Duck Dynasty

I've never watched Duck Dynasty. I'm not into reality shows. I don't get thrills sitting around watching other people live their supposedly normal lives with TV cameras all around them watching everything they do and say.

Be that as it may, in the United States of America we have something called the First Amendment, which guarantees our right to free speech. For two hundred years or so that meant free religious speech as well, but in the last thirty years religious freedom has increasingly come under such attack that we have reached the stage where Christians are on the brink of not being able to express their beliefs about anything, anywhere, anymore.

Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson is a case in point. In an interview with GQ magazine, in which he was probably set up for the gay lobby and liberal media to have an excuse to find offense, he expressed his belief that according to the Bible homosexuality is a sin, and that homosexuals, like all unrepentant sinners, will not go to heaven. You would have thought he had raped and murdered the holy family. Not only did liberals and gays jump on his case, so-called conservatives also piled on the condemnation.

Piers Morgan, the British talk show host who doesn't understand our Constitution, declared that the First Amendment shouldn't protect the speech of "vile bigots." He doesn't understand what a vile bigot is either.

Leaning conservative but mostly straddling the fence, that great theologian, wishy-washy Bill O'Reilly, infamously turned to Matthew 7:1-2 to point out that even though Robertson had a right to say it, he didn't have a right to judge.

Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

As with all, believers and non-believers, who stoop to using this argument to squelch religious opinions, O'Reilly misinterprets the meaning by cracking the first verse like a whip, but ignoring the second verse which explains it. The verse is not saying we cannot make judgments about people or what they are doing. Everybody makes judgments about people every day. In Matthew 7, verse two qualifies verse one by saying that if you judge people by a certain standard, you must live by the same standard because God will judge you according to the same standard you set. In other words, live consistently by your judgments. So, in fact, we are to make judgments. Jesus also told us to make judgments in John 7:24:

Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.

Regardless, O'Reilly, GLAAD, and all the rest of them missed the whole point. Phil Robertson wasn't judging or condemning anybody. He was expressing his belief in God's Word, which very clearly teaches that homosexuality is a sin (Romans 1:18-32), as well as all kinds of fornication, and drunkenness, greed and idolatry, and that homosexuals, along with a list of other unrepentant sinners, will not inherit the Kingdom of God (I Corinthians 6:9). It is God that has judged homosexuality to be sin, and God who said homosexuals won't be in heaven.

Phil Robertson didn't single out homosexuals, the interviewer did. Robertson didn't instigate a riot, he didn't incite violent, negative reactions against gays, he didn't call for retribution against them for their lifestyle. He simply answered an interviewer's question, and what was the vile bigoted thing he said?

You put in your article that the Robertson family really believes strongly that if the human race loved each other and they loved God, we would just be better off. We ought to just be repentant, turn to God, and let’s get on with it, and everything will turn around.

So, in saying that homosexuality is a sin, Robertson made no condemnation of homosexuals, but rather said that all people ought to love all people, as well as love God, and that if we all repent from our sins and turn to Him, the world will be a better place. Far from being hate speech, it is a very loving, compassionate and caring message.

Nation of Islam leader, Louis Farrakhan, has called for the beheading and stoning to death of gays.

So who does the media crucify, and which religion is called intolerant and unloving, and who, and which religion has the media ignored in spite of this very hateful, intolerant speech?

Duck Dynasty has been the most successful reality show in history, but its producer, A&E, has suspended Phil Robertson from continuing on the program. The family says they won't go on without him. Actually, I think they should go on, and on the first episode without Phil they ought to bring up for discussion why he isn't there and continue the discussion on homosexuality. Put the noose on A&E's neck and make them pull the plug on the whole show.