Cracking the [Sugar] Code

December 21, 2013 by Ruth 2 Comments

First of all, is it just me or, are all of your Facebook news feeds being blown up with this Duck Dynasty debacle?

Let me preface what I’m about to write with this:  I’ve never watched a single episode.  I’ve seen the advertisements for it and it looks like just another silly reality tv series and I don’t watch any of them.  Not one.  Having said that I’m given to understand that the premise of the show is the life of a family who have made a fortune making duck calls and other various and sundry duck hunting items.  Secondary to the plot is their family dynamics, chiefly their Christianity. My commentary here really has little to do with Duck Dynasty, The Robertsons, or A&E‘s handling of the controversial interview in GQ Magazine. No, rather it’s more about the reaction to that and others’ idea of what it means to be a Christian.

Before I go any further I will add the the original poster of the Facebook comments is white woman.  She is married to an African-American man with whom she has three children.  She clearly did not take offense to the rather racist undertones in the aforementioned interview. Clearly she is, as Phil Robertson is, completely unaware of her white privilege.  My family, like Phil Roberston’s obviously, grew up on the wrong side of the tracks, poor white trash.  I was raised by parents who lived in the same era of Jim Crow Laws,  who didn’t enjoy the same privilege as the rich white folk, but still enjoyed privilege just because they were white.  They got to use the white public toilet, the white public fountains, the white public swimming pool, they got to walk into restaurants, and sit in the front of the bus. They went the entirety of their school experience, with the exception of my mother’s senior year of high school, surrounded by whiteness. Things that are completely lost on my generation.

That aside, my “Christian” friend’s response reveals much about her.  It tells me her hatred of homosexuality trumps her identification with her African-American family.  Is her hatred of homosexuality rooted in what she terms ‘GOD’s WORD’?  Or does ‘GOD’s WORD’ just affirm her homophobia?  Which came first? The chicken or the egg?  This mentality that the Bible is literally God’s Word and that it is inerrant is pervasive in the community that I live in.  It causes an awful lot of people to behave in the most hateful ways, cloak it in scripture, and call it love.  It’s only loving to tell people that they are dirty sinners in need of redemption or they’re going to hell, isn’t it?

It’s perfectly clear that this person believes she is living a life worthy of being one of the ‘few who enters her God’s kingdom’.  HER god’s kingdom.  Her GOD’s KINGDOM.  Only a few are getting in and if you are gay or lesbian you ain’t one of ’em, but she is.  Oh, and you progressive Christians ain’t either according to her, but she is.  She still loves ya.  She’ll wave and smile at you in hell from her seat in heaven. Oh, the hypocrisy. Oh, the ignorance.