Jeremy Vuolo found himself in hot water after sharing a tweet about his views on suicide.
1/2 “Alan Redpath tells the story of a young woman who came to her pastor desperate and despondent. She said, ‘There is a man who says he loves me so much he will kill himself if I don’t marry him. What should I do?’…
— Jeremy Vuolo (@Jeremy_Vuolo) February 2, 2018
2/2 …’Do nothing,’ he replied. ‘That man doesn’t love you; he loves himself. Such a threat isn’t love; it is pure selfishness.’” @johnmacarthur
— Jeremy Vuolo (@Jeremy_Vuolo) February 2, 2018
He mentioned a story allegedly from Alan Redpath, who was a British Evangelist and author, in which Redpath offered advice on dating someone who is suicidal.
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“Alan Redpath tells the story of a young woman who came to her pastor desperate and despondent. She said, ‘There is a man who says he loves me so much he will kill himself if I don’t marry him. What should I do?’” Jeremy tweeted.
“‘Do nothing,’ the 30-year-old continued the story in another tweet. ‘That man doesn’t love you; he loves himself. Such a threat isn’t love; it is pure selfishness.’”
While some responded praising Vuolo for sharing Redpath’s “wise words” on the matter, others slammed Vuolo for potentially encouraging people to ignore someone who is suicidal.
Get what you’re saying but I think you need to be careful when you talk about ignoring suicidal people.
— lynni jameson (@lynni_jay) February 3, 2018
“Get what you’re saying, but I think you need to be careful when you talk about ignoring suicidal people,” one person commented on the thread.
One person responded with a personal story having lost their mother-in-law to suicide.
My mother-in-law committed #suicide in Nov 2017. Her partner ignored the signs. I beg of you, PLEASE DO NOT encourage people to ignore a person’s statements of wanting to kill themselves. That is a DANGEROUS thing to do!!! #SuicidePrevention
— Gina Schuster (@witchycoltsfan) February 4, 2018
Another added, “More like mental illness… in need of professional help. God calls people to be psychiatrists to help people just as much as he calls people to be ministers.”
Vuolo’s controversial tweet comes a month after he and wife Jinger (Duggar) Vuolo announced they are expecting their first child.
“The past 14 months have been the best of our lives as we have had the wonderful privilege of beginning our journey through life together in marriage,” the couple told Us Weekly in January. “We both looked forward to the joys of marriage but neither one of us fully understood just how amazing the start of this journey would be. Truly, the Lord’s mercies are new every morning! Now, the journey has taken an exciting turn: We are expecting our first child!”
Although they still have several months to figure their parenting strategy out, Jeremy opened up about keeping religion at the center of his life, as he revealed during an interview on the Calvinist Batman & Friends podcast, which he shared the link to on Twitter this weekend.
During the podcast, the interviewers asked the TLC personality how parents can teach their children how to enjoy worship.
“Well, I have a family on the way here,” he said. “My wife is pregnant and due in July with our first. But I think it begins with establishing that relationship with your wife and I think just walking through the word together. If you’re abiding in Christ and walking with Christ daily, I think it can look like sharing that and opening the lines of communication about your own walk with Christ. Where are you wrestling right now? How is scripture helping you? Just opening that communication and fellowshipping with your spouse and that’s gonna translate to your children.”
He pointed out that parents should be providing a good example for their children.”If you’re not spending the time in the work yourself, if you’re not disciplining yourself to walk with Christ in your devotional time,” Jeremy continued, “Then how do you expect to really pour into [your] family?”
