A lot of people love the Duggars because of how strongly they value their religion, and how deeply they believe in it.
But a lot of other people wish they would cool their jets about certain issues.
For example, as we’ve seen in recent months, it’s always a big issue when one of the Duggar women dares to wear something other than a long, plain skirt.
From what we’ve heard, Jinger wearing pants is about to damn near tear the family apart.
There’s also the thing about having baby after baby after baby, regardless of the health of the woman popping out all those kids. Because the Lord isn’t down with contraception.
And then there’s the unwavering forgiveness for Josh Duggar, who molested four of his sisters …
The point is that the Duggars have many extreme views, and that they make a lot of people uncomfortable.
And a sermon delivered by Jeremy Vuolo, Jinger’s brand new husband, is following in that same tradition.
See, Jeremy as a pastor at a church in Laredo, Texas. And apparently a lot of Catholics live in Laredo.
For him, that is not OK.
In a recent sermon he preached at the church, he decided to offer up his stance on Catholicism, which he referred to as “demonic.”
Yeah, he doesn’t seem to be too fond of the whole thing.
“I just want to say this, kind of as an aside for us here in Laredo,” he said. “There are spiritual strongholds in our world today, aren’t there?”
“Just as Paul and Silas encountered the demonic in Phillippi, so we encounter that here in Laredo. In this city we have the pagan religion of Catholicism gripping the souls of the majority.”
Catholicism is a pagan religion? We thought it was a Christian religion, but OK, Jeremy.
It really seems like he doesn’t see Catholicism as a different denomination of Christianity, but as a different religion altogether — he suggested this in another part of his sermon.
“When the question comes, ‘What must I do to be saved?’, Catholicism tells you to clean up your life and adequately perform the sacramental duties,” he said.”
For Islam, he said “the only way for you to be certain of paradise is if you die in jihad,” and “for those who claim to be Jews but are not” (???), the key is to follow the Torah and “just do your best.”
However, “the message of the Christian is that of grace” — just not if you’re a Catholic Christian, it seems.
His views fit in with the rest of the Duggars pretty well: remember, Jill and Derick Dillard are missionaries in El Salvador, which is 85% Christian, just with a Catholic majority.
But still, Jeremy is getting a whole, whole lot of hate for the statements he made in his sermon.
“What is with the pagan religion of Catholicism?” one person asked on Twitter. “Do we believe a reality show whore, or a 2k year church founded by an apostle?”
“You should be ashamed for disrespect you show for Catholics,” another wrote. “Pagan? Please you and your church are spewing this hate. God is Judge, not you.”
One person pointed out that “Referring to Catholicsm as ‘pagan’ not only insults Catholics, but Pagans. Study both before making such off-base comments.”
A particularly upset Twitter user wrote “AS A PROUD CATHOLIC I AM DISTURBED BY THIS. BE ASHAMED! NOT CHRISTIAN OF YOU AT ALL! BLASPHEMY!”
Even though Jeremy is getting this much criticism, we highly doubt he’ll change his opinion or consider these other points of view.
That’s just not the Duggar way.
