Jana Duggar Is No Longer Outgoing, Works For Jessa In ‘Jill & Jessa: Counting On’ Promo
Jana Duggar used to be “rowdy” and “outgoing,” according to her younger siblings. However, something must have happened to her at some point in her life that profoundly altered her personality. In a promo for next Tuesday’s episode of Jill & Jessa: Counting On, Jana’s brothers and sisters talk about how much she’s changed over the years, and they also reveal just how much they rely on her help. When Jessa Duggar decides to add new lighting fixtures to her house, she doesn’t hire a professional to do the job—why pay a pro to install the lights when you have a sister who can do it for free?
According to TLC, a segment of the upcoming episode of Jill & Jessa: Counting On will be all about Jana Duggar. Jana Duggar is 26-years-old, doesn’t have a job or go to college, and still lives at home with her parents. She spends a lot of her time caring for her younger siblings, but her older siblings often need her aid as well. In the promo clip below, 23-year-old Jessa Duggar asks Jana for help brightening up her cave-like home. Jana says that she learned a thing or two about light fixtures from watching her male family members repair them, so if “the guys aren’t there,” Jana can get the job done.
In the video clip above, Jana Duggar’s siblings don’t just talk about how hard their sister works whenever she’s given a task to complete—they also try to describe her personality. According to 18-year-old Joy-Anna Duggar, Jana is “quiet” and likes to “sit in the background.” However, Jana’s twin brother, John-David Duggar, revealed that she wasn’t always so reserved.
“Jana used to be very outgoing,” John-David said. “Whenever she was younger, she was very rowdy.”
None of the Duggars tried to explain why Jana is so different now.
Jana Duggar’s more subdued attitude could be the result of being forced to grow up faster than most girls—she might not have a home or kids of her own, but Jana has acted as a “sister mom” to her younger siblings for years. As The Inquisitr previously reported, critics of the Duggar family have christened her “Cinderella Duggar” because she’s spent so many years of her life taking care of a house full of children.
However, some Freejinger commenters have another theory about Jana—they think Jana’s changed personality is the result of the Jill & Jessa: Counting On star undergoing “re-programming” at a Christian camp called Journey to the Heart.
“Journey to the Heart is just one of [Bill] Gothard’s ‘re-education camps’ where he tells you your flaws and how it’s frowned upon in God’s eyes and brainwashes you into believing his doctrine,” one commenter wrote.
Bill Gothard is the disgraced former leader of the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP), a controversial Christian organization that the Duggars support. Gothard resigned from his position with the ministry after multiple young women accused him of sexual harassment. One of his alleged victims told Talking Points Memo that she was in charge of choosing recruits for Journey to the Heart, and Gothard let her know that he preferred pretty girls who seemed “troubled.”
During a 2011 Living the Journey podcast, Jana Duggar hinted that she was slightly troubled when she attended Journey to the Heart. She was asked to share something that “the Lord showed” her during her stay at the camp, and she revealed her source of distress was her family.
“There are many things that he showed me, but the one that really stood out was really loving my family,” Jana said. “The past few months I’ve just been struggling with different attitudes or things towards different members—or different people—that I’ve come in contact with.”
“I was asking the Lord, ‘Why am I struggling with having this contention towards them?’ and the Lord showed me this week that I had pride in my life… he showed me that with pride cometh contention, and so I really need to love my family and have the right attitudes and obey my parents.”
The Duggar Family Blog shared the video below that shows Jana Duggar and Bringing Up Bates star Erin Bates talking about Journey to the Heart. Erin talks about the different types of “bad hearts” that they learned about and how she discovered that she had a “murmuring heart,” and Jana reveals that her favorite thing about the camp was getting a little alone time.
Why do you think Jana Duggar was having problems with her family? And do you think her trip to Journey to the Heart changed her personality by making her less outgoing?
[Image via TLC]
