minutes ago, Temperance said:

The Maxwells have more money than Jill, so do the Mallys. (Sarah Mally is the woman who wrote Before You Meet Prince Charming.)

Being single doesn't make your life less fulfilling even if you're fundie. Sarah Mally seemed happy enough as a single woman, and now she's getting married (May 2nd) and she still seems happy.  Plenty of women aren't fulfilled even when they are married and have children and are fundies. 

 All the money in the world doesn’t mean anything if you have to live their lifestyle. I am however happy that Sarah is getting married.  I’m sure she’ll become a marriage expert and write a sequel book. 

Edited February 29, 2020 by JoanArc

[Temperance]

1 hour ago, JoanArc said:

 All the money in the world doesn’t mean anything if you have to live their lifestyle. I am however happy that Sarah is getting married.  I’m sure she’ll become a marriage expert and write a sequel book. 

I don't their lifestyle is that bad. I think being a fundie is hard and not great, no matter what.  But these women have enough for their basic needs and they don't have twenty plus years of pregnancy to go through. Of course there's a prejudice against single women even in the secular world. 

[SMama]

2 hours ago, Sew Sumi said:

I don't put ANYTHING past Jill. 🙄

Agree, this is the creature who live streamed a funeral service for kid(s?) she didn’t know, and posed in front of the coffin with one or two of her daughters with big smiles. Jill is a reprehensible creature.

3 hours ago, BradandJanet said:

Jill and her daughters are going to hang out at coffee shops? Who does she think she's fooling with this nonsense? This crew can't get basic meals without someone else paying, but lattes? 

She’s expecting the Kellers to pay for the lattes, they are family now.

[Panopticon]

3 hours ago, Westiepeach said:

The sad thing is, poor Kaylee and Renee... there is no way they will ever find a husband as good as ANNA DUGGAR’S BROTHER. Apparently he is the most godliest and bestest and most everything son-in-law EVER!

Lucky NotNuries! By the time they’re courting, Jill will be too busy micromanaging Nurie’s SEVERELY difficult first pregnancy to plaster their first handholding online or shove herself into the middle of their first side hugs. 

[Temperance]

Speaking of the Maxwells, Anna Marie apparently went somewhere in the vicinity of Lady Liberty to get her surgery. There are several legit places to get laser removal of breast cancer so who knows where she went.

She was diagnosed with Stage II breast cancer. It is a severe diagnosis, but it could be worse.  She also is meeting with her oncologist on Monday, which is great. I'm glad she has an ocologist and isn't just meeting with random doctors.

When she had the surgery, they ended up taking out a larger area than they had anticipated. 

"Surgery went very well, though due to the continued growth and location of the tumor, the surgeon recommended a more extensive surgery than we were originally hoping for. Christopher and I understood the necessity and agreed that it was best the approach at this point."

I'm confused as to how they don't know whether all the cancer is removed. Here is the end of Duggar Data's post about it:

"Anna Marie also shared more detail about her laser surgery. Apparently, they aren’t sure that the entire tumor was successfully removed. She explained—

“ ‘Margins’ refers to how much clean tissue surrounded the tumor when the surgeon removed it. Because of its size and location, mine had a very small margin—but we don’t yet know if that means there were cancer cells left.”

Sounds like maybe she will have to undergo another surgery."

Edited February 29, 2020 by Temperance

[galaxychaser]

Jill saved Becky from Walmart 

Becky now believes in right Jesus

Yay Jill 

I would have said yes to just to get away from her...

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 29, 2020 by galaxychaser

[Sew Sumi]

 

[mynextmistake]

15 hours ago, TresGatos said:

"Join us to be prepared for life, adversity, and manhood. At this training bootcamp, you will be stretched outside your comfort zone physically, spiritually, and mentally." 

so...they're going to be stretching their manhood?

Yep. Get the post-its ready! 

2 hours ago, Sew Sumi said:

 

Why is the Lord hanging out in Wal-Mart waiting for Jill to lead people to him? Shouldn’t he be working on Coronavirus or world peace or something? 

[SMama]

It seems the Lord has a long history of hanging out as odd places.  Think of the people who have found the Lord in jail or prison. Some claim to have found him at the bottom of a bottle of Johnny Walker. Now he’s gallivanting around Walmart. No wonder the world is falling apart. Lord, find a church and help us with this corona virus mess. Also, there’s a lot of kids held in cages, worse than what the Rod kids are experiencing.

[GeeGolly]

4 hours ago, mynextmistake said:

Yep. Get the post-its ready! 

Why is the Lord hanging out in Wal-Mart waiting for Jill to lead people to him? Shouldn’t he be working on Coronavirus or world peace or something? 

The Lord may have been stocking up on supplies. He's worried the JRods will get sick and infect the entire east coast.

[GeeGolly]

Jessa is advertising Mommy & Me clothing from the Bates sisters. Josie Bates is advertising Mommy & Me clothing from a different company.

 

[BitterApple]

Didn't Jessa use the same tagline about not being into the matchy-matchy outfits? 

[Churchhoney]

16 hours ago, emma675 said:

Those poor girls. I wonder if they ever get a second to themselves, without Jill horning in on everything they do? 

No. Jill R is a complete control freak. I grew up with some of those. They will not leave anyone alone. They must be meddling at all times. They will hunt you down and pry into what you're doing as fast as they can get there if you ever manage to sneak away into another room, even briefly.

And preventing you from having any friends outside the family or any contrary influences at all, such as in books, is a big part of the control -- which is one of the purposes served by both the Rods' homeschooling and their endless traveling. The way the Rods' mother treats them is normalized for the kids because they have only the most minimal knowledge of anybody who isn't treated in exactly the same way. 

They don't even conceive of a situation in which they aren't constantly tracked and nagged. In my family, if you shifted your weight from one side to the other when you were sitting in a chair, you'd hear "What's the matter with you? Quit your fidgeting!"

Imagine even noticing someone in the room with you shifting their weight to their other leg, let alone barking at them about it. And yet....That's the life of those girls.

One or more of them may at least have a suspicion by now that the way they live is uncomfortable and infuriating.

Given that they've had only the most superficial exposure to other people, though, I think it's unlikely they can actually envision a daily life different in any way from theirs. It's also quite possible that none even allow themselves to recognize any negative feelings they have about their lives......The guilt that's drummed into them and those horrible painted-on rictus smiles they're programmed to repeatedly assume may effectively blot out any recognition of their own feelings, I think. 

It's a horror movie.  

 

[Churchhoney]

9 hours ago, Sew Sumi said:

 

Which Walmart aisle is the Lord in, anyway? Home improvement? Bread? 

[Oldernowiser]

9 hours ago, Sew Sumi said:

 

Oh bullshit.

[emma675]

Oh my lord, now Jill is stalking random strangers in Walmart? Is nowhere safe from her evangelizing?

[BradandJanet]

57 minutes ago, Churchhoney said:

Which Walmart aisle is the Lord in, anyway? Home improvement? Bread? 

Home improvement. Jill doesn't hang out in the food section of the store. 

[Oldernowiser]

It’s my belief that Jill genuinely is mentally ill. From the Cleveland Clinic’s description of histrionic personality disorder:

“Most commonly noted symptoms are:

The person seeks attention

Talks dramatically with strong opinions

Is influenced easily

Thinks relationships are closer than they are

Rapid shifts in emotion

No thinking before acting

Inappropriately seductive or flirtatious behavior

Self-centered.”

I would throw in a generous helping of narcissism as well, as long as I’m armchair diagnosing.

IMO, JimBob and Michelle are just your garden-variety utterly self-absorbed control freaks. It’s my belief JimBob knows exactly what he’s doing.

But Jill is on a whole other level.

[madpsych78]

I also feel pretty strongly that Jill has some type of personality disorder. Histronic is probably most accurate.

[scriggle]

10 hours ago, Sew Sumi said:

 

It was probably some kid who was working there and thus couldn't tell Jill to fuck off. If Jill or someone like her approached me while I was shopping and wouldn't take a polite 'not interested' and back off, I'd tell them to get out of my way and leave me alone. And I wouldn't be polite about it either.

[BradandJanet]

Jill may indeed have a personality disorder. If you know what to look for, it doesn't take too much time with a disordered person to spot it. Unfortunately (or fortunately!), we don't spend time with Jill to know exactly what's going on.

It may be that Jill just feels inherently inferior, so she "ups" her value by controlling people, relishing other people's faults, successfully soliciting vanity gifts, and throwing herself into activity that she believes will bring her god's favor. This is equally sad because she's raising her children to feel unworthy too by not educating them, making the girls cake on makeup to feel desirable, physically abusing them (likely), and creating a narrative that they live in a dangerous world controlled by a judgmental god. 

My mother's mother was likely a full-blown borderline. My mother was not, but she was severely damaged by the way she was raised and passed on the problems. In any case, it stinks. 

I used to be rude to people who tried to convert me, but I realized that just feeds into their expectations of being persecuted for their beliefs. Now, I just ignore them or respond with a puzzled or blank look on my face as if I don't speak English or have no capacity to comprehend what they're rambling on about. That frustrates the hell out of them. 

[tabloidlover]

Does she just randomly walk up to people and ask if they know Jesus?   Based on what?   That’s just so fuckin crazy.  

[Albanyguy]

19 hours ago, Westiepeach said:

The sad thing is, poor Kaylee and Renee... there is no way they will ever find a husband as good as ANNA DUGGAR’S BROTHER. Apparently he is the most godliest and bestest and most everything son-in-law EVER!

Right now, Jill is beside herself with joy over Nathan and all she thinks he represents. But her feelings may change when she realizes that this marriage is NOT going to be the golden ticket to the Duggar inner circle that she thinks it is. She sees Nurie becoming BFFs with Anna, Jessa,  Jana, Joy, etc. and using that to worm her own way into the TTH. But there's no indication that Anna is at all close to her brother, Nathan (they may not even see each other more than once or twice a year) or will make any effort to take his new bride under her wing. And the Duggars have never had any interest in befriending anyone from Anna's family (they often seem to barely tolerate Anna herself), except for her sister, Priscilla, whom they embrace because she's married to a high-ranking IBLP official. The Duggars are snobs and opportunists; they only care about people who can be useful to them or whose association will reflect well on them. They're never going to allow Jill Rod or any of her family anywhere near their citadel, especially when the cameras are rolling. 

She may also be in for another disappointment. Right now, the Kellers are being generous and hospitable, but eventually the Rods are going to wear out their welcome.  Once Nurie is married to Nathan, the Kellers may draw her into their family circle and firmly close the door in her mother's face.

Edited February 29, 2020 by Albanyguy

[Oldernowiser]

Okay, so it had slipped my mind that Nathan is Anna’s brother, not least because I could pick random two strangers off the street with more resemblance to each other.

So... I didn’t even know the Rods existed until recently (life was better not knowing). Has Jill always been such a shameless climber or is this relatively new?

If she thinks all her sucking up and fictional random grocery aisle conversions are going to win her way into Blessed Duggardom, she’s in for a huge disappointment. She should ask Derick just how real that “ministry” is....

I almost feel sorry for her. 

Then I look at all those poor skinny ignorant kids and I’m over it.

[SMama]

3 hours ago, Churchhoney said:

Which Walmart aisle is the Lord in, anyway? Home improvement? Bread? 

Shhh 🤫, don’t tell but I heard from a reliable source that the Lord hangs around the booze, cigarettes, and condoms. He’s bummed out he’s not allowed to be in the pharmacy to hand out contraceptive pills.

Jill is going to be shocked, SHOCKED I tell you.

Edited February 29, 2020 by SMama

[Sew Sumi]

1 hour ago, Oldernowiser said:

Okay, so it had slipped my mind that Nathan is Anna’s brother, not least because I could pick random two strangers off the street with more resemblance to each other.

So... I didn’t even know the Rods existed until recently (life was better not knowing). Has Jill always been such a shameless climber or is this relatively new?

If she thinks all her sucking up and fictional random grocery aisle conversions are going to win her way into Blessed Duggardom, she’s in for a huge disappointment. She should ask Derick just how real that “ministry” is....

I almost feel sorry for her. 

Then I look at all those poor skinny ignorant kids and I’m over it.

Jill's always been like this. It's just worse now that she has more social media (she used to just blog with photo dumps). She's been in the Duggars' doghouse ever since she posted Jinger's wedding invitation online. That's how the paps got there.

Edited February 29, 2020 by Sew Sumi

[Picture It. Sicily]

What kind of knucklehead posts another person's wedding invitation online??? Is she stupid? Or is she such an attention whore, fundie social climber she doesn't care if it's bad attention, as long as every one is talking about her?

[Sew Sumi]

She was totally bragging about it being a DUGGAR wedding. The Duggars apparently used to let them hook up the RV at earlier weddings. Not sure if they got to attend the after parties, though.

[galaxychaser]

Jill probably found a coffee shop owned by fundies who give her free food. 

[LilJen]

Count me in on laughing at the "manly conversation" bit that will be happening. "Ugh, ugh, lady bake food for me, have babies, change diapers, have big orgasm 'cause I am big manly Christian man who follows God."

[Westiepeach]

1 hour ago, Picture It. Sicily said:

What kind of knucklehead posts another person's wedding invitation online??? Is she stupid? Or is she such an attention whore, fundie social climber she doesn't care if it's bad attention, as long as every one is talking about her?

Let’s see. To answer your questions... yes. To all of the above.

[farmgal4]

9 hours ago, Churchhoney said:

No. Jill R is a complete control freak. I grew up with some of those. They will not leave anyone alone. They must be meddling at all times. They will hunt you down and pry into what you're doing as fast as they can get there if you ever manage to sneak away into another room, even briefly.

And preventing you from having any friends outside the family or any contrary influences at all, such as in books, is a big part of the control -- which is one of the purposes served by both the Rods' homeschooling and their endless traveling. The way the Rods' mother treats them is normalized for the kids because they have only the most minimal knowledge of anybody who isn't treated in exactly the same way. 

They don't even conceive of a situation in which they aren't constantly tracked and nagged. In my family, if you shifted your weight from one side to the other when you were sitting in a chair, you'd hear "What's the matter with you? Quit your fidgeting!"

Imagine even noticing someone in the room with you shifting their weight to their other leg, let alone barking at them about it. And yet....That's the life of those girls.

One or more of them may at least have a suspicion by now that the way they live is uncomfortable and infuriating.

Given that they've had only the most superficial exposure to other people, though, I think it's unlikely they can actually envision a daily life different in any way from theirs. It's also quite possible that none even allow themselves to recognize any negative feelings they have about their lives......The guilt that's drummed into them and those horrible painted-on rictus smiles they're programmed to repeatedly assume may effectively blot out any recognition of their own feelings, I think. 

It's a horror movie.  

 

Those kids are 100% brainwashed.  I don’t believe that even one of them will ever leave the fold.  

[ginger90]

4 pictures:

 

 

[Sew Sumi]

Notice that the food hasn't been touched. It probably belongs to one of Jill's Plexus ladies. 

But no! Her kids EAT, dammit!

[SMama]

Just what we needed, food porn. Give it up Jill.

[Oldernowiser]

Oh FFS. Someone please clue this chucklehead into the reality that 98% of the coffee shops in this country alone do exactly the same thing.

Look out, Plexus bitches. You have zero idea what you’re in for.

[galaxychaser]

Plate has Jill written on it. Ha I was right she did find someone at a coffee shop to give her free food. Grifter through and through.

[Sew Sumi]

Told ya that wasn't Nurie's food!

[Lunera]

I cackled so hard at this 🤣.