EDITORIAL
Ducking the Issue
Phil Robertson's Problem Is Ours
by S. M. Hutchens
There is a very popular television program called Duck Dynasty that features men with long beards. I've never seen it and don't know what it's about, but it was hard to miss the news a few months ago that one of the men, a Christian named Phil Robertson, was suspended by the A&E Network, which produces the show, for what it regarded as his anti-gay remarks. As far as I can tell, what Robertson did was, during an interview, cite homosexuality as an example of sin, going on to place it in the canon of 1 Corinthians 6, which lists sins and sinners that shall not enter the kingdom of heaven: the drunkards, the covetous, the fornicators, and so forth, the homosexuals among them.
The most dismaying thing about the inevitable reaction to Robertson's remarks was not the predictable rage of the homosexualists, but of widely broadcasted Christians who said that Robertson had, in expressing his "opinion," done something not just a little stupid, but un-Christian as well. We'll take as an example the conservative pundit and very amateur theologian Bill O'Reilly, who in grave and magisterial tones used his authority as someone who has written a book about Jesus to declare that Robertson was out of line for taking it upon himself to condemn people whose hearts only God knows.
THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:
S. M. Hutchens is a senior editor and longtime writer for Touchstone.
subscription options
Order
Print/Online Subscription
Get six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for only $39.95. That's only $3.34 per month!
Order
Online Only
Subscription
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95. That's only $1.66 per month!
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more from the online archives
23.5—September/October 2010
The Loss of a Christian Understanding of Virginity Is Pure Tragedy by Eleanor Bourg Donlon
32.6—November/December 2019
The Year of Our Lord 1943: Christian Humanism in an Age of Crisis by Alan Jacobs by Jesse Russell
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
