I will say at the offset I have never seen Duck Dynasty nor do I plan to. It doesn't seem like something that I would be all that interested in enough to spend a half hour of my life sitting in front of the television for. I have heard of the family and seen pictures of him with various people, but I really know very little about the show except it has something to do with duck hunting.
A&E has decided that it goes against their values to employ someone who holds a biblical worldview on sin. You can disagree with the premise all you like, but it doesn't change what the bible says. Homosexuality is a sin according to Christian belief. I fully understand that there are churches out there that ignore that and have no problem with openly gay clergy and will marry same-sex couples. That still doesn't change what the bible says about it.
Phil Robertson gave an interview with GQ Magazine. During that interview he was asked a question on his view of homosexuality. He answered the question coming from a biblical point of view. He is a person who believes that the bible is the living word of God. Yes his words may have been crude, but they were not bigoted, nor did he liken homosexuality to having sex with a goat. He simply gave a list of things that are sinful, he also included having heterosexual sex outside of marriage in his list.
"Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men."
All he said is that sex outside the confines of traditional marriage is sinful, which according to the bible, it is. That shouldn't be up for debate. Again, you can feel that the bible is outdated, fake, or anything that you may feel about it, but it doesn't change what scripture says. If you are to follow the bible and its teachings you shouldn't be having sex of any kind outside of traditional marriage. Once you do that, you are committing a sin.
Another part of his quote gets left out in almost all of the media coverage:
“We never, ever judge someone on who’s going to heaven, hell. That’s the Almighty’s job. We just love ’em, give ’em the good news about Jesus—whether they’re homosexuals, drunks, terrorists. We let God sort ’em out later, you see what I’m saying?”
Is it any wonder that this gets left out? How can you say that he is "hating" on homosexuals if he says he is not judging them? As a Christian it is part of your duty to spread the word of God. People will do that in different ways and to different degrees. But a true Christian never makes statements about someone else's salvation and how God will ultimately judge a person and how they lived their life. Not only isn't that our job, it way above our pay grade.
But of course the media coverage is he is a bigot, he is a hater, or he is some crazy right winged nut job. He isn't allowed to have a biblical worldview and share that openly. That is something you must keep in the closet and act like it doesn't exist. Of course the same people who are hitting him hard have no problem with talking about homosexuality in sex ed classes geared to 6 year olds. That is perfectly acceptable. But don't tell them the other side of the equation, oh no, you are a hater then.
If activists for the gay community are as open-minded as they claim to be, they will have a debate on this topic. But that isn't what happens. The debate gets shut off by people losing their income or labeled a bigot and a hater. My gosh even feminist and openly gay Camille Paglia understands what is happening by these fanatics
"utterly fascist & utterly Stalinist"
Having a debate on the legalization of gay marriage is worth having in this country. But it devolves into name calling and threats. What does it say about people who say they are only trying to be accepted and have their rights protected by our society when they care none about the rights of those who believe otherwise?
We have gotten to the point where any talk of religion must be closeted and must be whispered in the confines of your own home. We have even gotten to the point that sometimes you can't have a bible study in your home without interference, putting up Christmas lights on the outside of your home gets you a letter from your neighbors telling them how offended they are.
That isn't tolerance folks, that is tyranny. This is how far we have fallen as a society; a major public university gives classes on the fine art of fellatio and that is deemed a perfectly acceptable use of tax payer funds for "educational" purposes, but a Christian man can't give the biblical view that he tries to live his life by without losing income.
A&E has every right to end their contract with Mr. Robertson. They are a private business and they are under no restrictions constitutionally, as this isn't a free speech or free religion issue. The government isn't interfering. Just because A&E has the right to end his contract doesn't mean that it should. So far the sponsors of the show seem to understand what is at stake here and are standing on the right side. The side that says he has a right to religious liberty and his viewpoints.
A sad day in America. A very sad day.
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3 comments:
Excellent summary. I don't watch Duck Dynasty either, but I respect their free speech rights and I respect their religious beliefs. Our country would be a better place if more people clung to Judeo-Christian values.
I suspect that A&E and the Duck Dynasty family were probably not all that bothered by this non-event. This massive emotionally charged reaction of the DD fan base (as well as, ostensibly, their sympathizers and even their opponents) almost surely boosted ratings for all involved.
Note how A&E never pre-empted any of their DD holiday marathons. Note how they never even hinted that they might bring the show to a halt.
They had absolutely no intentions of relinquishing this cash cow. It's too much of a cash cow. It's like FoxNews, or some of the shows one might catch on History, or H2, or Discovery, or CMT. The DD market is an overwhelming politically conservative demographic. That's a HUGE, LUCRATIVE, and oftentimes emotionally invested market.
A&E was never going to sacrifice that demo to satiate Bravo's. Of course, they had to respond in some form or fashion, since most Americans today don't think being gay is innately problematic and don't particularly appreciate those who insist that it is. But they weren't about to send DD off to their competitors, who no doubt were licking their chops at the possibility.
For whatever it's worth, I don't think the "love the sinner" principle holds much water in cases like this. If Robertson, or anybody, followed a religion that stated bluntly, "being Jewish is a sin", and/or that the other sins that "morph" from "being Jewish" include "bestiality, etc", it wouldn't matter how much Robertson "honestly loved Jews" and/or "didn't judge them for their Jewishness", the society at large would nevertheless judge HIM (and in my view, rightfully so).
We all, including Mr. Robertson, have the right to speak our minds. But we don't have the right to force others to pay us to speak our minds. This seems to confuse a lot of TV and & radio fans.
How exactly is the Robertson family forcing anyone to pay them? they have a contract. As long as they are fulfulling their end, A&E is doing what is legally required of them. And by the way, Muslims belong to religion that continually says being Jewish is a sin and you don't hear much of outcry on that.
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