Orlando Shooting: Jessa Duggar’s Anti-Gay Pastor Quote Spurs Calls For Cancellation Of ‘Jill & Jessa: Counting On’

Jessa Duggar Seewald’s response to the Orlando shooting has critics of the Duggar family calling for the cancellation of Jill & Jessa: Counting On.

Many of Jessa Duggar’s Facebook followers were impressed when she shared what appeared to be a sympathetic post about the June 12 mass shooting at the Pulse gay club in Orlando, Florida. They applauded Jessa for seemingly putting aside her own feelings about homosexuality and acknowledging the tragedy that claimed the lives of 49 men and women.

“Jessa, I so much appreciate that you are grieving for those who died, even though most of the victims were gay and lived lifestyles that go against your beliefs,” one of her Jessa’s fans wrote. “It is heartening to see that you and your family see them as people, love them as people, and mourn them as people.”

The words Jessa Duggar shared where not her own. Instead, she chose to quote Albert Mohler, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

As the Inquisitr previously reported, Albert Mohler is more open than Jessa Duggar and her family members when it comes to his anti-gay views; the religious leader has even called for Christians to boycott the weddings of their gay friends and family members. It’s unclear whether Mohler thinks it’s okay for the friends and family members of the gay Orlando shooting victims to attend their funerals.

According to the Huffington Post, Mohler has also compared the legalization of gay marriage to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and he wrote that homosexuality is “the first and most evident sign of a society upon which God has turned His judgment” in an article for the Christian Post.

Because Jessa Duggar chose to quote an anti-gay leader in response to a tragedy that took the lives of so many gay people, some critics of the Duggar family are blasting TLC and calling for the network to cancel Jessa’s reality series, Jill & Jessa: Counting On.

“Jessa and her husband making (what a shocker) homophobic remarks after the massacre of 49 people in Orlando. The same family who harbored protected a child predator, who asked for understanding and support…ha and TLC will keep the Duggars again on their network?” one commenter wrote on the TLC Facebook page.

It’s important to point out that Jessa Duggar and her husband, Ben Seewald, didn’t actually make any homophobic remarks; they shared the words of two anti-gay religious leaders. Ben chose to quote John Piper, another prominent Baptist who also believes that Christians shouldn’t attend gay weddings. He has compared going to a gay wedding to attending a gathering to celebrate theft, greed, adultery, or drunkenness.

“This is why the Duggars must never be seen on TV ever again…..Jessa Duggar, Ben Seewald React to Orlando Shooting By Quoting Anti-Gay Leaders,” another commenter wrote on the TLC website.

TLC has still not announced whether it plans on bringing Jill & Jessa: Counting On back for a second season, but the network continues to update the show’s Facebook page.

This isn’t the first time critics of the Duggars have called for one of the family’s TV series to be canceled. In 2014, over 100,000 people signed a Change.org petition begging TLC to cancel 19 Kids and Counting. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the petition was in response to a robocall Michelle Duggar recorded in which she equated transgender people to child predators. The Duggar matriarch was trying to convince Fayettville, Arkansas residents to vote against a nondiscrimination ordinance that would protect members of the LGBT community.

As ABC News reports, TLC did eventually give 19 Kids and Counting the ax, but its cancellation was due to Josh Duggar’s confession that he had sexually molested his younger sisters as a teenager.

Albert Mohler has some words of advice for conservative Christian celebrities like Jessa Duggar and Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson, who was criticized for comparing homosexuality to bestiality in 2013.

“So the controversy over Duck Dynasty sends a clear signal to anyone who has anything to risk in public life: Say nothing about the sinfulness of homosexual acts or risk sure and certain destruction by the revolutionaries of the new morality. You have been warned,” Mohler writes on his website.

As Jessa Duggar has recently learned, sometimes letting others speak for you also isn’t the best idea.

Those who want to help Orlando shooting victims and their families can do so by donating to the GoFundMe account set up by Equality Florida, a nonprofit a nonprofit LGBT civil rights organization.

[Image via TLC/YouTube]