In a recent interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, "Duck Dynasty" patriarch Phil Robertson explained why he believes many Americans dislike him. He, too, once hated people who preached the Gospel message of repentance and salvation - in fact, the last thing he wanted to hear was somebody preaching the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. "Repent? ... I saw a preacher coming, I headed the other way ... I hated people like me," says Robertson.
The "Duck Dynasty" star made headlines last December when his comments in an interview with GQ Magazine went viral. The patriarch was asked whether he believed that homosexual practice was a sin, and his conservative Biblical beliefs enraged many throughout America.
"When Jesus came to the earth, Sean, He never made a mistake ... not one mistake, and He would convict people of their sin," Robertson explains - "And He said ... 'They hated Me without reason,' and then He told all of us, 'Like they hated Me, they will hate you also ... when they exclude you, when they insult you, and when they reject your name as evil because of Me,' Jesus said, 'Rejoice. Be happy. Because great is your reward in heaven.'"
Robertson says he didn't really mind it when A&E later suspended him from "Duck Dynasty" because of his comments. "Always remember this: television, fame, money ... fame cannot remove your sin, and all the money you ever amass cannot raise you from the dead," he told Hannity - "Contrary to what Obama has said about Obamacare ... it's not going to keep you out of the ground, dude. And not only that, you're going to spend a lot of money to have it. What I'm giving to the American people is eternal health care and it's free. Give me a break!"
Robertson encourages Christians to preach the Gospel rather than focus on a particular sin, as if it were unforgiveable. "We're all sinners. America, here's a news flash: all of us have sinned, every single one of us. Some people want to zero in on specific sexual sins. Look, it's all sin. Whether you lie, whether you steal, whether you rob, whether you rape ... it's just all sin. One little white lie does you in as fast as being sexually immoral," he says.
But there is good news - Christ died on the cross to pay for our every sin, and offers forgiveness in His name (see Luke 24:46-47, Acts 10:36-43, and Acts 4:11-12). "When I was 28, I had to cough up my sins ... I had to come to a reckoning with the God of creation and the One Who made me ... coughing up my sin was not fun. I was immoral, I got drunk, I got high," says Robertson of his own testimony.
The patriarch has recently released "unPHILtered: The Way I See It," to help further clarify some of his beliefs.
