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Attack on Phil Robertson is an ‘Attack on All of Us’

By now you know what Phil Robertson said about sin – same-sex sinful behavior and other sins. You may not know that he did not say anything about a group of people who designate themselves as “gay.” The Bible’s prohibition of same-sex sex applies to everybody.

Hopefully you knew that the homosexual community would pounce on Phil Robertson’s comments in GQ magazine and put pressure on A&E to censure the Duck Commander. The ax came down quickly. He’s out. It remains to be seen what the rest of the family will do.

A&E has a lot of money tied to Duck Dynasty. It’s the network’s highest rated show. Then there are the merchandise spinoffs that are worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

There’s more at stake, however, than money.

Sarah Palin made a great comment about the dustup. “Palin wrote on her Facebook page on Wednesday shortly after the news that Robertson had been indefinitely suspended. ‘Those “intolerants” hatin’ and taking on the Duck Dynasty patriarch for voicing his personal opinion are taking on all of us.”

As I tried to explain to someone who responded to my posted article on Facebook, these types of incidents are used to force compliance through the law. Consider how many states have used legislative action to sanction same-sex marriage, and anyone who opposes the action by denying service to these sham marriages will be fined and possibly even jailed.

There’s Jack Phillips who was told by a judge that he had to make a cake for a same-sex couple for their “wedding.” Sweet Cakes by Melissa had to close its store when its owner refused to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple.

Then there’s the photographer in New Mexico who was fined for refusing to photograph a same-sex “marriage.” The New Mexico Supreme Court ruled that the state’s anti-discrimination law applied to their choice to refuse service. The business was forced to pay a fine.

Freedom of expression is being denied. The First Amendment has become null and void because pop-culture and intense political and economic pressures have been put on politicians to pass laws protecting a particular sexual act.

The businesses that refused services to these homosexual “couples” did not discriminate against the potential customers because of who they are but what type of behavior they engaged in. A black print shop business owner has every right to deny service to members of the KKK who want T-shirts with racist slogans.

Bit by bit popular culture is driving politics. As it’s been said, culture is upstream from politics. It’s always been this way.

“[Andrew] Breitbart knew instinctively, as people in Washington, D.C., and most other places did not, that movies, television programs and popular music send out deeply political messages every hour of every day. They shape the culture, and then the culture shapes politics. Influence those films and TV shows and songs, and you’ll eventually influence politics.”

That’s why A&E’s response to Phil Robertson is so important. Will the Duck people capitulate?  Is money more important than principle? How will we respond? In the long run, it all matters.

George Orwell begins his 1940 article “Notes on the Way” with a vivid picture of what happens when we lose our collective moral reference point:

“Reading Mr Malcolm Muggeridge’s brilliant and depressing book, The Thirties, I thought of a rather cruel trick I once played on a wasp. He was sucking jam on my plate, and I cut him in half. He paid no attention, merely went on with his meal, while a tiny stream of jam trickled out of his severed œsophagus. Only when he tried to fly away did he grasp the dreadful thing that had happened to him. It is the same with modern man. The thing that has been cut away is his soul, and there was a period — twenty years, perhaps — during which he did not notice it.

“It was absolutely necessary that the soul should be cut away. Religious belief, in the form in which we had known it, had to be abandoned.”

Our moral soul is being cut away bit by bit. The New Jersey legislature has delayed passage of a pro-homosexual law because homosexual groups “don’t want any kind of religious exemption.” The bill will be written to satisfy homosexual pressure groups.

The millions of Americans that sat back and did nothing because they believed these laws had no effect on them are like the wasp still sucking jam. It won’t be too long before we won’t be able to fly away.

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