A lot of my fellow Christians are upset that A&E has suspended Phil Robertson from Duck Dynasty after telling a GQ reporter that he thinks homosexuality is a sin.  They say it is an injustice that a person can be taken off the air “just for making a biblical position,” and that A&E should support Robertson’s right to free speech.

 

To my fellow Christians: shut up.  Phil Robertson’s suspension from “Duck Dynasty” is not the cause celebre you want to champion.  Here’s why:

 

1. It’s not a free speech issue.  You cannot say A&E is trumping Robertson’s free speech when it censors him.  The First Amendment right to free speech guarantees no laws will restrict someone’s ability to say what they think.  It does not apply to media outlets like A&E, which are free to air whatever opinions they choose.

 

When you say A&E should respect Robertson’s free speech, you open yourselves up to a host of problems.  Would you say that the next Billy Graham special should include a lecture from the Metropolitan Community Church about why we should not condemn gays?  No?  Then stop complaining about A&E’s freedom to censor whatever opinions it wants.

 

If you really want to champion free speech, you should celebrate GQ for posting the interview.  Hold up GQ for being a moral publication that stands rightly on the side of conservative Christian values.  Are you willing to do that?  No?  Then shut up.

 

2. Robertson equated homosexuality with beastiality.  It’s one thing to say that Robertson was suspended because he cited a biblical position about homosexuality.  But that’s not all he did.  He also suggested homosexuality was like beastiality.

 

Christians like to equate all sin, as if all sin is equal across the board.  Murder is as sinful as lust and lying.  So if you believe homosexuality is a sin, then clearly it is as bad as other “minor” sins as jealousy.  So when Robertson was asked what else is sinful like homosexuality, he could have said lying.  He could have said lust.  He could have said jealousy.  But he said beastiality.

 

Let’s be clear: you can hate homosexuality all you want (thanks to the First Amendment: see above), but it is ignorant to lump all behaviors you think are sexually deviant into one pile.  Homosexual sex is not the same thing as sex with animals.  For the record, it’s also not at all like pedophilia, necrophilia, or sex with people dressed as college football mascots.

 

Are you willing to tell your homosexual neighbor that gay sex is like sex with animals?  No?  Then shut up.

 

3. Robertson said blacks were happier under segregation.  Christians seem to think the only reason Robertson was suspended was because of his beliefs about homosexuality.  That’s easy to believe: GLAAD did release a public statement condemning his remarks, and A&E’s statement specifically addressed its commitment to its homosexual viewers.

 

But if Robertson said nothing about homosexuality in the GQ interview, he still probably would have been suspended for saying that blacks were happier under segregation.

 

Are you willing to tell your black friends to stop complaining about systemic racism and just happily embrace it as they did in the 1950s?  No?  Then shut up!

 

There’s plenty of injustices in the world for us Christians to fight.  Robertson’s suspension shouldn’t be one of them.

In a segment on Fox News about the ethnicity of Santa Claus, Megyn Kelly says Santa “is just white,” just like Jesus.  Viewers call her out for her ignorance at the very least, and her racism at the very most.  She responds that she was “joking,” and that her critics are “race-baiting.”

 

Journalists sometimes report false information.  They sometimes say indefensible things.  There’s no excuse for it, but it happens.  When it does, journalists admit fault and correct the record.  They may even apologize if the situation warrants.  To protect the integrity of the paper of station they work for, journalists may be fired or put on leave.

 

What journalists do not do, though, is excuse their reporting as “joking.”  There is no place for “joking” in news.  Journalists also do not criticize their readers for pointing out a journalist’s failures.  If a journalist is wrong, she only has herself to blame.

 

Alec Baldwin lost his show on MSNBC this year after engaging in behavior unbecoming of a host of a news show.  So did Martin Bashir.  Lara Logan is on a leave of absence from 60 Minutes after producing a flawed report on Benghazi.  Meanwhile, Bill O’Reilly assigns producers to harass his critics, John Stossel produces a highly questionable report alleging the homeless are scamming Americans, and Fox and Friends manufactures a fake social crisis each year by reporting on a nonexistent “War on Christmas.”

 

What does it take to get fired from Fox News?