Did Duggar Family Respond To Orlando Shooting By Blaming Victims?
It’s no secret that the Duggar family doesn’t believe that gay people should have the same rights as straight people — the Duggars have made it very clear that they’re against same-sex marriage. But do they really dislike gay men and women so much that they’re blaming them for the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history?
As CNN reports, 49 victims lost their lives in the June 12 shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida. A homophobic, American-born man who pledged allegiance to ISIS seemingly targeted Pulse because it was a gay club.
Celebrities, politicians, and other public figures have been using social media to convey their condolences to the family members and friends of those who lost loved ones, and it appears as though the Duggar family decided that they also needed to respond to the tragedy in some way. However, instead of expressing their sadness over the loss of so many lives, the Duggars shared an image of a Bible verse.
The member of the Duggar family who shared the Bible verse left it up for interpretation by offering no explanation for why he or she chose it, and there’s been some speculation the Duggars are trying to say that the gay men and women who died in the Orlando shooting brought the attack on themselves by failing to “resist the Devil.”
“The Duggars clearly believe it’s the victims’ fault,” Connie Gunderson Zorkocy wrote in response to the Duggar family’s post. Others accused the Duggar family of lacking compassion and being self-righteous.
The World Remembers The Victims Of Orlando Nightclub Shooting https://t.co/HCjfiAqQiA pic.twitter.com/UEKJZE3CIO
— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) June 13, 2016
Commenters on the Duggar Family News: Life Is Not All Pickles and Hairspray Facebook page are debating the meaning of the post, with some giving the family the benefit of the doubt by speculating that the Bible verse had nothing to do with the Orlando shooting. However, most commenters believe that the Duggar family was engaging in victim blaming.
“I take this as a passive way of saying they got what they deserved. Knowing how anti LGBT the Duggars are they are probably not sorry. I’m not surprised, but it still makes me sad,” Lori Short wrote.
“Why can’t they just post that they are praying for all the victims and their families and loved ones? Then there would be no speculation on what they actually mean by the post. And that would be the Christian thing,” Maureen Mitchell commented.
Many other commenters pointed out that the Duggar family did not say that they were praying for the victims and their families. However, the Duggars made sure to let their Facebook followers know that they were praying for America last June when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of marriage equality. As the Inquisitr previously reported, the Duggar family shared a Bible verse that is somewhat similar to the one above in their response to gay marriage becoming legal throughout the United States. They decided to include a few of their own words with that Bible verse image.
“Praying for our nation today,” the Duggar family wrote.
The Duggars have always been careful not to say anything too incendiary about the gay people, but they have a hard time keeping their disdain for the LGBT community hidden when Josh Duggar joined the Family Research Council (FRC), a Christian conservative group that is anti-gay rights. As Buzzfeed reports, Josh Duggar fought hard to keep gay marriage from becoming legalized during his time as the executive director of the FRC’s political lobbying arm. The oldest Duggar son was forced to resign from his position with the organization last May after he admitted to sexually molesting his younger sisters as a teenager.
I’m honored to #March4Marriage today in Washington! @FRCAction pic.twitter.com/1jMrEMp384
— Josh Duggar (@joshduggar) April 25, 2015
Josh has not responded to the Orlando shooting, but one of his victims, Jessa Duggar, has. As the Inquisitr previously reported, she chose to share a quote from an anti-gay evangelical leader.
The Duggar family’s dislike of the gay community was also on display in 2014 when they issued a “kissing challenge” on Facebook. As Us Weekly reports, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar asked their followers to help them celebrate love by posting pictures of themselves kissing their significant others. Photos of same-sex couples were reportedly removed.
The Orlando shooter’s father said that he saw him become enraged after witnessing two men kissing in public.
#TwoMenKissing hashtag takes defiant stance in support of #Orlando shooting victims https://t.co/4xU2n1MZJV pic.twitter.com/bv2Btba7j6
— Mic (@mic) June 13, 2016
Do you think the Duggar family’s Facebook post was an insensitive response to the Orlando shooting? Sound off below!
[Image via Duggar Family/Facebook]
