Phil Robertson "Fired"

[dwayne1115]

I don't really see this as a win for Christians, or the Gay and lesbian community. I see this as just a publicity stunt done by A&E to boost ratings. It's just sad that they had to give Christians a black eye, and offend so many others in doing so. I think they knew that they would never cancel the show, or fire him completely. Just watch the ratings for the show will go up by leaps and bounds because of all this.

 

[CensoredAlso]

I don't really see this as a win for Christians, or the Gay and lesbian community. I see this as just a publicity stunt done by A&E to boost ratings. It's just sad that they had to give Christians a black eye, and offend so many others in doing so. I think they knew that they would never cancel the show, or fire him completely. Just watch the ratings for the show will go up by leaps and bounds because of all this.

Have you ever seen the movie Network? It's all there, lol.

 

[Drtooth]

For A&E to suspend this guy, they were kinda saying to their audience, "We've decided for you that you were wrong to ever like this guy. We know what's best and you don't!" History shows that audiences resent that condescending attitude from big companies.

I would kinda get that if they weren't shouting "Oh CRAP! A boycott of our sponsors will cause us to lose money."

What he said didn't make him a bad person. Self important, arrogant, selfish, UnChristian, but not bad. If he wants to say that religion has given him a new lease on life, there's nothing wrong with that. But to take other people down for a moral superiority that he just recently had, speaking ill of others and in so many words refusing charity (an actual Christian value) only proves he's Christian when it's convenient.

Finding religion after years of debauchery does not give one carte blanche to be a judgmental stooge. Essentially he's like a morbidly obese man who lost weight and can now call other fat people disgusting, rather than proving guidance and support to them. And as "it's from the bible" as his quotes are supposedly from, judgemental finger wagging also doesn't get you into heaven.

 

[CensoredAlso]

only proves he's Christian when it's convenient.

Sheesh, only proves he's human. Don't exaggerate, lol.

 

[Drtooth]

A human that makes mistakes and casts judgement on others while retaining a holier than thou attitude. But, yeah... a human none the less. It's back to the subtext of what he said and his poorly prioritized Christianity. You think he'd go out there and give words of wisdom to those who were in his same situation. He had a nice soapbox to speak to those hopelessly addicted to drugs and alcohol to get them through the day, doing constant harm to their families... and he blows it by cherry picking that Leviticus thing about gays and expanding on it in the most offensive way possible because it icks him out, and whining about entitlements because a small fraction of his paycheck from the show goes to them as taxes while blaming only the African American community. At best, this is a Michael Scott level of oblivious ignorance.

Still, his comments about how the African Americans didn't complain during Jim Crow laws reminds me of a joke. I'll give you the gist of it.

An Iron Curtain era Russian comes to America. He is asked why he decided to come to the US, "How were things in Russia?" The Russian replies "I couldn't complain." He's asked a series of questions that are answered with the same phrase. He's finally asked, "Why did you decide to move to America from Russia?" He answers "THERE I couldn't complain. HERE I can complain.

Essentially... yeah.

 

[CensoredAlso]

A human that makes mistakes and casts judgement on others while retaining a holier than thou attitude.

Oh yes, such a rarity in humanity, lol.

 

[Drtooth]

I see your point. I just HATE when so called Christians act like that Leviticus thing is the centerpiece of the religion while casting out all the good. You can't act like a true Christian, complaining about progressive Christians (or whatever religion) picking and choosing biblical verses to (in that mindset) unleash some sort of promiscuity event horizon where everyone's humping everything in sight, all the while picking and choosing the prudish bits that rationalize bigotry and throwing away the charitable bits.

I mean, look at the Salvation Army. They hold tight to that anti-gay mumbo jumbo but they help those less fortunate through charity. At least they have a right to wag morality fingers.

 

[D'Snowth]

I mean, look at the Salvation Army. They hold tight to that anti-gay mumbo jumbo but they help those less fortunate through charity. At least they have a right to wag morality fingers.

I saw on Facebook not too long ago, I think it was either Jamie or Kevin who posted it, but I can't remember, that there was a number of Salvation Army bell ringers in somewhere in Memphis actually flat-out saying they would not accept donations or hand-outs from anyone who supported gay marriage, so yeah, they help the less fortunate through charity, but I guess they're also picky-choosy about who they'll accept the help from and who they'll help.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Salvation Army bell ringers in somewhere in Memphis actually flat-out saying they would not accept donations or hand-outs from anyone who supported gay marriage

Heh, they might want to tell that to the Salvation Army bell ringers who accept donations from New Yorkers every Christmas, lol.

 

[Drtooth]

I saw on Facebook not too long ago, I think it was either Jamie or Kevin who posted it, but I can't remember, that there was a number of Salvation Army bell ringers in somewhere in Memphis actually flat-out saying they would not accept donations or hand-outs from anyone who supported gay marriage,

And I doubt gay marriage supporters would want to give it, either. So yeah, even then this picky choosy crap is hurting others. But they aren't getting all Neo-Cony on entitlements either.

If there's any take home on this whole debacle, it's this:

• Christianity shouldn't be exclusive nor should it be used as rationalization for bigotry.
• Phil is like every loudmouth conservative talking head ever* in his views and his saying offensive things and then taking the mantle of "the Victim" when someone calls him out on it.
• There's so much hypocritical disproportionate retribution out there. Michael Richards, Bret Rhatner, and that guy from Grey's Anatomy that called T.R. Knight the F slur were raked under the coals for what they did. Mel Gibson was given a reluctant second chance and blew it, his career's over too. A boycott couldn't even match loyal viewers in Phil's case, and A&E still ran marathons of Duck Dynasty anyway.
• Phil may not be a terrible person, but a good number of his supporters (especially political figures) sure as crap are.
• Free speech goes both ways, and a boycott is just as much an exercise of free speech as shooting your mouth off in a magazine.
• and finally... it's best to just ignore stuff like this, since frankly Phil got the upperhand on this one. The elitists should have just kept laughing at them and moved on.

*as opposed to calm, rational conservative pundits like Charles Krauthammuer and Ben Stine... both can argue a point without shouting, flailing their arms, using third grade gutter speak and name calling, and making funny voices.