Last Thursday’s post on Phil Robertson and the Duck Dynasty controversy received more “likes” than any post I’ve ever written. It’s because this whole episode has touched a nerve, particularly in the evangelical community. Ever since President Obama declared his support for homosexual marriage and the Supreme Court refused to uphold the Defense of Marriage Act, our society has begun a mad rush toward Sodom. Now along comes Phil Robertson, who gets to the root of the problem: homosexuality is sin. Denizens of progressivism nearly faint, then react with outrage—how dare anyone use that word “sin.” What century does he still live in?
Part of the outrage, at least superficially, was Robertson’s rather colorful language in describing why a man should prefer a woman over another man. Let’s be clear: he used the correct anatomical terminology. He just made homosexuality sound so . . . well . . . disgusting. In doing so, though, he merely mirrored Scriptural descriptions of homosexual acts. Yet those same progressives have no problem with raunchy actions and vile terminology on their side. As Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal noted, “It is a messed-up situation when Miley Cyrus gets a laugh and Phil Robertson gets suspended.”
I also mentioned in my previous post that media people, even at more conservative organizations like Fox News, scarcely know what to do with the controversy. That’s because so few of them agree with Robertson—and the Bible—that homosexuality is truly sinful. They kind of defend him on what they deem to be his First Amendment right of free speech and freedom of religion, but one gets the impression they still believe he’s some kind of loony anachronism for holding to those outdated views.
Yet even that defense isn’t strictly correct in this case. First Amendment protections are shields against government action; the A&E network is a private enterprise. As such, it can hire and fire as it chooses. I agree. It has that right. Those who then disagree with A&E’s choice have just as much of a right to express their disagreement.
I find this kind of funny, in a non-funny kind of way. A&E’s defenders cry out for the right of a business to make its own decisions, yet many of those same defenders of this particular private business are on the front lines of the battle to force Christian charity organizations, evangelical colleges, and Christian-owned businesses to bow to the government’s mandates via Obamacare that violate their religious beliefs. Ask Christian bakers and photographers who are sued for not wanting to participate in homosexual weddings if their right to run their business in accord with their principles is being upheld. The hypocrisy and double standard are appalling.
That’s why I ended my other post with a concern that we may be entering an era of persecution of Christians in a way never experienced before in this country. I repeat what I asked then: what will be the response of the church to this new reality? Will we stand for truth or fall in line with the tenor of the times? I know many will hold firm, but the real question is how many. When you hear someone more concerned about Robertson’s descriptive language than the moral precipice upon which we’re teetering as a nation, that person is already sliding toward accommodation with Gomorrah.
Oh, by the way, since Phil Robertson is supposed to be such an awful, hateful person who cares nothing about others, let me leave you with another of his quotes, and you decide just how hateful he is:
