For those living under a rack, Phil Robertson gave an interview to GQ (really?) in which he said some really stupid shit. Here's his quote:
"It seems like, to me, a vagina -- as a man -- would be more desirable than a man's anus. That's just me. I'm just thinking: There's more there! She's got more to offer. I mean, come on, dudes! You know what I'm saying?"
Now, had he shut the fuck up there, I don't think he would have had a problem. As a straight man, I agree with him. It's why I am not gay. I like women. Nothing wrong with that or vice versa if you like dudes. But instead, he continued to have diarrhea of the mouth something fierce.
"But hey, sin: It's not logical, my man. It's just not logical."
And so it begins. Perhaps because he is such a backward hick, he failed to take notice of corporations like Barilla and Chick-Fil-A, which lost major business when they said anti-gay rhetoric which is NOT acceptable anymore, regardless of religious belief. At least Phil didn't compare gays to evil people. Oh wait.
"Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there," Phil said. "Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men."
He goes on to paraphrase Corinthians: "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. Don't deceive yourself. It's not right."
With all of that, how much worse could it get? Well, lost in all the anti-gay crap, came racist statements against black people that seems to have been forgotten and, in some ways, is worse than these previous statements. Here is what he said:
“I never, with my eyes, saw the mistreatment of any black person," Robertson is quoted in GQ. "Not once. Where we lived was all farmers. The blacks worked for the farmers. I hoed cotton with them. I’m with the blacks, because we’re white trash. We’re going across the field.... They’re singing and happy. I never heard one of them, one black person, say, ‘I tell you what: These doggone white people’—not a word!... Pre-entitlement, pre-welfare, you say: Were they happy? They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues.”
This flies in the face of facts that black people WERE singing the blues as they were the ones that invented it in the first place. The reason they were singing the blues is that they were unhappy with current conditions that kept them in the poorhouse and second class citizens. Yeah, people pre-welfare were living high on the hog you redneck fuck. Open a goddammed book that ISN'T the Bible for once freak. If you never saw mistreatment of any black people in the south in the fifties, you really weren't looking because many places were whites only and bathrooms were segregated.
And let's talk about the Bible for a minute. I am sick to death of hearing people use the Bible as a reason to hate gays and oppose abortion. With abortion, they don't have a leg to stand on, and I would know, being a Biblical scholar and all. I have a degree in Philosophy and a minor in Religion, along with another major in Anthropology and another minor in history. My main field of study was the Bible, which came with twelve years of Catholic school, a super religious father and was even an altar boy, unmolested thank God. In other words, I know the Bible better than most and nowhere in any book of the Bible does it say life begins at conception or that abortion is wrong. It does say life begins at breath several times, meaning you aren't truly alive until you draw your first breath. Just saying.
Homosexuality is a different matter as it is mentioned several times in the Bible, mainly in Leviticus and the letters of Paul. If Gay people were such a sin why is one of the Ten Commandments not "thou shall not be gay?" And wouldn't Jesus speak out if it was the abomination some make it out to be? Instead, it appears in a handful of passages, some of which may be taken out of context. The others may have been written by someone like Ted Cruz or Glenn Beck, circa 200 AD, who really didn't like gay people. The reason we have kosher rules and anti pork sentiment in Muslim and Jewish faiths is not because God told them not to eat them but because undercooked pork was killing people. So "God" told them to avoid it, not because it was unclean, but because people couldn't cook any better then than now. The anti-gay passages could have easily been written by some one who was a raving homophobe as well.
The truly funny part about all of this is the rantings and ravings of the so called "religious" among us, who have officially proven they have no idea what Christianity is all about. Sarah Palin, Ted Cruz, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh have all come out as this being an affront to free speech, conveniently forgetting that many of these same people are screaming about the word Christmas being replaced with Happy Holidays instead. I'll admit, even I feel Merry Christmas is not the dirty word we have made it out to be as Christmas is less a religious holiday than an American one. I don't celebrate the birth of Jesus, mainly because he wasn't born anywhere near this time period, but was taken to supplant the pagan winter solstice which occurs around the same time. The Christmas tree and lights have nothing to do Jesus or even gift giving, although the latter is derived from the gifts the Three Magi gave Jesus, but that meaning has been buried under a ton of commercialism.
My point is that these blowhards are screaming bloody murder about First Amendment rights not realizing at all that the law of unintended consequences has punched them square in the face. Every one of these people is wholly anti-union and pro business, allowing for right to work laws in 36 states and growing. What this means is the employer can fire anyone for any reason, regardless of merit. This trend is the number one reason why free speech is so hampered in this country as any business owner can fire anyone for whatever reason, including your beliefs. Phil Robertson is out of job because there are no laws to protect him from saying what he wants. I believe in free speech and stand behind Phil Robertson, even if I don't agree at all with what he said. However, due to the fact that employees have ZERO protection against these kinds of actions, A&E was completely within their rights to fire him. If they didn't, consumers would boycott the channel and they stood to lose millions. Duck Dynasty may be a ratings powerhouse but the powerful Gay lobby would have decimated them. So every time some idiot Republican talks about how much unions suck remind him/her that your right to free speech is gone because they have disappeared and businesses hold all the cards now.
Even worse than these fuckwads are the so called Christan right which have whinned, cried, and threatened A&E with death threats and the like. That is so anti-Christian, I almost find it funny. The tweets I have seen are so homophobic and retarded I am stunned that these people had the brainpower to type out the words without help. One individual said he believed everything in the Bible is true, a statements so stupid mainly because the Bible contradicts itself multiple times. Which laws does he follow? And do people like this still have slaves, as the Bible says you must? Does he stone people for adultery? Most of the Bible is pure crap and if you are too stupid to realize that, it is a shocker you haven't Dawined yourself to death by now.
No part of the Bible allows death threats for not getting your way. No part of the Bible allows you to judge anyone, as that is the duty of the Lord, or did you conveniently skip over that famous passage. No part of the Bible allows you slander others. As a matter of fact it is rather explicit in everything I have just written that it is NOT okay to do for any reason.
Duck Dynasty has threatened to stop the show if Phil is not reinstated, a long shot at best. If A&E caves, they face the wrath of a pissed off Gay lobby and the fleeing of major advertisers who will not want to be linked in any way, shape or form to the show regardless of ratings. If they don't, they face the wrath of the Religious right, albeit a much smaller price to be paid as that group is a smaller subset of the US. They still have a huge amount of followers but that pales in the number of people who support gay rights, homosexual or not, like myself. In the long run, this show is over, Christianity looks like it is staffed with the most dangerous morons in the world, and life will go on like normal for most of us. If we can stop worshipping at the altar of the stupid, maybe we can get A&E to replace it with a show about a family of rocket scientists and their well behaved kids. I'd watch.
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