It'll be interesting to see where Phil Robertson goes from here, now that the Duck Dynasty patriarch has been redeemed --- by A & E at least. Will he just shut up and get on with entertaining fans, or will he take to the road as America's new best Christian? Time will tell.
The interesting stuff about the whole brouhaha was not what Robertson said about gay and black people --- you'd expect that from someone who lives in the South and attends a fundamentalist Christian church.
The fun part was watching the massive boil-over of that big pot into which conservative Christianity --- now largely political --- homophobia and racism have been combined in toxic stew. And calculating how long it was going to be before A & E caved, proving that bigots are officially a demographic to be catered to.
Most likely we all learned a few things about Facebook friends, too.
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Had A & E had its thinking cap on, it would have just suspended Robertson for a specific period --- two weeks maybe --- demanded a little sensitivity training and been done with it.
That's what Colorado State University did the other day when defensive line coach Greg Lupfer called Washington State quarterback Connor Halliday a "faggot" after Halliday threw a first-quarter touchdown pass in the New Mexico Bowl. Lupfer actually was lucky to keep his job.
In case you've not noticed, the tolerance level for explicit homophobia is very low these days in college and professional athletics, unlike churches.
That lends some credence to the Sunday morning excuse not to attend services --- got to rest up for afternoon football when at the least you can expect to be spared the spectacle of grown men consigning each other to hell.
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And how about Utah, seat of the LDS church, where gay couples now are marrying at a rapid pace after a Dec. 20 district court ruling found the state's ban on same-sex unions unconstitutional?
The church was a major player some years ago when Californians passed Proposition 8, banning same-sex marriage, a prohibition just confirmed as unconstitutional, too, during 2013.
The current situation could be interpreted as divine retribution --- but I wouldn't want to distress my Christian friends by suggesting that God hears LGBT prayers.
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