The reactions of A&E are not much different than my own at any given moment. It’s how we’re wired, humanity. There is this innate desire to defend and protect that which is right. When humanity strives for good it desires to protect good at all costs. It desires to shelter those good things and seek every assurance that no “bad” will ever happen to “good”. This isn’t necessarily an unfavorable problem. In fact, if anything it plays to our inner sense of justice, equality, and the acknowledgement of Good and Evil. The knee jerk reaction is to defend not only oneself but others. Let me give you an example.
My friend Rich and I were having a discussion about offenses and I had stated that there really are no racial slurs about Caucasians that I find offense. But there is something that I could be called that would immediately put me, and maybe you, on the defensive.
Racist.
Of course, anyone that knows me knows that there is not a racist bone in my body. I know there is not a racist bone in my body. But to be called a racist causes me to quickly prove that I am no such thing. I may fall prey to the timeless joke of trying to count my friends of a different race just to not appear racist, thus confirming that I’m racist. I strive to be good and for another person to take the very thing I’m trying to be good at and twist it to make me appear evil causes immediate and aggressive actions to counteract the claims.
We react and react swiftly when our good is called into question as evil.
But Good is not Evil. They are not synonymous any more than saying an apple is identical to airplane. They are of different substances and do not serve the same function. The society we are now immersed in is no different than the societies that have been around since humanity’s first rebellion. Humanity has always tried to convince itself (and others) that evil can be good… that an apple can be an airplane.
In Paul’s letter to the Romans he states, “Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do those very things abut also approve of those who practices them.” – Romans 1:32.
This is the Duck Dynasty dilemma we find ourselves in. Because of Phil Robertson’s beliefs in the Bible he, and A&E by association, has been accused of being a homophobic racist. In the courts of verbal mudslinging the truth does not carry as much weight as the accusation. The knee jerk reaction by A&E is the right one by the world’s standards. They are not homophobic, they know they are not homophobic, but to be called homophobic incites them to respond the same way I would if called a racist – prove otherwise.
All of this due to minority of people who “do these very things but also approve of those who practice them”. But the problem isn’t with the minority that support the LGBT agenda. It’s with the rest of humanity that makes up the majority of people who no longer follow the commands of God. The majority of our nation now views sin as good (because it’s our right to do so) and righteousness as bad (because it invades on our free will). This twisting of morals has led us to question those who would proclaim truth submit their wills to God instead of doing what they will. We are upset at A&E for folding to sin when in reality it simply believes that it’s protecting good (equality, love, respect). But they’re comparing apples and airplanes.
When the majority approves of sin, the minority becomes wrong. The Christians who stand on God’s Word and follow the Gospel are now the rebels, the renegades, the ones who refuse to bend to social norms and accept the sway of the majority. They are the outcasts, the dregs, the social parasites who contribute nothing but friction. If only they would go away everyone would be so much better.
If only the majority understood that it’s not hate that’s driving the Gospel but love. This why His Word has NEVER been able to be eliminated. Not through trial or persecution or famine or death. The Gospel of Jesus Christ not driven by fear or judgment but by a genuine love that desires to reconcile people to God through Jesus. If this was understood we wouldn’t be suspending Phil Robertson, but we also wouldn’t be applauding him. We would only need to acknowledge His belief as that and let it be.
But in a world that desires apples and airplanes to be the same, the road to morality becomes harder and harder to find.