of ducks and dynasties

The last week has been filled with discussions stemming from statements made by Phil Robertson to GQ, and his sharing of his belief that homosexuality is an unnatural, sinful act.  Since these particular views were made public, the network which produces the show has suspended Phil from the show about his family.  The response has been widespread and overwhelming, to say the least.  As certainly as the next person, I have my own thoughts on the situation.  However, I have decided instead to reflect upon the public response to the firing of Phil Robertson.

I have watched while people have made their dissatisfaction known, first among those who were unhappy with A&E, and second with those who made disparaging comments on those who voiced their opinion.  This latter category have been making a rather interesting observation that, on one level is quite true, but which, on another level, is missing the point.  Yes, it is true that the world will go on quite nicely without the Robertson family on television, and that it would be far from the end of our culture to lose a particular show.

But there is something deeper going on than the public outcry over the loss of an entertainment figure.  The fact of the matter is that people have simply had enough.  What we are witnessing is a backlash to the imposed reality that all viewpoints and beliefs, no matter how offensively rude and crude they might be presented to the public, must be tolerated for the good of our society.  This has been shoved at our culture for years, with one notable exception - conservative Christian belief.  While those who push for the tolerance of views - in the name of a supposed diversity - enforce their systems of belief on others, these societal Progressives are in fact quite intolerant of those beliefs that are not their own.

There are moments when the wider culture - which is apparently in the majority opinion of traditional values and beliefs - has simply had enough with all of the pushing and shoving of agendas and morals  that are contrary to their own.  Lately, this has happened with Chick-fil-A, Hobby Lobby, and now Duck Dynasty.  When companies take the stance to push tolerance of leftist perspective over-and-above the existence of other voices, they are actually trampling upon what most people hold as belief.

This isn't so much about a television show as it is an indication that biblical belief still plays an important part in our culture, despite the many attacks to remove it from the fabric of our society.  I will agree that biblical literacy and genuine biblical faith is struggling in America today, but moments like this demonstrate that the traditional Christian values that define our culture are still holding on - and it took a rugged, outdoorsy, folksy, family to remind us of that.  When the corporate-Progressives pushed against them, they pushed against many more at the same time.

If A&E desires to throw away the highest rated cable show of all time so that they won't have to deal with the headache of the whiny, screeching activists group of a small minority of Americans, who have the ear of the mainstream media, then they have every right to do so.  But their blatant hypocrisy will be exposed in the process, but without the typical shrugging-off that they have grown accustomed to receiving from those conservative Christians who don't typically cry like babies when they don't get what they want - those tactics are reserved for liberal activist groups.

I find that all of this is quite interesting, given that it all broke loose the week before Christmas, which is representative of two kingdoms clashing, as the Incarnate Word entered broken human flesh.  The same conflict continues on to this day, and we continue to have a choice to be casualties of the conflict or participants in the new kingdom - which speaks truth and lives out the gospel.  With all that has been tearing at our nation and our culture, it is interesting who God chose to bring into the center of the conflict to wake us up to the reality.