I’m allowed to tell you how much I hate you or your cat or your stupid lifestyle. One of the beauties of being an American (or a damn Canadian for that matter) is that we get to say whatever we want. We don’t live in China or in Cuba or in North Korea. Now, with that being said, let me also remind you that every single one of us has the right to say what we think. Let me start this post off by reminding of you of something: Phil actually voiced his personal opinion on a hot topic that some people didn’t like, and now he’s in hot water for it. And as integralists we can keep his comments in perspective.So by now, we’ve all heard about the Phil Robertson/Duck Dynasty drama. I appreciate living in a postmodern society that wants to protect me. Before he found Jesus he was a total hellion, he’ll tell you so himself. But he seems to be a good father and grandfather and the bible-based beliefs, however arbitrary and inconsistently regarded, are actually a civilizing force for his psyche, and by extension, his family’s. Now I’m not saying that Phil’s a great guy because at least he’s not beating gay people to death in the street, I mean, God help the gay son or daughter born into that family. I’m pretty sure that the Robertsons wouldn’t like it any more than you or me.
By the end of the two and a half minutes their bodies are still and blood is pooling from their heads. They are already bleeding and broken when the video begins. In the short video a crowd is gathered around the two half-naked men on the ground. (If you’re extra sensitive, don’t watch it). For a horrifying glimpse of red attitudes toward homosexuals, consider the video going around the internet of two gay men in Nigeria being beaten to death while the whole village watches. People will go to prison for being gay.Īnd that’s not even as bad as it can get in cultures and subcultures where red warrior development are in force. In India gay sex was re-criminalized after a coalition of Muslim and Christian organizations, among others, asked the Indian Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling that had legalized consensual gay sex. In Uganda a law was passed this week criminalizing “aggravated homosexuality” (being caught having homosexual sex repeatedly) and is punishable by life in prison. Phil and other amber traditionalists in the developed world may disapprove of homosexuality and think it’s immoral, but this is great progress over attitudes in parts of the world that are just now entering amber traditionalism, such as parts of Africa and India. We let God sort ’em out later, you see what I’m saying?” We just love ’em, give ’em the good news about Jesus-whether they’re homosexuals, drunks, terrorists. “We never, ever judge someone on who’s going to heaven, hell. They have faith in a transcendent God that only asks us to follow a few simple rules. They love and support each other no matter what. This stage of development is ethnocentric and socially conservative, qualities the Robertson family certainly exemplifies. In fact he actually appears to be a very healthy version of it. Phil Robertson is the perfect example of the amber traditional (spiral dynamics blue) stage of consciousness and cultural development. Phil Robertson has the right to say whatever he wants as a US citizen, just as A&E has a right to enforce certain standards in its programming and from its personalities.)
(There are plenty of people yelling about free speech but…I mean, really?! That’s not the issue here. Predictably, he’s being demonized by the progressive left and martyred by the Christian right. GLAAD and the NAACP immediately protested to A&E and Phil has been suspended from the show. He also waxed poetic about the good old days of slavery. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men,” he says. “Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there. The part that has gotten him into hot water is when the author asks him what the human race has to repent about. There’s an article in the current GQ magazine about the family and Phil does most of the talking. Religion doesn’t play a very visible role on the show though. Phil is the patriarch of the family and he was born again as a Christian back in the 1970’s. It’s semi-scripted and follows the everyday lives of a family of self-described redneck bible thumpers who became rich by making really accurate duck calls (of all things).
Duck Dynasty airs on the A&E network and is the highest rated reality TV show, raking in over $400 million. I envied their sense of belonging to their land and to their family, which is so different from my own peripatetic life. The Robertson family fascinated me during the first season of Duck Dynasty. Phil Robertson of the Duck Dynasty reality show on A&E