From enrolling her kids in school to reading them secular books to Derick continuing to speak out, Jill Duggar is at odds with her father.
She’s banned from Jim Bob’s house. Her sisters admit that they pray for Jill and for Derick.
Jill and Derick have been going their own way for a while.
They are still conservative Christians, but they have distanced themselves from some of the extremes of the Duggar family.
Their children will have opportunities that Jill never had. Meanwhile, Jill is in counseling to process the trauma of her upbringing.
Derick continues to speak about Jim Bob, about how he hoards reality TV money as part of his strategy to financially control his adult children.
He has also given fans a peak behind the curtain as far as certain fundamentalist practices are concerned, explaining how adolescent sex drives are the carrot dangled to get their kids married super young.
Is Derick a good person? No. He still holds many bigoted and harmful beliefs. But he can still correctly call out Jim Bob for being even worse.
Now, we know that some of Jill’s siblings do not approve of the way that she has deviated from the extremes of the Duggar lifestyle.
This isn’t speculation — Jill herself has admitted that it’s not just Jim Bob and Michelle.
That brainwashing runs deep, and she feels distanced from much of her extended family.
So, how do her siblings who are closer to home (literally) feel about that?
We don’t have to do much speculating about that, either.
Jana has touched on this in the past, and we have included the throwback clip as a reminder.
Back when Jill and Derick were on one of their bogus (not to mention culturally colonialist) mission trips to South Africa, Jana spoke on camera.
“When we’re doing cooking things or shopping or whatever, it’s like, aw, you know, all of us are here except for Jill,” the eldest Duggar daughter shared.
“You know, you miss them," she reasoned. "And I think even more around the holidays.”
That’s relevant now just as it was then — maybe more so, actually.
Jana emphasized that "all" of the Duggars "worried about Jill and Derick" to one degree or another, adding "It’s not the safest place to be, that’s for sure."
"There’s a lot of violence," she lamented, "but it makes us pray a lot more."
It is once again the holiday season for many of us, including but not limited to the Christian community.
But why did we suggest that their erstwhile fears about Jill’s well-being might be more relevant when Jana and her family know that Jill and Derick are safe at home?
Well, because of how the Duggars view the world.
In standard Christian theology, Christians go to heaven, a blissful and eternal afterlife.
Different denominations and individuals may have different opinions on the path, or the best path, to attaining this goal, and about which non-Christians, if any, share that eternal reward.
But in the world of fundamentalists, it is often the belief that only the most orthodox of fundamentalists are "truly" saved. To the Duggars, worries about Jill and Derick facing violence would pale beside fears that Jill’s distance from the family threatens the immortal souls of her family.