Jessa Duggar Seewald Responds To Criticism Of Her Controversial Baby Name Choice

Jessa Duggar Seewald doesn’t regret picking an unusual (and controversial) baby name for her son.

Whenever Jessa Duggar posts a photo of her 1-year-old son on Instagram, it’s immediately flooded with hundreds of comments about how cute and adorable the curly-haired tyke is. This is what happened on January 14 when Jessa shared a photo collage of Spurgeon Elliot Seewald sitting in a grocery cart. Her “shopping buddy” was dressed for wintry weather in a warm blue pullover and a striped hat with matching leggings.

While scrolling through the sea of positive responses to the photo, Jessa Duggar discovered one negative comment, and this is the one that she decided to respond to.

“I still can’t believe you named your child Spurgeon,” the comment read.

“We happen to love the name, and it suits him nicely!” Jessa fired back.

“Spurgeon was one of the greatest and most influential preachers of the 18th century, and his legacy lives on.”

Some of Jessa Duggar’s fans don’t like the name Spurgeon simply because it sounds so bizarre, but others take issue with the moniker for an entirely different reason; they’re upset that Jessa Duggar and her husband, Ben Seewald, decided to name their son after an anti-Catholic preacher. These fans voiced their disappointment in the parents’ name choice on the Duggar Family Blog in response to a post about Jessa and Ben’s struggle to choose a name for their first child.

“This Pastor was an anti Catholic hater. As a Catholic who always supported the family we are very hurt and insulted that the Seewalds would honor this bigot by naming their son after him,” one fan wrote. “What happened to Christian tolerance Ben and Jessa? We will no longer follow or show any interest in this family.”

“I have read and somewhat tolerated all the anti-Catholic rhetoric coming from Ben, Jessa and the Duggar family as a whole because of the unity I felt with them in honoring family, children, motherhood etc.” another fan commented. “After reading the blatant hatred Charles Spurgeon spouted against Catholics, and knowing how this family truly hates Catholics I will no longer support their shows. It makes me incredibly sad.”

As the Inquisitr previously reported, Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said that Catholicism is “as much the masterpiece of Satan as the gospel is the masterpiece of God.” According to Grace to You, Spurgeon also told his followers that the Pope and the Antichrist were one and the same.

“Popery is contrary to Christ’s gospel and is the Antichrist and we ought to pray against it.”

As one of the Duggars’ fans pointed out above, Jessa Duggar’s husband hasn’t disguised his own dislike of Catholicism. In 2014, Ben Seewald posted an anti-Catholic rant on his Facebook page. He listed a few Catholic beliefs that he takes issue with, and he wrote that he was calling out Catholics because it was his “desire that they be turned from their deadly errors.” According to Us Weekly, the post received so many negative responses that Ben eventually decided to delete it.

As Starcasm reports, Ben also complained about Catholicism after returning home from a 2014 mission trip to Central America. In another Facebook rant, he claimed that the congregation of a church in Honduras was facing “bitter persecution from the Catholics and those in Voodoo.”

Jessa Duggar and Ben Seewald will soon have a second baby to name, and fans are likely wondering if they’ll choose another moniker that’s just as unusual and controversial as Spurgeon. As People reports, Jessa and Ben have discussed sticking to a theme for all of their children’s names, and they’ve said that they may continue choosing names inspired by “heroes from the Christian faith.”

The ChristianityBeliefs.org website has compiled a long list of notable Christians throughout history who shared Charles Spurgeon’s belief that the Pope is the Antichrist. They include Presbyterian minister Lyman Beecher, Puritan minister Cotton Mather, and theologian John Wycliffe.

Jessa Duggar’s due date is sometime next month, so fans will soon find out if she and Ben Seewald stick to an anti-Catholic baby name theme by naming their second child after the likes of Wycliffe, Mather, and Beecher.

[Featured Image by Jessa Duggar Seewald/Facebook]