Since you’ve all been waiting for my two cents on the #DuckDrama…

Last updated on: July 17, 2014 at 1:59 pm by Morgan Guyton

Since you’ve all been waiting for my two cents on the #DuckDrama… 2014-07-17T13:59:31-05:00 Morgan Guyton

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

It was so great to fast from my blog over Advent. The only thing I regret about it is that I was offline when the Duck Drama hit the fan so I didn’t get to ride the tidal wave to a bazillion hits like all the other eager bloggers (all of whom opened with obligatory apologies for writing about it). I presume that everything I have to say has already been said, but since we’re traveling today, I needed a topic that didn’t require a lot of critical thinking, so here goes.

1) I hope A&E is doing this to increase the ratings when Phil comes back

If you’re going to make a reality show in which the selling point is that it’s about Louisiana rednecks, then it’s ridiculous/hypocritical/a marketing disaster to suspend the star of the show for talking like a Louisiana redneck, especially when your cult following for the show is a population that worships redneck culture. It only makes sense if it’s a cynical ploy to drive up the ratings even further, kind of like when Achy Breaky Heart’s daughter twerked and stuck her tongue six inches out of her mouth to piss everybody off so she could sell a bazillion records.

2) Why did you have to give the culture warriors new life through manufactured martyrdom?

I really wish that some television network would buck the trend of firing people when the PC piranhas start to circle in the media. The way to handle bigotry is to engage it, not turn it into a “freedom of speech” issue by silencing it. It would have been a much greater service to the LGBT community if A&E had decided instead to send some gay duck hunters down to Louisiana to hang out with Phil so that the Duck Drama fanatics could judge for themselves whether gay people are in fact “filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice… envy, murder, strife, deceit, craftiness… gossips, slanderers, God-haters,insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, rebellious toward parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless” (Romans 1:29-31). Because if they aren’t all of those things, then maybe St. Paul was talking about a different aspect of 1st century pagan aristocrat sexuality that went “against nature.”

3) Phil Robertson has a personally uncostly definition of sin

When Phil made his comments about homosexuality, it wasn’t in response to a question about homosexuality. It was after being asked to define sin in general. He said,“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.” In other words, sin is other peoples’ sexually deviant behavior, not anything that Phil would ever do. His understanding of sin is completely uncostly to him. Phil’s comment reveals the function that homosexuality has in grassroots conservative evangelical culture. Making sin about other peoples’ sexuality gives you a means of being “holy” by talking tough about other peoples’ behavior without changing anything about the way you behave. Then you can be conspicuously “self-sacrificial” without lifting a finger.

4) Phil’s idyllic cotton-picking memories are part of the story

Phil should be commended for setting things straight once and for all that “entitlement” and “welfare” are code words for the civil rights movement. It’s pretty shocking to me to hear someone in 2013 openly taking a pro-segregationist position and suggesting that black people stopped being humble, godly, etc, as a result of civil rights. And yet, it should be said that those of us who were born after America supposedly “stopped being racist” in the 70’s or later have inherited an abominably oversimplified narrative about the relations between races in which all white people were despicably racist before 1970 but then a giant reset button got magically hit and everyone was healed instantaneously of their racism so that the past could be completely left behind us and there would be no need to bring it up ever again. Phil’s comments remind us that racism has always been a systemic sin in the midst of which personal relationships were a lot more complicated. America pre-1970 (or 1990 or whenever you put the magic reset button in our history) was not a categorically different world than the world we live in today. I imagine that Phil Robertson had genuine friendships with the black people he shared the cotton fields with; they probably told jokes together and shared snacks. That part of the story doesn’t get wiped out by the systemic racism that existed when Phil was picking cotton and continues to exist today. Conversely, Phil’s idyllic memories of cotton-picking don’t get to negate the evil that happened to black people.

Previous Post

December 25, 2013

Solidarity: the meaning of Christmas

Next Post

December 27, 2013 Does it matter that Luke knows nothing of Herod's slaughter of the innocents?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Advent Beauty Will Save the World Bible Big Picture: Ephesians Bloggers Book Christian salvation and the Beautitudes Culture Daily Office Danceable Homiletics Deadly Sins Deep Roots: Genesis Devotions Dominican Republic May 2011 El Principio Misericordia (The Mercy Principle) Five verses God tattooed on my heart Fundraising FutureGospel Good Biblical Words Henri Nouwen Interview Jennings' Christian Imagination Jesus inside the beltway Jesus Is My Candidate Jesus vs the Pharisees Jesus vs. Plato Journey to Eternity Looking Back on 2012 Love Actually Monday Merton Monday Merton Music Occupy the manger On Earth As It Is In Heaven Original Sin Podcast Poetry Politics Prayer Psalm 119 Radical Jesus 101 Reviews Sermon on the Mount Sermons Spanish Bible study Special Series Spiritual but not religious Synchroblog Theology Things that made me think Thomas a Kempis Ugliness Into Beauty Uncategorized Viaje Dominicano 2013 Walking in the Valley (Lent) Welcome: It's More than a Mat Wild Goose 2013 Wrestling

Select a Month March 2022 January 2022 December 2021 September 2021 April 2021 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who interpreted the "writing on the wall" for King Belshazzar?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Isaiah Jeremiah Daniel Ezekiel