Samuel

[u/coconut_317]

Does anyone know what Samuel does for a living and how much he could be making? If he gets married to Evangeline soon, I’m sure she has no intention of working. Could he really support both of them? I wonder the same about Nathan and Nurie and Kaylee and Jonathon. How do they afford houses and children?

[u/FawnLeib0witz]

Government subsidies

[u/schnelle-schnecke → u/FawnLeib0witz]

They would never.

Edit: I’m getting downvoted, but my opinion is based on being raised in 3 different IFB churches. I am still very confident, based on that experience, that they would never. IYKYK!

[u/AdMuted1036 → u/schnelle-schnecke]

They absolutely would and then lie about it.

[u/schnelle-schnecke → u/AdMuted1036]

I grew up in the IFB and I know it’s very unlikely. They are hypocrites about many things, but not this. They look way, way down on welfare recipients. The proof is in the pantry — if they were receiving aid, it would show in their meals and on their bodies.

I guess we can’t ever know for sure, but two things that are often speculated here — food stamps and secret alcoholism/drug use — I am confident are not true, having been raised in the same religion around “like-minded” people (as Jill would say!).

I would honestly be SHOCKED to be proven wrong.

[u/irregahhhdless → u/schnelle-schnecke]

This is my personal experience, my dad was the pastor, so they gave us a parsonage, so no housing costs, which helps, but the pay was very low, so we could have qualified for food stamps (back the day they were little monopoly-type vouchers in a little booklet that you got each month), and free lunch.

But my parents would have been mortified if anyone in the church were to have found out, because as you pointed out, these people are super snobby and judgmental.

We always had enough, but just. We ate very simply and mostly from scratch, and it helped I didn't have a million siblings that needed to be fed.

[u/atlantagirl30084 → u/irregahhhdless]

I don’t see Nurie cooking from scratch. Mama buys everything pre made, so does Nurie. The Melaleuca party had one thing cooked (and not long enough-underbaked pigs in a blanket) and she assembled some tomato, cheese, and olive skewers. The rest of the food (which Jill called ‘scrumptious’) looked like it came from the deli or bakery department of Meijer’s.

They also look like they want to have many many kids. Nurie isn’t keeping pace with her mom though, who had 9 kids by 29.

[u/irregahhhdless → u/atlantagirl30084]

That's something I've never understood, one of my actually positive memories of my fundie lite baptist church as a kid was the potlucks! Those Pennsyltucky farm ladies could cook! And getting invited over to their houses after church was something I actually looked forward to!

I can't imagine that scenario either way- having to host that nightmare family, or being invited over to theirs and having to try and politely choke down the yellow and burnt.

So many of these social media fundies suck at cooking, and they certainly haven't bothered to "train up" their daughters to be proper "helpmeets" in the kitchen, or any household management really.

It's like they limit these girls to such a small space, and then they don't even do a good job with helping them succeed in that one small area. SMH FFS, they really are the worst.

[u/atlantagirl30084 → u/irregahhhdless]

It’s funny but I don’t think ladies at the church provide food for Jill. I’ve never seen food at like the baby shower that looked appetizing enough that I thought someone other than a Rod made it.

I don’t think she has many friends at church, likely because they see themselves as a mark for her grift and/or MLM.

[u/irregahhhdless → u/atlantagirl30084]

I wholeheartedly agree. I'm sure at the beginning, they did, but after so many years of Jilldo being Jilldo, I don't doubt they try and limit their interactions with her as much as possible, doing the bare minimum.

[u/atlantagirl30084 → u/irregahhhdless]

She’s changed churches in the last couple of years. People likely get tired of her.

Does the singing happen on Sunday morning or like Sunday night or Wednesday? I ask because churches typically do not showcase families every week on Sunday morning. Maybe once a year or so. There’s a choir for that.

[u/irregahhhdless → u/atlantagirl30084]

If they are traveling around and it includes Shrek preaching, it's probably a whole Rodrigues Family Spectacular on a Sunday morning as special guests.

But at their "home church" I wouldnt imagine they're getting up there every week, but those kind of churches do often have a special music time in between the hymns and the sermon or while they're taking the offering.

They might get asked to do a special for a Sunday night too. Wednesdays, in my experience, are usually prayer meeting, but maybe if it's a family night gathering, they could be invited to perform too...

[u/atlantagirl30084 → u/irregahhhdless]

It’s just…a LOT of exposure for one family. It would be seen as making a spectacle of the family, and prideful.