Not to beat this Duck to death, but in the original Gentleman's Quarterly interview Phil Robertson explains why godly people don't need health insurance...
Phil On Health Insurance
“Temporary is all you’re going to get with any kind of health care, except the health care I’m telling you about. That’s eternal health care, and it’s free.... I’ve opted to go with eternal health care instead of blowing money on these insurance schemes.”
This would just be one guy's personal opinion if taken in isolation. But his opinions are broadcast nationally in the middle of a seismic change to universal health care. He also claims to speak for 'real' Christianity. Oh, ye of little faith, why are you signing up for Obamacare?
And just like a millionaire calling himself 'white trash' is not the same as an unemployed man having someone else call him 'white trash', a wealthy man can absorb medical expenses that would ruin a working class family.
Anyway, Phil Robertson is not dumb, and I'd bet he has insurance. If not him, then his son and granddaughter must...
Another book—penned by Jase Robertson and detailing his Christian rebirth at age 14, his struggle to forgive his father’s past behavior, and his young daughter’s struggle through five facial-reconstruction surgeries to overcome a severe cleft lip and palate—is forthcoming and destined to make it five best-sellers.
I hope the little girl is doing well now-- it's terrible that any child goes through that. Her parents too, must have spent many sleepless nights.
So how come granddad is so callous about the fact that good people, no matter how much faith they have in whatever religion, get sick like everyone else? It has to be the same selective blindness that let him see nothing but happiness and simple good cheer in the Black Louisianans he worked with in the fields. And selective deafness to the racist talk he must have heard growing up.
The reason one man's words have had such an impact is that he gives voice to many people who are afraid of change. Who can't accept that there is a Black man in the White House. Who think we can't afford to provide basic health care for all our citizens, and would rather fight for scraps than ask why working people are squeezed harder every year. A tiny few win the lottery or make it big, enough to keep most from realizing that the game is rigged, unless we care to look.
And we are more alike than different, if we dare to look. The anti-gay talk is not going over well. But it's important not to overlook the misogynistic take on marriage, the disparaging of people who are different, the longing for a pre-Civil Rights America. And, since it's my area, discouraging people from taking care of their health in favor of faith has caused many to leave this world prematurely, and Phil Robertson's offhand remark about health insurance is not harmless if it persuades the people who have the most to lose.