On Thursday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said those who believe in freedom of speech and religious freedom should be “dismayed” over the indefinite suspension of Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson for what were deemed “anti-gay” remarks.
Cruz said, “the reason that so many Americans love Duck Dynasty is because it represents the America usually ignored or mocked by liberal elites: a family that loves and cares for each other, believes in God, and speaks openly about their faith.”
“If you believe in free speech or religious liberty, you should be deeply dismayed over the treatment of Phil Robertson,” Cruz wrote on his Facebook page. “Phil expressed his personal views and his own religious faith; for that, he was suspended from his job. In a free society, anyone is free to disagree with him–but the mainstream media should not behave as the thought police censoring the views with which they disagree.”
Cruz also said that “PC enforcers often forget” that “tolerance is a two-way street. Here’s what Phil himself had to say about accepting and loving everybody”:
I myself am a product of the 60s; I centered my life around sex, drugs and rock and roll until I hit rock bottom and accepted Jesus as my Savior. My mission today is to go forth and tell people about why I follow Christ and also what the bible teaches, and part of that teaching is that women and men are meant to be together. However, I would never treat anyone with disrespect just because they are different from me. We are all created by the Almighty and like Him, I love all of humanity. We would all be better off if we loved God and loved each other.
On Wednesday, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin emphatically said Robertson’s suspension was an attack on free speech, which she said was “an endangered species.”
“Those ‘intolerants’ hatin’ and taking on the Duck Dynasty patriarch for voicing his personal opinion are taking on all of us,” Palin wrote.
As Breitbart News Editor-at-Large John Nolte wrote, Robertson was explicitly “talking about homosexual sexual behavior, not homosexuals as human beings. That is all the difference in the world.”
“It is quite obvious that Robertson is only guilty of being anti-sin, not anti-gay,” Nolte wrote on Breitbart.com. “You might disagree with Robertson, and you might not like what he or the Christian Bible have to say, but Robertson was as anti-gay as he was anti-heterosexual, and that is the very opposite of bigotry.” Robertson’s full remarks as recorded by GQ were:
Everything is blurred on what’s right and what’s wrong… Sin becomes fine. Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men.” Robertson then paraphrased Corinthians from the Bible: “Don’t be deceived. Neither the adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers–they won’t inherit the kingdom of God. Don’t deceive yourself. It’s not right.”
And if that wasn’t explicit enough, the “Duck Commander” added: “It seems like, to me, a vagina–as a man–would be more desirable than a man’s anus. That’s just me. I’m just thinking: There’s more there! She’s got more to offer. I mean, come on, dudes! You know what I’m saying? But hey, sin: It’s not logical, my man. It’s just not logical.
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