The Duggalos: Jinger and the Holy Goalie

[Temperance]

44 minutes ago, Jeanne222 said:

I'm pretty sure all the dugger kids come to the marriage with trust funds from being on the show forever!  I wonder if the girls turn them over to their masters, sorry husbands when they marry?  Would that be the dugger way?

This would make a lot of sense, however, I don't think the Duggar kids/girls do have trust funds. 

Edited March 25, 2019 by Temperance
missing word

[Churchhoney]

38 minutes ago, bigskygirl said:

Sure Jeremy I will pray for a self centered ego driven famewhore because he is moving to the big evil city in order to prove his lordship. I will get right on it!

Please forgive me everyone. I think my thyroid hormone levels are off again. I get cranky when I do not feel good.

You also get quite accurate.

I hope you're well. But go ahead and take credit for your accuracy! 

[lookeyloo]

48 minutes ago, Natalie68 said:

She is also going to get big city prices.  It will be a huge shock coming out here after being in Arkansas and Texas.  

Oh for sure.  They won't have the 4 bedroom 2 bath house with yard.  Maybe a tiny two bedroom rental somewhere.

[Churchhoney]

15 minutes ago, Jeeves said:

Oh, I doubt that Jinger will be glued to Jeremy's side when he has to attend class. I can't see Jeremy putting up with that little act for a hot minute. 

I don't think she'd actually be allowed in the door of any of Jer's classes anyway. They have some separate "I'm a pastor's wife!" classes for women. 

[Churchhoney]

Maybe the spinoff is already signed, sealed and ready to be delivered.

They'd obviously have to pay these two more if they wanted them in an LA-based show. 

For some reason, Jer seems popular, even with a lot of hatewatchers, and Jingle's always been intriguing to many. And Felicity is cute as a bug. 

Wouldn't surprise me if this is the future of the Duggarlings on TeeVee -- and maybe the reason everybody now has to join affiliate marketing programs? -- because Counting On is on life support unless it proves they have something to beat Felicity, Jingle and Jer Do LA?

Edited March 25, 2019 by Churchhoney

[PradaKitty]

I wonder if they’ll be selling or renting out the Laredo house. Renting a similar place (forget buying) in So Cal is going to be a whole lot more expensive. I can’t wait for their reaction the first time they pay California prices for gas! (My car takes premium and it’s about 4.00 per gallon). 

On the plus side, I can so see Jinger checking out the clothing resale shops on Melrose. I wonder if they’ll live in LA proper orsonewhere in the valley. 

[Oldernowiser]

Are they in for a big old shock...talk about heathens, gays, liberals, and wrong-kind-of-Christians...

Not to mention just a couple of tiny little famewhore fish in an extremely large pond.

(I would pay big money to watch him try out the masturbation sermon in an LA church even once.)

[Lunera]

Before Jeremy figured out Jinger was such a huge cash cow. 

[Churchhoney]

15 minutes ago, PradaKitty said:

I wonder if they’ll be selling or renting out the Laredo house. Renting a similar place (forget buying) in So Cal is going to be a whole lot more expensive. I can’t wait for their reaction the first time they pay California prices for gas! (My car takes premium and it’s about 4.00 per gallon). 

On the plus side, I can so see Jinger checking out the clothing resale shops on Melrose. I wonder if they’ll live in LA proper orsonewhere in the valley. 

Well, the church and the seminary are somewhere in San Fernando Valley. 

1 minute ago, Lunera said:

Before Jeremy figured out Jinger was such a huge cash cow. 

Well, I'll just repeat what I've said from Day One: Liar, liar, pants on fire. 

[Sew Sumi]

2 minutes ago, Lunera said:

Before Jeremy figured out Jinger was such a huge cash cow. 

Oops!

[MMEButterfly]

On 2/21/2019 at 12:50 PM, Churchhoney said:

Unfortunately true of any profession where you can get major ego strokes from having people listen to you or being allowed to push people around or being in the public eye in any way ... . or all of the above. Unfortunately a lot of these professions are ones where good performers should be thinking more of others than of themselves, like clergy, teachers, coaches, public officials, and so on. 

With Jer, I don't necessarily get the impression he wants to actually manipulate people and change them necessarily. Frankly, he doesn't seem interested enough in other people to want to do that. With him, it's the showing off that mostly seems to matter -- as you say, an Instagram Preacher -- so, on the bright side, I guess if my impression is accurate he's less of a problem than some other people who aspire to the job. He's just a show-off. Not necessarily a manipulative show-off. ;  )

BBM, this is such an excellent description I had to bump it. It is a distinction we lose sight of when observing a show-off vs. manipulative show-off.

[Temperance]

Maybe they can rent the house in Laredo for money. 

[Churchhoney]

Relative cost of living of Laredo, TX, and San Fernando Valley, CA

If U.S. average housing cost is taken as the benchmark  100 -- 

Then Laredo's cost is 90.7. 

And San Fernando Valley's cost is 251. 

Alrighty, then....

Could be worse, though. Housing in my neighborhood -- DC -- clocks in at 303 in this calculator. 

(From Sperling's Best Places ... 

https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&ei=jz2ZXMPrB8WQ5gLHk6PwCA&q=laredo+tx+cost+of+living&btnK=Google+Search&oq=laredo+tx+cost+of+living&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0.228.4302..4617...2.0..0.118.1847.26j1......0....1..gws-wiz.....0..0i131j0i10j0i22i30j0i22i10i30.Tia1NmnjbCc

https://www.google.com/search?ei=AD2ZXPBb7annAr20laAN&q="san+fernando+valley"+cost+of+living&oq="san+fernando+valley"+cost+of+living&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0.2823.10330..10588...1.0..4.222.5370.54j9j1......0....1..gws-wiz.....0..0i71j0i22i30j0i67j0i131j0i131i67.c0Qyiw_eHew     )))

2 minutes ago, Churchhoney said:

Edited March 25, 2019 by Churchhoney

[leighdear]

These folks have been around the world, including New York, LA, Sydney and other major world cities.  They haven't been living under rocks, they know what things cost.  They haven't appeared to do a single thing so far without a plan.  They seem to understand financial & economic concepts.  To me, they appear to deliberately act, not simply drift along and react to what happens TO them. 

Nobody has the slightest idea what kind of situation Jing & Jerm have set up for themselves in LA, just as they have no idea how much money they have, where they will live, or who they will associate with.  That's actually nobody's business.  

I find it pretty fascinating to watch them, and despite not agreeing with much of their religious beliefs, I'm not one that's just waiting for them to fail.  YMMV.  

Edited March 25, 2019 by leighdear

[ginger90]

God sure is busy with this family.

[leighdear]

Weird, double post.  

Edited March 25, 2019 by leighdear

[Misslindsey]

Oh please let Jinger and Jeremy visit SUR, TomTom, or Pump. Preferably SUR during Billie's brunch and with a various combination of employees yelling at each other.

[Minivanessa]

19 minutes ago, Temperance said:

Maybe they can rent the house in Laredo for money. 

I think that Jeremy intends to shake the dust of Laredo off his feet and never return. I doubt he'd want the responsibilities of owning a rental property there.

[Mindthinkr]

1 hour ago, Jeeves said:

Oh, I doubt that Jinger will be glued to Jeremy's side when he has to attend class. I can't see Jeremy putting up with that little act for a hot minute. 

I know that. That was my sorry attempt to be funny. 

I wonder how LA is going to change Jinger’s style of dressing. 

[galaxychaser]

They won’t last 2 years. I do think they will have their own reality show. Jeremy thinks he will be a teevee Star let’s see if it happens.

[Oldernowiser]

I’m not rooting for them to fail. I AM rooting for a reality check for every one of these Duggar 2.0 couples to help them figure out that their parents’ freakish good fortune in having TLC fund their lunacy is no guarantee for them if they perpetuate it.

I’d like to see at least some of them end up working nine hours a day and dealing with limited time and limited budgets like the vast majority of people their age...not to mention deadlines, irrational bosses, traffic jams, health care expenses...you know, real life.

Edited March 25, 2019 by Oldernowiser

[GeeGolly]

2 hours ago, Annb67 said:

I do like the fact that Jinger is getting the big city she wanted. Michelle probably has that crazy ass look on her face right now

I'm sure there's a Walmart there. Michelle will just focus on Walmart and block the rest out.

[Mindthinkr]

5 minutes ago, GeeGolly said:

I'm sure there's a Walmart there. Michelle will just focus on Walmart and block the rest out.

Are you sure that isn’t too Up market for her? She’s used to Ak thrift stores. 

[Churchhoney]

Based about half on what I've read about Jer's working life thus far and about half on pure speculation, here's my fairy tale of Jer:

He had a plan for his soccer career. He was going to be big and serve the Lord by showing the world how a truly religious man could become a major-league goalie and thrill the sports world and aspiring little goalies everywhere. And he told news reporters that he was quite sure his plan was authorized from On High. Sort of the way he's talking about his church-career path now. 

But the soccer career didn't turn out at all the way he'd thought it would. He didn't get to play very much. People weren't as impressed with him as he'd envisioned. And when things  soured on him like this, his reaction was to freak out and go home to his parents' house and curl up into a ball. (This comes from actual news interviews with Jeremy.)

Then his father called up his connection, Tim Conway, in San Antonio. And dad arranged to get Jer down there, moved him in with the Conways, and got him a part-time gig in Conway's church and church-planting organization, and onto a minor-league soccer team. At that point, he told a reporter that he knew God's plan again. It was to put him in San Antonio because there he'd he'd be able to make his mark and lead people as a godly man with both his soccer and his preaching. 

The soccer, again, didn't work out. So he was left with preaching in Texas. 

But then he spied Jingle. They married. On my interpretation, this was also partly a career move. He'd been having a lot of trouble getting to be the BMOC on his own. But now, I'm thinking, he figured that God had sent him the key -- a helpmeet with mass-media fame and a big social-media following. (I didn't read that. I invented it. But seems to me there was already a pattern here.) 

He had no intention of staying in Laredo. But of course he said he did, because to do otherwise would have looked bad. San Antonio might have been acceptable, but when he found himself farmed out entirely to the little plant church out of town -- no bueno. 

But he did hook up with John MacArthur via the seminary. And MacArthur, much more than Conway, is a guy who's going to appeal to someone who'd love to be BMOC for all America. So he works hard at showing off the media reach he now has because of Jingle. He milks it, but good. 

MacArthur is old. He's going to need replacements. And, as church attendance wanes everywhere, he's going to need more fame and more converts. And he's in LA. He has a church with money. Jer saw all this -- and, lo, God spoke to him with a new plan. (Yes, this one is speculation, not from news reports.) Jer -- who I'd say has much more of a talent for selling himself than for soccer, preaching or theology -- puts himself into media as much as possible and waves his media self and his very very eager suck-up-iness in front of MacArthur. We've seen this happening. 

And he was rewarded. When MacArthur wrote his mean anti-social-justice letter -- partly, I would guess, to draw eyes away from the scrutiny his school had come under from the student and faculty complaints collected by the accrediting group -- somehow Jer, who was a semi-working preacher in an itty bitty plant church in Laredo, TX, and had no other church experience or education, became one of a tiny handful of featured "First Signers" of the document. There were thousands of people who wanted to sign that document, the vast majority with many more credentials in their fields than Jer.

Yet it was Jer who was plucked from obscurity and somehow got his name smacked right up at the top. (Could his media reach help account for that? Hmmm? Quite possibly, I'd guesss.) In any case, I've read enough about Jer seeing God's hand in his various life choices to feel pretty secure in saying that he probably saw God's hand again in this. ... 

And, lo, less than a year later, God's hand does appear again. And this time it's waving him off Laredo and toward the big-time -- John MacArthur's LA. He told us that today. 

Now, this time, Jer may be right. His plan to rise by sucking up like crazy and flaunting his mass and social media fame as hard as he can may work. He may not just move to LA but become a favored heir of MacArthur and get his hands on part of Grace Community Church, LA. Thriving and making a big name for itself as a Calvinist powerhouse since 1956.

Looking at his earlier pronouncements about what God was calling him to do, I see a track record that isn't that good when it comes to Jer predicting God's personal plans for him.  However, he does have the media presence to tempt MacArthur at this point. And he is clearly quite good at sucking up and at using his media presence for his benefit. 

So it'll be interesting to see. 

Boob, Der, Bin and Jessa -- at least -- must all be emerald green with jealousy right now. 

Edited March 25, 2019 by Churchhoney

[BitterApple]

Judging from the houses Jer and Jingle stay at when they travel, they appear to have some very well-to-do friends. Is it possible someone at GCC is subsidizing them?

[snarky snarkerson]

Oooo, don’t point out the seminary is under intense scrutiny by the accrediting body....he’ll delete your comment. But not before a dozen or so sheeple come for you cause you’re being mean and must be a fat heathen...

[Churchhoney]

10 minutes ago, BitterApple said:

Judging from the houses Jer and Jingle stay at when they travel, they appear to have some very well-to-do friends. Is it possible someone at GCC is subsidizing them?

Somebody sure as heck is. 

[DangerousMinds]

1 hour ago, Sew Sumi said:

Oops!

So sad too, because there really is no “we,” it’s all what Jeremy wants.

[McManda]

The thing I think Jer has over the other Duggar-husbands is some kind of ambition. He seems to know what he wants - kinda - and at least tries to get it. And oddly, of the Duggar-husbands, he's probably the most equipped with a plan to try for it.

Ben wants to be a minister ... maybe ... and it's taking classes at the community college ... maybe. 

Austin wants to stay at home and flip houses and run camp.

Derick ... well, who the hell knows what Derick wants, except maybe to be rid of Jill and the kids, but that'll never happen.

I presume Jeremy has a plan for LA. I don't see him like Derick and Jill, staying a GoFundMe for living expenses. And Jinger gets to live in a big city, which was one of her aspirations. I might not agree with them ... in basically anything ... but I hope they do well. And I wouldn't be upset to watch them try for awhile. And let's be realistic, they and this move are the best shot at keeping up the Duggar TV show in some capacity. (Sorry Jessa. Everyone is tired of babies and weddings.)

[Petrichor]

All I care about is that they take Jacob the kitty.

[fonfereksglen]

24 minutes ago, McManda said:

The thing I think Jer has over the other Duggar-husbands is some kind of ambition. He seems to know what he wants - kinda - and at least tries to get it. And oddly, of the Duggar-husbands, he's probably the most equipped with a plan to try for it.

Ben wants to be a minister ... maybe ... and it's taking classes at the community college ... maybe. 

Austin wants to stay at home and flip houses and run camp.

Derick ... well, who the hell knows what Derick wants, except maybe to be rid of Jill and the kids, but that'll never happen.

I presume Jeremy has a plan for LA. I don't see him like Derick and Jill, staying a GoFundMe for living expenses. And Jinger gets to live in a big city, which was one of her aspirations. I might not agree with them ... in basically anything ... but I hope they do well. And I wouldn't be upset to watch them try for awhile. And let's be realistic, they and this move are the best shot at keeping up the Duggar TV show in some capacity. (Sorry Jessa. Everyone is tired of babies and weddings.)

Nothing wrong with Austin and his line of work.  Very authentic and productive.  It also appears that his wife is ok with that lifestyle.

I  will admit I find Jessa and her little boy bearded husband to be increasingly pathetic, with a third child arriving and what for income?

[BigBingerBro]

Nothing irritates me more than when Fundies or other Christians use the "God is telling me to...." or "The Lord lead me to do xyz"....    No, God gave you free-will and you made a choice.  I much more prefer "We prayed about moving to LA and we feel at peace with it".   I know it's just semantics, but it grates.

A possible spinoff does make sense, and LA would be a much better setting than Laredo.  Another consideration is that maybe Jer has been promised a preaching gig at the church they are planning to attend.  I know of other mega-churches than pay pretty well for associate pastors and set their families up fairly well with homes and cars.  

This also has shades of Josh and Anna Duggar move to DC.......  Not that I think Jer has or would do anything similar to the crimes josh committed, but the fortune-teller in me feels a scandal may break.....  just a hunch.

Edited March 25, 2019 by BigBingerBro
:-)

[McManda]

9 minutes ago, fonfereksglen said:

Nothing wrong with Austin and his line of work.  Very authentic and productive.  It also appears that his wife is ok with that lifestyle.

Oh no, I didn't mean to imply there was anything wrong with Austin wanting to flip houses and run the family camp. Just that it's nothing out of the ordinary or overly ambitious for their crowd. At least if Jeremy is going to talk the talk he's also willing to do something to walk the walk (and presumably without JB's help), unlike Ben or Derick. 

[Oldernowiser]

JerJer better sleep with one eye open. I doubt the other guys at the seminary school (those with actual intellectual ability and preaching skills) are going to be too happy having this Duggar-come-lately sail in believing he’s got this all sewn up.

[fonfereksglen]

5 minutes ago, McManda said:

Oh no, I didn't mean to imply there was anything wrong with Austin wanting to flip houses and run the family camp. Just that it's nothing out of the ordinary or overly ambitious for their crowd. At least if Jeremy is going to talk the talk he's also willing to do something to walk the walk (and presumably without JB's help), unlike Ben or Derick. 

That makes sense. Sorry I took your thoughts wrong.  

[Churchhoney]

19 minutes ago, BigBingerBro said:

Nothing irritates me more than when Fundies or other Christians use the "God is telling me to...." or "The Lord lead me to do xyz"....    No, God gave you free-will and you made a choice.  I much more prefer "We prayed about moving to LA and we feel at peace with it".   I know it's just semantics, but it grates.

A possible spinoff does make sense, and LA would be a much better setting than Laredo.  Another consideration is that maybe Jer has been promised a preaching gig at the church they are planning to attend.  I know of other mega-churches than pay pretty well for associate pastors and set their families up fairly well with homes and cars.  

This also has shades of Josh and Anna Duggar move to DC.......  Not that I think Jer has or would do anything similar to the crimes josh committed, but the fortune-teller in me feels a scandal may break.....  just a hunch.

I wonder about that, too. Are you really going to move to the Los Angeles area without a job, while still in school, and with a baby?  

But if it's happened then my crazy hypothesis about Jer's excellent sucking-up ability and the appeal for churchmen of his mass and social media following must actually be right. 

Because Jer is a terrible preacher. And he's not yet completed any religion-related education, and his work experience is also quite minor. Yet this is one of the most prominent evangelical Calvinist churches in the country. With a lot of influence and a respectable weekly attendance of over 9,000, as of 2010. And top dog MacArthur runs his own seminary. So there have got to be tons of qualified applicants, both from that seminary and elsewhere, fighting for those positions.

So it's either the suck-upness and the media following.....Or he's aware of where someone's buried bodies. 

Edited March 25, 2019 by Churchhoney

[lascuba]

2 hours ago, Oldernowiser said:

(I would pay big money to watch him try out the masturbation sermon in an LA church even once.)

Opportunistic schemer that he is, he knows better. He'll preach whatever he thinks will help him climb the ranks to the big money. His preaching has nothing to do with personal religiosity. 

Calling it now--when he gets caught cheating,  he and Jinger will blame heathen L.A.

[Churchhoney]

1 minute ago, lascuba said:

Opportunistic schemer that he is, he knows better. He'll preach whatever he thinks will help him climb the ranks to the big money. His preaching has nothing to do with personal religiosity. 

Calling it now--when he gets caught cheating,  he and Jinger will blame heathen L.A.

Just the way he now blames spending a year or two in high school rather than at the SOTDRT for whatever devilish mischief he claims he got up to in the six or seven years after that. 

[fonfereksglen]

4 minutes ago, Churchhoney said:

I wonder about that, too. Are you really going to move to the Los Angeles area without a job, while still in school, and with a baby.  

But if it's happened then my crazy hypothesis about Jer's excellent sucking-up ability and the appeal of his mass and the appeal for churchmen of his social media following must actually be right. 

Because Jer is a terrible preacher. And he's not yet completed any religion-related educated, and his work experience is also quite minor. Yet this is one of the most prominent evangelical Calvinist churches in the country. With a lot of influence and a respectable weekly attendance of over 9,000, as of 2010. And top dog MacArthur runs his own seminary. So there have got to be tons of qualified applicants, both from that seminary and elsewhere, fighting for those positions.

So it's either the suck-upness and the media following.....Or he's aware of where someone's buried bodies. 

Still, he will never be the next Joseph Prince!

[JoanArc]

Wow. This is not gonna end well. Did he make some kind of statement to his Laredo flock? Screw 'em, they're last season?

I can't wait for Jessa to realize she's a 3, max, in LA. 🙂

Quote

Calling it now--when he gets caught cheating,  he and Jinger will blame heathen L.A.

Oh, shoudl he get a MegaChurch of his own - he'll be the type that gets 75% of the female staff pregnant, then resigns in disgrace.

[Churchhoney]

17 minutes ago, Oldernowiser said:

JerJer better sleep with one eye open. I doubt the other guys at the seminary school (those with actual intellectual ability and preaching skills) are going to be too happy having this Duggar-come-lately sail in believing he’s got this all sewn up.

Hey, he got into People magazine, just with the story that he'll attend the church.

There's no chance any of the rest of them could get that level of publicity absent a couple dead girls and a live boy. And that wouldn't have so much of the desired affect.      ;  ) 

I'm sure he's trading heavily on a promised ability to attract crowds to the MacArthur enterprise. 

[Oldernowiser]

People in LA are pretty celebrity-proof. There are A-listers buying Red Bulls at 7-11s...who’s going to get up on a Sunday to go see a F-list-adjacent preach?

Some uber Christians might go...once. But that boy isn’t putting butts in the seats or money in the plates on any long term basis, no matter how cute his kid is.

Edited March 25, 2019 by Oldernowiser

[fonfereksglen]

12 minutes ago, Churchhoney said:

Hey, he got into People magazine, just with the story that he'll attend the church.

There's no chance any of the rest of them could get that level of publicity absent a couple dead girls and a live boy. And that wouldn't have so much of the desired affect.      ;  ) 

I'm sure he's trading heavily on a promised ability to attract crowds to the MacArthur enterprise. 

Though he didn't produce tangible results in Laredo.  It is puzzling.

[Sew Sumi]

He did get his flock into an actual church. I guess his celebrity gets some credit for that, because his preaching sucks. 

Edited March 25, 2019 by Sew Sumi

[Oldernowiser]

Okay so I’m spending much too much time on this, but it’s got to be a TLC spinoff he’s dangling in front of the church honchos. TLC is thinking Beverly Hillbillies remake (“Look, Baaabe! They have a cement pond!”), now with more scripture. 

Nothing else makes any sense unless he does have a pile of inherited money somewhere.

[Churchhoney]

12 hours ago, Oldernowiser said:

Hey, people in LA are pretty celebrity-proof. There are A-listers buying Red Bulls at 7-11s...who’s going to get up on a Sunday to go see a F-list-adjacent preach?

Some uber Christians might go...once. But that boy isn’t putting butts in the seats or money in the plates on any long term basis, no matter how cute his kid is.

Yeah, but every church now is looking for something to put butts in seats. Younger butts, especially.

And a certain amount of desperation is building about that, as I understand it .... pretty much everywhere. So I doubt that MacArthur's enterprise is immune.

And I'm not talking about Jer-the-great-celebrity. I'm talking about the free publicity chances and the mass and social-media reach they would have through him that no other young seminarian could possibly duplicate. 

And when you've got two options for a hire -- a guy with all As in seminary and a guy who might sometimes get followed by a film crew so people in the congregation might get their left legs into a magazine... Which one will somebody choose today, whether they're in a big sophisticated city area or somewhere else? ....

Even if people are jaded about potentially seeing that leg of theirs in People magazine or in the background of a Duggar show shot, are they so excited about theology or Bible history that they'd say, "Oh, no, don't go for publicity, hire the theologian!" I doubt this. 

And Jer has more than his own mini-mass-media celebrity to offer. His and his wife's large social media following will expose the church to many more people than they'd get exposed to otherwise. There's no way in hell that the rest of the student body at The Master's Seminary could bring the church as many new social-media followers as the Duggar-Vuolos. 

And, honestly, having lived and worked in DC these many years, I'm not sure that all the people who claim to be jaded about celebrities are actually nearly as jaded as they claim. Many people who work here have run into political (and other) celebrities hundreds of times in their daily lives and still have a major jones for rubbing up against those people. .... Even other celebrities are attracted to celebrities. Just let some famous athlete testify on Capitol Hill and you'll see prominent senators -- some of whom have met thousands of celebrities in their lives -- with their tongues hanging out. 

Plus, we're not talking LA proper. We're talking about the massive suburban outskirts. And there's always been a very substantial contingent of conservative Protestants hanging out in that huge area. And many of them probably don't see any more celebrities than people in Illinois or Oregon do. 

And -- the alternative is somebody who was really good at seminary? ..... Now they may well pick such guys over Jer in the end....But if nobody in that church and seminary are intrigued by the possible presence of somebody who could get them more publicity and the eye of some social-media followers, then why do they seem to have encouraged suck-up Jer to come to LA in the first place?

And they clearly have -- because look at the pictures he published last week or the week before of Felicity meeting MacArthur and his wife .... Clearly there's an invite there. And, I would note, those pictures got MacArthur and his wife seen by at least hundreds of thousands of people, many of whom may not have heard of him before. And in the company of super-cute Felicity -- a setup totally inviting social-media shares, if you ask me....Felicity is very shareable, I think. A church can't buy that kind of publicity reach. Or not easily, anyway. 

Somebody in the MacArthur religious empire is interested in what Jer brings to the table. And as far as I can see, the only thing he brings is a social-media following and some potential to get everybody there mentioned or seen in social media and in some mass media, too. 

He has nothing else to offer them. And media connections of various kinds are certainly the only thing he has more of than the other guys at the seminary do. 

12 hours ago, Oldernowiser said:

Okay so I’m spending much too much time on this, but it’s got to be a TLC spinoff he’s dangling in front of the church honchos. TLC is thinking Beverly Hillbillies remake (“Look, Baaabe! They have a cement pond!”), now with more scripture. 

Nothing else makes any sense unless he does have a pile of inherited money somewhere.

My guess is it's both. The inherited money could float him while he works these various angles, even if it's only several hundred thou. 

Edited March 26, 2019 by Churchhoney

[fonfereksglen]

9 minutes ago, Churchhoney said:

Yeah, but every church now is looking for something to put butts in seats. Younger butts, especially.

And a certain amount of desperation is building about that, as I understand it .... pretty much everywhere. So I doubt that MacArthur's enterprise is immune.

And when you've got two options for a hire -- a guy with all As in seminary and a guy who might sometimes get followed by a film crew so people in the congregation might get their left legs into a magazine... Which one will somebody choose today, whether they're in a big sophisticated city area or somewhere else? ....

Even if people are jaded about potentially seeing that leg of theirs in People magazine or in the background of a Duggar show shot, are they excited about theology or Bible history? 

And Jer has more than his own mini-mass-media celebrity to offer. His and his wife's large social media following will expose the church to many more people than they'd get exposed to otherwise. There's no way in hell that the rest of the student body at The Master's Seminary could bring the church as many new social-media followers as the Duggar-Vuolos. 

And, honestly, having lived and worked in DC these many years, I'm not sure that all the people who claim to be jaded about celebrities are actually nearly as jaded as they claim. Many people who work here have run into political (and other) celebrities hundreds of times in their daily lives and still have a major jones for rubbing up against those people. .... Even other celebrities are attracted to celebrities. Just let some famous athlete testify on Capitol Hill and you'll see prominent senators -- some of whom have met thousands of celebrities in their lives -- with their tongues hanging out. 

Plus, we're not talking LA proper. We're talking about the massive suburban outskirts. And there's always been a very substantial contingent of conservative Protestants hanging out in that huge area. And many of them probably don't see any more celebrities than people in Illinois or Oregon do. 

And -- the alternative is somebody who was really good at seminary? ..... Now they may well pick such guys over Jer in the end....But if nobody in that church and seminary are intrigued by the possible presence of somebody who could get them more publicity and the eye of some social-media followers, than why so they seem to have encouraged suck-up Jer to come to LA in the first place?

And they clearly have -- because look at the pictures he published last week or the week before of Felicity meeting MacArthur and his wife .... Clearly there's an invite there. 

Somebody in the MacArthur religious empire is interested in what Jer brings to the table. And as far as I can see, the only thing he brings is a social-media following and some potential to get everybody there mentioned or seen in social media and in some mass media, too. 

He has nothing else to offer them. And media connections of various kinds are certainly the only thing he has more of than the other guys at the seminary do. 

Lots to think and talk about.  Since they don't move until the summer, that would be a good time for conjecture, which I look forward to.

I feel evil laughing that this announcement will dwarf Jessa's old news.

[Oldernowiser]

If it is a TLC spinoff, Jinger better sleep with both eyes open.

Neither Jessa nor Michelle is going to take this sudden dethroning well.

[Churchhoney]

3 minutes ago, Oldernowiser said:

If it is a TLC spinoff, Jinger better sleep with both eyes open.

Neither Jessa nor Michelle is going to take this sudden dethroning well.

And just when Meeechelle was clawing her way back on the show.....

[bigskygirl]

4 hours ago, ginger90 said:

From their website:

One of the hardest things we've ever done. Our friends here have become like family. Oh please...millions of people move to attend school/college with or without a spouse and a child. You are not that special Jeremy. And no mention of moving further away from your families. Reminds me of when Deredick and Jilly Girl left Danger America. They were so sad to leave their friends when in reality their "friends" were probably glad they left.