Predictions for Ben and Jessa...

[kimberm]

Nope, not wine. Grape juice. Ask Mr. Keller for references.

Because every single part of the Bible should be interpreted literally...except for the part where it mentions wine.

This argument is what really ticks me off about fundies. They will argue tooth and nail that Jesus turned water into grape juice and not wine. Yet, in the old testament it references that wine is evil. So, if wine in old testament = wine then why does wine in the new testament (particularly when Jesus is involved) = grape juice? Just fundies picking and choosing their own definitions again I suppose :angry-banghead:

[kimberm]

As for Blessa, I see her losing it after having 3 or 4 kids. When the reality of little kids and no money hits, I see her being rather...bitchy. I'm not sure the extent of Mullet's anger issues but my guess is that one of the girls will take after her and my bets on Jessa.

I do see Ben taking online courses and "becoming" a preacher. Perhaps even becoming associate pastor at the church of the duggars :lol:

[OodOnTheLoo]

I think Jessa will cling to a lot of the ATI beliefs for the first 5 years of her marriage. By year 5, she'll have started to change little things. I think long-term, she'll probably have more "mainstream" calvinist beliefs. As in, I don't think she'll be anti-dancing for ever. And some other things will probably change as well. I just don't think any Duggar will get married and suddenly rebel. I think it'll take a few years and the changes will be subtle.

I think Jessa & Ben will be very christian, but I do think they will eventually fall away from Gothard.

I think you are right but I also think Ben and Jessa will be the loudest, most rigid in whichever belief system they take on...which I suspect will be Calvinist.

[SassyPants]

I cannot imagine Jessa with a boatload of kids. Kids are hard work, and she, as the the 5th child, escaped much of the burden. I think once she sees what is actually involved with 24/7/365 motherhood, she'll put on the brakes. She has already shown that she has a mind of her own and is not afraid to stand up to JB. Ben was raised more mainstream in terms of family size, I doubt he's aiming for 19 kids and counting.

[nana sew dear]

Dr. Phil says that the human brain isn't fully developed until the age of 25 or so. I hope they are well matched and happy but I think that Ben may be the one who's overwhelmed. I think that at 19 he just isn't mature enough or has the foresight to see down the line. They very well could, after the Dog & Pony show is over, be on their own with 4 or 5 kids and no real education. They will probably be helped by the TLC money for awhile but they are set up for frustration when that ends. How many families can get by on one income? I hope Ben runs a mega-church!

[nastyhobbitses]

I have a feeling that once they're done furiously schtupping, they'll realize that they really don't have very much in common and that Ben is too flighty to give them the income they would need to maintain the "godly" (aka woman in the house pumping out babies) lifestyle they have been taught from birth to lead. But they'll never divorce. Jessa will simply stew in her impotent rage and regret (or worse, take it out on the kids), and Ben will drift from job to job, "calling" to "calling", never truly fulfilled. But they'll always put the happy face on for the cameras and social media.

[Coco]

Dr. Phil says that the human brain isn't fully developed until the age of 25 or so. I hope they are well matched and happy but I think that Ben may be the one who's overwhelmed. I think that at 19 he just isn't mature enough or has the foresight to see down the line. They very well could, after the Dog & Pony show is over, be on their own with 4 or 5 kids and no real education. They will probably be helped by the TLC money for awhile but they are set up for frustration when that ends. How many families can get by on one income? I hope Ben runs a mega-church!

Ben's dad is only 39 so that means he had Ben at 20. I'm thinking Ben is going to try to out-fundie his dad. The first time his dad was on the show i thought he seemed like a great guy, but maybe a little awed by the fame. Then he started a blog that might have been passive-aggressive toward JB. The apple didn't fall very far from the tree in Ben's family. :lol: Plus, in the episode where Jessa and Ben visit his family, an older male relative gives a long preachy prayer over the meal. Definitely think being a pastor is in Ben's future. Doesn't take much training to be a pastor in the fundie world: just passion, a stage, and the ability to spew the basic beliefs.

[RosyDaisy]

I predict Ben will be Jessa's bitch. Ben doesn't strike me as an alpha male.

[MatthewDuggar]

First, there is TLC money.

Is it really that much money?? I doubt it unless they get their own spinoff, which I highly doubt will happen. I'm not sure what other money-making fame they are going to get either.

[JillyO]

Are the Seewalds QF, do we know? They had 7 kids in 15 years, which could very well mean no family planning whatsoever. But at 34 or 35, Quinn would have been veeery young to stop having children if they were still not using any family planning methods (barring secondary infertility, obviously).

[Four is Enough]

Nope, not wine. Grape juice. Ask Mr. Keller for references.

Because every single part of the Bible should be interpreted literally...except for the part where it mentions wine.

My bible says Jesus turned water into wine, and not "just" wine... the GOOD kind that you normally serve first at the wedding, not the crappy kind that you serve after everyone's too drunk to tell... Sorry, Mr. Keller, it says WINE.

[Belugaloo]

Is it really that much money?? I doubt it unless they get their own spinoff, which I highly doubt will happen. I'm not sure what other money-making fame they are going to get either.

Well, I could be totally wrong, but lets estimate that Jessa & Ben make 5,000 dollars for every Bessa-centered episode.

So, the courting episode. The engagement episode. The wedding episode. The leading-up-to-the-wedding episode. The post-wedding how-are-they doing episode. The we're-pregnant episode. The pregnancy update episode. The very-first Bessa Baby episode. The Bessa-baby update episode.

That's 45,000 dollars right there.

Add in any money that Jessa makes from her book.

Add in the possibility that she has a living arrangement similar to Jill's.

Add in whatever job Ben does have.

If they saved most of the money they made from the show, and lived modestly, they could probably get by for a while on it...

[fabkiwi06]

I have hopes that after a few weeks of wedded bliss, they have a gentle - but very real - realization that they are NOT as ready for marriage as they originally thought and take some steps to set themselves up with some REAL long term plans. Let their realization be about how Jessa accidentally set the EZBake Kitchen on fire for the third time this week and not that they have no jobs, no money, twins on the way and only 9 months to figure ALL this stuff out.

And I hope there are family members on both sides outside of the bubble who are loving and supportive and willing to help them figure all this out.

[Feberin]

Are the Seewalds QF, do we know? They had 7 kids in 15 years, which could very well mean no family planning whatsoever. But at 34 or 35, Quinn would have been veeery young to stop having children if they were still not using any family planning methods (barring secondary infertility, obviously).

Perhaps they use NFP to space out their children? Their youngest is only 4 so it's possible that they could have more children. Jessa could get the joy of being pregnant at the same time as her MIL just like Anna.

[DuggarsTheEndIsNear]

I don't think they'll get divorced. I also think that once they're out on their own for a while, they'll start growing up. Right now, they're very much like your typical college freshman type deal -- still think they're the big man on campus and that they know everything. Soon enough, life will catch up with them and they'll start getting wiser.

I really don't think the two of them are going to pop out a lot of kids. I imagine that they're going to, at least secretly, be limiting their number of offspring. I just don't see either of them as REALLY wanting a big family, regardless of what they have to say for the show. I imagine they'll probably have 3 or 4 kids, maybe pretty quickly (though I wouldn't be surprised if they went at least 2 years between babies) and call it done.

As for supporting the kids, there's no way that Jim Bob is at all in control over the financial earnings of the married children. Even if somehow he manages to control the other kids because they're "dependents," the married kids cant be treated that way. So they'll have plenty of money from the shows/books/interviews.

[grandmadugger]

Perhaps they use NFP to space out their children? Their youngest is only 4 so it's possible that they could have more children. Jessa could get the joy of being pregnant at the same time as her MIL just like Anna.

Nothing I've gleaned from the Seewalds lead me to believe they are QF or Gothard. They seem far too liberal for either one.

[actuallyjessica]

i feel like since the seewalds are getting caught up with the duggars, guinn will soon be pregnant again. and again.

[calimojo]

Nothing I've gleaned from the Seewalds lead me to believe they are QF or Gothard. They seem far too liberal for either one.

From reading Michael Seewald's Blog, I don't get the impression he is at all liberal. I thought I read somewhere that they were big into Vision Forum or what ever Doug Phillips org was called.

[grandmadugger]

From reading Michael Seewald's Blog, I don't get the impression he is at all liberal. I thought I read somewhere that they were big into Vision Forum or what ever Doug Phillips org was called.

I meant liberal compared to QF or Gothard, not liberal in the traditional sense.

I don't know about Vision Forum, haten looked into it. I know they are Calvinist. I know the older girls dance. I think I've seen photos of all the girls in jeans. I don't know how any of goes with VF but I thought it was similar to Gothard.

ETA: I saw on their twitter that one of them, at least, listens to secular music.

[calimojo]

I think the Duggars have been active with Vision Forum and associate with Doug Phillips. So I don't think that doctrinally they differ greatly.

Wearing pants or dancing are minor differences. It is the core issues, Subjugation of women, lack of reproductive rights, Anti- Gay activism, antagonism towards public education, Restricted access to advanced education for women, and so on that is similar.

Often people will talk about "If only the girls could wear shorts, or slacks" because those are some outward signs that perhaps they are less conservative, but unless they change at the core level, wearing pants/dresses or thigh high boots doesn't really mean a hill of beans.

[DGayle]

I see a lot of fighting within 3 years, and divorce, or desire for it, in 5. They're both mentally kids (I'm going with them being a boy and a girl, not a man and a woman, in this reply, because they are mentally stunted into childhood by how they were raised).

JB snaps his fingers, and immature Ben jumps to do what he's told to. Right now we've got a horny boy who wants sex, sex, sex, and it too eager to please a girl's daddy so he can get into her panties. What's going to happen when he starts feeling suffocated? He didn't have parents this overbearing, but now he's in a position of his world being controlled, and his options that he had are gone. I think he'll start getting mad, and maybe blaming Jessa.

Jessa's never had freedom, but there are signs she wants to rebel. She's also very vain, though part of that's probably the focus on looks she was raised with. Now she's got a whole lot of freedom compared to what she's had, but was never given the chance to moderate herself. I think it'll be too much all at once, and when the freedom gets taken away because she's got kids of her own to take care of when she's finally had a taste of getting to spend time on herself, I think she'll get angry. I think she'll keep it together for 2 kids, but 3 will be the tipping point. She's into her looks a lot, and even the most self-confident woman can feel blah and unattractive with pregnancy weight and the loose skin and baby-weight after birth. Jill, I think, is willing to set a lot aside to dive into it all. She was the golden daughter. I don't think Jessa will be happy to give up what is probably what she feels is so special about herself, which is being one of the prettier ones, the young, sex-hungry, svelte young thing she probably sees herself as.

They got married a lot because of sex. All the downtime during pregnancy and after birth will mean a lot of time when they'll have to spend time together without the sex they clearly revolve around. I think that's when the discontent will really start.

[DGayle]

Well, I could be totally wrong, but lets estimate that Jessa & Ben make 5,000 dollars for every Bessa-centered episode.

So, the courting episode. The engagement episode. The wedding episode. The leading-up-to-the-wedding episode. The post-wedding how-are-they doing episode. The we're-pregnant episode. The pregnancy update episode. The very-first Bessa Baby episode. The Bessa-baby update episode.

That's 45,000 dollars right there.

Add in any money that Jessa makes from her book.

Add in the possibility that she has a living arrangement similar to Jill's.

Add in whatever job Ben does have.

If they saved most of the money they made from the show, and lived modestly, they could probably get by for a while on it...

Takeout taxes, 12.5% on just social security. That's not a lot of money to live on for a long time, even if they have no housing payments. Josh and Anna didn't get a house for years and years. If Blessa gets $5k per special episode, and Ben being flighty, and she's not going to make a fortune from her book, and if they get free rent, I think they might get by for 5 years, if there are no kids and they live modestly. Start adding in kids or rent, and that's going down.

[DGayle]

I'm not sure that we can determine that at this point. First, there is TLC money. Second, we don't know that Ben won't secure a steady job/continue going to school.

It isn't like they will have 9 kids all at once, and we have no idea what the two of them will be doing in 10 years.

Belugaloo, do you know what a prediction is? We don't know the future, so we make guesses.

I think the reason Ben won't get steadily and gainfully employed,or go back to school, is because he's too eager to please his vagina's former owner. Look how quick he left his schooling, work, and family, to move into the compound. We know JB is against any real education in any form, and who knows what work he will approve of for Ben. It's creepy how JB told Ben to move. Ben is malleable, and he'll do what JB wants.

[Coco]

I see a lot of fighting within 3 years, and divorce, or desire for it, in 5. They're both mentally kids (I'm going with them being a boy and a girl, not a man and a woman, in this reply, because they are mentally stunted into childhood by how they were raised).

JB snaps his fingers, and immature Ben jumps to do what he's told to. Right now we've got a horny boy who wants sex, sex, sex, and it too eager to please a girl's daddy so he can get into her panties. What's going to happen when he starts feeling suffocated? He didn't have parents this overbearing, but now he's in a position of his world being controlled, and his options that he had are gone. I think he'll start getting mad, and maybe blaming Jessa.

Jessa's never had freedom, but there are signs she wants to rebel. She's also very vain, though part of that's probably the focus on looks she was raised with. Now she's got a whole lot of freedom compared to what she's had, but was never given the chance to moderate herself. I think it'll be too much all at once, and when the freedom gets taken away because she's got kids of her own to take care of when she's finally had a taste of getting to spend time on herself, I think she'll get angry. I think she'll keep it together for 2 kids, but 3 will be the tipping point. She's into her looks a lot, and even the most self-confident woman can feel blah and unattractive with pregnancy weight and the loose skin and baby-weight after birth. Jill, I think, is willing to set a lot aside to dive into it all. She was the golden daughter. I don't think Jessa will be happy to give up what is probably what she feels is so special about herself, which is being one of the prettier ones, the young, sex-hungry, svelte young thing she probably sees herself as.

They got married a lot because of sex. All the downtime during pregnancy and after birth will mean a lot of time when they'll have to spend time together without the sex they clearly revolve around. I think that's when the discontent will really start.

Your comments about Jessa ring so true. Not to defend her but honestly who wouldn't be the same way, vain instead of humble, when she has all the things going for her that the world praises. And she's basically like you said just a little kid stunted by her upbringing. All those props are just a big sky castle though, built out of nothing truly permanent. What does she have to base her respect toward Ben on? If it's his looks, or how he leghumps her dad, or how they agree in their religious fervor, it's not going to be a lasting foundation for a good marriage, esp. when they disagree eventually. It's going to suck when they get hit with real life struggles.

Ben might think he'll be JB 2.0, making a fortune by buying, selling and wheelin' dealin' with a side of religious proselytizing. (after all, what are church members for if not to support the pastor's visions, if Ben does become a pastor?) :roll: He's already gotten a hot wife, a luxurious honeymoon, and fame out of this deal. Cameras following him around Paris. His own dad clearly thinks that JB is pretty amazing. Ben may not be as stupid as he appears; he may just be trying too hard to please the big kahunas in his world. If things don't live up to his expectations he's going to be so mad about it, imo.

[LongDogMom]

I have hopes that after a few weeks of wedded bliss, they have a gentle - but very real - realization that they are NOT as ready for marriage as they originally thought and take some steps to set themselves up with some REAL long term plans. Let their realization be about how Jessa accidentally set the EZBake Kitchen on fire for the third time this week and not that they have no jobs, no money, twins on the way and only 9 months to figure ALL this stuff out. And I hope there are family members on both sides outside of the bubble who are loving and supportive and willing to help them figure all this out.

Yeah, I doubt that's likely to happen. All these people seem to just go along day by day in a bubble of Godly love without any real deep thinking about anything. It all seems so superficial and naive.

While I don't think Jessa or Ben are strangers to screaming babies, I do think Jessa will find that being on her own and caring for child(ren)/house in addition to cooking and cleaning for Ben will be a struggle. It may have seemed cute to say she can't cook and Ben knows it and still loves her when they were courting, but I guarantee that Ben will expect dinner on the table every night after the lust starts to ease off. I also don't think Jessa will enjoy pregnancy the same way Jill seems to be.

I think a lot of people are interested to see how it all turns out. I wonder if they consider condoms to be sinful?