It was just a matter of time before it happened.
Ever since reports surfaced that A&E was trying to crack down on religious expressions by the Robertson family during taping of their mega-hit show Duck Dynasty, we knew it was just a matter of time. And now it’s finally happened.
In case you’ve been under a rock in the last 24 hours, it has been reported by every media outlet in the country that Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson has been placed on “indefinite hiatus” for his remarks on homosexuality. When this news broke, the Internet and social media exploded. Here’s the story.
Robertson was doing an interview with GQ magazine when he was asked about his faith and the faith of the Robertson clan. The faith of this beloved all-American family is well-known. So when asked the questions about faith and sexuality, Robertson didn’t hold back. He said:
“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…Don’t be deceived. Neither the adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers—they won’t inherit the kingdom of God. Don’t deceive yourself. It’s not right…It seems like, to me, a vagina—as a man—would be more desirable than a man’s anus. That’s just me. I’m just thinking: There’s more there! She’s got more to offer. I mean, come on, dudes! You know what I’m saying? But hey, sin: It’s not logical, my man. It’s just not logical.”
These comments garnered the ire of GLAAD, a homosexual rights group, which called on A&E to end the hit show. Rather than doing so A&E decided to first suspend Phil Robertson, then to put him on “indefinite hiatus.” In other words, A&E fired a Christian for sharing his Christian views when asked. Or, as one of my friends said it “Irony of the night: you can’t be the real you with your real opinions if you star in a ‘reality’ show.”
As you might expect, Facebook and Twitter exploded with support for Robertson. Pages dedicated to #StandWithPhil gained tens of thousands of supporters in mere hours. The contact information for A&E (posted below) began circulating immediately. And my personal Facebook wall has been nonstop images and articles about Phil Robertson for more than 12 hours.
Some of the articles include:
‘ANTI-GAY’: ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY ATTACKS ‘DUCK DYNASTY’ STAR’S CHRISTIAN FAITH (Brietbart)
Holy quack! ‘Duck Dynasty’ star booted over ‘gay’ flap (WND)
Duck Dynasty Star Fired Over Remarks on Homosexuality (The Gospel Coalition)
I don’t think I’ve seen more articles posted in such a short amount of time over a situation, ever. Big names such as Albert Mohler and Russell Moore from the Southern Baptist Convention immediately had articles defending Robertson’s views posted to their blogs. And high-powered bloggers like Matt Walsh blasted A&E as having committed “suicide” over their decision.
Albert Mohler noted the hypocrisy of the culture with his statement:
“Another interesting parallel emerges with the timing of this controversy. The current issue of TIME magazine features Pope Francis I as ‘Person of the Year.’ Within days of TIME’s declaration, Phil Robertson had been suspended from Duck Dynasty. Robertson’s suspension was caused by his statements that homosexual acts are sinful. But Pope Francis is riding a wave of glowing publicity, even as he has stated in public his agreement with all that the Roman Catholic Church teaches, including its teachings on homosexual acts. Francis has declared himself to be a ‘son of the church,’ and his church teaches that all homosexual acts are inherently sinful and must be seen as ‘acts of grave depravity’ that are ‘intrinsically disordered.’ But Pope Francis is on the cover of TIME magazine and Phil Robertson is on indefinite suspension.”
Russell Moore commented:
Let’s have the sort of cultural conversation that allows us to seek to persuade each other, not to seek to silence one another with intimidation. That’s what real diversity is all about…And if you don’t like his religious views on sexuality (views held also by Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and evangelicals as well as by many Orthodox Jews, Muslims, and the Dalai Lama), you’re free to say why you think he’s wrong. And you’re free to change the channel. Let’s have genuine diversity, meaning let’s talk honestly with one another about what we believe and why. Muting one another isn’t what debate is for in a free society.”
Before going any further let’s get something straight right now. This is not a surprise to A&E or anyone else. Since Duck Dynasty became one of the most popular shows on television, and the most popular show on A&E, the Robertson family has been outspoken about their faith. Robertson sons regularly speak in churches, conferences, and events. And when they do, they bring Bible’s and share their faith. They have spoken about the issue of homosexuality before, along with pre-marital sex, abortion, and creation. So no one is surprised by these comments.
The reality is that Duck Dynasty has been a ratings machine for A&E and perhaps the only reason people like me even watch the network. The sponsors of Duck Dynasy, like Wal-Mart, have made millions off the show and A&E is still considered a relevant network thanks to the Robertsons. As one person noted, Duck Dynasty doesn’t need A&E, A&E needs Duck Dynasty. So what A&E has done is to alienate their base by catering to a minority that doesn’t even watch their network. That seems like a logical and brilliant business decision.
Blogger Matt Walsh blasted A&E for committing “suicide” with this decision:
“Good Lord, these militant neo-liberal thought police are better at brainwashing than I ever realized. They just convinced you to torpedo your own network. You guys just kamikazed yourselves. You just pulled the pin on the grenade and then put it in your pocket. This is incredible. Didn’t you see what happened with Chic-fil-A when GLAAD crusaders tried to shutdown an entire business just because they disapproved of the owners opinions? Don’t you remember that? I’ll refresh your memory: their “boycott” resulted in an enormous sales spike for the company, as millions of people like myself went out of our way to eat there just to ensure that the anti-free speech fools on the left didn’t win. A week after the anti-Chic-fil-A campaign began, their restaurants across the country were overflowing. It was, officially, the least effective boycott in the history of mankind. Now it’s all going to happen again, except it will be the opposite effect, and you’ll be on the losing end this time around. If you don’t bring Phil back immediately, and publicly apologize to him and to his viewers for attempting to censor his Christian faith, Duck Dynasty will leave your network, find a new home, and all of those ratings will go somewhere else.”
Another friend of mine wrote on Facebook:
“What A&E has effectively said by suspending Robertson is that support for LGBT and criticism of LGBT cannot co-exist on their network. Which means they don’t support the freedom of speech guaranteed in the Constitution. Which means they are in violation of their contract with the public to use public airwaves to transmit their programming. Which means that the executives at A&E should have to answer to Congress.”
They both make good points. A&E is not very wise with their business decisions considering that Duck Dynasty is by far their most popular television show and most likely helping to keep a lot of people employed. But beyond that they are engaging in pure censorship; or viewpoint discrimination if you like that term better. This network is saying that you cannot be a Christian, hold to Christian views, and still be acceptable to society. And yet the majority of the people that watch Duck Dynasty agree 100% with the statements made by Phil Robertson. So A&E is essentially telling nearly all of the people who watch Duck Dynasty, their biggest money-maker, to go jump off a cliff. Brilliant.
A&E seems more interested in catering to a few folks at GLAAD than to the millions that watch their hit show. A GLAAD spokesman commented on the remarks made by Robertson:
“Phil and his family claim to be Christian, but Phil’s lies about an entire community fly in the face of what true Christians believe. He clearly knows nothing about gay people or the majority of Louisianans — and Americans — who support legal recognition for loving and committed gay and lesbian couples. Phil’s decision to push vile and extreme stereotypes is a stain on A&E and his sponsors, who now need to re-examine their ties to someone with such public disdain for LGBT people and families.”
Ugh, first of all, Phil Robertson didn’t lie about anything. He stated his beliefs according to the Bible. These beliefs would be corroborated by nearly every person calling himself a Christian. Just look at Albert Mohler and Russell Moore’s comments for proof that Robertson understands the Bible’s teaching on sexuality. Stating one’s religious convictions is not a lie, it’s being honest. Secondly, one would be hard pressed to say that a majority of Americans support marriage redefinition. That’s a statistic that is disputed at best. Last, Robertson did not “push vile and extreme stereotypes,” he explained what homosexuality was and why he was against it.
Robertson issued his own follow up statement making it clear that he doesn’t hate anyone:
“I myself am a product of the 60s; I centered my life around sex, drugs and rock and roll until I hit rock bottom and accepted Jesus as my Savior. My mission today is to go forth and tell people about why I follow Christ and also what the Bible teaches, and part of that teaching is that women and men are meant to be together. However, I would never treat anyone with disrespect just because they are different from me. We are all created by the Almighty and like Him, I love all of humanity. We would all be better off if we loved God and loved each other.”
Phil, just like most Christians, understands that we are to love every person just as God does, but that does not mean we approve of their sin. God loves each of us, but He does not tolerate or approve of sin. Sexual sin of any kind is still sin and Robertson is explaining that it is indeed possible to respect a person without approving of their sin. A statement in an article on Breitbart also explains this:
“Absolutely nothing “Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson said here even comes close to bigotry, unless you want to claim that he is also bigoted against heterosexuals…Had the “Duck Dynasty” star singled out homosexuals, EW might be able to make its case for the absurd charge that he made “anti-gay comments.” But as you can read with your own eyes, Robertson did not single out gays, he appropriately listed heterosexual sexual sin, such as adultery and sleeping around. The sexuality bar for Christianity is pretty high for everyone, and relating that fact is not bigotry, it is spreading the Gospel. Robertson is also talking about homosexual sexual behavior, not homosexuals as human beings. That is all the difference in the world. Moreover, Robertson also lists ‘the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers’ as those who will not ‘inherit the kingdom of God.’ It is quite obvious that Robertson is only guilty of being anti-sin, not anti-gay.”
This is indeed the biblical view of sexuality and sexual sin. Sexual sin includes any sex outside of marriage between a man and a woman. That is the simplest way to explain it. Robertson was simply teaching the biblical view of sexuality and did so in a clear manner as he had done countless times before.
The bottom line is that the view of sexuality expressed by Phil Robertson is still held by a majority of the world and those with various religious views. Such religions as Christianity, Mormons, Catholics, Muslims, and others all adhere to this very same belief. I can’t help but wonder if things would be different if Phil Robertson was a Muslim. But the truth is that this should serve as an eye opening experience for all those who think it will be possible for religion and homosexual rights to coexist.
Homosexuals don’t want people to merely accept their lifestyle, they want everyone – including Christians – to approve it. They don’t want religious exemptions in “anti-bullying” laws, or in ENDA and other non-discrimination clauses. They want to force everyone to approve and celebrate their lifestyle and will not stop until that goal is achieved.
Here is the contact information for A&E. I suggest letting them know how you feel. Boycotting them won’t really produce anything tangible, but making your voice heard will have an incredible impact.
A&E Television Networks, LLC
235 E. 45th St.
New York, NY 10017
NY Tel. 212-210-1400
Fax 212-210-1308
Additionally, I suggest letting the Duck Dynasty show sponsors know you will not be supporting them until Phil Robertson returns. Once sponsors know they will be losing a lot of money because of A&E’s decision, you can bet that A&E will be “happy happy happy” to bring Phil back. Sponsors include:
Sensodyne
T-Mobile
Samsung
Motorola
Walgreens
IHOP
Macy’s
Nokia
Microsoft
Verizon
Bass Pro Shops
Like this:
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A&E Tries to Silence Duck Dynasty Star for Being Christian
Posted on December 19, 2013 in Marriage, Sexuality by Nathan Cherry
Ever since reports surfaced that A&E was trying to crack down on religious expressions by the Robertson family during taping of their mega-hit show Duck Dynasty, we knew it was just a matter of time. And now it’s finally happened.
In case you’ve been under a rock in the last 24 hours, it has been reported by every media outlet in the country that Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson has been placed on “indefinite hiatus” for his remarks on homosexuality. When this news broke, the Internet and social media exploded. Here’s the story.
Robertson was doing an interview with GQ magazine when he was asked about his faith and the faith of the Robertson clan. The faith of this beloved all-American family is well-known. So when asked the questions about faith and sexuality, Robertson didn’t hold back. He said:
“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…Don’t be deceived. Neither the adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers—they won’t inherit the kingdom of God. Don’t deceive yourself. It’s not right…It seems like, to me, a vagina—as a man—would be more desirable than a man’s anus. That’s just me. I’m just thinking: There’s more there! She’s got more to offer. I mean, come on, dudes! You know what I’m saying? But hey, sin: It’s not logical, my man. It’s just not logical.”
These comments garnered the ire of GLAAD, a homosexual rights group, which called on A&E to end the hit show. Rather than doing so A&E decided to first suspend Phil Robertson, then to put him on “indefinite hiatus.” In other words, A&E fired a Christian for sharing his Christian views when asked. Or, as one of my friends said it “Irony of the night: you can’t be the real you with your real opinions if you star in a ‘reality’ show.”
As you might expect, Facebook and Twitter exploded with support for Robertson. Pages dedicated to #StandWithPhil gained tens of thousands of supporters in mere hours. The contact information for A&E (posted below) began circulating immediately. And my personal Facebook wall has been nonstop images and articles about Phil Robertson for more than 12 hours.
Some of the articles include:
‘ANTI-GAY’: ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY ATTACKS ‘DUCK DYNASTY’ STAR’S CHRISTIAN FAITH (Brietbart)
Holy quack! ‘Duck Dynasty’ star booted over ‘gay’ flap (WND)
Duck Dynasty Star Fired Over Remarks on Homosexuality (The Gospel Coalition)
I don’t think I’ve seen more articles posted in such a short amount of time over a situation, ever. Big names such as Albert Mohler and Russell Moore from the Southern Baptist Convention immediately had articles defending Robertson’s views posted to their blogs. And high-powered bloggers like Matt Walsh blasted A&E as having committed “suicide” over their decision.
Albert Mohler noted the hypocrisy of the culture with his statement:
“Another interesting parallel emerges with the timing of this controversy. The current issue of TIME magazine features Pope Francis I as ‘Person of the Year.’ Within days of TIME’s declaration, Phil Robertson had been suspended from Duck Dynasty. Robertson’s suspension was caused by his statements that homosexual acts are sinful. But Pope Francis is riding a wave of glowing publicity, even as he has stated in public his agreement with all that the Roman Catholic Church teaches, including its teachings on homosexual acts. Francis has declared himself to be a ‘son of the church,’ and his church teaches that all homosexual acts are inherently sinful and must be seen as ‘acts of grave depravity’ that are ‘intrinsically disordered.’ But Pope Francis is on the cover of TIME magazine and Phil Robertson is on indefinite suspension.”
Russell Moore commented:
Let’s have the sort of cultural conversation that allows us to seek to persuade each other, not to seek to silence one another with intimidation. That’s what real diversity is all about…And if you don’t like his religious views on sexuality (views held also by Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and evangelicals as well as by many Orthodox Jews, Muslims, and the Dalai Lama), you’re free to say why you think he’s wrong. And you’re free to change the channel. Let’s have genuine diversity, meaning let’s talk honestly with one another about what we believe and why. Muting one another isn’t what debate is for in a free society.”
Before going any further let’s get something straight right now. This is not a surprise to A&E or anyone else. Since Duck Dynasty became one of the most popular shows on television, and the most popular show on A&E, the Robertson family has been outspoken about their faith. Robertson sons regularly speak in churches, conferences, and events. And when they do, they bring Bible’s and share their faith. They have spoken about the issue of homosexuality before, along with pre-marital sex, abortion, and creation. So no one is surprised by these comments.
The reality is that Duck Dynasty has been a ratings machine for A&E and perhaps the only reason people like me even watch the network. The sponsors of Duck Dynasy, like Wal-Mart, have made millions off the show and A&E is still considered a relevant network thanks to the Robertsons. As one person noted, Duck Dynasty doesn’t need A&E, A&E needs Duck Dynasty. So what A&E has done is to alienate their base by catering to a minority that doesn’t even watch their network. That seems like a logical and brilliant business decision.
Blogger Matt Walsh blasted A&E for committing “suicide” with this decision:
“Good Lord, these militant neo-liberal thought police are better at brainwashing than I ever realized. They just convinced you to torpedo your own network. You guys just kamikazed yourselves. You just pulled the pin on the grenade and then put it in your pocket. This is incredible. Didn’t you see what happened with Chic-fil-A when GLAAD crusaders tried to shutdown an entire business just because they disapproved of the owners opinions? Don’t you remember that? I’ll refresh your memory: their “boycott” resulted in an enormous sales spike for the company, as millions of people like myself went out of our way to eat there just to ensure that the anti-free speech fools on the left didn’t win. A week after the anti-Chic-fil-A campaign began, their restaurants across the country were overflowing. It was, officially, the least effective boycott in the history of mankind. Now it’s all going to happen again, except it will be the opposite effect, and you’ll be on the losing end this time around. If you don’t bring Phil back immediately, and publicly apologize to him and to his viewers for attempting to censor his Christian faith, Duck Dynasty will leave your network, find a new home, and all of those ratings will go somewhere else.”
Another friend of mine wrote on Facebook:
“What A&E has effectively said by suspending Robertson is that support for LGBT and criticism of LGBT cannot co-exist on their network. Which means they don’t support the freedom of speech guaranteed in the Constitution. Which means they are in violation of their contract with the public to use public airwaves to transmit their programming. Which means that the executives at A&E should have to answer to Congress.”
They both make good points. A&E is not very wise with their business decisions considering that Duck Dynasty is by far their most popular television show and most likely helping to keep a lot of people employed. But beyond that they are engaging in pure censorship; or viewpoint discrimination if you like that term better. This network is saying that you cannot be a Christian, hold to Christian views, and still be acceptable to society. And yet the majority of the people that watch Duck Dynasty agree 100% with the statements made by Phil Robertson. So A&E is essentially telling nearly all of the people who watch Duck Dynasty, their biggest money-maker, to go jump off a cliff. Brilliant.
A&E seems more interested in catering to a few folks at GLAAD than to the millions that watch their hit show. A GLAAD spokesman commented on the remarks made by Robertson:
“Phil and his family claim to be Christian, but Phil’s lies about an entire community fly in the face of what true Christians believe. He clearly knows nothing about gay people or the majority of Louisianans — and Americans — who support legal recognition for loving and committed gay and lesbian couples. Phil’s decision to push vile and extreme stereotypes is a stain on A&E and his sponsors, who now need to re-examine their ties to someone with such public disdain for LGBT people and families.”
Ugh, first of all, Phil Robertson didn’t lie about anything. He stated his beliefs according to the Bible. These beliefs would be corroborated by nearly every person calling himself a Christian. Just look at Albert Mohler and Russell Moore’s comments for proof that Robertson understands the Bible’s teaching on sexuality. Stating one’s religious convictions is not a lie, it’s being honest. Secondly, one would be hard pressed to say that a majority of Americans support marriage redefinition. That’s a statistic that is disputed at best. Last, Robertson did not “push vile and extreme stereotypes,” he explained what homosexuality was and why he was against it.
Robertson issued his own follow up statement making it clear that he doesn’t hate anyone:
“I myself am a product of the 60s; I centered my life around sex, drugs and rock and roll until I hit rock bottom and accepted Jesus as my Savior. My mission today is to go forth and tell people about why I follow Christ and also what the Bible teaches, and part of that teaching is that women and men are meant to be together. However, I would never treat anyone with disrespect just because they are different from me. We are all created by the Almighty and like Him, I love all of humanity. We would all be better off if we loved God and loved each other.”
Phil, just like most Christians, understands that we are to love every person just as God does, but that does not mean we approve of their sin. God loves each of us, but He does not tolerate or approve of sin. Sexual sin of any kind is still sin and Robertson is explaining that it is indeed possible to respect a person without approving of their sin. A statement in an article on Breitbart also explains this:
“Absolutely nothing “Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson said here even comes close to bigotry, unless you want to claim that he is also bigoted against heterosexuals…Had the “Duck Dynasty” star singled out homosexuals, EW might be able to make its case for the absurd charge that he made “anti-gay comments.” But as you can read with your own eyes, Robertson did not single out gays, he appropriately listed heterosexual sexual sin, such as adultery and sleeping around. The sexuality bar for Christianity is pretty high for everyone, and relating that fact is not bigotry, it is spreading the Gospel. Robertson is also talking about homosexual sexual behavior, not homosexuals as human beings. That is all the difference in the world. Moreover, Robertson also lists ‘the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers’ as those who will not ‘inherit the kingdom of God.’ It is quite obvious that Robertson is only guilty of being anti-sin, not anti-gay.”
This is indeed the biblical view of sexuality and sexual sin. Sexual sin includes any sex outside of marriage between a man and a woman. That is the simplest way to explain it. Robertson was simply teaching the biblical view of sexuality and did so in a clear manner as he had done countless times before.
The bottom line is that the view of sexuality expressed by Phil Robertson is still held by a majority of the world and those with various religious views. Such religions as Christianity, Mormons, Catholics, Muslims, and others all adhere to this very same belief. I can’t help but wonder if things would be different if Phil Robertson was a Muslim. But the truth is that this should serve as an eye opening experience for all those who think it will be possible for religion and homosexual rights to coexist.
Homosexuals don’t want people to merely accept their lifestyle, they want everyone – including Christians – to approve it. They don’t want religious exemptions in “anti-bullying” laws, or in ENDA and other non-discrimination clauses. They want to force everyone to approve and celebrate their lifestyle and will not stop until that goal is achieved.
Here is the contact information for A&E. I suggest letting them know how you feel. Boycotting them won’t really produce anything tangible, but making your voice heard will have an incredible impact.
A&E Television Networks, LLC
235 E. 45th St.
New York, NY 10017
NY Tel. 212-210-1400
Fax 212-210-1308
Additionally, I suggest letting the Duck Dynasty show sponsors know you will not be supporting them until Phil Robertson returns. Once sponsors know they will be losing a lot of money because of A&E’s decision, you can bet that A&E will be “happy happy happy” to bring Phil back. Sponsors include:
Sensodyne
T-Mobile
Samsung
Motorola
Walgreens
IHOP
Macy’s
Nokia
Microsoft
Verizon
Bass Pro Shops
Share this:
Like this: