George Graham

Duck Dynasty’s America

thsister simone

The choice of speakers for the Republican Party’s Leadership Conference provides a frightening insight into the kind of America they offer. It certainly is not my America, and I don’t think it’s your America. It’s Phil Robertson’s America.

Robertson was among the keynote speakers at the event. You know, the guy with the flowing beard (top photo), the one who equates Christianity with bigotry and primitive behavior, the Duck Dynasty patriarch.

Yes, he’s the guy who  gave that controversial magazine interview, branding homosexuality a sin,and saying he never saw the mistreatment of any black person while he was growing up in Louisiana.

You’re not a Duck Dynasty fan, of course. Nobody who reads my blogs would regularly watch that kind of simple-minded junk.

But millions of Americans do. And many of them share the raw prejudice and sanctimonious stupidity the show peddles. It’s what they interpret Christ’s message to be. It’s what they think God finds pleasing.

And that’s what makes it so foul – the masking of ignorance and bigotry as godliness.

Robertson told the Republican leaders:

You want to turn the Republican party around, get godly.

And I would never argue with that. But his idea of godliness is much different from mine. His god hates homosexuals and looks down on non-white people. That’s a lot different from my God. And I would argue it’s a lot different from the God that was manifested in Jesus Christ.

To me, Christianity is not reflected in Duck Dynasty (far from it!) but in the pilgrimage by the Nuns on the Bus.

You might remember the nuns. They toured America in 2012, visiting soup kitchens, homeless shelters and congressional offices, highlighting the social service work of other nuns and protesting the brutally anti-poor House Republican budget.

Sister Simone Campbell, the group’s leader (lower photo), had a less sanctimonious message than Robertson. But it was far more sensible. She said Americans from the poorest to the richest must work together to address America’s income disparity because it endangers the society in which we all live.

And I think that’s far closer to the reality of godliness than the breast-beating proclamations of clowns like Phil Robertson.

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About the author

gwgraeme

I am a Jamaican-born writer who has lived and worked in Canada and the United States. I live in Lakeland, Florida with my wife, Sandra, our three cats and two dogs. I like to play golf and enjoy our garden, even though it's a lot of work. Since retiring from newspaper reporting I've written a few books. I also write a monthly column for Jamaicans.com