Jill Duggar And Derick Dillard Criticized Over Christmas Tree Photo
Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard’s Christmas tree is up, and there’s already a pile of presents underneath it. A photo of the tree recently angered Duggar critics who believe that Jill and Derick used donated money to purchase their Christmas gifts.
On Friday, Derick Dillard took to Instagram to show off his family’s fully decorated Christmas tree. The former Counting On star also proclaimed December 1 as the official start of the Christmas season. Jill Duggar responded to her husband’s social media post by thanking him for helping her put the tree up, decorate it, and wrap the gifts underneath it.
“Yay! I love our lil cozy home! Thanks for helping babe!” the Duggar daughter wrote.
“Of course he is around to help,” read one response to her remark. “HE IS NO LONGER A PRODUCTIVE MEMBER OF SOCIETY AND HE HAS YOU BEGGING FOR HIM.”
Some fans expressed amazement that Jill and Derick have already gotten so much Christmas shopping done, but other commenters were more critical of the sizable stack of gifts underneath the tree. They questioned whether the couple spent their own cash on the presents.
“How many ‘gifts’ were bought with other peoples money???” read one remark.
“Okay people…you see those boxes under that gorgeous tree? THOSE PRESENTS WERE BOUGHT WITH MONEY YOU DONATED!!”
Other Duggar detractors mentioned Derick Dillard’s GoFundMe page, pointing to it as potential proof that he and Jill are preying on the generosity of their Christian fans and using donated money to make their own holidays merrier. However, the donations raised through Derick’s GoFundMe are only supposed to be used to cover the cost of his enrollment in Cross Church’s one-year School of Ministry program.
Derick has currently raised $3,824 of the $10,000 he aims to receive, and he has continued to film “Thank You” videos like the one below for anyone who donates more than $50.
As reported by PopCulture, fans are wondering how Derick Dillard plans on making enough money to support his family now that TLC has kicked him off of the Duggar family’s reality series. Derick lost his Counting On paycheck after he made a transphobic remark about another TLC star, 17-year-old Jazz Jennings. However, as long as Jill continues to appear on the show, any money she makes will be at his disposal.
In response to a Twitter question about his employment status, Derick claimed that he has a job. He was likely referencing C3, a college ministry program that he and Jill Duggar became involved with back in August. However, it’s unclear whether the couple is being paid by the church, and neither Derick nor his wife are listed as staff members on the C3 website.
One fan recently took to Twitter to ask Derick’s mother, Cathy Dillard, why he can’t get a job and save the money for his ministry work. In her response, Cathy didn’t argue that her son has a paying job. Instead, she mentioned his reliance on donations.
“Some give, some go. It’s how missions is done,” she wrote.
