The Duggalos: Jinger and the Holy Goalie

[Zella]

1 hour ago, Albanyguy said:

Possibly Jeremy discourages it. I don't think he's ever liked Jessa, going back to the time she "redecorated" his bachelor pad. He probably regards her as a bossy, sour-faced buzzkill. Plus, if she came out to California, she might bring Ben and I'm sure that Jeremy would regard socializing with him as torture. 

Weren't Ben and Jeremy friends? I don't know that I've ever gotten the impression that he dislikes Ben or Jessa. In fact, I remember some kind of cringey moment were Jessa and Jeremy seemed to be flirting pretty obviously with each other, though I admit that my impression may be exaggerating the extent they were. But I do remember the resulting jokes about Jessa and Jeremy running off with each other. 

Edited February 12, 2022 by Zella

[Albanyguy]

13 hours ago, Zella said:

Weren't Ben and Jeremy friends? I don't know that I've ever gotten the impression that he dislikes Ben or Jessa. In fact, I remember some kind of cringey moment were Jessa and Jeremy seemed to be flirting pretty obviously with each other, though I admit that my impression may be exaggerating the extent they were. But I do remember the resulting jokes about Jessa and Jeremy running off with each other. 

I thought about that while posting and you’re right, Jeremy, Jessa and Ben were once quite chummy. But considering what we’ve seen of Jeremy in the years since then, I wonder how sincere he really was. Would someone as full of himself as Jeremy maintain a friendship with someone as dull and dorky as Ben if Ben wasn’t a “TV star”? Did Jeremy seen the Seewalds as his chance to get his mug on television and then as his chance to romance and marry an available Duggar daughter who could help him become a “star” too? Was the flirty behavior with Jessa a ploy to get more attention (if so, it worked)?

Perhaps I’m being unfair, but I think it would be very much in character for Jeremy to use the Seewalds as a rung on his ladder and then distance himself when they were no longer useful.

[Jeeves]

41 minutes ago, Albanyguy said:

Perhaps I’m being unfair, but I think it would be very much in character for Jeremy to use the Seewalds as a rung on his ladder and then distance himself when they were no longer useful.

Come sit down right here by me (or as socially distanced from me as you wish), because I think you nailed it. I would bet the rent that Jeremy absolutely loathed his "church plant" assignment in Laredo. A tiny little church operating out of an old converted wood house, in a border town full of blue collar folks. He must have been desperate to get out of there and find another way to work his way up the ladder in his chosen career. I don't know how he first met Ben but it wouldn't surprise me if Jeremy somehow made it happen. AFAIK it didn't happen because Ben happened to be in Laredo. Even if Jeremy didn't engineer the actual introduction, I'm sure he made the most of his new friendship. 

ETA: come to think of it, Jeremy and Jinger, once they were in LA, issued the "breakout stars" press release. A nice little passive-aggressive slap at the Seewalds and the rest of the Duggar family, implicitly relegating them to "not stars" or at least "old featured cast." 

Edited February 12, 2022 by Jeeves
Pronouns and more thoughts

[Cinnabon]

46 minutes ago, Albanyguy said:

I thought about that while posting and you’re right, Jeremy, Jessa and Ben were once quite chummy. But considering what we’ve seen of Jeremy in the years since then, I wonder how sincere he really was. Would someone as full of himself as Jeremy maintain a friendship with someone as dull and dorky as Ben if Ben wasn’t a “TV star”? Did Jeremy seen the Seewalds as his chance to get his mug on television and then as his chance to romance and marry an available Duggar daughter who could help him become a “star” too? Was the flirty behavior with Jessa a ploy to get more attention (if so, it worked)?

Perhaps I’m being unfair, but I think it would be very much in character for Jeremy to use the Seewalds as a rung on his ladder and then distance himself when they were no longer useful.

Short answer- YES to all of this.

[Zella]

56 minutes ago, Albanyguy said:

I thought about that while posting and you’re right, Jeremy, Jessa and Ben were once quite chummy. But considering what we’ve seen of Jeremy in the years since then, I wonder how sincere he really was. Would someone as full of himself as Jeremy maintain a friendship with someone as dull and dorky as Ben if Ben wasn’t a “TV star”? Did Jeremy seen the Seewalds as his chance to get his mug on television and then as his chance to romance and marry an available Duggar daughter who could help him become a “star” too? Was the flirty behavior with Jessa a ploy to get more attention (if so, it worked)?

Perhaps I’m being unfair, but I think it would be very much in character for Jeremy to use the Seewalds as a rung on his ladder and then distance himself when they were no longer useful.

I can definitely buy this. 

[SMama]

26 minutes ago, Jeeves said:

Come sit down right here by me (or as socially distanced from me as you wish), because I think you nailed it. I would bet the rent that Jeremy absolutely loathed his "church plant" assignment in Laredo. A tiny little church operating out of an old converted wood house, in a border town full of blue collar folks. He must have been desperate to get out of there and find another way to work his way up the ladder in his chosen career. I don't know how he first met Ben but it wouldn't surprise me if Jeremy somehow made it happen. AFAIK it didn't happen because Ben happened to be in Laredo. Even if Jeremy didn't engineer the actual introduction, I'm sure he made the most of his new friendship. 

ETA: come to think of it, Jeremy and Jinger, once they were in LA, issued the "breakout stars" press release. A nice little passive-aggressive slap at the Seewalds and the rest of the Duggar family, implicitly relegating them to "not stars" or at least "old featured cast." 

IIRC Jessa and Ben were in Texas and had time before heading to whatever event they were attending. Ben called someone (Flame?) for suggestions, and they were led to Jeremy’s church. Jessa allegedly liked the pastor’s sweater (I suspect she liked more than just his sweater) and thought Jeremy and Jinger should meet. Sorry if I’m conflating events.

Jeremy was also invited to the baby shower for one of the Seewald pregnancies. It’s the one where they made baby food. Jeremy is seen shopping with Ben, but was not introduced at the time.

[Churchhoney]

21 hours ago, Jeeves said:

Come sit down right here by me (or as socially distanced from me as you wish), because I think you nailed it. I would bet the rent that Jeremy absolutely loathed his "church plant" assignment in Laredo. A tiny little church operating out of an old converted wood house, in a border town full of blue collar folks. He must have been desperate to get out of there and find another way to work his way up the ladder in his chosen career. I don't know how he first met Ben but it wouldn't surprise me if Jeremy somehow made it happen. AFAIK it didn't happen because Ben happened to be in Laredo. Even if Jeremy didn't engineer the actual introduction, I'm sure he made the most of his new friendship. 

ETA: come to think of it, Jeremy and Jinger, once they were in LA, issued the "breakout stars" press release. A nice little passive-aggressive slap at the Seewalds and the rest of the Duggar family, implicitly relegating them to "not stars" or at least "old featured cast." 

I think Jer met Bin on an occasion when Bin was visting San Antonio.

Bin visited there at least few times after he got married -- because his family were in Vision Forum, which was a San Antonio-based Calvinist group. and Bin apparently carried on some acquaintances with a Vision Forum-affiliated person or persons after it collapsed.  ... And Jer was connected to another major San Antonio-based Calvinist church -- Grace Community Church, San Antonio, often referred to formerly as "Tim Conway's church. That's the church that planted Jer's church in Laredo. 

Totally agree with you that Jer almost certainly sought Bin out in his quest to escape Laredo and the small-time, too-little-fame life. Via television or at least via the fame of a "tv star" family. And what's above is the path by which they met, I'm certain -- the San Antonio conservative Calvinist community, to which both were connected. 

I think his seeking out of Bin was quite similar to his later seeking out and sucking up to MacArthur.....Neither of thsee things was accidental. And although he didn't seem to put much work into his Laredo sermons. I believe he put quite a bit of work into hooking up with people who might lead him to the fame of which his slide out of pro soccer unfairly deprived him, in his opinion.

In JM, Jer saw a big-time Calvinist in the LA area, and he was determined to hook up with the guy and get to the bright lights if possible. 

For Jer to be invited to be one of about four or five TOP-LINE, ORIGINAL signatories of MacArthur's social-justice letter in 2018 -- a year before they went to LA -- Jer had to be doing some fancy suck-up dancing. to the guy, seems to me.

It's well-known that MacArthur absolutely insists that everybody brought into his orbit be intensely interrogated about how strongly they embrace all of JM's key principles. Reportedly, JM even tries to insist on that for the maintenance and other general, non-theologically-professional staff of his church and schools.

So there's no way Jer got the incredible JM-awarded honor of signing that letter at the very top solely on the basis of being on tv at that point. He had to have made it very clear to Jonny Mac that he was a fervent believer in every sexist, racist, homophobic, etc. detail of that document before he was asked to be one of its top representatives. 

But of course what JM probably didn't know was that all Jer's expressed super-JM-y fervor was less about Jer's deep devotion to those ideas and way more about how desperate he was to get out of Laredo and into a place where he could chase media spotlights way more easily.....

.Same urges that propelled him to hook up with and make nice for a prolonged period with Bin-Seewald-of-TV, via their San Antonio conservative Calvinist connections. 

Jer! He's gonna live forever! Baby, remember his name! 

ELTA: Jer was extremely low after he was cut by the Bulls. And before that, he'd really aspired to be a highly visible athlete who also brought millions to the correct Jesus. He gave an interview about how very dispirited and totally lacking in energy he was after the Bulls dumped him. So it seems as if he probably saw Texas as possibly his last chance to grab his athlete-influencer-bringer-to-Jesus dream and was on the lookout for any and all opportunities. 

I know Jer seems lazy in various ways. But I don't think his big quest for fame could possibly have been accidental, even though now he's so bad at social media and spends so much time playing Uno and comes off as a bit of a slug.

When he was playing soccer, he absolutely told some interviewers that he was very excited about being a major athlete-Christian influencer. That he envisioned himself having more and more influence to spread. ... He was quoted talking about that in interviews way more than he talked about the actual sport....And then that version of his fame dream evaporated when the Bulls cut him....

And he was absolutely miserable over that (again, according to his own testimony in interviews).

So it seems quite unlikely to me that he then just accidentally met Bin and got hooked up with a tv-famous conservative Christian family and married one of them. And then again just accidentally got hooked up with and trusted by MacArthur (no easy feat, according to many accounts)-- one of the most prominent and visible conservative Calvinist pastors in the country who also happens to live in L.A. -- aka Fameville, USA. Neither of those things was an accident, I don't think. 

 I think a big reason why he seemed to work so little for his church in Laredo is that in his mind his really important work in that period was to insinuate himself firmly among the conservative-Christian famous. The little church in Laredo wasn't going to help with that a bit. But a tv marriage and being a top signatory of MacArthur's social-justice letter absolutely would. 

 

Edited February 13, 2022 by Churchhoney

[ginger90]

An article about them meeting:

 

https://www.romper.com/p/the-timeline-of-jinger-duggar-jeremy-vuolos-relationship-documents-their-unique-love-story-3246589

[Jeeves]

Thanks for the background info, @ginger90. As @Churchhoney said, Ben and Jeremy would have run in the same - or overlapping - theological circles. I do remember that the first I ever heard of Jeremy, I associated him with San Antonio. It wasn't until later that I learned he was at least officially the pastor of a church in Laredo. BTW I've just amused myself with the random thought that Jeremy was so desperate to leave Laredo behind that he may have literally cleaned the dust of Laredo off his shoes after they moved to LA. 🤣

[Zella]

I remember the sweater being a factor and thinking how pathetically superficial that whole anecdote was. If only I'd known that was just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to being pathetic and superficial for these two. 

Like, it's fine if you like a particular sweater, but if that's the sole factor in arranging a meeting, maybe you should rethink your priorities and judgment criteria. 

Edited February 12, 2022 by Zella

[madpsych78]

I'm sure that somewhere out there, someone has written a Duggar fanfic about Jessa and Jeremy having hot angry sex, with Ben and Jinger being oblivious.

[Cinnabon]

1 hour ago, madpsych78 said:

I'm sure that somewhere out there, someone has written a Duggar fanfic about Jessa and Jeremy having hot angry sex, with Ben and Jinger being oblivious.

I remember when people thought that, based on their interactions, Bin and Jinger would’ve been more compatible than Bin and Jessa. And they may have been right.

[GeeGolly]

No matter how or why they met, I'm guessing Jeremy is thankful to have Ben as a BIL. When he hangs with him there's no pissing contest like with JB and the Duggar brothers, plus Jeremy undoubtedly thinks he's the Big Kahuna when he's with Ben, so he can strut his feathers with little effort.

[Scarlett45]

3 hours ago, Zella said:

I remember the sweater being a factor and thinking how pathetically superficial that whole anecdote was. If only I'd known that was just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to being pathetic and superficial for these two. 

Like, it's fine if you like a particular sweater, but if that's the sole factor in arranging a meeting, maybe you should rethink your priorities and judgment criteria. 

I always thought the sweater was a funny euphemism for finding Jeremy attractive. As in Jessa SAID “Jinger likes guys that wear that type of sweater.” But what she really meant was “I think Jinger would find him hot, let’s introduce them.” I don’t think that’s odd. 
 

When we saw Jinger & Jeremy together the first time on camera- it was clear to me she WAS attracted to him, so her older sister was right on that front. I could see Jinger telling Jessa she was ready to meet someone, and introduce her if she (or Ben) met any guys she might like and JB wouldn’t immediately say no. 

[Zella]

49 minutes ago, Scarlett45 said:

I always thought the sweater was a funny euphemism for finding Jeremy attractive. As in Jessa SAID “Jinger likes guys that wear that type of sweater.” But what she really meant was “I think Jinger would find him hot, let’s introduce them.” I don’t think that’s odd. 
 

When we saw Jinger & Jeremy together the first time on camera- it was clear to me she WAS attracted to him, so her older sister was right on that front. I could see Jinger telling Jessa she was ready to meet someone, and introduce her if she (or Ben) met any guys she might like and JB wouldn’t immediately say no. 

Maybe I'm just being really mean toward them, but I honestly don't think any of them are bright enough to think up and use a code and then also stick to that story for years. I really do think they actually just connected the dots over the sweater. 

These are the same people who brought us "Jeremy likes books, so I like books." 

Edited February 12, 2022 by Zella

[Cinnabon]

5 minutes ago, Zella said:

Maybe I'm just being really mean toward them, but I honestly don't think any of them are bright enough to think up and use a code and then also stick to that story for years. I really do think they actually just connected the dots over the sweater. 

These are the same people who brought us "Jeremy likes books, so I like books." 

Agree. I doubt they even know what a euphemism IS. And what kind of super special sweater was he wearing, anyway? 😆

[Scarlett45]

9 minutes ago, Cinnabon said:

Agree. I doubt they even know what a euphemism IS. And what kind of super special sweater was he wearing, anyway? 😆

It was one with 3/4 buttons up the front I think, and the collar was a different trim. 
 

You and @Zella are probably right, and I’m just a horn dog who reads “that guy is hot” into “I like his SWEATER.”🤣

[Cinnabon]

10 minutes ago, Scarlett45 said:

It was one with 3/4 buttons up the front I think, and the collar was a different trim. 
 

You and @Zella are probably right, and I’m just a horn dog who reads “that guy is hot” into “I like his SWEATER.”🤣

I think JB considers his daughters’ attraction to a prospective spouse far less important than other factors. As he should, really. In retrospect, Jessa may wish JB had placed more value on her future husband’s employment prospects.

Edited February 12, 2022 by Cinnabon

[iwantcookies]

I’m looking fly ! 

I admire this man! Give me $ sir! I’m Jer fly RAD HOMIE Vuolo! My nickname is Dyson 🤣🤪😝.
 

 

[ginger90]

This is from a  video where he spoke of a charity:

https://knottoday.org/the-issue/

[ginger90]

 

Jeremy was at the breakfast mentioned in this article:

 

https://www.colts.com/news/knot-today-super-bowl-56-frank-reich-alliance-human-trafficking-deforest-buckner

[irisheyes]

Going back to the “What will the V’s do after graduation?” - MacArthur’s church is large enough to have dozens of full time staff. They’ll probably find a job for Jeremy in their social media outreach department, and he and Jinger will happily continue in their LA life. 

Edited February 13, 2022 by irisheyes

[Zella]

I just have such a hard time understanding what Jeremy is bringing to the table that would make him so valuable that they'd want him to stick around. His ineptness at social media is kind of awe-inspiring.

Actual picture of Jeremy being bewildered by responses to his social media:

Jinger has more followers. Maybe the hateful assholes can get over their misogyny and just hire her in Jeremy's stead. LOLOL 

[Cinnabon]

34 minutes ago, irisheyes said:

Going back to the “What will the V’s do after graduation?” - MacArthur’s church is large enough to have dozens of full time staff. They’ll probably find a job for Jeremy in their social media outreach department, and he and Jinger will happily continue in their LA life. 

Probably without free housing, though, and that will make a huge dent in their finances.

[emmawoodhouse]

3 minutes ago, Cinnabon said:

Probably without free housing, though, and that will make a huge dent in their finances.

If he continues to work for Johnny Mac, the church benefactor may let the Vuolos continue living there rent free, or close to it. 

[Cinnabon]

5 minutes ago, emmawoodhouse said:

If he continues to work for Johnny Mac, the church benefactor may let the Vuolos continue living there rent free, or close to it. 

I would have assumed the benefactor would pass it on to another struggling (ha!) student and his family.

[emmawoodhouse]

1 minute ago, Cinnabon said:

I would have assumed the benefactor would pass it on to another struggling (ha!) student and his family.

Jer has sucked up to said benefactor to the point that the Vuolos have been invited to the benefactor's vacation home in the mountains. 

[GeeGolly]

2 hours ago, Zella said:

I just have such a hard time understanding what Jeremy is bringing to the table that would make him so valuable that they'd want him to stick around. His ineptness at social media is kind of awe-inspiring.

Jinger has more followers. Maybe the hateful assholes can get over their misogyny and just hire her in Jeremy's stead. LOLOL 

I'm going to guess they don't much care what Jeremy puts out on SM, they just care that he does. Jer's (hip, young and cool - I can't believe I typed that) association with the church is all they care about getting out to Jinger's many followers.

[Zella]

31 minutes ago, GeeGolly said:

(hip, young and cool - I can't believe I typed that)

Yeah I feel like it's a real testament to how tragically unhip and out of touch the fossils at that seminary must be to read him that way, but you're probably right. 

[Cinnabon]

36 minutes ago, GeeGolly said:

I'm going to guess they don't much care what Jeremy puts out on SM, they just care that he does. Jer's (hip, young and cool - I can't believe I typed that) association with the church is all they care about getting out to Jinger's many followers.

What is the end game, though? Do they think many of Jinger’s SM followers are going to up and join Mcarthur’s church? In LA?

[GeeGolly]

17 minutes ago, Cinnabon said:

What is the end game, though? Do they think many of Jinger’s SM followers are going to up and join Mcarthur’s church? In LA?

IMO, its to get the younger generation of the current crowd to stick with the church and possibly bring in new and local congregants. The church has had decades of success in LA as of yet, so they're trying to keep it that way. The church's 'LA cool' is certainly not most folks' definition of LA cool, but that's not who they're really looking for. So its not Jer's and Jinger's followers they necessarily want, they just want to get the word out that folks who attend their church have that many followers. 

[Churchhoney]

10 hours ago, Cinnabon said:

What is the end game, though? Do they think many of Jinger’s SM followers are going to up and join Mcarthur’s church? In LA?

The end game is to get knowledge of the church -- and, I guess, the implication that the church has some kind of youth factor and popular-culture aura -- out in front of as many people as possible....

.And since a fair proportion of the Duggar-Vuolo followers can be assumed to be at least mildly attracted to conservative Christianity, it's not just that there are a lot of them but there are a lot of them who might be more interested in that church than many other people on social media. So they provide high numbers of eyeballs, many of which belong to at least relatively likely customers. 

Just like anything else that needs people's participation and their money, churches aren't going to survive unless new people find out about them.

So, just like Coke and Pepsi, they want to get and keep their name out there -- hopefully connected with things that people might look at ......And there are very few free ways to do that.....

And even fewer free ways to do that to reach large numbers of people. 

The Duggar-Vuolo social media certrainly isn't the only thing they're using. But they're just in line with everybody else today in trying to use social media as part of their strategy. 

I think that's why they can keep on a suck-up like Jer and not necessarily expect him to contribute much else other than those social-media numbers.

Maybe data will prove a decade or so down the line that social-media follower numbers are utterly useless for building a customer/client/congregation base.....But at this point, there's no evidence showing that. (And evidence may never show that)

And there's no other equivalently low-cost game in town for reaching a ton of people -- and reaching them DAILY......How much does one radio or tv or web ad cost by comparison, for example, and it doesn't provide new content daily that people will click to.... 

Jer's suck-upism led him to exactly the right kind of place, I think......He really doesn't have to do a thing to be -- they hope -- contributing to their future......

They currently have a very wealthy organization that's facing a demographic and therfore a financial crisis -- but they're desperate not to let it slide (although it will slide...) Will the Vuolo-Duggar social media necessarily produce good results? No. But that's true of any form of marketing they'll try. And they're clearly going to pile on the marketing efforts as long as they can afford to keep them going.

All those guys in the management of the church and the schools have tasted the delights of getting MacArthur's level of money and big-shotness, and I'm sure they'll fight tooth and nail to maintain a situation where they can live his lifestyle. The lifestyle is gonna deteriorate but I'm sure many of them are in huge denial of that fact and will fight with every weapon they can think of to stop it. 

Edited February 13, 2022 by Churchhoney

[Nysha]

13 hours ago, Zella said:

I just have such a hard time understanding what Jeremy is bringing to the table that would make him so valuable that they'd want him to stick around. His ineptness at social media is kind of awe-inspiring.

Jinger has more followers. Maybe the hateful assholes can get over their misogyny and just hire her in Jeremy's stead. LOLOL 

To Johnny Mac, Jeremy is, as @GeeGolly stated, young, hip, and cool. He is also an immature jock that probably impresses the older Boomers and the younger guys who were homeschooled and isolated. I think his greatest skill is figuring out what MacArthur wants and coming up with a solution that looks good, whether it is or not. As long as he can keep stroking MacArthur's ego, he'll get to stay.

The hateful assholes would rather jump into the burning pits of hell than get over their misogyny. I'm pretty sure they just figure that Jinger will repost whatever drivel Jeremy come up with.

Edited February 13, 2022 by Nysha

[Cinnabon]

1 hour ago, Churchhoney said:

And there are very few free ways to do that.....

It may be “free” now, but will they be willing to pay JereME a large salary for it? And Coke and Pepsi are available everywhere in the world. Even the poorest can afford a Coke regularly. How many of Jeremy’s followers will ever contribute a dime to MacArthur’s church? How many even live near LA?

Edited February 13, 2022 by Cinnabon

[Rootbeer]

13 hours ago, emmawoodhouse said:

Jer has sucked up to said benefactor to the point that the Vuolos have been invited to the benefactor's vacation home in the mountains. 

They also said that they got the house to use for 6 months, originally, and they've now lived there almost 4 years.  We don't see it, but Jeremy seems to have extra-special fundie grifting powers with that crowd.  I expect that the benefactor who owns the house is quite weathy and Jer will continue to live there as long as he wants, or at least as long as Johnny Mac wants.  I presume that the benefactor listens to his pastor and, if JM wants Jeremy to live in that house, that is where he will stay.

So, Jeremy managed to wangle a ticket to the Athletes in Action Breakfast? This is a very, very big deal and a big part of Super Bowl weekend for the professional Christians out there.  It even has the blessing of the NFL and multiple current and former players, including a bunch of Hall of Famers speak at it every year.  I don't know what tickets cost, but they'll hold a similar breakfast prior to the NBA All Star Game in Cleveland next weekend and those tickets go for $150 bucks a pop.  I expect that one or more of the wealthier members of the church purchased tables for the MacArthur crowd.  I am thinking Jer will be posting selfies from his $6000 seat at the game later this afternoon.

As far as how the church will manage to pay Jeremy, I think as long as there are some ridiculously wealthy people belonging to the church and tithing 10% of their income or more, the money will be there.

[Churchhoney]

44 minutes ago, Cinnabon said:

It may be “free” now, but will they be willing to pay JereME a large salary for it? And Coke and Pepsi are available everywhere in the world. Even the poorest can afford a Coke regularly. How many of Jeremy’s followers will ever contribute a dime to MacArthur’s church? How many even live near LA?

Well, they clearly give Jer some other tasks to do. And I'm sure those'll increase if they keep him on after graduation. It's not as if he does nothing else. He teaches little bible classes adn gives talks to college students and he's mentioned doing some administrative tasks. He may not do anything very well, but show me a staff where everybody does.

And all that stuff has to be done. Somebody has to do it. So I'm sure t they figure they're getting more for their money if they give those jobs to somebody who also has a strong social-media following. 

But I didn't mean that the social-media  is free in the sense that Jer doesn't cost them. I meant that' it's free compared to virtually every other form of getting their name out there that you can think of, And get it out there with some perhaps slightly enticing connotations -- like a cute young tv couple with a husband who was in pro sports for a while.

If you wrap a bus with with Grace Community Church advertising, you'll be seen by more locals, but you'll pay quite a bit for that privilege. If you put an ad on Facebook, you'll pay for the ad -- If you put enticing content on the church's own webpage, that's only going to reach people who already go to that page on their own. ....

There's just very little way for a church to expand its reach into new groups of people, and everything you put up as advertising is a crap shoot. You almost never have a situation where you say, "Oh, we KNOW that a large chunk of people who see s this ad or this content will be interested." 

Johnny Mac does lots of media and has his own media channels -- but that stuff i smost likely to be found by people who already know about the church. They want some fresh eyes. The chance of making a sale to fresh eyes is never huge. But if it were an unehard of tactic, to show stuff mostly to people who probably won't be interested, why would people have been paying big money for years to put up billboards on the freeway?

Of cousre, I could be wrong about this! 

 But it's clear that practically everybody in the world with something to sell today will enthusiastically grab partners with large social-media followings as part of their publicity strategy. Those are fresh eyes and a large number of them......So virtually everybody today considers that kind of thing a bargain....Nobody considers it a sure thing. But if something's a bargain, why not do it?

Just because we don't like Jeremy and think he's an annoying dumb-ass (and we're right about this!), doesn't mean they'll find him useless.

He does some chores. He's an enormous and clearly very gifted suck-up. And, unaccountably, many many people with money, fame, power, influence, etc., are pleased to have suck-ups around them and often overlook that fact because they enjoy the sucking up so much....

And he brings with him a number of social-media followers that only a tiny handful of Christtianity's spokespeople can even equal, let alone surpass. 

In JM and company's eyes, I'd say that makes Jer pretty unebeatable as a small but potentially quite worthwhile asset! 

 

 

Edited February 13, 2022 by Churchhoney

[ginger90]

I think what gets me is, the work he does is within the church. Has outreach gone by the wayside?

[GeeGolly]

Is Mac's church operating on today's dime? Or does the church have a stock portfolio?

[Ohiopirate02]

I also believe that the Vuolos benefit from the Christian charity of GCC.  All of the members there proclaim to be Christian and their faith requires them to follow Jesus's word and help the needy. But, not just any person in need.  They need to make sure their hard earned money is not going to the wrong type of person.  So they allow the Vuolos to live in one of their income properties at a reduced rent.  That way they know their Christian charity is being use correctly.  They also happen to win some points with Johnny Mac. Jesus is happy and everyone wins.  

The Rods do the same thing. 

[Cinnabon]

2 minutes ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

I also believe that the Vuolos benefit from the Christian charity of GCC.  All of the members there proclaim to be Christian and their faith requires them to follow Jesus's word and help the needy. But, not just any person in need.  They need to make sure their hard earned money is not going to the wrong type of person.  So they allow the Vuolos to live in one of their income properties at a reduced rent.  That way they know their Christian charity is being use correctly.  They also happen to win some points with Johnny Mac. Jesus is happy and everyone wins.  

The Rods do the same thing. 

What would Jesus do? The Jesus they claim to worship is nothing like the one I was taught about growing up. 

[Jeanne222]

16 hours ago, Zella said:

I just have such a hard time understanding what Jeremy is bringing to the table that would make him so valuable that they'd want him to stick around. His ineptness at social media is kind of awe-inspiring.

Actual picture of Jeremy being bewildered by responses to his social media:

Jinger has more followers. Maybe the hateful assholes can get over their misogyny and just hire her in Jeremy's stead. LOLOL 

I think they keep him because he's got her!

The Dugger celebrity has brought a lot of attention to their church.

I'm guessing membership is up for a glance of Ginger and the babies and maybe any stray Duggers visiting.

How long this can go on without the show is anyone's guess.

It's actually a house of cards that could fold at any time.

[Cinnabon]

12 minutes ago, Jeanne222 said:

I think they keep him because he's got her!

The Dugger celebrity has brought a lot of attention to their church.

I'm guessing membership is up for a glance of Ginger and the babies and maybe any stray Duggers visiting.

How long this can go on without the show is anyone's guess.

It's actually a house of cards that could fold at any time.

I have a feeling the members of McArthur’s church look down on the hick Duggars, especially after the Josh revelations. I’m sure they welcome Jinger’s followers nonetheless.

[quarks]

Yeah. I think they will find some sort of part time job for Jeremy and/or encourage him to enter their PhD program. It's not unusual for someone to need four to six years to finish a PhD, maybe more, so that's another four to six years or more where they can persuade the benefactor to let Jeremy continue to enjoy free rent, post pictures of burgers, and occasionally mention that oh, yes, there's this church that I attend and a place where I occasionally attend classes.

I'll add that I think the number of times and the way Jeremy mentions - and doesn't mention - the church is fairly deliberate. Right now Twitter is suppressing tweets that its algorithm believes are purely promotional - and the more you mention a specific place/product, the more the algorithm will believe it's a promotional tweet, and hide it both from "Top" tweets and "Latest" tweets.  Instagram does a similar thing. 

But on both platforms, you can currently sorta work against this by getting people to quote tweet your tweets with that place/product and/or respond to that tweet. If enough people do this, the Twitter algorithm can decide that the place/product is generating engagement/interest, and thus is no longer purely promotional. That in turn leads the Twitter algorithm to suppress fewer tweets mentioning said place/product - especially if the account generating some engagement also tweets about other things, like, say, hamburgers and shoes. It's a very specific way of tricking Twitter/Instagram with "what, us, promote a product? No, we're real life reality TV stars!" 

So although Jeremy and Jinger are probably not personally bringing in that many people to MacArthur's church, and I have to agree that they are not exactly great at the influencing game, what they are doing does provide MacArthur a direct financial benefit. And they can also point to Jeremy as someone who "knows people" at both HBO and TLC, and while everyone in Los Angeles "knows people," it's still a big thing in Los Angeles.  Jeremy also has just enough cred/fame to be invited to speak at various events, again, to their benefit. Enough to be worth, apparently, a free house and enough spending money to buy hamburgers. And maybe - maybe - he's less irritating in real life than he is online. I wouldn't count on it, but maybe. 

[Churchhoney]

1 hour ago, GeeGolly said:

Is Mac's church operating on today's dime? Or does the church have a stock portfolio?

I don't know, but I'd be surprised if they don't have fairly significant investments. An endowment of some kind.

One of JM's sons is a crooked stockbroker who got accused of several kinds of fraud by the SEC a couple years ago. So they're into finance. And when you run a university and a seminary besides your church, I'm sure your well aware of the value of funds. 

Older buildings, even churches, need a lot of upkeep, though. That'll drain the funds pretty fast. 

MacArrthur's also got a bunch of other entities under his umbrella, too. Like his very big communications outfit -- Grace to You. 

So there's money all about. That doesn't mean they wouldn't cry poor to the congregation, though. They'll want to keep bringing that money in. 

Edited February 13, 2022 by Churchhoney

[Ohiopirate02]

1 hour ago, Cinnabon said:

What would Jesus do? The Jesus they claim to worship is nothing like the one I was taught about growing up. 

They either give to those deemed worthy or they pull shit like this--

 

[emmawoodhouse]

Jeremy as a scrub goaltender for the Red Bulls. 

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CZ58NTxslqr/?utm_medium=copy_link

[madpsych78]

On 2/12/2022 at 3:08 PM, Zella said:

Maybe I'm just being really mean toward them, but I honestly don't think any of them are bright enough to think up and use a code and then also stick to that story for years. I really do think they actually just connected the dots over the sweater. 

These are the same people who brought us "Jeremy likes books, so I like books." 

To be fair, that was just Jinger. I can't imagine Jessa saying anything like that at all!

[Zella]

Just now, madpsych78 said:

To be fair, that was just Jinger. I can't imagine Jessa saying anything like that at all!

She gave us diaper mountain. I don't think she has an intellectual high ground. 

[Cinnabon]

1 hour ago, madpsych78 said:

To be fair, that was just Jinger. I can't imagine Jessa saying anything like that at all!

Probably because she rarely reads. 

[Rootbeer]

1 minute ago, Cinnabon said:

Probably because she rarely reads. 

And she's proud of it.  You'd also never catch her claiming to like anything just because her husband liked it.  Quite the contrary.