Jen Hatmaker

[Anonymous]

Tyler seems like someone who was enjoying being Jen’s unofficial protege’ (Jen 500,00+ followers to Tyler’s 50,000, Jen 12 books to his 1) plus some shameless flirting, thinking that’s all it would be. Meanwhile Jen is watching Brandon’s IG and she’s desperate for her own love story, so she pushes a relationship on Tyler. He’s savvy enough to know he won’t have to give a ton cause she’s far away and busy. So they’ll essentially be friends with benefits. Many of the photos involving Tyler look either awkward or contrived. I’m not sure who is playing who but it’s most likely mutually beneficial for now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Brandon worshiped at the altar of Jen himself. I don’t think he was threatened by her bright shining success, but needed to know he was still special to her even if 500,000+ followers liked her posts everyday.
He didn’t need the fame or adulation of the masses, he craved Jen’s undivided love and attention. The one thing he could almost never get. That’s why he made the comment how Tina makes him feel like he’s the only guy in the room even when there is a crowd. He felt invisible when Jen was in show mode.
He became bitter and resentful as he realized he’d helped create a monster. The more her fan base grew the less she needed or valued him. Her love tank was getting filled by her fans while his was steadily depleted.

As someone that had to interact with Brandon during the height of their notoriety in the tv days he ABSOLUTELY craved the adulation and fame. Probably the attention at home too but my god did he have to have his ego stroked a lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Brandon worshiped at the altar of Jen himself. I don’t think he was threatened by her bright shining success, but needed to know he was still special to her even if 500,000+ followers liked her posts everyday.
He didn’t need the fame or adulation of the masses, he craved Jen’s undivided love and attention. The one thing he could almost never get. That’s why he made the comment how Tina makes him feel like he’s the only guy in the room even when there is a crowd. He felt invisible when Jen was in show mode.
He became bitter and resentful as he realized he’d helped create a monster. The more her fan base grew the less she needed or valued him. Her love tank was getting filled by her fans while his was steadily depleted.

As someone that had to interact with Brandon during the height of their notoriety in the tv days he ABSOLUTELY craved the adulation and fame. Probably the attention at home too but my god did he have to have his ego stroked a lot.

Thanks for the insight. From a distance he seemed to live in her shadow so it’s good to know he’s a fame whore as well. It takes a fair bit of ego to blow up your family with cheating and addictions then go on IG and brag about how much better your life is now with your new lover.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Brandon worshiped at the altar of Jen himself. I don’t think he was threatened by her bright shining success, but needed to know he was still special to her even if 500,000+ followers liked her posts everyday.
He didn’t need the fame or adulation of the masses, he craved Jen’s undivided love and attention. The one thing he could almost never get. That’s why he made the comment how Tina makes him feel like he’s the only guy in the room even when there is a crowd. He felt invisible when Jen was in show mode.
He became bitter and resentful as he realized he’d helped create a monster. The more her fan base grew the less she needed or valued him. Her love tank was getting filled by her fans while his was steadily depleted.

As someone that had to interact with Brandon during the height of their notoriety in the tv days he ABSOLUTELY craved the adulation and fame. Probably the attention at home too but my god did he have to have his ego stroked a lot.

Thanks for the insight. From a distance he seemed to live in her shadow so it’s good to know he’s a fame whore as well. It takes a fair bit of ego to blow up your family with cheating and addictions then go on IG and brag about how much better your life is now with your new lover.

I agree- he wants his ego stroked. He is desperate to be a “man’s man”. He wants to be tough- hence all the tats, and the pearl snap shirts with a couple of buttons left unbuttoned to show his upper chest tat. And the big truck that he low key puts into every photo. He had an identity crisis. He used to wear dad jeans, Chuck Taylor’s, and a regular long sleeve button down with the sleeves halfway rolled up. Not it’s the hat down to his ears, bunch of boots that have never seen real work and jeans that only poser cowboys wear. If he was really hard…. He would have to try to hard.

I think Jen emasculated him to a degree. When she got her fame— bitterness came out because his book didn’t do as well. He wasn’t as photogenic, his personality didn’t translate to TV and Videos the way hers does. He slipped into a void where he felt he had no real purpose. So, he worked hard to get one— through the little “Apple Dumpling Motor Bike Gang.”

[Anonymous]

Correction- If he was really hard…. He would NOT have to try so hard.

[Anonymous]

Who commented that Tina is no longer linked to Brandon's instagram? What does that mean? A breakup?

[Anonymous]

When she got her fame— bitterness came out because his book didn’t do as well.

Having read the book as a member of the launch team....I felt Jen probably had a hand in writing it. It's his voice but her formatting? Does that make sense? I feel like he dictated it to her and she ghostwrote it. The book discusses being a Christian presence in your community and serving people without forcing your theology on them. And navigating that real tension. Tough stuff to write about but the book made a valid attempt. It included an interesting anecdote about donating his boots at a small inner-city church where Shane Claiborne was a guest preacher.

I guess I am scratching my head after watching him and Jen commit for a time to reducing their consumer-centric lives in the name of serving others and honoring God, and now bouncing back hard to fully embrace the influencer life with all its excess. But I guess what we were reading and what was actually happening (per the ex ANC testimonies on this forum) were different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who commented that Tina is no longer linked to Brandon's instagram? What does that mean? A breakup?

Looks like Tina deleted her Insta. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[Anonymous]

Well watching Jen’s post today with Sarah Bessey I realized Jen sees herself as a reformer like Martin Luther. They actually mentioned how the church goes through these significant shifts every 500 years and we are due for one about now.
They said they found Jesus through their process of deconstruction and then reconstruction. I want to give them grace to walk their own journey but at the same time they are also setting themselves up as spiritual guides to help other wilderness wanderers find their way home.
Sounds lovely except something doesn’t feel right. How did they grow up in Christian homes and go all those years in ministry to only now get this revelation that the Bible is relative and subject to the times? They say it is because it once worked for them then when it didn’t anymore they re-examined what they’d always believed to be true and realized a bunch of the Bible was being misinterpreted.
It’s a tender post and I believe their hearts are sincere yet I have this deep concern that to join their deconstruction group is to be forced to fully accept the entirety of their new revelations as truth. Remembering how Jen has closed comments on her posts about abortion, transgenderism, and homosexuality it’s not like dissent is tolerated. She left the comments section open on her posts verbally assaulting the things she despises.

[Anonymous]

If Jen and Sarah were right in that the church was going through a much needed reformation to confirm to the times wouldn’t you think that churches like ANC and other progressive denominations wouldn’t be hemorrhaging members? The fruit of Jen and Sarah’s new teaching isn’t a vibrant, growing church that transforms souls, communities, and cultures to Christ. It’s the opposite. Dying, spiritually sad, hopeless largely empty buildings with a few gray hairs.

The explosion in growth worldwide are with the conservative movements.

We are seeing this too in the Catholic Church. The traditional movement is growing, the progressive wing dying.
The new priests too. Way more conservative and doctrinal than the ones they are replacing who were ordained in the 50s through the 70s

[Anonymous]

The fruit of Jen and Sarah’s new teaching isn’t a vibrant, growing church that transforms souls, communities, and cultures to Christ. It’s the opposite.

So so true. A glance at Jen's comment section is an incredibly intolerant group of people who are perpetually enraged and never satisfied.

Sarah veered super close into heretical territory with her blog post a few years ago that seemed to paint Jesus as prejudiced against the Syro-Phoenician woman asking for her daughter to be healed. Sarah misread the passage and when rebuked for it, doubled down and stood by it.

At least Martin Luther was an actual theology professor and monk who knew his Scripture.

[Anonymous]

It’s a tender post and I believe their hearts are sincere yet I have this deep concern that to join their deconstruction group is to be forced to fully accept the entirety of their new revelations as truth

Your concern is 100% valid.

Does the group include Jeff Chu? I remember Jen posting a video of him at her home, having cooked some extravagant main course that she was oohing and aahing over. Her mom was in the frame and looked so completely unimpressed by all the fanfare over this I though, man, how does she live with Jen and all her over the topness 24/7?

[Anonymous]

My concern is the lack of wrestling until they needed a new answer to fit the story of their life. I chewed and wrestled with the word along the way and found it to be a sure foundation that kept me grounded in truth despite the shifting sands of society. Reinvention is a tricky business because if you aren’t clearly getting it from God it’s just deception dressed up as revelation to make you feel better about the hard parts. I don’t want a God so small he can be reimagined every 500 years to suit the new reformers. I want the God of the Bible, who made people fall down as if dead in his presence cause his power and majesty were beyond human comprehension.
I want the Jesus of the Bible who isn’t just an idea but a living God we can know intimately right now.

The conservative churches that stick close to the word are exploding in my area as well. They are adding thousands to their congregations yearly. But I’m in the belt buckle of the Bible Belt so this may be geographically influenced.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If Jen and Sarah were right in that the church was going through a much needed reformation to confirm to the times wouldn’t you think that churches like ANC and other progressive denominations wouldn’t be hemorrhaging members? The fruit of Jen and Sarah’s new teaching isn’t a vibrant, growing church that transforms souls, communities, and cultures to Christ. It’s the opposite. Dying, spiritually sad, hopeless largely empty buildings with a few gray hairs.

The explosion in growth worldwide are with the conservative movements.

We are seeing this too in the Catholic Church. The traditional movement is growing, the progressive wing dying.
The new priests too. Way more conservative and doctrinal than the ones they are replacing who were ordained in the 50s through the 70s

Well- catholic Priests are seen as pretty sus in general. They had a pretty horrible run of covering up gross abuse of little boys for who knows how long and how widespread. Not exactly what I’d want to hitch my wagon to.

But- I digress- this board is about deconstructing the train wreck of Jen and her self aggrandizement and fleecing of her flock. And being snarky about it all.

[Anonymous]

Was thinking about Jen posting texts from her father that were so beyond the pale supportive and thinking that it had somehow contributed to her sense of grandiosity and her bloated ego.
And then I recalled Glennon Doyle's father giving her a poster of Irish authors that had hung in their family room, with photos of Auden and Wilder and he had put her photo on the poster next to theirs. I thought...wth? Now she thinks she is on the level of Joyce?

These dads need to rein it in. They have created some utter nutjobs.