Twice in one day, with reference to Brendan Eich's resignation from Mozilla, NOM has invoked Phil Robertson as another supposed "victim" and "thought criminal" of the "gay 'marriage' thought police".
From April 4:
[Brian Brown] also noted that the A&E television network suspended Phil Robertson from the Duck Dynasty show when Robertson, a prominent Christian, expressed his support for marriage.
From
a different post also on April 4:
Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty fame was suspended by the A&E television network for expressing his support for biblical principles of marriage.
These descriptions of Robertson's comments whitewash how truly offensive they were. His comments were not just in opposition to marriage equality. They were extremely homophobic and racist.
The homophobic part:
It seems like, to me, a vagina - as a man - would be more desirable than a man’s anus. That’s just me. I’m just thinking: There’s more there! She’s got more to offer. I mean, come on, dudes! You know what I’m saying? But hey, sin: It’s not logical, my man. It’s just not logical.
[...]
Everything is blurred on what’s right and what’s wrong. Sin becomes fine. 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. 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.
The racist part:
I never, with my eyes, saw the mistreatment of any black person. Not once. Where we lived was all farmers. The blacks worked for the farmers. I hoed cotton with them. I’m with the blacks, because we’re white trash. We’re going across the field.... They’re singing and happy. I never heard one of them, one black person, say, ‘I tell you what: These doggone white people’—not a word!... Pre-entitlement, pre-welfare, you say: Were they happy? They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues.
NOM
vigorously defended the comments, including with a petition to show support for Robertson:
Well guess what — homosexuality IS a sin in the bible, and virtually every other sacred text out there. Engaging in homosexual sex IS considered by God to be sinful according to the teachings of most religions. And sin is NOT logical. Sin is deceitful, harmful and degrading to the human soul.
What Phil Robertson has done is express the traditional Christian view of homosexuality — decry the sin but love the sinner. It's what every major Christian leader including Jesus Christ himself has taught us.
But Christianity, and every other major religion, be damned in the eyes of the HRC, GLAAD and their allies. They will brook no objection, tolerate no dissent and accept no disagreement when it comes to their orthodoxy. In their twisted worldview, anyone who dares to speak the truth about homosexuality must be punished and effectively banished from civil society.
They are brutal bullies, plain and simple.
We're not going to take the bullying of Phil Robertson and every other person of faith quietly. Will you join with us and immediately sign our petition demanding that Phil be reinstated with an apology from A&E?
It's important that we get thousands of people to sign our petition to let A&E, Hollywood, GLAAD and the HRC know they aren't going to get away with bullying Phil Robertson simply for expressing a true, Christian perspective on what the bible tells us is sinful.
None of us hate homosexuals. We have gays and lesbians as members of our own families and communities, and we love them as God has told us we should love all people. We're all created in the image and likeness of God. But loving our brothers and sisters does not mean we must love sinful behavior.
It's truly outrageous and shocking that the A&E Networks succumbed to this bullying, and legitimized it, by suspending Phil Robertson from his own show. This simply cannot be allowed to stand. It's imperative that we push back — strongly and immediately — with a show of support for Phil Robertson.
With this defense of Robertson, they finally revealed themselves for what they are: an anti-LGBT hate group no different from the other groups that we already knew were hate groups. Whatever legitimacy they had before defending him, they lost it.
In my opinion, they are pretending that Robertson's comments weren't homophobic and racist because they know that endorsing homophobic and racist comments made them look bad. They are regretting it, but only out of concern for their self-image, not out of concern for the LGBT community.
But they did endorse homophobic and racist comments. That's fact, and on the record. No matter how they try to censor it, this episode will be a stain on them forever, and they know it.