'Duck Dynasty' star Phil Robertson on finding faith before fame: 'God speaks through his people'
Duck Dynasty' star Phil Robertson explains how he found faith before fame, gets candid on his new book, titled 'The Theft of America's Soul.'
In 2008, Rick Warren, the pastor of the California megachurch Saddleback, hosted the Civil Forum on the Presidency between the two presidential candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain. Later, Obama asked Warren to deliver the prayer at his inauguration.
Of course, many on the left side of the cultural spectrum attacked Obama’s choice of Warren to deliver the prayer. But Christians also went after Warren for his association with Obama’s inauguration.
PHIL ROBERTSON HAS 'NO REGRETS' OVER 'DUCK DYNASTY' CANCELLATION: ‘I QUOTED’ GOD
I’ll admit I’m not all that familiar with the optics of a move such as Warren made. But the way I figure it, even if Bubba asks me to pray at closing time at the local redneck juke joint, I’ll jump at the chance.
What better opportunity to go before the Father and proclaim his name in the presence of the people who need him more than they know? Perhaps the evangelical naysayers hadn’t considered the opportunity that Warren’s prayer in front of the nation presented before they attempted to cancel him.
Phil Robertson is a professional hunter who invented his own duck call and founded the successful Duck Commander Company. He also starred in the popular television series on A&E, "Duck Dynasty." He and his wife, Kay, live in West Monroe, Louisiana. He has five children, eighteen grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
Some evangelical Christians are pretty good at "canceling" others, but contrast how cancel culture tries to coerce folks to submit to an agenda with how mature believers are to spread their message: "Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others" (2 Corinthians 2:11).
In my younger days, my goal was to back people into a corner and intimidate them into baptism. I’m still very passionate about speaking the name of Jesus to people who are messed up in the same way I once was.
Now, however, I am more about persuading. I want to make an appeal that gives people an opportunity to change their minds about the direction of their lives.
I guess you could say I abandoned cancel culture tactics long before cancel culture became known as cancel culture.
See, it’s not just people in the world who publicly attack their opponents. A June 12, 2021, Washington Post article quoted several prominent church leaders who publicly blasted one another on a variety of issues. Publicly! Jesus followers ripping one another publicly to cancel the influence of the other.
I’m just an average man, but I am certain Christ is not glorified in this. Not even a little bit.
Of course, the ultimate attempt to cancel is seen in the orchestration of the murder of Christ. The chief priests and the Sanhedrin stirred up the hastily assembled crowd and paraded a slew of witnesses to bring a string of false accusations against the Lord.
There was no social media in the first century, but that didn’t prevent the cancel culture from doing its thing. It must have taken the Jewish leaders a couple of hours to assemble their crowd. Now it could be done almost instantaneously.
Make no mistake, intimidation and the fear of cancellation is a powerful strategy. The average American is walking on eggshells, trying to avoid breaking the cardinal rule of the cancel culture religion: Be kind! Don’t offend! Don’t judge! Tolerate!
Even though the rule is to be kind, loving, and nonjudgmental, it doesn’t always apply, because there is a hidden exception to the rule: you are permitted to be unloving, unkind, and judgmental if you are calling out someone you decide isn’t loving, kind, and nonjudgmental. Then you can hate and judge all you want.
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Some people may believe they are directed by God to share their opinion. But cancel culture is really about emotional manipulation that is designed to force people into submission. In the dangerous game of cancel culture, there are no winners.
While I detest the practices of cancel culture, as a follower of Christ, I have to be careful that I am not guilty of doing what they do. I don’t want to treat them the same way they treat me. I want to do things the way God has instructed me to do them:
Once we go down the road of calling others out in public, we are guilty of doing the same thing. Everyone winds up getting burned because everyone falls short—all of us are guilty of saying things we shouldn’t say or being insensitive to the feelings of others.
Today, I’m far more concerned about making sure I introduce God into my interaction with folks who practice cancel culture. Instead of political correctness, I’m all about biblical correctness.
While I detest the practices of cancel culture, as a follower of Christ, I have to be careful that I am not guilty of doing what they do. I don’t want to treat them the same way they treat me. I want to do things the way God has instructed me to do them:
"The Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will" (2 Tim. 2:24–28).
Rather than forcing people to submit to us by exercising raw power, let’s persuade people to embrace freedom from bondage.
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Other people may wage war with the intention of destroying others, but not us. "The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ" (2 Cor. 10:4–5).
Let’s fight using the weapons God has given, and fight with passion. Rather than killing people in the war that God has called us to fight, let’s be about freeing them from the lies that distort minds and destroy lives.
Adapted from UNCANCELED: FINDING MEANING AND PEACE IN A CULTURE OF ACCUSATIONS, SHAME, AND CONDEMNATION. Copyright © 2022 by Phil Robertson. Published by Thomas Nelson. Coming Feb. 8, 2022 wherever books are sold.