Anna Duggar Divorce: Is Jim Bob Duggar Hinting That Anna And Josh Should Have Another Baby?
Anna Duggar’s father-in-law just shared some advice that might be aimed at Anna and her troubled husband, former Family Research Council Action Executive Director Josh Duggar. Jim Bob Duggar seemingly believes that the secret to a happy family is avoiding birth control, the internet, and television.
The Duggars recently used their official Facebook page to point their fans to a blog post by Jim Bob Duggar titled “Note to Fathers.” It’s something Jim Bob wrote a while back, but perhaps he’s hoping that it will help Anna Duggar and Josh Duggar repair their marriage and heal their family. There have been numerous reports that Anna is thinking about getting a divorce, and Hollywood Life recently claimed that Josh is getting desperate to save his marriage. One unnamed source alleged that Josh is using the promise of another baby to keep Anna Duggar from going through with the divorce. He knows that his wife loves children, so perhaps he thinks she won’t be able to resist the opportunity to have one more.
The Duggars have not directly responded to the divorce rumors, or the claim that Josh is trying to convince his wife to have a fifth child, but Jim Bob Duggar possibly hinted that he agrees that Josh and Anna should keep increasing the amount of “blessings” in their lives. His “Note to Fathers” suggests that birth control is a bad idea and parents shouldn’t try to plan their families — they should leave the number of kids they have up to God and consider each one a gift.
According to Jim Bob, he and Michelle learned this lesson after Josh Duggar’s birth. Michelle went on the birth control pill, but she still got pregnant. She later suffered a miscarriage, and now the Duggars believe that the birth control pill can cause miscarriages. As the Inquisitr previously reported, this is not true — oral contraceptives do not affect fertilized embryos. However, the Duggars continue to blame Michelle’s miscarriage on the pill, and they credit that lost baby for their decision to have as many children as they possibly can.
“We thought we could set our own timetable for having children, for example — when we were ‘financially able,’ or when we ‘had all our ducks in a row,'” Jim Bob wrote of the decision he and his wife made.
He went on to say that he and Michelle completely changed their views on children after praying and reading the Bible.
“We read in the Bible that God says that children are a blessing and a reward from Him (Psalms 127:1-5). We had been rejecting His gifts. At that point, we prayed and asked God to forgive us and we gave Him this area of our lives. We said, ‘Lord, help us to love children the way that you love children, and Lord we want to receive each one as a gift from you.'”
Maybe the Duggars shared this message about birth control because of something Josh or Anna Duggar told them about their marital woes. Late in August, Josh Duggar confessed to cheating on his wife of seven years. As People reports, Anna’s husband admitted to “being the biggest hypocrite ever,” claimed that he was also suffering from an addiction to internet pornography, and asked his fans to pray for Anna. He didn’t share any details about why he decided to have an affair, but here’s one possibility: perhaps Anna Duggar has never been on birth control, and Josh simply wanted to have sex without worrying about the deed resulting in another mouth to feed. Josh and Anna welcomed their fourth child, Meredith Grace Duggar, just a few weeks before Gawker discovered that Josh had a paid account on Ashley Madison, a website that uses the slogan, “Life is short. Have an affair.”
During a March interview with People, Josh hinted that he’s not so sure that he wants to follow in his parents’ footsteps by having as many children as Anna is able to conceive.
“It’s tough to have so many kids in today’s world,” Josh said.
“If someone told me when we got married, I’d have three kids and one on the way, I’d have been overwhelmed.”
However, during the same interview, Anna Duggar hinted that she shares Michelle Duggar’s love of babies — Anna was already thinking about having more when she was pregnant with Meredith.
“Some people think I’m not happy unless I’m pregnant,” Anna Duggar said. “Marcus just celebrated his first birthday and I was thinking, ‘My baby is growing up.’ There is a desire to have more children.”
Anna Duggar’s husband seemed a little more open to the idea of having a super-sized family back when Anna was pregnant with their second child. During a 2011 interview with E! News, Josh said that he and Anna were both happy that their families decided to have more than two or three kids.
“God has the control. Obviously, we can do things to prevent that, but I’m glad my parents didn’t just settle to have three or four children. There are definitely a lot of advantages to trusting [in God]. Anna’s glad that her parents didn’t stop at four, because she was number five.”
According to Jim Bob Duggar, leaving the size of your family up to God isn’t the only important step you should take to ensure that you never have to deal with any Josh Duggar-sized scandals. Anna Duggar’s father-in-law also advises parents to make sure that all forms of entertainment in their home are rated G.
“Start protecting your family by removing books, magazines, television, or internet that have worldly or sensual content,” Jim Bob wrote in his blog post. “Replace them with good things like wholesome music, biographies of great Christians, good old-fashioned family fun and games.”
Do you think Jim Bob is trying to tell Josh and Anna Duggar that they should have more kids instead of getting a divorce?
[Image via Josh Duggar/Instagram]
