Bontragers/Bowers/Helferichs 13: In the Middle of Jesus’ First Relationship

[Smash!]

It‘s the notion that an „all natural approach“ is always better that bugs me the most. It‘s a completely false and romantic idea of what nature is.

A close friend once had an UTI. No big deal, just take antibiotics and you‘ll be fine. Except one evening they suddenly felt worse and started to deteriorate. At the ER, even the healthcare professionals started to get nervous until they were finally able to stabilize them. Turns out the bacteria were partly or fully resistant against the antibiotics taken and my friend got septic. 

5 minutes ago, HereticHick said:

Considering how anti-vax the Bontrager and Helferichs are, I wonder when they actually take their newborns to the doctor for the first time? never?

Pfff who needs doctors, babies are made to grow into children and then adults. Growing up is not an emergency. It‘s the deep state Fauci and Biden who invented well being check ups for babies, like they created the Plandemic! /sarcasm

[JermajestyDuggar]

57 minutes ago, HereticHick said:

Considering how anti-vax the Bontrager and Helferichs are, I wonder when they actually take their newborns to the doctor for the first time? never?

Amish love chiropractors. They use chiropractors like family doctors. I’m sure that’s where the Bontrager love of woo started. I wouldn’t be surprised if she took her kids to a chiropractor instead of a doctor.

[CaptainFunderpants]

8 hours ago, HereticHick said:

Looks like the nearest hospital to Mountain Grove MO is Texas County Hospital in Houston, MO,  about 30 min. away.

Meanwhile, I wonder how Liz Bontrager feels about 20-year Christian Bowers. He is a bit of a snacc, as they say.  https://www.instagram.com/christianjetbowers/

So now we have track Brad Pitt in Nick Symmonds and fundie Brad Pitt in Christian Bowers.

All three succeed in both being attractive AND really off-putting.

Liz had a thing with Carver a few years ago (to the point that Carver was pictured sitting next to Marlin at several meals, Liz and Carver always had to have a sibling between them in photos, and Carver openly posted creeper pics of Liz on instagram), and IIRC it lasted months. No idea how that would add to the dynamic of her and Christian. It probably wouldn't matter.

The other factor is it appears Marlin and Becky want their daughters to get married on the later side, which is why Carver and Liz likely didn't go anywhere... Liz is still only 21, while Chelsy and Allison were both on the later side of 26, which is another factor.

[JermajestyDuggar]

12 hours ago, CaptainFunderpants said:

So now we have track Brad Pitt in Nick Symmonds and fundie Brad Pitt in Christian Bowers.

All three succeed in both being attractive AND really off-putting.

Liz had a thing with Carver a few years ago (to the point that Carver was pictured sitting next to Marlin at several meals, Liz and Carver always had to have a sibling between them in photos, and Carver openly posted creeper pics of Liz on instagram), and IIRC it lasted months. No idea how that would add to the dynamic of her and Christian. It probably wouldn't matter.

The other factor is it appears Marlin and Becky want their daughters to get married on the later side, which is why Carver and Liz likely didn't go anywhere... Liz is still only 21, while Chelsy and Allison were both on the later side of 26, which is another factor.

I think they would be fine with her marrying earlier. But girls have to wait until some fundie guy is interested. Marlin pushed his boys to get married to the Bowers girls. But it was hard for him to push the girls because they have to sit and wait patiently for a Prince Charming to come along. 

[postscript]

I get the impression the Bontrager marriages are semi-arranged. Marlin and the other patriarch decide two of their kids would be a good match, tell the kids to pray about each other as potential mates, and start planning the wedding. I don’t think Marlin would force his kids to marry anyone they didn’t get along with, but he sees parental approval as more important than romantic love. 

[CaptainFunderpants]

10 hours ago, postscript said:

I get the impression the Bontrager marriages are semi-arranged. Marlin and the other patriarch decide two of their kids would be a good match, tell the kids to pray about each other as potential mates, and start planning the wedding. I don’t think Marlin would force his kids to marry anyone they didn’t get along with, but he sees parental approval as more important than romantic love. 

I think they vary widely. John and Chelsy no, Mitchell and Bryn no, Denver and Praise no. Allison and Jeremiah, 100%; Carson and Lina 100%; and then Josh and Cass were gray area.

According to a guest post they wrote on the Bont blog, Cassidy developed a crush on Josh while being told to pray about her sister and Carson, but Cass thought Josh was out of her league. Josh talks about being terrified to talk to Curtis about pursuing her, and appreciating not only her devotion to God, but her intelligence, playful personality, and joy.

Taylor and Susanna also seem like gray area. Semi-arranged because of two sets of sibs already being married, but at the same time Taylor has Bible Bee money and Susanna is really pretty, and their wedding pics on Chelsy's blog show far more chemistry than Allison and Jeremiah, but less chemistry than Denver and Praise.

I'll be curious to see their final three. The odds seem high that there'll be at least one more Bowers and one more Helferich match -there are just too many similar ages.

[dawn9476]

3 are married to Helferichs and 2 are married to Bowers.  If that doesn't scream arranged, I don't know what does.

Edited April 20 by dawn9476

[JermajestyDuggar]

I would say that almost all fundie marriages are “semi arranged.” Because there’s a ridiculous amount of parental involvement even if the couple choose one another. Because the parents have to sign off on it. 
 

I have a sneaking suspicion that the Whites did NOT sign off on the marriage of Pelaiah and that’s why they aren’t mentioning a single word about it on Instagram. Even though they are mentioning Abraham getting his drivers license and another child learning to cook. If you are mentioning the more mundane things of family life and not mentioning a wedding, there’s a problem. 

[llucie]

2 hours ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

I have a sneaking suspicion that the Whites did NOT sign off on the marriage of Pelaiah and that’s why they aren’t mentioning a single word about it on Instagram. Even though they are mentioning Abraham getting his drivers license and another child learning to cook. If you are mentioning the more mundane things of family life and not mentioning a wedding, there’s a problem. 

Interesting post in march too mentioning they "have been dealing with some difficult circumstances this past month". 

[JermajestyDuggar]

15 minutes ago, llucie said:

Interesting post in march too mentioning they "have been dealing with some difficult circumstances this past month". 

I saw that too and figured it had to be about Pelaiah. 

[Melissa1977]

Chelsy and John marriage wasn't arranged, they definitely liked each other very much. And Denver and Praise... if it was arranged, it was the hottest arranged marriage ever haha.

I don't think Bontragers want their daughters to marry later. I think they want them to marry young, but Chelsy had a broken courtship (if I recall correctly) and Allison couldn't find a boyfriend before. Allison was obsessed about marriage... She wasn't happily waiting and I'm sure her parents were reminding her she needed to court ASAP.

[Noquiver]

6 hours ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

I saw that too and figured it had to be about Pelaiah. 

Even if the marriage was due to a “shameful” reason (in their dumb fundie brains), does the complete and utter refusal to acknowledge it in any way not go against their norms? Do people think this means if/when a baby shows up this year the Whites will never acknowledge their first grandchild? Even though “children are a blessing from the Lord”. I just find this response which feels like a disownment is so strong for their daughter having sex outside of wedlock. It makes me wonder if the marriage wasn’t because of that but because it went against the parent’s desires for them to get married. And they said fuck it and did it anyways. I don’t know if  the Bowers or Charlie were particularly active on social media so if there’s anything that can be gleaned from that side. But the White’s always seemed like OTT parents, even for Fundies, Pelaiah was the prettiest of the oldest two girls and who can blame her for wanting to GTFO. She’s 18 and maybe made a run for it?

[JermajestyDuggar]

They will probably reconcile eventually. But I wonder how long it will take. 

[HereticHick]

I see Liz did not go to the Bowers-Paul wedding in north Florida--she went to a single maiden retreat instead.  There wasn't a huge amount of seating for the wedding, so I bet the only Bontragers in attendance were the ones who have married Bowers.

[CaptainFunderpants]

22 hours ago, Noquiver said:

*snip* It makes me wonder if the marriage wasn’t because of that but because it went against the parent’s desires for them to get married. And they said fuck it and did it anyways. I don’t know if  the Bowers or Charlie were particularly active on social media so if there’s anything that can be gleaned from that side. But the White’s always seemed like OTT parents, even for Fundies, Pelaiah was the prettiest of the oldest two girls and who can blame her for wanting to GTFO. She’s 18 and maybe made a run for it?

Count me as one that doesn't think it was anything more than going against the parents' wishes. I don't think there'll be a questionably timed blessing. I just think they're different brands of crazy and so the families don't like the match.

The Bowers are still quiet on social media allegedly because of the January 6th stuff.

Charlie has been very hit or miss on social media. Once upon a time he did have the IG username of "CharlieTheOilGuy," referencing essential oils, which is just iconic 

I don't blame Pelaiah for making a run for it... That run for it landing in the Bowers borg... Prayers up for Pelaiah. Though Charlie has always seemed somewhere between chill and confused, so while her FIL is insane, guessing she'll have a lot of spousal autonomy/power.

48 minutes ago, HereticHick said:

I see Liz did not go to the Bowers-Paul wedding in north Florida--she went to a single maiden retreat instead.  There wasn't a huge amount of seating for the wedding, so I bet the only Bontragers in attendance were the ones who have married Bowers.

This surprises me, because didn't she just hangout with Haley and the Real Housewives of MedicCorps + the Lost Girls a few weeks ago? I would have expected this wedding to be huge.

The January 6th prosecutions are ongoing and the Bowers continue to act as though they're under investigation.

[HereticHick]

Here's Mrs Bowers, aunt Amanda and Pelaiah before Carver's wedding. I don't see a bump.

[dawn9476]

A pic that definitely says that "Carver and I got married just to have sex."

[JermajestyDuggar]

It is just so sad to watch child brides getting married in fundieland. They’ve bound themselves to someone they barely know as a teen. And they don’t even understand the seriousness of what they’ve done. 

[Nothing if not critical]

Another Pelaiah sighting in the reel their aunt posted. I'm not usually that interested in the Bowers family, but this whole thing has me intrigued...

[GreenBeans]

On 4/22/2024 at 1:40 AM, CaptainFunderpants said:

Count me as one that doesn't think it was anything more than going against the parents' wishes. I don't think there'll be a questionably timed blessing. I just think they're different brands of crazy and so the families don't like the match.

Yep. Fundies have all kinds of nonsensical disputes and pre-marriage questionnaires about “theological differences” and “scripture”, so the parents may very well have objected the marriage due to some random difference in religious doctrine with the other family.

[HereticHick]

1 hour ago, GreenBeans said:

Yep. Fundies have all kinds of nonsensical disputes and pre-marriage questionnaires about “theological differences” and “scripture”, so the parents may very well have objected the marriage due to some random difference in religious doctrine with the other family.

I think the Whites are awful in many ways, but I'm kinda hoping that their objection was that the Bowers are a bunch of Insurrectionists who want to overthrow the government.

Like Pelaiah, my dad was career military, and he sure as hell would have objected to me marrying into someone whose into treason.

I'm going to be total BEC right now and point out that this is what Haley apparently wore out to dinner at a  Texas Roadhouse  a night or two ago. I don't know about y'all but I always wear a floor length satin gown to eat ribs at my local mid-market chain steakhouse.

[JermajestyDuggar]

21 minutes ago, HereticHick said:

I think the Whites are awful in many ways, but I'm kinda hoping that their objection was that the Bowers are a bunch of Insurrectionists who want to overthrow the government.

Like Pelaiah, my dad was career military, and he sure as hell would have objected to me marrying into someone whose into treason.

I'm going to be total BEC right now and point out that this is what Haley apparently wore out to dinner at a  Texas Roadhouse  a night or two ago. I don't know about y'all but I always wear a floor length satin gown to eat ribs at my local mid-market chain steakhouse.

Plus Curtis is a nutty conspiracy theorist and has been for many years. Long before trump, Curtis was espousing his bullshit. Jan 6 was just his holiday. 

[SwimmerBoy29]

2 hours ago, HereticHick said:

I think the Whites are awful in many ways, but I'm kinda hoping that their objection was that the Bowers are a bunch of Insurrectionists who want to overthrow the government.

Like Pelaiah, my dad was career military, and he sure as hell would have objected to me marrying into someone whose into treason.

I'm going to be total BEC right now and point out that this is what Haley apparently wore out to dinner at a  Texas Roadhouse  a night or two ago. I don't know about y'all but I always wear a floor length satin gown to eat ribs at my local mid-market chain steakhouse.

If there’s any benefit of the doubt to be had here- I’m wondering if this is some sort of attempt at a “prom night” since he’s dressed up as well and I had friends that went to Longhorn Steakhouse before prom.

 

Edited April 23 by SwimmerBoy29

[JermajestyDuggar]

1 minute ago, SwimmerBoy29 said:

If there’s any benefit of the doubt to be had here- I’m wondering if this is some sort of attempt at a “prom night” since he’s dressed up as well and I had friends that went to Longhorn Steakhouse before prom.

 

I often figure most of these teen fundie brides wanted to go to prom and their wedding is their prom. 

[SwimmerBoy29]

1 minute ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

I often figure most of these teen fundie brides wanted to go to prom and their wedding is their prom. 

That makes sense.

Honestly this picture reminds me of the time we stopped at a TGI Friday’s somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Maryland driving back from Hershey Park when I was maybe 13 and there was a couple in their late 20s maybe at the table next to my family that was clearly on a date night. She was in a black maxi dress that perfectly framed the large butterfly tattoo on her upper back and had her hair curled and a full face of makeup on and he was in a button up plaid shirt and jeans and cowboy boots.

At first I was like they’re really having fancy date night at TGI Friday’s? And then it occurred to me that this was bumfuck MD and that’s what they had to work with.