Something to Think About Before Getting Angry at A&E
I don’t enjoy much of what’s on TV. I watch the Cowboys about sixteen times a season (I’m not exactly sure how much I enjoy that), and that’s nearly half of the TV time I put in for an entire year. I’ve never had cable in my home. (I’m not counting Netflix.)
But I do know that there’s a show about bearded guys called Duck Dynasty and that they’ve managed to be the most popular cable show in the history of TV. I can’t avoid reading that in the news. And I certainly can’t avoid hearing about one of the actors from the show getting canned for saying homosexuality makes no sense to him because he likes vaginas more than anuses. His crass (but honest) words offended enough people that A&E decided to part ways with him.
I haven’t watched A&E since the Colombo marathons of my childhood at my grandparent’s house, but I’m not surprised that, like every other station, they’ve learned that “reality” TV (filming scripted shows with cheap equipment and little rehearsal) is more profitable than older forms of entertainment. People latch on to those characters and connect with them in a deep way, so firing a show’s star can be taken very personally by the fans. It feels, to them, like it happened to a friend or a real person instead of an actor who is independently wealthy.
But all of us would do the same thing to an employee. Imagine if you paid someone to work for you and found them saying offensive things to customers. If you are a Christian, imagine running a faith-based television station; would you want someone to work for you if they publicly promoted atheism? Christians already do this sort of thing when they do business exclusively with other Believers. There are towns where your business will tank of the locals find out that you don’t go to church – how is that different from A&E firing Phil Robertson over a philosophical disagreement? A lot of people in the business world can tell you stories about missing out on a sale only because they didn’t go to the same church as the potential customer.
You might think it’s tacky for A&E to do this, but it’s no different than the decisions we make all the time to fraternize with people who are similar to us. If this sort of thing makes you upset, I recommend you start your own TV station and hire Robertson to be on a new reality show. It would probably be a hit, and if one of your actors promoted Baal worship you could fire them.
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Very well said. I recently made the Duck Dynasty bunch “Dandler of the Month” for my blog on the spiritual life – http://www.dandleblog.com/2013/12/dandler-of-month-duck-dynasty.html – This was before all the hubbub about Phil’s rather tactless approach but, as you said, honest approach. I still think they’re all amazing christians who do not bend, and in their simplicity, perhaps their mouth will get them into needless trouble (wisdom with words in approaching unbelievers can get you far more bees with honey…if u get what I’m saying), they worship the Lord with all their heart. But you bring up a good point about A&E, too – the channel has a right to do what it pleases. Maybe enough fan backlash will make them reconsider and they’ll want to make some more money on the family. In the end, this is more of a problem for America and what it says about our society, not for Phil Robertson or his family. I would bet my life on the fact that they have more money than they know what to do with, and they will not lose one wink of sleep over being canceled. They’ve had a good run. God squeezed out as much good out of the experience as He deemed fit. Now Phil can go back to preaching, duck hunting, and loving his family without the annoying presence of the camera. No one shed a tear for Phil. I know I won’t.
Yes. Thanks, Adam. I also found this post, “Gay Christians and the Robertson Controversy” from my good friend immensely helpful: http://spiritualfriendship.org/2013/12/20/gay-christians-and-the-robertson-controversy/
PS. What is it with conservative christian celebs named Robertson?
Adam,
I don’t disagree that A&E is perfectly welcome to do what they did. However, I think you miss a very important point. I think A&E has completely lost site of the fact that (I would wager) a majority of their customers agree with Phil.
You make the analogy that A Christian business owner would fire an employee if they regularly and flagrantly promoted atheism to the Christian clients. But, what if the biggest client that company had was an atheist, and it turns out that he was doing business with the otherwise Christian company because of the relationship with the flagrantly atheistic employee. Sure, the business owner could fire that employee, but in doing so he would be alienated his biggest client.
That’s exactly what A&E has done. Their success over the last few years is due almost exclusively to Duck Dynasty and the conservative viewers that have “flocked” to it. For the sake of their business model, aren’t they better off tolerating their vociferous employee who brings in the cash? Surely they’ve just shot themselves in the foot?
I agree with what you’re saying here, but I think there’s more to it all than just this. Which is why I also agree with Anonymous. I’ve only ever watched one episode (just the other day, before I’d heard about this “scandal”). But my impression is that the reason this show was popular was because so many conservative Christians in the deep south resonated with the family. At least, this is how my sister who just moved to Kentucky explained it to me. (Before speaking with her, I thought the show’s popularity was because people enjoyed a good laugh at these strange, “backwoods” people! Apparently I was wrong about that.)
Either way, if the purpose of the show is to see how their actual lives are, it seems sort of silly to cancel them the second they express an opinion that you don’t like. Wasn’t that why you wanted this peek into their lives in the first place?
It’s also worth noting that Robertson didn’t say this stuff on the show, he said it in an interview with GQ. If you owned a store and had hired an employee because his views resonated with your community and then he said something to someone outside your store (which still resonated with your community, but not with a different community), would you fire him for opening his mouth?
Because that’s more like what A&E has done here…
Alanna, I think you and Annon make a good point. You’re probably right that it isn’t “smart business” for A&E to alienate their target audience. I guess it just depends on what their larger goals are. It’s bad for them no matter what. That R made his crass comments off the show is beside the point, however. When you work for a network like A&E, you represent them to some extent wherever you go, especially in interviews. In fact, it’s likely in his contract.
At any rate, it seems we all agree that the way in which the Christian community is passionately rallying around not just his right to say what he said, but what he actually said and how he said it too, is immensely disturbing. We value “speaking your mind” more than we do discernment.