Phil Robertson on why cancel culture is antithetical to the Gospel of Jesus By Leah MarieAnn Klett, Assistant Editor for Christian Post
Phil Robertson knows firsthand what it means to be a victim of cancel culture.
In 2013, the “Duck Dynasty” patriarch was suspended from the popular A&E show over his candid comments about homosexuality and religion in a GQ profile. He was swiftly condemned as a bigot by LGBT activist groups, including The Human Rights Campaign and GLAAD.
“Five or six years ago, a guy came up and asked me, did I believe homosexual behavior was a sin,” the 75-year-old duck hunter told The Christian Post. “I quoted 1 Corinthians 6:9-10: ‘Don’t be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, the adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the thieves, the greedy drunks, they won’t inherit the Kingdom of God,’ Robertson said, citing [Paul’s letter] to the church at Corinth. ‘But you’ve been washed, you’ve been cleansed by the blood of Jesus,’” he added.
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“I just simply quoted him a verse, a Bible verse, where God stated what it is,” he added. “So it took him two weeks to figure out all I did was quote a Bible verse. He asked me a question … and I just quoted [the Bible]. And when I quoted it, he took it and ran with it, because he thought I was just blowing smoke just off the top of my head.”
Though backlash from the secular media was swift, the father, grandfather and great-grandfather pointed out that as a result of his boldness, “a lot of good came forth.”
“We converted way more after that,” he said. “See what I’m saying? God works in mysterious ways.”
Today, Robertson bears no ill will toward those who wanted to see him “canceled”: “They rail against me in a lot of ways, but I forgive them, I love them all,” he stressed. Yet, that incident sparked in him a fierce desire to push back against cancel culture, a phenomenon he believes is both antithetical to the Gospel and threatens to destroy free speech.
“The two greatest commandments in the Bible, according to Jesus, was to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love your neighbor,” he contended. “What’s happened is the so-called ‘cancel culture’ are digging up the past of individuals, finding out where they made a mistake, finding out where they sin, and they pile on, they try to get them fired, and they do get them fired. They attack people. The problem with that type of thinking is that all of us have made mistakes, and all of us have sinned.”
Scripture is clear that those who pass judgment on others ultimately condemn themselves, Robertson said, adding: “Sinners are attacking everyone else, not realizing that they’re condemning themselves because they’re sinners too.”
“Everyone out there should remember everyone who cancels others, here and now, they themselves will be canceled later,” he continued. “So we better learn how to love one another, love God. And we better learn how to forgive people that make mistakes around us, or we ourselves will be canceled.”
