Something of a Defense of Phil Robertson - Duck Dynasty Homophobe or Just Christian?

Duck Dynasty Star Phil Robertson

If you haven't heard about this by now perhaps you need to look into getting a satellite dish for your cave.  In an interview in an upcoming issue of GQ magazine, Phil Robertson, one of the Duck Dynasty guys, made the following comment when asked about what is sinful:

"Start with homosexual behavior and just morph from there.  Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men."

There were some other comments about how happy black folks were before the goodie two shoes civil rights types came along in the 60s and messed up the good thing they had going, picking cotton, not voting, singing gospel songs.  This stuff is the still there dark part of the South about which Oprah Winfrey said Phil Robertson's generation would just have to die off.  And she is right but ...

I am going to defend Phil Robertson here and push back against a lot of the vitriol coming from the left about this whole affair.  To be clear, I consider myself to be a "homophile".  One who loves gay folks.  I am extremely tolerant, pro gay marriage, all that stuff.  What I can't stand, however, is when things like this happen and they all want to shoot the messenger.  Why do I say shoot the messenger?  Well here's a quote that should be attacked:

"If a man practices homosexuality, having sex with another man as with a woman, both men have committed a detestable act. They must both be put to death, for they are guilty of a capital offense."

Oh, well what redneck son of a bitch said that?  We need to take his show off the air!!!  That particular redneck is the Jews.  In the Book of Leviticus in the Bible that was written by the Jews.  Not like some anti-Semitic conspiracy theory, this just is what it is.  Leviticus is the book of the Levites who were the judges of the "chosen people".  There is no amendment to this declaration elsewhere in the Bible; no retractions and no soft peddling it.  According to the book that is the basis of all Judeo-Christian theology, homosexuality is a sin on par with murder.

It doesn't get any better in the New Testament.  The specific reference being made by Phil Robertson was from I Corinthians.  It says, "Don't you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don't fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people-none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God."

The Book of Bigotry

So where does tolerance come in?  If we expect Christians and Jews to be tolerant of others we're going to have to be tolerant of them as well.  Even if their views seem intolerant, how tolerant are we if we look down on their teachings.  This, The Bible, according to them, isn't some mutable document.  Sure a lot of Jews and the vast majority of Christians don't follow the book of Leviticus any more.  They pick and choose what's important and what's not.  For example the Jews still follow the Kosher dietary laws for the most part that are from Leviticus, but Christians just don't.  There are many reasons given for this based on what the "Old Covenant" vs. the "New Covenant" means but none of that makes sense.  It's what is called cafeteria religion, where you pick and choose what parts of it you want to follow.

But the point to be made here isn't that there are bigots in the world, it's that there is a religion that calls its followers to be bigots.  And to be very clear, to think that calling homosexuality a sin is being bigoted is a very, very recent phenomenon as is the concept of racism.

Chik Fil A Redux

One thing the defenders of Phil Robertson's free speech need to understand is that he works for the A&E Network.  When you have a boss you do not get to say whatever you want.  You are beholden to whatever your boss thinks is good or bad for their business.  Especially if you work in one of the wonderful "right to work" states like I do in Alabama where you can basically get fired for any reason your boss wants to fire you without explanation.

What should be obvious is what happens next.  This is where the religious right doubles down.  We saw it with Chik Fil A when the gay folks called for a boycott against them for anti-gay comments.  You couldn't get food at their stores at lunchtime for all the right wingers showing up to show their support for the anti-gay restaurant chain.  The religious right will double down behind Duck Dynasty as well.  Any advertiser who pulls ads will be asking for some serious trouble.  Considering there are only about five openly gay people who watch Duck Dynasty, I don't think anybody is really quaking in their boots.

The bottom line in the whole matter is that when the gay community expresses outrage over situations like this it always backfires.  If anybody thinks the average Duck Dynasty viewer is going to change their mind over some PC alert they are seriously deluded.  To the rest of the world it looks like some thin-skinned whiners who are way outside the mainstream and anti-Jesus.  If you want to stop it you'll need to stop people from teaching what's in the Bible.  Good luck with that agenda.  But for the record, more power to you.