After Derick Dillard’s latest controversy, fans are encouraging former Counting On star Jill Duggar to dump Derick.
It looks like she’s still standing by her man. This time, she’s backing up his homophobic Twitter rant. At least, that’s what it looks like she’s saying.
Take a look at her cryptic post below and decide for yourself.
Taking to Instagram, Jill wrote — without any context:
“To disagree doesn’t = hate, or judgement.”
That is true enough … on certain subjects.
“Love doesn’t always = approval.”
That is absolutely true. You can love and support someone without personally liking, say, their new haircut.
“Just because I disagree with my child on something doesn’t mean I hate him.”
We should certainly hope not.
“And just because I love and forgive him doesn’t mean I approve of everything he does.”
That makes sense, too. Up to a point.
“You can be friends with, love, and care for people you don’t agree with 100%.”
It’s not difficult to see that Jill is indirectly referring to Derick Dillard’s homophobic tweets, in which he attacked husbands Nate Burkus and Jeremiah Brent and their show, Nate & Jeremiah by Design.
It’s a home improvement show but, as with other series like Fixer Upper, it includes a personal touch about the designers’ lives.
Nate and Jeremiah are parents to two young children, which is apparently what had Derick so incensed that he had to tweet out his disdain for their show
“What a travesty of family,” he wrote in the widely condemned tweet.
He continued, saying:
“It’s sad how blatant the liberal agenda is, such that it both highlights and celebrates a lifestyle so degrading to children on public television as if it should be normal.”
First of all, that tweet is of course appalling.
Though it is no surprise coming from Derick Dillard, who was fired from Counting On last year over his transphobic tweets about trans teen Jazz Jennings.
(Pro-tip: networks prefer for you to support their other shows, not condemn them, and when you’re a grown man repeatedly tweeting vile things about a teenage girl, you’re not going to come across as the good guy)
Second of all … it’s always funny (well, as funny as bigotry can get) when people refer to something like “the gay lifestyle.”
We know that they phrase it that way to make it seem like a peculiar choice than part of who someone is.
But, clearly, Nate and Jeremiah’s lifestyle is that they’re parents and designers and, now, reality stars. Those are all lifestyles.
Well, following the backlash that Derick incited with his homophobic rant, Derick continued.
He tried to defend himself without walking back his tweets, insisting that he has gay friends but he simply “doesn’t agree” … with their existence, we suppose.
(It’s powerfully reminiscent of the how can I be racist if I have black friends? argument that people still try to make sometimes)
Derick even suggested that The View was bullying him for being a Christian, even though a number of the hosts are Christians themselves and they mostly addressed gay parents whom they know and admire.
It seems clear that Jill Duggar is, once again, standing by her man.
Her post seems designed to defend herself from fans who share Derick’s homophobia — by stating that she does not endorse their “lifestyle” — and against Derick’s detractors, by saying that at least she and Derick don’t hate gay people.
Jill has shared some cringeworthy posts of her own in the past, including a transphobic prayer that disappointed many fans.
Fans didn’t have a difficult time connecting her new post to Derick’s most recent controversy, and some of the comments were excellent.
“Not a problem to disagree. The problem is to post on a public place that gives you access to many people, and you disparage other people! I do Not Believe the God I worship would want me to publicly disparage people.”
“Instead of encouraging someone you have now turned them away from you and probably have them not too interested in Your God. Yes you do have a right to your opinion, but remember for every action there is a reaction.”
“The reaction to your judgement is people don’t want to be around you any longer.”
“I’ll pray for God to soften your heart! They are a loving family trying to provide a loving home like any other family.”
