The Duggar family stunned fans by publicly honoring Derick Dillard's birthday. Did he and Jim Bob bury the hatchet?
Apparently not. Derick is shooting down reconciliation rumors, and he's doing it right under the Duggar family's post.
The Duggar family took to the official Facebook page to give Derick a shoutout.
"Happy birthday, Derick!" the post began.
Derick may be culturally from the 1950s, but he is a Millennial who was born in 1989 and turned 31 years old on March 9.
The Duggar post gushed: "We’re so thankful for you!"
"You’re a loving husband to our sweet Jill," the post praised.
"And," the Duggar family raved, "a wonderful daddy to your boys" Israel David Dillard and Samuel Scott Dillard.
"May God bless you in this new year!!" the post concluded.
No, this isn't an old post. The "New Year" line is a little weird during March.
"I thought the Duggers were shunning Derrick and Jill?" a stunned fan commented. "I seriously doubt this is from JB and Michelle."
"I think Derrick and Jill are great, and [I’m] glad they are living life!!" that same comment concluded.
"No," countered a reply, "the network cut them out because of his opinion on [I Am Jazz, Jazz Jenning’s] show"
This second fan insisted that "It had nothing to do with the family."
And who should reply but Derick Dillard himself, right there in the comments under the Duggar family's official post.
He responded specifically to the second commenter, the one who claimed that his ousting was all TLC's doing.
"I have to respectfully disagree," Derick commented.
That very gentlemanly post seems to imply that no, Derick has serious beef with the family.
These days, Derick just about never sees his awful in-laws.
Even Jill, their flesh-and-blood relative, has to beg for permission to enter Jim Bob's home.
It's more than just a few nitpicky theological disagreements between Jill's father and her husband behind this.
Derick has strongly implied that Jim Bob has been fleecing his entire family of their hard-earned reality TV profits.
It has also been strongly implied that he has other serious issues with Jim Bob.
That's fair, really. Most decent people who know anything about the man despise him.
We can only imagine that someone who has had the displeasure of knowing Jim Bob personally has even more points of contention.
Countless fans are eager for Derick to publish a book of some kind to expose Jim Bob.
That's not to say that Derick is necessarily a good person himself ... which brings us to our next topic.
The widespread understanding is that Derick was fired by TLC a couple of years ago for his awful tweets about Jazz Jennings.
If you're going to be a transphobic douchenozzle who targets an underage girl with bigoted vitriol, well ... don't.
But also, maybe don't take aim at someone on the same network as your wife's family's show.
We have to acknowledge that it is possible that Derick's "respectful" disagreement with the second commenter wasn't as it appeared.
What if he was simply claiming that he quit, not that he was removed from the show over his tweets about Jazz?
It's worth considering the possibility that Derick is doubling down on his claim that he and Jill quit the show voluntarily.
That said ... the ambiguity seems to imply that Derick is confirming his ongoing beef with Jim Bob.
