Just Stop It!

I am not a Duck Dynasty watcher. I hear it is hilarious,  but my TV time is limited, so I haven't put the homeboys from LA on my schedule. However, the recent flap over patriarch Phil Robertson's remarks demands a response. Robertson didn't say anything that any number of conservative commentators haven't repeatedly: accepting one type of perverted sexual behavior leads to the acceptance of other types of perverted sexual behavior. If morality is a hurdle, then Robertson is correct in implying that the bar is getting lower and lower.

As for Robertson's choice of venues for his remarks, one might wonder what he was doing at GQ in the first place. I know he is an entrepreneur, and marketing is the Dynasty strong suit, but GQ? Can you think of two more polar opposites than GQ and Duck Dynasty? I wonder what the Neilsen audience for Dynasty is in Manhattan. A recent show had 9.6 million viewers, but I can't imagine many of them were in the Big Apple. Those who were watching in NYC were probably not GQ subscribers.

Why should I care who watches anyway? I am reading Timothy Keller's Center Church right now. In the book Keller makes a strong point that the church often shoots itself in the foot (nod to duck hunters) by coming off as totally weird and disconnected from the issues that concern most unbelievers. Robertson's core constituency probably won't be terribly upset with his comments about homosexuality. But most unbelievers will be. That is why I think it is important to consider where we say what. In the GQ interview, Drew Magary sounded like a guy from Manhattan getting his first ATV ride with Phil. And he said plainly that Phil was being more open than he could be on the A&E network show. I just think Robertson should have been more thoughtful in his comments.

It is impossible to say whether Magary was letting a little snide sneak into his reporting or not. It would be wrong for me to assume he was an unbeliever and to hear sarcasm where none was intended. But I have heard plenty of city boys like him mocking religion and condescending like a shuttle on reentry. Keller is right to encourage us to find ways to talk to unbelievers without lighting their fuse or tweaking their sanctimonious funny bone. We don't have to change what we believe; we just need to season what we say with the audience in mind. You don't serve five alarm chili to a dinner guest with ulcers.

I'm just sayin' ... Stop it, already. Stop insisting that we have to be weird to be counter-cultural. I think the church should be counter-cultural, but in a winsome way. That may sound like an oxymoron (winsome counter-culture), but like so many other paradoxes in the faith, I believe it is exactly right. Just because Phil Robertson looks like Moses doesn't mean he should be as out of touch as the Lawgiver would doubtless feel today. We don't have to coddle the golden calf makers, but we can't just throw stone tablets at them either.