So I have succumbed to the Phil Robertson controversy. I have told myself I wouldn't talk about it or even think about it, but with the influx of status updates, blog posts, tweets, and news articles, I couldn't resist reading them which in turn influenced my thought life to the point I now feel like I have to write something (whether or not people read it) just so I can clear out the garbage and move on to something else.
Sometimes I think why was Phil so uncensored about what he said? Surely he knows how the media and entertainment industry can edit video and conversation. I mean, he is a main character in the most watched reality TV show in history. You know, they say he's not stupid, so wouldn't he have considered what a journalist could do with the words he says? Maybe Phil doesn't care. Perhaps to Phil it was more important to get the word out about what he determines the Bible says is sin than was the perspective of editing his opinions in the face of a reporter so he could keep a safe perspective that wouldn't cost him anything. Nah, that's giving too much brain credit to the creator of a multi-million dollar business. I reckon he gave the reporter the benefit of the doubt, and trusted him to accurately portray him, his values, and the context of how he was stating his opinons. I mean, that's probably what I would do if I were a Christian who cared more about my belief than my job. Hmm, let me think: "say things that reflect the way Jesus lived and the principles he stood up for (the only man to have historically died and risen from the grave) or play shy to the camera so I can keep a job that pays me with a material with no more value than what fallible, finite people claim it has?" I may just side with Phil should I take my faith as seriously as he appears to.
Next I like to imagine I'm in position with authority to suspend Phil's contract indefinitely. The report has just come to me in an email that one of my employees made some so called 'racial' and offensive remarks to certain spectrums of people groups. I think to myself, "this may blow up all over the news and we're going to be held accountable to this man's remarks. Do we want to apologize yet tolerate his views or do we want to show him this was unprofessional to our viewership and suspend him as an act of disciplining him for his actions?" I probably should seek the counsel of my coworkers/management team and see what we can rule. *A few hours later* "Good golly this is blowed out of proportion! Everybody and their mother is talking about our actions as much as his. I hope we made the right decision even if it will cost us a few thousand loyal viewers. We can't take back what we've done now. Ha, kind of ironic now don't you think? We seem to have dealt in equally controversial blow as the man we judged. Karma at it's best I guess. Let's just hope this cools down and the viewership returns when the next season premieres in Febuary..."
There's no point in pretending I'm the third group (the public) you've read the Facebook status' and the blog posts. By now you've chosen the ranks of being a A&E representative, a LGBT supporter, a Phil Robertson activist, or somebody who claims each person/group had the right to do exactly what they did, ie: it's life and the consequences that come with it so let's just get on with it and stop making such a big deal out of everything. You could even be one of those people who toss out numbers and other facts about what is going on in the world that is more important (either hoping for somebody to read and have their eyes opened to the fact that children are dying of malnutrition, people are being trafficked for sex, and how many people are dying from war and violence, or you are secretly wanted to validate your intellect for knowing all those facts and somehow being more grounded to reality than the rest of us who concern ourselves with the A&E/Phil Robertson controversy).
Whatever the case, the truth is, you've heard about Phil Robertson and how he disapproves of homosexuality. You have your opinions and you either stated them or have thought them quietly to yourself. Those are very good things. Thinking for yourself is important and necessary in life. Now you've come to the point in my blog where I've stopped entertaining/frustrating you and I get to share my opinion. I get to influence your next thoughts. Are you ready? Can you handle it? Are you grounded in reality well enough?
Here it is: I simply will not share what I think in written format. I know, you've come all this way and I just disappointed you, but you do you want to know why I won't share my thoughts? It's not because I don't want to say anything incriminating, it's because I once had a driving instructor who taught me a very important lesson in life (yes how to drive don't be ridiculous). He taught me how to juggle. No, I'm not kidding. Because I was homeschooled he would pick me up before the public school kids got out and have me drive to the high school. Once there he would teach me how to juggle while we waited for school to let out (either his timing was off or I had a heavy foot, because we got there early every day for a week). One day after teaching me the principles of juggling and many tricks, he told me he had a vision of teaching 500 people how to juggle and he entertained the idea that each of those people would teach their own 500. Eventually those numbers would spread drastically and millions of people would know how to juggle just because each student became a teacher. I don't recall if I made a commitment to him openly, but I did in my mind that I would continue his discipling of learning how to juggle.
From that day on, anybody who has ever asked I have tried to teach them to juggle. I have done this in my hometown in Virginia, to a city in Illinois, and even as far as Mexico. The interesting thing about teaching someone how to juggle is I can't do it over written words. I have to show you physically and then watch you try and your physical form. If I see a flaw in your technique I can correct you in person as opposed to the complexity of trying to explain how you are doing it wrong in written format.
So as far as my thoughts for the Phil Robertson controversy go, I wish social media didn't exist because even if the 'right' thoughts are posted about how Christians should respond, so many more were posted that were off that the wrong outweighs the good. I just wish we could go back into a time where things could be simpler and Jesus could disciple us face to face and we wouldn't have to argue about these sorts of things over a vastly connected network. That's why if you really care to know how I feel, you'll ask me in person. I'm going to bet that we can have a talk about this in a way that matters more, face to face, than if I wrote a detailed explanation of what is right and what is wrong on this blog post that you've spent twenty minutes reading.
So come padawan, let us go to the feet of Jesus who can teach us the truth about juggling and stop listening to the voices crying out from different directions about the glamorous way to juggle. I think we may just find that though we know how to juggle, our technique can be critiqued in such a way that it has yet to match the master.
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