I don't watch television, apart from football when my husband is home. I don't have cable, and I have never enjoyed reality tv either, so when I saw headlines about Phil Robertson's "abrasive" comments about homosexuality, I didn't pay them much mind. Conservative Christians are regularly being lambasted for their opinions in the casual press, and the poorly argued, one sided words of an highly opinionated Yahoo! blogger/journalist aren't exactly the spoonful of sugar in my day. I figured Mr. Robertson is a nationally famous multimillionaire with lots of guns and a big beard. He can take care of himself.
But now I see that the Mr. Robertson has been suspended from the taping of his family show, Duck Dynasty, in direct reference to his statements, and a lot of my friends on facebook are up in arms. They are calling foul on freedom of speech, on religious freedom, on social equality, and oddly enough, on the religious right for not throwing around as much social pull as the homosexual agenda. And before we raise a stink up to the heavens, I'd like to raise a few thoughts on the subject.
1. A & E, the hosting network, is not the government. The first amendment protects our right to free speech from government interference, not corporate interference or social interference. If A & E doesn't want to take a risk with an outspoken Christian personality, they don't have to. And if they want to risk alienating the millions of viewers who liked Duck Dynasty for its distinctly Christian personality, they may. It's their business. They make those decisions. They might lose quite a bit by this decision, but it was their decision to make.
2. This move isn't going to hurt the Robertson family much. They have a very successful business, and thanks to their tv show, they have a high profile in society and will continue to have a high profile in conservative circles. Shoot, maybe this will free up enough time for him to get involved in politics. Wouldn't you love to see someone like that speaking his mind on the Senate floor, or better yet, working on the budget committee?
But the real point is that this is not a Hobby Lobby situation. This move by A & E is not going to destroy their lives and income. It just takes them out of the public limelight, and given what limelight can do to people, that's a mixed consequence. If we are going to cry out for justice, then lets focus our energies where lives and livelihoods are really at stake.
3. Yes, it does hurt to have good role models removed from television, but why are we looking to television for our role models anyway. I read an article a while back that asked Christians to consider which parts of our secular culture we have baptised into our Christian way of life. With that in mind, do we really want to encourage our children and each other to look to the world of media to figure out how we're supposed to live?
They're going to see it anyway, you might say. They don't have to. We none of us need to watch television. It's not something that essential for spiritual development and not necessarily healthy for other types of development. It's entertainment, and therefore a dispensible commodity. And we don't need to be fully immersed in entertainment in order to be discerning about the parts we do partake of. We just need to know what we believe, and we need to realized that we don't need to have what everyone else has or do what everyone else does.
But someone might have come to Christ through that show, you say. Entirely possible. I'm sure many have, just I am sure that Tim Tebow's short NFL career gave a lot of people something to think about in terms of a relationship to God, a righteous life, and a stand against abortion. However, we also need to recognise that a godly life is no guarantee of earthly fame or career satisfaction. And God uses many, many ways to bring people to Himself, including the way that his people represent Him when they are under fire. For instance, there are biblical injunctions against grumbling in the desert spaces. This is something we should keep in mind.
4. Why do we expect fair treatment? We were warned at the beginning that the world would hate us just as it hated Christ because he exposed its sinful deeds. The entertainment industry is the world. The homosexual agenda is the world. The American government is the world. They may each in their place be interspersed with Christian persons and personalities, but they are the world, and we shouldn't expect them to advocate our values.
Christianity has been the modicum of normality in this country for a long time, and before that, the terms Europe and Christendom were almost synonymous. So when we see social control slipping away from us, we begin to think that something has gone devastatingly wrong. I'm not so sure. For one thing, Christendom has never been purely Christian. There has always been the tendency to baptise some elements of the popular culture into Christian practice and to compromise in the name of practicality.
So we need to ask ourselves, is our expectation of "fair treatment" based on worldly assumptions? If it is, then we have some adjustments to make. If now, we find that the church is exerting less control over society in general, perhaps we also find that the church is finding a purer expression of itself. And being relegated to a status of freakdom might be good for us. Now people think they know what we have to say. If we were as odd to the average American as a woman in a hijab or hippie draped out in beads or an Amish man with his suspenders and beard because we live out what we profess, might that not be a good thing?
Our opponents may make a dogged effort to silence and sideline us, but they cannot destroy us. As we raise a hullabaloo because the network canceled our favorite programming, let's remember that this is really a 0.2 on the Richter Scale of persecution. Mr. Robertson was set up. They knew how he would answer the question. It's nonsensical. It's not fair. It could be a stepping stone to making life a lot harder for a lot of people. But it's not North Korea. Let's remember three things to help us keep this in perspective.
1)The church has been through this before, and much of our body goes through much worse on a daily basis now. This is straight Daniel in the lion's den type of stuff, people. And that should encourage us because . . .
2) God got them out of those situations. A lot of prophets died under Jezebel, but God provided people like Obadiah and Jehu to make sure the remnant was faithful, and those martyrs all got honorable mentions in Hebrews 11. I'm sure it was terrifying watching the worship of God melt away in favor of Baal, but it wasn't permanent. I'm sure Daniel was upset with the decree that he could only pray to the king, but he didn't imagine that God would take less care of him because of it. So. . .
3) If we really want to follow the example of the saints of old, we should do less complaining and more encouraging. If you feel the need to write to A&E and respectfully say, "I really liked that show. I wish you hadn't canceled it," do so. Or better yet, send some encouragement to the Robertson family. I don't follow their show, so I don't know how to contact them, but I'm sure they'd appreciate some kinds words. Maybe try their business website. Post something encouraging on your facebook or twitter accounts.
The important thing to remember at moments like this is that the world judges our Lord as it sees us. Our response to trouble says as much about our faith as it does about the situation we are in. We need to "boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we aslo glory in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character, and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us." (TNIV)
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