fundie side blog

Lots of people have their reality TV trash. For me, it's the Duggars and Bateses. I am fascinated by them. I'm not exactly a fan, but I don't like the mean-spiritedness of FSU Reddit. So here's a sideblog to keep track of the happenings of the fundie world.

You can expect some snark, some commentary, and lots of rooting for these folks to grow and do better.

According to Kelly Jo's IG, Jackson + Emerson's baby was born on July 4 and is named Dakota James.

As far as baby names go, I don't love it, but there are far worse grandBates names. (Interesting to note, no long A sound.) EDIT: His middle name is James, so we have yet another long A Bates name.

I kind of wish they had stuck to "-son" names just for ridiculousness, but that didn't seem to be their brand of tacky. Ah, well. (But can you imagine increasingly bizarre names? I think someone out here suggested Crimson, which is just... *chefs kiss*)

Sorry for the delay in posting this! I've been trying to spend less time on socials.

Duggar Family

Jill + Derick announced that Derick is joining the Marines to become a JAG officer.

Paul + Christina Caldwell (in-laws of Joe + Kendra) have to move from the home they were renting from their son-in-law. They open a GoFundMe for help amidst all the Joe stuff.

I haven't been keeping up with the Joe + Kendra stuff (I don't even know if there is anything to keep up with), but AFAIK he has been out on bail for the last two months.

Josh + Anna's prison emails are published after a FOIA request. They are... really gross. We also have Josh's communications with his parents and, of all people, Hillary Spivey. These messages are all from his time in Arkansas jail before his transfer to federal prison.

Hannah (Wissmann) was seen at Charissa's wedding very pregnant. I would guess she's due in August or September.

The rumored wedding date for James + Lydia came and went without fanfare. Did they get married? Did they call it off? We have no idea.

Bates Family

Katie posts more pictures with Travis featuring in them after several months of him staying on the sidelines. They seem to be healing their relationship.

Zach + Whitney welcomed Baby #6, Ella Jane, who they claim will be their last. We shall see if they're actually done or if there's a miracle/surprise in a few years.

Zach goes on Food Network???? I haven't looked into the details on this.

Katie + Travis move to Texas. For all that Katie has been really enmeshed with her parents and siblings (not quite as bad as Haley Bowers, but close to it), this is a shock. She is far from her support network and more reliant on Travis. Katie has alluded to a falling out with her family based on past hurt, and it's hard not to assume the worst.

Lawson + Tiffany announce that they are moving (have moved? timing is unclear) to Florida. It seems to be a compromise for them so Tiffany can have a warmer, urban environment without getting Lawson to move to California. I also suspect the recent TN legislation about child influencers plays a part here.

Josie + Kelton are building their dream home. Another Bates McMansion incoming.

Isaiah + Sarah got married in May. So far, they have no social media presence.

Warden + Kaybrie got engaged and married whirlwind fast--but it's actually not snarkable. Kaybrie's father was terminally ill, so they held a tiny wedding ceremony in his final days to allow him to attend. The pair will have a more traditional Batesian reception later in the year.

Maxwell-Bontrager-Bowers Clan

An unexpected but strangely fitting fundie crossover happens between Amy Paul, mother-in-law of Carver Bowers, and the Caldwells. Amy knows something about having a son-in-law accused of SAing a minor. She drove to Arkansas to help the Caldwells move.

I have heard that the Bontrager grandkid count is up to 20 now? I havent found confirmation, but my count is at 18. (Chelsy 4, Mitchell 4, Allison 3, Carson 3, Joshua 3, Taylor 1.) I wouldn’t be surprised if the Bont-Bowers couples have both had a fourth kid by now, though.

Wissmann Family

Charissa married Luke Benson on May 25 after a relatively short engagement. She is young for a Wissmann bride. Now Alathia is the only single Wissmann.

The aforementioned Hannah Duggar sighting at Charissa's wedding.

Morton Family

Brian + Hanna Morton announced they are expecting Baby #1, the first great-grandMorton. She was born in mid-May, not long after the announcement.

Dorothy + Noah are expecting Baby #9. She is the first Morton to have more than 8 kids. (Katie, Michael + Kress, Wesley + Rachel all have 8.)

Some folks on FJ suspect that Adeline + Michael and Paul + Helena are also expecting (baby #5 and #2 respectively) based on some video footage, but I didn't see it and can't confirm.

Friends of the Mortons, the Thomas family, saw their first 3rd gen wedding in June. Liz Wachsmann married Handel Humphrey. She was 18. He was 30. I will not get over how gross that is.

Rodrigues Family

Nathan + Nurie announced Baby #4 is due in December. Naomi will be 2.5 when she becomes a big sister, which is kind of impressive for this family.

Kaylee + Jonathan welcomed Baby #2, Jillie Sunshine Hill. This is the new Spurgeon IMO. (But I'm glad baby and Kaylee are home and healthy.)

While Jillie was still in the NICU, JRod and a horde of Rodlets came visit. JRod even did skin-to-skin time with this preemie hooked up to several machines. Boundaries? Never heard of them.

Samuel is in a courtship with Evangeline Grant. Judging by the very awkward video of them together, they know almost nothing about one another.

At Tessie's graduation, Jill wore the most eye-catching dress she could find, proving once again that modesty has little to do with how much skin a person is showing.

Heidi was spotted in a shirt that looks like a pregnancy announcement shirt, leading many (including me) to think she is expecting a baby in December following an unknown miscarriage.

Jill mentioned that 2 of her kids are in relationships. We know about Samuel, but who is the other?

When I was trying to learn about Renee's nannying trip from last year, I had to scroll through a lot of Jill's posts. Enjoy a few of the notable things I found along the way.

This Deeply Unsettling AI Image

(I know tons of people were doing these at the time as my timeline was littered with them but it is no less weird to see it on Jill. We know what she looks like; she posts herself CONSTANTLY. That makes it all the more obvious when she has filters or facetune or whatever. We know this is basically fanart by Jill, of Jill, for Jill!)

Jill's Sad Description of the Early Days of Their Marriage

She was 14 and he was... 20? 21? When they first got to know each other, right? They got married when she was 18 and he was... 25?

And THIS is how she describes the early years?!?

I know Jill is vile, but I feel bad for her reading this. I wonder what that girl in '97 thought she was getting into when she married David. I wonder if anyone told her she should never have to earn her husband's love.

Jill + David May Be MAGA Assholes, But at Least They Didn't Watch the TPUSA Halftime Show (Which Is More Than I Can Say for My Father-In-Law)

The post shared here is lengthy and kind of hard to understand, mostly just Scripture references, but I think the gist is this: Christians are supposed to be separate and distinct from the world, so why are purported Christians like TPUSA trying so hard to imitate the world?

And. Uh. I kind of agree???

I have watched a lot of Christian MAGAs bend over backwards to justify why their idolatry of the orange man or Charlie Kirk or RFKJr is good, actually, and not a sin. How quick so many of them are to support every MAGA talking point with Bible verses, without ever questioning if what they're saying is biblical.

So it is kind of a relief to see JRod, of all people, draw a line in the sand and call out TPUSA for hypocrisy.

Grab your tinfoil hats, folks, because I am doing some speculating with nothing to go on but Vibes and theories on Reddit and FJ.

Thought #1: Renee is the secret Rod relationship. (And isn't it intriguing that Jill called them relationships instead of courtships? Not sure what to make of that, or if it's just a slip of the keyboard.)

Basis: Wishful thinking mostly and a desire to see Renee get out of that house. I want good things for her. Also, she deleted her Facebook relatively recently, which could mean nothing... or it could be an indicator of a life change.

Thought #2: Renee is in a courtship/relationship with someone from out of state.

Basis: This comment from her grandfather. (This was an FJ find--I hadn't seen this comment until today l.)

Are Grandpa and Grandma Noyes thinking about a hypothetical future for Renee, or is there a particular place "farther from us" that they have in mind?

(While many people, including me, have raised eyebrows at Elijah hanging around the Rod household so much--and wondered if he's courting one of the girls--this comment throws a wrench in that idea. Elijah is local to the Rods. Renee wouldn't be "farther from" her grandparents if she were to marry him. Idk, at this point I think Elijah just might be good friends with the Rod boys, enough so that he is willing to endure JRod's presence.)

Thought #3: This far-away boyfriend is from Renee's recent(ish) travels to either Tennessee or Texas.

Basis: Renee had two big trips in the last 6-ish months. She spent some time nannying for a musical family around Christmas (all but confirmed to be Hosanna Plath Noble and her husband) and was a bridesmaid in Dallas in January.

I am not sure how much time Renee would have had in Texas to get to know a Godly Young Man, but she definitely had time during her nannying gig (besides the fact that she was caring for 4 little kids). The wedding trip didn't seem to be all that long. Also, I can imagine that Renee finds it easier to get to know people, especially Godly Young Men, without Jill hovering.

So I am leaning towards a connection formed during the nannying trip.

Thought #4: Renee is courting Timothy Noble's brother.

Basis: Pure vibes. I don't know if Timothy Noble HAS a brother. But it sure would be interesting if he did, because then Renee would be the second Rodrigues daughter to marry into a family who is in-laws with a now-disgraced reality TV fundie family.

I was so surprised by the mention of 2 Rods in relationships that I didn't notice Heidi's shirt (or Jill's clumsy attempts to cover it up)!

That shirt almost certainly says "after every storm there is a rainbow," and the date is blurred out by Jill. I'm pretty sure it says December based on a quick view earlier in the video.

And here's the shirt that I'm 99% sure they got off Amazon just by googling "rainbow after storm pregnancy shirt"

Two things of note!

It means Jill is actually trying to preserve privacy. She blurred the shirt and only mentions 1 grandbaby on the way (Nurthling #4). Jill is really bad at this, but there is an effort made that I can sort of appreciate.

Heidi must have had a miscarriage if this is a rainbow baby. Charlie isn't even 1 yet. It probably wouldn't have been Irish twins, but close.

Jill's latest reel mentions TWO kids currently in relationships.

We know Samuel + Evangeline. Who else? The other adult kids are Renee, Phillip, Gabriel, and Tessie.

I was trying to learn more about the Grant family (the family of Samuel Rodrigues's recent courtship) and ended up scrolling through their church's FB.

Got jumpscared by a mention of Pastor Anderson.

"Thinking about having a third kid."

Girl. Girl! Your baby is 6 months old. Your toddler hasn't even turned 2 yet. The only thing you should be thinking about is healing, resting, and enjoying your littles.

Benefit of the doubt--Tiffany is enjoying having 2 under 2 and is realizing that all her anxieties were unfounded. As Theo outgrows baby things, she naturally wonders if she needs to keep them or give them away. This makes her think about hypothetical future kids.

Worst case scenario--Tiffany already wants another baby now that Theo is 6 months, kind of like Michelle Duggar.

For some reason, I had hoped Tiffany would be one of the saner Bates wives. Like, I thought she might space out her kids, try to have a career, and just be sort of moderate in her views. A year ago, she had made a comment in a video that it was weird how the spacing between Zade and Navy (i.e. 3 years) was anomalous for the Bates fam. For any other family, 3 years is normal! Little did I know, she was already pregnant with Theo when she said that.

I don't follow the Thomas family very closely (mostly through their connections with the Mortons), but Liz Wachsman, daughter of Cassia (Thomas) Wachsman, got married over the weekend.

For the record, Handel is 30.

See this post from his IG last year, where he turned 29.

I try not to put too much stock into Fundie Wiki and prefer to find "primary" sources when possible for ages and dates. So here's an old birthday post from Cassia Wachsman to Elizabeth, putting her birthday at 10/19/2007.

I am 30. I cannot fathom seeing a teenager and seeing a potential spouse.

I haven't seen any details about Brian + Hanna's baby, a daughter, but she was born sometime last month, probably around May 10 (6 weeks before Father's Day).

Does she find a picture of the dads with their families?

Does she find individual pics of each dad?

Does she trust that her audience knows which of the men in the photo are fathers?

Of course not.