By now nearly everyone in America has been made aware of allegedly anti-gay statements made by Phil Robertson, patriarch of the Robertson family and star of the A&E; series "Duck Dynasty." This latest pseudo-controversy is just one in a long line of other controversies involving the alleged homophobia rampant in the Christian community.
Earlier this year, Chick-Fil-A Chief Operating Officer Dan Cathy announced his position against gay marriage. The American media was outraged that a devout Christian would oppose gay marriage. Similarly, the American media (and A&E; apparently) were shocked that Phil Robertson would publicly state his opinion against homosexuality. But is that what happened?
When read in their context, Phil Robertson was not denouncing homosexuality specifically but sexual immorality generally and that is an important distinction. His comments touched on adultery, sexual promiscuity and other sexual sins. In that context, his comments weren’t directed at gays in particular but sexual sinners as a class. He didn’t single out gays for ridicule, but instead referenced all manner of sexual sin and when read in its entirety, he was critical of all sin. He said the following: "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."
Why is their only outrage in the gay community? Where is the shock and outrage from the adulterer community? I do not recall the drunkards pressuring A&E; to suspend or fire him. Who among us hasn’t slandered at one time or another? The truth is that Phil Robertson’s comments were directed at all of us. There isn’t a single person walking the globe that hasn’t committed one of the sins identified by Mr. Robertson. This isn’t a shock to Christians who know and embrace that we are all sinners according to Biblical doctrine.
Aside from the American media completely misreading Phil Robertson’s comments, they utterly failed to reach the real controversy in America and around the globe. The real controversy that this incident underscores is that nearly all major world religions are in direct conflict with homosexuality (and many other lifestyles). We have reached a point where religious Americans of all faiths are not permitted to express their opinion on homosexuality without freedom from media persecution and without risking economic harm. Many will contend that Phil Robertson was free from government interference when he made his comments therefore his "freedom of speech" rights were never at issue. I suppose that’s true but freedom of speech means very little if a powerful, secular media apparatus quells any and all dissent. The right itself becomes worthless. It appears that the media solution to this doctrinal conflict is to condemn all religious Americans (and Christians in particular) to forced silence and coercive obedience to Hollywood’s virtues (or lack thereof).
The American media has wrongfully concluded that rejection of sin is rejection of the sinner. Show me a church in America that doesn’t preach the gospel to drunkards, adulterers and the like. Christianity does not reject those individuals but rather attempts to lead them from a lifestyle that God tells us is sinful in nature. It’s this lack of understanding about how Christianity works doctrinally that leads the American media apparatus to wrongfully report that a public affirmation of the teachings of Christ is hateful and anti-gay. It is not.
What is hateful is the constant maligning of Christians by politicians, celebrities, movie and televison writers and producers and nearly every other groups involved in mass media. They depict Christians as stupid, simple, marrow-minded, hypocritical and utterly devoid of any intellectual merit. They paint Christians as paying homage to an ancient religion no longer worthy of our time, attention and worship. Sadly, I don’t hear outrage over this stereotypical and inaccurate hate speech.
It must be that the American mass media doesn’t oppose hate speech but rather opposes speech that offends groups they care about. What is certain is that Christians all over the country and religious people all over the world must decide between being loyal to God as they understand him or risk being seen as hateful and anti-gay. I encourage all religious persons to be committed to their beliefs and not slough them off for temporary acceptance in our society but I also encourage religious persons to not reject the sinner but merely the sin.
I do not believe that obedience to God requires us to hate anyone and, in fact I believe it is our affirmative duty to love our fellow man and leave judgment to God. Similarly, if we are to coexist peacefully, the gay community must quit waging all out war on religion through inaccurate stereotyping and faux outrage. These two groups must understand that there is no future in this type of dialogue as it exists today. The only hope for harmonizing this conflict is for gay people to be welcome in the church and for the gay community to understand that the doctrines that underlay modern religions all condemn the lifestyle but that does not mean that gays should be denied the right to worship. Finally, it is incumbent on Christians to not treat homosexuality like a super-duper sin but rather merely one in a large class of sins that we all commit on a daily basis. I hold that hating the sinner is more repugnant to God than the sin itself.
Bays is an attorney in Midwest City.
