In 2010, Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson publicly explained his position on homosexuality in a sermon he preached at the Berean Bible Church in Pennsylvania. In the segment of the sermon posted by TMZ, he stated:
First they say there is no God. Get Him out of your mind. Then they say bow down to bird, animals, and reptiles, and each other. And the first thing you see coming out of them is gross sexual immorality. They will dishonor their bodies with one another, degrade each other. Is that going on in the United States of America? Look around…Boy is there some immorality going on around here.
He continued, citing Romans 1:26:
Therefore because they do not make it worthwhile to maintain the balance with God, He gave them over to shameful lusts. Women exchanged natural relations and were inflamed with lust for one another. And the men were inflamed with lust for each other. Women with women, men with men. They committed indecent acts with one another, and they received in themselves the due penalty for their perversions. They were full of murder, envy, strife and hatred. They are insolent, arrogant, God-haters. They are heartless, they are faithless, they are senseless, they are ruthless. They invent ways to do evil.
He stated, “That’s what you have 235 roughly after your forefathers founded the country. So what are you going to do, Pennsylvania? Just run with them? You’re going to die.”
Robertson’s position on homosexuality has never changed, nor has it been a secret. It may shock some, but it is also well within the tradition of fundamentalist Christian preaching on the subject. The fact that A&E suddenly acts surprised when Robertson says things he’s been saying for years is just more evidence that Robertson’s suspension is a knee-jerk, disingenuous attempt to avoid the slings and arrows of the politically correct.
Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the New York Times bestseller “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013). He is also Editor-in-Chief of TruthRevolt.org. Follow Ben Shapiro on Twitter @benshapiro.
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