"Duck Dynasty" star Phil Robertson has reflected on his controversial comments about homosexuality four years ago and attributed the criticism he received to the work of the devil.
In December 2013, the Robertson family patriarch's discussion of the Bible as well as homosexuality with GQ magazine resulted in a suspension from A&E's "Duck Dynasty" for a period of time.
"I quoted a Bible verse, and you would've thought I was one of the meanest men on the face of the earth," Robertson said during a recent appearance on "The Joe Pags Show." "[You've got to hear] the bad news that we're all sinners and we've got a 6-foot hole waiting on us before you can appreciate the good news of Jesus removing our sins and raising us from the dead."
"So, bad news first, but with that particular thing, I never got past the bad news," he added.
The comment that sparked controversy, and earned the Duck dad his suspension, was an answer to the question, "What, in your mind, is sinful?" To which Robertson said: "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."
To make his point, Robertson quoted 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."
When asked why anyone would want a moral-less, value-less society, Robertson told The Joe Pags Show that there are two groups today: "On one side, you've got Romans 1, the ones who don't think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, God gives them over, and the list is rather long," he said. "If you just look around the landscape, we're seeing more and more of it. Mass shootings, thugary, drugs. It's just ongoing."
On the other side, you see people who are "loving, they have joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control."
"You gotta remember, two forces are behind both of the groups. You have God and His work through His Spirit in one group, and you have the Evil One, who works in people to do what he wants done. So, that's why you see these two opposing groups," he said. "That's where you see murder and lies, the Evil One is there."
Robertson warned that moral decay will continue to occur in the United States unless the country returns to God.
"Our founding fathers, they warned us repeatedly, when you forget God, tyrants forge your chains," said Robertson, paraphrasing a quote from Patrick Henry. "We're there, my man."
The "Duck Commander" noted that change in American society started in the 1950s and continued into the next decade.
The hippies "migrated and they became your judges, they migrated into the institutions of higher learning and to your government and to your news media and to Hollywood," he said. "They're still espousing that God is dead, and they ran him out of the courthouses, the schools, and now we are paying the price.
He concluded: "You forget God and the trouble starts, every empire that's fallen, that pretty well was their problem."
