duck phil

I don’t know much about Phil Robertson or Duck Dynasty, the television show his family hosts on the A&E network, but the comments Robertson made in a recent interview with GQ magazine disgust me. When asked by GQ writer Drew Magary, “What, in your mind, is sinful?” Robertson answered, “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,” he says. Then he paraphrases Corinthians: “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.”

I’m one of the homosexual offenders Robertson refers to.  I’m also an animal lover.  But to claim that homosexuality morphs out to bestiality – sexual feelings or behavior involving animals - is absurd.  The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) lists zoophilia (bestiality) as an uncommon paraphilic disorder.  The American Psychiatric Association’s Board of Trustees removed homosexuality from the DSM in 1973.

In response to A&E’s decision to suspend Robertson over these comments, his family has said that, while some of Phil’s unfiltered comments to Magary were coarse, “his beliefs are grounded in the teachings of the Bible”.  I’ll have to take their word for that.  I don’t read fiction, so I’m not too well versed on the contents of the Bible.  And I think the First Amendment allows me to say that.