Phil Robertson, the founder of
Duck Commander and one of the stars of A&E's hit show
Duck Dynasty, is in some really hot water over vile homophobic comments made in an interview with
GQ magazine.
GLAAD:
The Robertsons, the family whose duck hunting products have made them a fortune, are breakout stars featured in A&E’s Duck Dynasty. GQ Magazine’s profile of Phil Robertson included some of the vilest and most extreme statements uttered against LGBT people in a mainstream publication. His quote was littered with outdated stereotypes and blatant misinformation.
[...]
The statement is far outside of the mainstream understanding of LGBT people. In Louisiana, which passed a constitutional amendment banning marriage equality, 56% of the population support some sort of legal recognition, marriage or civil unions, for gay and lesbian couples according to Public Policy Polling released in August 2013.
TPM's Hunter Walker:
Phil Robertson, the elder statesman of the show's family of self-described "Bible-thumpers," told the magazine that in America today "everything is blurred on what’s right and what’s wrong."
“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," Robertson said before paraphrasing a Bible verse. "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.”
Though he's worried about the state of this country, Robertson seemed even more concerned about non-Christian cultures.
"All you have to do is look at any society where there is no Jesus. I’ll give you four: Nazis, no Jesus. Look at their record. Uh, Shintos? They started this thing in Pearl Harbor. Any Jesus among them? None. Communists? None. Islamists? Zero," Robertson explained. "That’s eighty years of ideologies that have popped up where no Jesus was allowed among those four groups. Just look at the records as far as murder goes among those four groups.”
Robertson also shared his view that gay men are "not logical."
It saddens (but doesn't surprise) me, as a fan of
Duck Dynasty, that Phil Robertson would say something like this.
As Uncle Si would say, "Hey, you're getting coal in your stocking, jack!"
4:58 PM PT: A&E has suspended Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson indefinitely:
EW.com:
An A&E spokesperson confirmed this statement means exactly what it says: Robertson is kicked off the show for the time being. The rest of his family will continue on the series.
Season 5 continues on without Phil, and the show's most likely candidates to offer the episode-ending prayers will be either Willie or Alan Robertson.