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Last week, we reported that Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard were fired from the missionary program they had applied to through their church.

The couple has made every effort to sweep the news under the rug, and with good reason.

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Thousands of Duggar fans have already made donations that were supposed to fund Jill and Derick’s new life in El Salvador. 

Now, the Southern Baptist Convention and the International Mission Board have determined that Jill and Derick are not qualified to work abroad, and the Dillards have returned to their home in Arkansas.

Unfortunately, it looks as though they have no intention of returning the money that was donated for the missionary work that never happened.

Now, the big question for many fans is: Why exactly were Jill and Derick deemed unfit for service by the SBC and the IMB?

The answer was not hard to find, as the requirements for acceptance are posted on both organizations’ websites.

Applicants must have a bachelor’s degree from an accredited university, with 30 hours of course study in a variety of designated subject areas, such as biblical studies, theology, church history, and evangelism.

Derick has a degree in accounting, but has never taken a college-level religious studies course. He bailed on his accounting job at Walmart shortly after the Josh Duggar scandal broke in order to pursue missionary work.

Jill, for her part, has no college degree, but would have been qualified to work as the "spouse of a missionary" if she had completed 12 college credit hours in courses focusing on the Bible and missionary work.

Jill never even attempted to complete the course work, and it seems – at least according to some critics – that the couple believed they would be permitted to side-step the requirements because of their fame.

Many now believe that Jill’s fraudulent claim that she’s a certified midwife was part of her and Derick’s last-ditch effort to convince church elders that they were qualified to serve internationally (and to accept donations to do so).

The SBC wasn’t having it, and now the Duggar clan once again finds itself in the position of having some serious explaining to do.