America’s “Duck Dynasty” Controversy

For readers of this blog who are not residing in America, it may be hard to understand some aspects of this post. However, most Americans will understand what this post is all about. For the readers in the 120-135 nations who visit this site each month and who are not familiar with the “Duck Dynasty” cable-TV program in the USA on the A&E network, I’ll offer some brief background information.

The Duck Dynasty program is about a Louisiana family named the Robertsons who made a fortune in making duck calls and hunting accessories for hunters and they practice and espouse traditional American family values. The programs presented on the Duck Dynasty feature “down-home” themes that are common to normal family life in the America that Christians, conservatives, and traditionalists value. The men on the program feature beards and a love for hunting, outdoor life and gun ownership. All programs end with a family prayer of thanksgiving to God for the food on their table. I have watched the program often and the programs can feature such diverse situations as helping a teenage boy buy his first car, organizing a rummage sale, buying a new appliance or watching the Robertson men traipsing out into their rural property to rip up a beaver dam that is damaging the water-flow on their property. Many readers in foreign nations without a Constitutional 2nd-Amendment guaranteeing gun-ownership might be stunned by the sight of Uncle Sy firing with an AR-15 into the beaver dam to try and “get the varmints,” but tens of millions of Americans are endeared by such sights. Having grown up in a rural state where guns were everywhere and I was hunting pheasants with a .410 gauge shotgun at age 12, I like and support the 2nd Amendment traditions of the Robertsons. Liberals who hate the US Constitution’s Bill of Rights and who want to tear down the traditional Judeo-Christian ethics and morality that made America great, no doubt, hate this show.

One of the patriarchs of the Robertson clan, Phil Robertson, exercised at least two of his guaranteed Constitutional rights to freedoms of speech and religion by stating his opposition to homosexuality in a media interview (see first link). Liberals (who dominate the media) hated Phil Robertson’s exercise of his Constitutional rights and these media liberals got Phil Robertson suspended by the A&E network from the program featuring his own family. A massive backlash occurred against this action and the liberal enemies of the Constitution’s First Amendment rights were apparently defeated and A&E had to reverse its decision (second link). Support in Louisiana for the Robertson clan is so strong that one County Sheriff let it be known the A&E TV crews would not be welcome in his county if their network’s suspension of Phil Robertson continued (third link). However, it is a bit murky as to what has actually happened. Was Phil Robertson reinstated for just the next season to be aired or all future seasons? Duck Dynasty is one of the most-watched cable-TV programs in America so the A&E network shot itself in its own wallet by alienating the largest chunk of its own audience. If its viewership drops by millions who protest its attack on Phil Robertson’s Constitutional rights, then its advertising revenues plummet as well.

This instance is just one battle in the greater societal war going on in America regarding what is right and normal behavior. The “gay rights” and abortion issues are two of the greatest fault-lines on which this political war is being fought within America. In all honesty, our nation is starting to fracture within itself over this cultural war. Columnist Pat Buchanan has written a good piece about this cultural war (and the Duck Dynasty issue as one battle in this overall war) in which he noted that “The battle [re: the Duck Dynasty issue] revealed an immense and intense hostility in Middle America to the moral agenda being imposed by our cultural elites” (fourth link). He is correct, but I think he should have used the words “immoral agenda” being imposed on us by the increasingly intolerant elites in America. The immoral and intolerant elites want to impose their immorality and standards-free agenda upon all of America. Buchanan’s column does a good job of exposing the hypocrisy of the leftist elites in America.

The traditionally moral Americans have been slow to realize how fervent is the desire of the liberal elites to impose their immorality upon all America. It increasingly seems that the intolerant, liberal elites will not be satisfied until all of America is transformed into a society in which the residents of ancient Sodom and Gomorrah would have been quite comfortable.

The Duck Dynasty skirmish has apparently been won by the moral traditionalists in America, but this cultural war is far from over. Isaiah 1-4 is a prophecy about the immoral decline in the many nations of the tribes of Israel in the latter days of our age. The terms “house of Jacob” in Isaiah 2:5-6 refers to all the tribes of Israel (not just “Judah”–the Jews) that descended from Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel (Genesis 35:9-10). The prophecy in these chapters is recommended reading for everyone. It prophesied the feminist movement (which would masculinize women and feminize men) in Isaiah 3:12. It prophesied that corruption and bribe-taking would be commonplace among the ruling political classes (Isaiah 1:23). Indeed, how is it that so many Senators and Congresspeople become multimillionaires while serving in an office that would make that outcome impossible? Congress makes the laws so (in God’s eyes) they simply legalized bribe-taking and influence-peddling by re-naming it as the receiving of campaign contributions, special benefits, donations to Congressional representatives’ favorite charities, etc. Members of Congress can also receive “bribes” (in God’s eyes) by accepting special insider information on stock deals or inclusion in favored real estate transactions. However, sometimes the bribe-taking in the US Congress is so blatant that one Democratic Congressman was convicted for having a freezer stuffed full of bribe money in the form of cash (fifth link).  

Today’s increase in open homosexuality and the “gay rights” movement was also prophesied about 2700 years ago in Isaiah 3:9 where it says “they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not.” How true! Homosexuals have come out of the closet and demanded that their particular sin be recognized as a civil right. Things did not work out well for ancient Sodom, however (Genesis 19). It will not work out well for the modern gay rights movement either. Revelation 11 prophesies that God is going to send Two Witnesses to give a last warning and call to repentance to the world just prior to the return of Jesus Christ. This prophecy states that these Two Witnesses will be delegated God’s own powers to have control over the weather and “smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.” It is a safe bet that the Two Witnesses will not be in favor of the gay rights movement, so like ancient Sodom, things will not work out well for the modern gay rights movement or those who have advanced their agenda when these Two Witnesses arrive. They will be hated of course, and some governments will try to arrest or kill them. However, Revelation 11:5 adds that anyone who seeks to harm them will be consumed by [Divinely-sent] fire. The modern television industry has given us, inadvertently no doubt, a possible insight into how this may happen. 

The NBC-TV program, Revolution, a post-apocalyptic program (which I watch in spite of its gritty content) depicts a post-apocalyptic world after a nanotechnology experiment by the US government goes terribly wrong and electrical functions are knocked out all over the planet. The nano-devices have permeated the atmosphere and are everywhere. This fictional SciFi program did not elaborate on whether these nano-devices were spread throughout the atmosphere by chem-trails or some other means. However, one of the main characters has somehow developed the ability to harness the power of the nano-devices so he can spontaneously “combust” his enemies by merely thinking angry thoughts in their direction. They instantly turn into human torches who burn to death. Maybe that is the kind of death that John saw in his latter-day vision and tried to describe in Revelation 11:5. At any rate, Revelation 11:5 prophesies that anyone who seeks to harm the Two Witnesses will combust into fire and die. One thing is certain: this prophecy will either be fulfilled or it won’t. Based on the provable fact that God has literally fulfilled so many of his prophecies to date, I believe it will be fulfilled. To read in an-depth analysis of the biblical prophecies about the Two Witnesses (yes, there are more than one of them), I urge you to read my article by that name. When the Two Witnesses come on the scene, America’s (and everyone else’s) cultural wars will no longer be fought in media or court battles. It will be fought (and instantly won) wherever the Two Witnesses choose to fight it.