Duck!

That can be an indicative noun, like, "Look, a duck!" or it can be an imperative verb, meaning, well, "Duck!" because something's flying at your head.

If you haven't been all Hobbit-like spending your time in a hole in the ground you'll know that the Arts & Entertainment Network (A&E) suspended Phil Robertson from his own show, Duck Dynasty because he offered some unpopular opinions about sin in an interview with GQ Magazine. Well, not really "offered." He was asked, and he answered. And most of his answer was a simple paraphrase of the Apostle Paul.

Obviously he was suspended because, well, Hollywood simply cannot have actors holding unpopular opinions. This was a lesson they learned way back in the 1950s when they were avid supporters of blacklisting actors with reported Communist sympathies... oh wait. I might be screwing that up.

At any rate, there is plenty of great and insightful commentary on this brouhaha on the Internet and much of it I can hardly improve. I'd recommend Al Mohler, my friend Christian Cryder, Ardel Caneday, and oh, lots of others. Rod Dreher always has very thoughtful commentary on this sort of thing. (Not all of this commentary is uncritical of Robertson, by the way.)

I want to simply point out one thing that way too many people forget:

All the outrage is phony.

All of it. Every single ounce of it.

I knew it within about 5 seconds of reading the initial story. I knew it because within mere moments they were quoting the Human Rights Campaign and GLAAD.

Let me be as clear as possible: Nobody, and I do mean nobody, (as in, not a living, sentient person on this planet) was grieved, hurt, or offended by what a 67-year-old preacher from the backwoods of Louisiana who happens to have the most popular cable television show in history said about sin and homosexuality. 

A disproportionately influential group of people in the Gay Lobby pretended to be offended. That is a massively important thing to get into your head. These people know what Phil Robertson and hundreds of millions of Christians think about their lifestyle. They are not shocked (If their "SHOCKED, I tell you!" rhetoric doesn't make your eyes roll, you are one gullible person) one bit. They aren't sad, disappointed, offended, or otherwise disturbed. They are not crying in their pillows, people. They were utterly delighted, not offended.

Because this was an opportunity to shake-down a major corporation and continue to effectively place criticism of their lifestyle choices outside the pale of public discourse. They do this by outrageous shame campaigns. And it works. All the time.

This is how these things never go: a guy like Phil Robertson says something "offensive" on a TV show, and millions of aggrieved viewers call the network to express their disapproval. In that case, you might have actual victims. Real people, lots of them, upset at a network, prompting an apology or a firing or whatnot.

No, that's not the way this goes. A group in the homosexual lobby scours the media looking for things they can instrumentally use for their pure ideological cultural and political agenda. They find it, and they frame it as an issue of someone "offending" the masses.

Except nobody in the masses was offended. Not one. At least not initially. After being told they should be offended, maybe they complied, but if they want to take their cues from elite masters, that's their problem.

It is sad and frankly pathetic to see a network like A&E cave to such craven (and utterly empty!) posturing. But that's where we are.

So if you're a Christian and believe what the Bible says about sexual ethics, you may want to practice ducking. Because there's going to be a lot of faux outrage flying around.