By Al Benson Jr.
The Duck Commander, Phil Robertson, has had an interesting week. Suspended (or fired) from his A & E series because he dared to speak the truth about sodomy, he has not backed down from what he said. Nor should he. When telling the truth, particularly biblical truth, becomes a crime then we are all in big trouble.
The managed media just cannot grasp why he takes so strong a stand. They don’t get it, and most of them probably never will. The Daily Mail reported that Phil had been called an ignoramus, even though he has a degree from Louisiana Tech. And someone said to him, according to http://tv.yahoo.com “Well, do you invite yourself to go and get your Bible and tell people what you are now sharing with us?” To which Phil replied “No, they are inviting me.”
According to the media, Phil made “…several homophobic and racially-charged remarks in an interview…” So now if you tell folks the scriptural truth about sodomy you are “homophobic.” The Apostle Paul told the truth about sodomy in some of his epistles in the New Testament, so I guess that qualifies him for the “homophobic” label, too. And I saw nothing in Phil’s comments about black folks that I could consider “racially charged.”
Now, it appears, after all the hoopla that what really talks for A & E is the big bucks. They’ve made lots of dinero off the Duck Dynasty show and if it goes off the air because of the suspension (with the rest of Phil’s family supporting him) they’re going to lose those big bucks. So word has now been leaked that Phil will be appearing in some episodes next year. I guess these had already been filmed and are just sitting, waiting to be released. To the Robertsons I don’t think it would make a difference one way or the other, but to A & E it seems that the bottom line is what’s really important. I think A & E is trying to recover some of the probable revenue they may lose by suspending Phil. As I said in my last article on this, I think they opened a can of worms for themselves with this ploy. I know, after reading their statement of glowing support for the sodomite/transgender community, I will never bother to watch anything on A & E again and I suspect many other folks won’t either.
And Cracker Barrel, just yesterday announced they were planning on pulling lots of Duck Dynasty things off their shelves so part of their clientele wouldn’t be “offended.” What part of Cracker Barrel’s clientele would the Duck Dynasty material “offend?” And what about all the good folks that eat at these restaurants that will be offended if Duck Dynasty material is removed? It seems that Cracker Barrel didn’t bother to think about them before they announced their decision. They should have. According to http://gma.yahoo.com a Cracker Barrel spokesman said: “When we made the decision to remove and evaluate certain Duck Dynasty items, we offended many of our loyal customers. Our intent was to avoid offending, but that’s just what we’ve done,…You flat out told us we were wrong. We listened.” I still wonder who Cracker Barrel was afraid of offending with Duck Dynasty material. No one ever said. Is Cracker Barrel enamoured of the sodomite/lesbian/transgender crowd too?
It seems, in our politically correct age, that so many far-left, far out groups are constantly “offended” by normal, traditional values and ideas and the current rationale seems to be that because all these off-the-wall groups are offended that the rest of us should just cave in to whatever they want and grovel at their feet while offering profuse and continuing apologies because we have dared to offend their tender sensibilities. This is just so much hogwash. Most folks don’t really buy it but are afraid of “offending” someone if they say it.
Even the so-called conservatives don’t seem to get it. Bill O’Reilly, on his program the other night, made a statement that showed where he is really at—and it’s an unenviable position. He said “Mr. Robertson, I believe, made a mistake by the condemnation line. It’s not about the Bible, or believing or not believing in the Bible.” Wrong Mr. O’Reilly! At base that is exactly what it’s about. You either believe what the Bible states about sodomy and related perversions or you don’t. It’s as simple as that. And Phil Robertson didn’t “condemn” anyone. He only stated what the scripture said about this particular sin, among several others.
A very recent article on http://www.theatlantic.com written by Larry Alex Taunton made some truthful observations about this situation. A statement at the very beginning of the article makes a truthful statement as to what this is really all about. It says: “An evangelical Christian points out that there is, in fact, a tension between orthodox Christianity and homosexuality. Saying otherwise robs American society of an honest debate about how to reconcile sexual tolerance with religious tolerance.” As for the lesbian/gay crowd, a real honest debate about this is the last thing they want. They want to parade their offended sensibilities down Main Street all over America and force the rest of us to give credibility to their perverse lifestyle. I’m sorry, but when the Bible condemns their lifestyle then Christians cannot endorse it. That doesn’t mean that Christians all hate them or look down their noses at them. It simply means that Christian can’t go along with what Scripture condemns.
Another interesting article showed up on http://www.dailymail.co.uk for December 21st. It was written by Will Payne, and stated: “Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson and his family believe they have been ‘hung out to dry’ by TV network A & E after he was suspended for homophobic comments made in a magazine interview,…” There’s that word “homophobic” rearing its ugly head again. The article continues—and here it gets interesting—stating that: “Sources within the close-knit Louisiana clan say they are convinced A&E are manipulating the controversial situation to bring them—and particularly Robertson—back into line after Television executives grew tired of the family pushing their deeply-held Christian beliefs. They also think the network could have done something to stop the controversial GQ article being made public, because an A&E representative was present during the interview with patriarch Robertson 67.” The article continued: “A source close to the family, who asked not to be named, told MailOnline: ‘You have to ask yourself, why this interview happened and why it ever became public. Someone from A&E was there and was aware of the kind of answers Phil was giving. But despite that, they didn’t ever try to stop it or control it. Instead, they let it hit the headlines and then released a statement condemning it.”
It seems, from that this article said, that when the TV executives and Madison Avenue types originated their concept for this show it was supposed to be one where people would get their kicks by “laughing at a bunch of backward rednecks.” The usual Southern cultural genocide ploy that’s been going on now for years. But it didn’t happen that way. People started to identify with the Robertsons, didn’t laugh at them, but rather laughed with them. The TV executives now became uncomfortable. This didn’t set too well in New York. The “ignorant rednecks were being identified with, not made fun of and that wasn’t what it was supposed to be all about. What’s more, the “ignorant rednecks” were Christians, and they were not hesitant to express their faith in Jesus Christ and their total belief in the Bible. That kind of a situation is just too much for these media people. They want no positive images of Christianity to be put forth—in fact making Christians look foolish and stupid is a major part of their agenda, and the Robertson family was not about to play that game—hence this suspension.
I don’t think A&E ever anticipated the protest all this would cause or the amount of support around the country that the Robertsons would get. I don’t think the TV executives are real happy with how this turned out. Thousands of Christians all across the country ended up supporting the Robertsons. That wasn’t supposed to happen, but, in the Lord’s providence it has. It’s one of the few bright spots in a holiday season that has drawn attention to the Christian faith in a positive way. Sometimes the Lord even makes the wrath of men against Him to rebound to His praise and I’ll bet there are media types in New York that are experiencing “weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth” because the Lord is praised and they are left with egg on their faces. Glory to God in the highest!
revisedhistory 