Shepherds, Wolves, Phil & Jesse

When an entire country finds itself caught up in a controversy of Biblical proportions, where does it turn for truth?  The airwaves and print media have been abuzz for a week since the A&E Network censured its biggest star, Phil Robertson.  It seems Phil had some "coarse and earthy" words which offended GLAAD (the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) who pressured the network to take this position.  When all else fails, we might turn to an old Baptist preacher from the Bible Belt to rightly divide the Word of Truth.  Before we do, let's look at some scripture ourselves.

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge

the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom:  preach

the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and

exhort, with complete patience and teaching.  For the time is coming

when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears

they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,

and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

   2 Timothy 4.1-4, ESV

Any Baptist preacher worth his salt will be familiar with these worlds.   So what might a 72 year-old Baptist preacher born in the shadows of the ultraconservative Bob Jones University have to say about the controversy brewing over Phil Robertson's recent comments.  I suppose we ought to start with the comments themselves.

Though I’ve never watched a single episode of Duck Dynasty, I have it on good authority from trusted friends that the reality show Robertson family conveys the persona of Christians whose faith rests squarely on the Bible.  The patriarch of that family, Phil Robertson, was recently quoted thus in an article published by GQ Magazine:

PHIL ROBERTSON:  “…the Robertson family really believes strongly that if the human race loved each other and they loved God, we would just be better off. We ought to just be repentant, turn to God, and let’s get on with it, and everything will turn around.”

. . .

GQ:  What, in your mind, is sinful?

PHIL ROBERTSON:  “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.”

Whoa!  Those are some pretty pointed words, Phil!  Maybe we could digest them better if we just broke them apart a bit.

…if the human race loved each other and they loved God, we would just be better off.  

Well, actually, we can find that in Mark’s gospel, chapter 12, verses 30-31:

      Jesus answered "...you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, 
      with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This 
      is the first commandment.  And the second, like it, is this:  You shall love
      your neighbor as yourself.  

Appears to me that Phil was simply quoting the Bible and stating his faith in the same.  Maybe it was something else that caused the controversy.  It must have been the next statement:

We ought to just be repentant, turn to God, and let’s get on with it, and everything will turn around.”

If I’m not mistaken, I’ve heard this elsewhere:

      He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses
      and forsakes them will have mercy.  (Prov 28.13)

      For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life in 
      Jesus Christ our Lord.  (Rom 6.23)

Again, we have to cut Phil a little slack.  He seems to be taking his stuff from the Holy Scripture.

Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there.  Beastiality…

Do we hear an echo of Romans 1.27-28:

       Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, 
       burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing
       what is shameful...And even as they did not like to retain God
       in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind.

Or Leviticus 18.23:

      And you shall not lie with any animal and so make yourself unclean
     with it, neither shall any woman give herself to an animal to lie with
      it:  it is perversion.

Hmm.  I think I see a pattern here.  Let’s be thorough, though. 

…sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men…

               Thou shalt not commit adultery.  (Exo 20.14)

And to the woman caught in the act of adultery, Jesus said,

               Go, and sin no more.  (John 8.11)

And then Phil was quoted paraphrasing 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.

My Bible puts it this way:

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor 

homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor

revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Cor 6.9-10, NKJV)

We’ve got one last line to perhaps catch Phil hate-mongering, and it’s this one:

Don’t deceive yourself. It’s not right.

Consider Galatians 6.7 and Isaiah 40.8:

               Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man sows,
               that will he also reap.  

               The grass withers, the flower fades; but God’s word stands forever.

Jesus reiterated the above by saying:

               …Until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God's

 law will disappear until its purpose is achieved.  (Matt 5.18)

If you’re still with me you see that the words of controversy were simply words straight from the Bible from a man who knows his Bible better than most and to a media and nation who, largely, don't know it at all.  

So maybe that old Baptist preacher from the Bible Belt can underscore what we’ve already learned.  Enter the Rev. Jesse Jackson, born in Greenville, SC in 1941.

REV. JESSE JACKSON:  “These statements uttered by Robertson are more offensive than the bus driver in Montgomery, Alabama, more than 59 years ago,” Jackson said in a statement. “At least the bus driver, who ordered Rosa Parks to surrender her seat to a white person, was following state law. Robertson’s statements were uttered freely and openly without cover of the law, within a context of what he seemed to believe was ‘white privilege.’”

So let’s get this straight, Jesse.  You’re saying God’s word is more offensive than the bus driver who refused Rosa Parks a front row seat.  You’re saying Roberston said these words without the cover of law.  You’re saying that his only context was “white privilege”.

Then, Mr. Jackson (pardon me for dropping the “Rev.”), the Bible which you have claimed to have preached is more offensive than a heinous civil rights violation.  The Bible has no authority as the Law of God.  The Bible is for white people.

And to all this, I say:

        For the time has now come when people do not endure sound teaching, 
        but having itching ears they have sought out teachers for themselves, to
        suit their own passions, and have turned away from listening to the truth
        and wander off into political correctness and personal and corporate       
        profitability.  (emphasis, mine)

It seems Mr. Jackson has found some ears that need scratching and has chosen to scratch them with a disemboweled Word of God.  Quickly though, before you edit it any further, Mr. Jackson, consider some words of Holy Scripture.  For it was Holy Scripture which you enrolled to study in your Master of Divinity program at Chicago Theological School.   Had you graduated rather than received your degree for “life credit” when your son was on the school’s Board of Directors 40 years after you dropped out, you may have known these words: 

Weep and moan, you evil shepherds! Roll in the dust, you leaders of the

flock! … you will fall and shatter like  a fragile vase.  (Jer 25.34, NLT)

…vicious wolves, will come in among you after I leave, not sparing the

flock.  Even some men from your own group will rise up and distort the

truth in order to draw a following.  (Acts 20.29-30, NLT)

God’s “Reverends” are shepherds, not wolves.  Man’s “reverends” can say whatever is profitable.

For now.