Now I'll Have to Start Watching Duck Dynasty?

Separation of Church and State, if the U.S. were to do such a thing then it wouldn'y be long before some Christians would start demanding that everyone become a Christian and in turn begin to persecute those who are not. It's happened before, and it will happen again if the U.S. declares Christianity to be the official religion.

And the separation of Church and State is one of the founding principles of why the U.S. was formed, to escape the religious persecution that was known in England and parts of Europe at the time.

Luke 9:3-5, Dayton. If we're not listening, walk away from it, and just live your life as an example of Christ. That passage gets you off the hook.
Plus, beating people over the head with a message of salvation isn't going to bring them any closer, it's going to drive them away from the sheer annoyance of the repetition, coupled with the behavior of the witness. In other words, Dayton, you're probably making things worse.

They may not go away, but at a minimum, it allows for the grown ups to continue their conversations and foster intelligent discussion. But then, there are the times where shit actually DOES work, as with Face--you'd never know that once upon a time he would rage rep war with various posters for MONTHS on end. But once people ignored him and his BS---he stopped. What a concept.

As for Dayton, everyone has seen this shit for a minimum of the past decade, and nothing will ever change him, short of a lobotomy. Why continue to shit up the board responding to every stupid thing he says?

Face didnt stop waging rep war.

The admins ruined rep.

A valid point John and one I had neglected. I probably should've done that at Spacebattles.com before they banned me.

I see Dayton is going for the approach of it being impossible to create a parody account of him if he becomes one himself first.

You think?

You may gain some respect by remembering that here. Just because the community places the board's ideals above getting rid of you doesn't mean you can't at least attempt to catch flies with honey rather than vinegar.

Because it's fun and cathartic? Because everyone needs a relatively harmless outlet for their aggression? Seriously... how many opportunities come about IRL where you can get away with telling someone to Die in a fire or suggest that they lovingly suckle the prolapsed anus of Epic Fail™? Responding to the stupid shit, whether it's genuine stupid, or mock stupid, is liberating. It's cleansing. It's a calling.

God Damned Faggots

A couple of times, yeah. Dayton OTOH has been this much of a tool for as long as many of us have known him--and some have known him for the better part of fifteen years. I can't say I won't call him out on something every now and then, but I don't come to this board to convince him that his life choices are the reason his life is the way it is. If the multiple sackings and bans from every other message board he's posted on other than here haven't convinced him of that, nothing will. And I see no point in dragging down every thread to get that through his brain cell.

1/10 points.

There really aren't any good trolls here anymore.

Definitely this to a certain extent. Withholding derision earned is often depressing and exhausting but has to be regularly done in meatspace. Honest expressions of well-earned contempt are downright relaxing. Having no need to look the other way or sugar coat things with "white" lies is a genuine relief.

Well Dayton, guess you'll have to start watching something else. A&E canned his ass...

I have to laugh at this last statement. Reality T.V stars are not role models.

Um....pretty much anytime. The only difference here is you can hide behind your keyboard where in person you face the possibility of getting your ass whipped.

Derp. Eliminating the possibility of getting one's ass kicked was pretty much what I meant by "getting away with" it. So thanks for essentially confirming my statement.

My wife watches it, and doesn't hunt or know shit about hunting other than hearing my excuses for why bowhunting is so hard. Thus I don't get the appeal of the show.
Guys made good duck calls, now they have a reality show. Sure they are a nice family, but not unlike millions of other families.

I do know they have their faces on clothing, furniture,, toys, etc. all over every store around here.

I was once FORCED to buy their camo face paint because I waited too long to stock up prior to bow season opening, and that's all the store had. It was CRAP! The shit melted off once the temperature got above 75, which means about ten minutes after legal morning shooting light here in Georgia in September. And it was FIVE TIMES more expensive than Walmart halloween face paint for the same size tube.

Honestly, I've never understood the appeal of reality T.V. IMO it's only stuck around this long because television producers are too lazy and cheap to hire good writers.

Yep.

Remember the talk show craze of the mid-90s? Everybody and their grandmother had one.

Now, everybody and their grandma has a reality show.

Reality shows are cheaper to produce, and require minimal effort. At the same time, they're wildly popular, which means little bit of investment results in huge profits, so reality TV will be around a long, long time, unfortunately. As for why Duck Dynasty is popular, they talk about God openly (take that, liberal elitist media!), and they ain't all about fancyin' up for nobody. In all seriousness, it's because people find them funny, and because they espouse "traditional, down home values." At least, that's why so many members of my family members say they like them. Well, I used the word "espouse."

Are you under the impression that ANY person in the United States suffers ANY misapprehension that many Traditionalists believe that homosexuality is sinful?

is this some closely guarded secret which you are obliged to blow the whistle on?

Look, as a general feeling I respect Robertson, there's a lot to respect about his life so far. I disagree with his view but take no serious issue with his right to believe it. I take no issue with his (or anyone's) right, when asked, to say "this is what i believe"

BUT

That said I have some issues with the finer details of the situation, both specific to this story and as general principles:

1. it is bad form to beat someone over the head with an unsolicited opinion on their sinfulness. Yes, Christians ought share their faith, but saying "I believe in God and I hope to show you why you should" is quite a different thing from saying "repent you dirty sinner"
2. when your view is solicited, if your intent is to stick to doctrine, you say "I happen to believe it's sin and I can explain why" but when you go beyond that ans start making slippery-slope "the sky is falling" comments. That's not doctrine, that's politics.
3. If you hold yourself up as a representative of Christ, as Phil does, it behooves you to be mindful of the impression you give. his remarks come across as callous and judgmental, which even if hes right is not the impression that advances his mission.

The reality is that whether or not you think his theology is correct, Robertson badly missteped in this and he is very much smart enough that he should have known better. The man is no fool.

He had to have seen this sort of thing happen before, and i don't think he's arrogant enough to think it couldn't happen to him.
He claims that the real value of the show is to give him a chance to testify to Christ, he has to know that mingling that message with moralizing is not going to expand his audience or reach the skeptical. A major part of the show's appeal was that these were nice, friendly, wholesome "Mayberry" folks and that's winsome even to folks who are not hard-core church going Christians. Now, he's polluted that image with a thread of - in the eyes of the unconvinced - mean-spirited judgmentalism. He's lost something in terms of his audience he can NEVER get back.

Right or wrong on the theology, he should have been wise enough to not comment on the issue at all and, if asked, say "look, I'm not here to list off sins, i'm here to talk about Jesus" - but he fucked up.

Which, might I add, is the fundamental weakness of the Traditionalist moralizer - they just can't bite their tongue. they cannot resist the temptation to point at others more sinful (in their view) than themselves and crow.and every time they do, they become less convincing to the skeptic.

^ Nailed it.

IIRC that's your stance on just about everything in life, isn't it? If someone else is winning, you must be losing?

Facebook observation from a Russian immigrant friend of mine:

"It appears America expects its TV rednecks to be authentic but politically correct."

Personally, i don't have a particularly negative view of anyone here, including Dayton. when a view is expressed that i have a disagreement with, I offer a rebuttal because debate is like crack to me - I love a great contest of ideas.

whether or not he's sincere in his views doesn't matter, he put the idea out there and it's the idea that matters to me, not the poster.

That's a dance. obviously a ho0mosexcual or a heterosexual are equally capable of abstaining. That's not this issue at hand or the thing being judged. The argument is that people do not have a free will choice of who they desire. Even for those who are gay because of some trauma in their childhood (and yes, i readily acknowlege a minority of gays are in that position) there desires are still not a matter of free-will choice.

Are you prepared to acknowledge that the desire is fine so long as one does not act upon it?

In a sense, I agree. it's wise to distinguish between discernment (having a rational, wise, thoughtful view of whether a thing is good or bad) and judgement (in the sense that a judge passes sentence). But wise discernment involves your own conduct and, when your counsel is specifically solicited by one seeking to benefit from your advice. One cannot discern for another.

Romans 14

He was Jesus. He was entitled.

that said, while he reserved the right unto himself to comment that her actions were sinful, he specifically said to the crowd it was NOT THEIR PLACE to do so. which is why the passage gets cited.

Aww, did they make fun of your shoes?

More and more as each day passes while I applaud the efforts of those who have a driving ambition to be an entertainer for thirty years and have a stellar resume, I have to wonder where the fact of an old codger somewhat set in his ways is offensive enough to some just by merely stating his personal beliefs finds himself chastised and beat down from the "big screen" of life we have made for ourselves.

It's like Dayton's bullshit back there about having to come up with a zero when dealing with the religious beliefs of everyone on the planet, that my friends is exactly how not to approach the concept of melding of beliefs to a homogenous mix, that shit is 16th century barbarism at it's finest and is one reason I have always called myself Cafeteria Catholic. There's a lot of things that are sold as a pathway that must be adhered to in order to make it before the creator, in effect, God. I have concluded from my path thus far that God and I will deal with my path when the time comes and frankly if I wander in the "woods" off the "path" I've found oddly enough there actually is another world in those woods that allow for self thought and expression. I like it in the woods. If when I do meet with God and there is a penalty for going through the woods then I will pay it but methinks it won't matter since I am there anyway.

Step ahead a few centuries with the rest of us.

Fucking organized religions just get so confrontational and barbaric, fuck that, the paths are many and to think that JC is the only path is pretty silly really when considering we're all just so very infinitesimal on the universal side of things, no?

Dayton once again pwns the collected idiots of Wrodforge, who start flailing and frothing at the mouth every time he expresses his opinion about gays. Dayton hasn't said anything that hasn't been said 1000 times before, but our resident self-righteous PC moralizers can't help but spaz out when someone doesn't follow their script.

I suspect A & E is going to find out that the audience for this show is comprised mostly of conservative Christians who aren't going to take kindly to the network taking it's marching orders from the Gay Mafia and punishing this man for expressing his opinion concerning sexual morality.