Entertainment
Derick Dillard's Instagram Posts Are Often Just As Controversial As His Tweets
Members of the Duggar family often make waves with their conservative views and public lifestyle. And one newer member of the clan has recently shifted into the spotlight, and not for the best of reasons. Like his Twitter page, Jill Duggar's husband Derick Dillard's Instagram is a platform for his political and religious views and commenters have taken to using his posts as grounds for heated debates.
Dillard, a main face on the popular TLC series Counting On with his wife Jill Duggar, first made waves of his own when he took on 16-year-old Jazz Jennings's reality show I Am Jazz, TLC's show featuring one of the youngest and well-known transgender celebrities in the world. In a controversial tweet, Dillard criticized not only the show, but transgender people everywhere, writing: "What an oxymoron... a 'reality' show which follows a non-reality. Transgender' is a myth. Gender is not fluid; it's ordained by God."
TLC has since responded to the tweets, making it clear that Dillard's views do not represent those of the network. Taking it a step further, TLC has cut ties with Dillard, issuing a statement over Twitter explaining why:
We want to let our viewers know that Derick Dillard has not participated in Counting On for months and the network has no plans to feature him in the future. We want to reiterate that Derick's personal statements do not reflect the views of the network. TLC is proud to share the story of Jazz Jennings and her family and will continue to do so.
Now that he will no longer be on the TLC show, fans and critics are left with Dillard's social media to make or break their opinion on his views.
Many of Dillard's Instagram posts do feature family, at home with his children — sons Israel David and Samuel Scott — or traveling with his wife, Jill.
But many of his posts on Instagram do also highlight his views that have landed him in some hot water with his fans and his former employer. For example, in one post, he shared a photo of his support for President Donald Trump via a pair of Trump socks, urging users to buy some White House merch' of their own. Commenters latched on to Dillard's support of Trump and the flaw in his logic.
One user commented on the photo:
Awesome, go grab em by the p*ssy, Derrick! What a role model for your children you've chosen. Bravo!! Hope he never sees your wife and calls her a fat pig. He likes to do that to women, you see. He also likes to persecute the people you travel to help. Wow! Talk about confusing.
Another pointed out the hypocrisy of supporting a man who regularly degrades women and violates numerous biblical orders: "Figures you're a trump supporter. So you bash a child for her truth but support a sexual predator who's been married 3 xs and has cheated over and over."
In another post, Dillard seemed to indirectly address his beef with Jennings with a post of a quote from German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He captioned the photo, "Are we living for an audience of one? Which audience are you living for? Life is short, live without regrets."
While some people expressed solidarity with him for standing his ground and voicing his views, many were outraged by his judgement. "The way Jazz lives her life doesn’t effect you or your family in any way. You had no right to humiliate and degrade her in public the way which you did," one person commented on the photo. "You and your family condemn anyone who does not conform to your tight religious sect and cry ‘religious persecution’ any time someone offends you."
A similar recent post, Dillard shared a quote by evangelical Christian pastor Rick Warren, which urges people to stick to their convictions. This post, too, seemed to be in reference to Jennings and his comments about her. Comments on this post were also fairly outraged but many jumped to Jennings' defense.
One person pointed out that Dillard is entitled to his beliefs, but his hate is unwarranted. "You’re allowed to believe whatever you want about LGBT people and people who don’t follow your specific religion, but for you to flat out disrespect and intentionally attack them is not okay," one person commented on the photo.
Among Dillard's more controversial posts, there are photos of his dinners out and moments with his family. But, given this new spotlight, these more opinionated posts do raise some eyebrows.