If you watch Counting On online, then you’re no doubt aware that Jim Bob Duggar is a deeply religious man who holds a number of highly controversial beliefs.
As we’ve reported in the past, Jim Bob’s views have frequently brought him into conflict with his sons-in-law, but there are certain core tenets that the entire family holds dear.
Or claims to, anyway …
Despite building a wildly popular media empire, successfully running for the Arkansas State Senate, and launching countless business ventures including multiple used car dealerships, Jim Bob has long condemned the blind pursuit of money and the greed that he feels is endemic in American culture.
But those closest to the father of 19 claim that Jim Bob isn’t exactly practicing what he preaches when it comes to the consumption and coveting of material goods.
A source who was once close with several members of the Duggar family tells The Hollywood Gossip exclusively that Jim Bob spends frivolously and amasses property at an alarming rate.
“Jim Bob has a lot of money in property,” our source said in response to a question about why Jim Bob is frequently cash-poor.
“And he buys stuff, junk. He goes to these auctions and comes back with truckloads of chairs, and just whatever.”
“He’s a high-class hoarder, I think,” the insider concluded.
As for why Michelle Duggar doesn’t intervene when her husband’s spending veers into reckless territory, our insider says there’s little she can do:
“A lot of the time her hands are tied, being the submissive woman she’s supposed to be,” says the source.
Our tipster adds that Jim Bob’s constant pursuit of wealth sometimes brings him into conflict with neighbors and local authorities:
“Jim Bob will stash cars somewhere until someone complains, then he’ll move them somewhere else until a different person complains,” says the source.
“He has a lot of codes that he breaks – putting in plumbing, and water, and sewer. He just goes about and does what he wants to do.
“Jim Bob really acts like he’s above the law,” the insider adds, noting that as a constable in nearby Springville, Arkansas, son John David Duggar finds himself in a difficult position.
“There are certain things [John David] can’t get involved with,” the source adds.
“He kind of lets Jim Bob know how far he can bend the law.”
Of course, all of this finagling and minor rule breaking stems from Jim Bob’s seemingly insatiable need to expand his empire and line his pockets.
It seems there’s a tremendous amount of irony in the situation, as Jim Bob’s compulsive spending habits and non-stop expansion of his business interests have caused him to spread himself too thin, actually hurting his status within the Tontitown community.
“He figures his little bit of money that he has – which isn’t an awful lot of money – lets him just do whatever he wants,” our source says.
“He doesn’t have a lot of money. He’s got a lot of money invested in property, things that he’s trying to flip, throws a lot of money into things,” the insider adds, citing a case in which Jim Bob purchased a home for three times its value as a recent example of his reckless investing.
What’s most troubling to fans of the Duggar family, however, isn’t Jim Bob’s ill-advised investments, or even the laws that he breaks in pursuit of wealth, but the fact that his fixation on money and status seems to fly in the face of the beliefs he espouses.
“He swears he doesn’t chase that dollar, but he definitely does,” says the insider, adding that Jim Bob has put himself in a difficult position through years of living beyond his means:
“If he wasn’t always chasing that dollar, I don’t know how he’d make it.”
