Duck Dynasty and A&E

The big news right now is that A&E suspended one of the cast members of "Duck Dynasty" for his comments about not agreeing with homosexuality.  As a conservative Christian, he cites the Bible as his reason for disagreeing.  I can not find a single place in the quote where he says anything directly against the gay and lesbian community; just that he doesn't agree with it.

Here's my problem with it.....

1.  Everyone is entitled to their opinion.  Listen, I think the gay and lesbian community should be treated just like the hetero community.  If a homosexual couple wants to get married, go for it.  The fact remains that EVERYONE is entitled to their opinion, even if I don't agree with it.  His opinion should be respected and viewed as his opinion...just as someone who thinks the exact opposite's opinion should be viewed the same way.  He wasn't practicing active discrimination by not talking to or signing an autograph for a homosexual.  He was stating an opinion.

2.  A&E knew what they were hiring when they hired them.  I don't mean that in a negative way at all.  They knew they were hiring a conservative Christian family.  There was uproar over them praying at the end of their episodes.  The family made it clear that there would be no change in that.  They were Christians and prayed regularly.  Period. 

3.  If this was reversed, it wouldn't be a big deal.  Again, I'm not trying to discriminate but if this was a homosexual saying that he/she didn't think heterosexual marriage was right, it probably wouldn't be as big of a deal.  It's the same thing with some racial discriminations.  Everyone says (and I consider it to be relatively accurate) that a missing Caucasian child gets more attention than a missing African American child.  This is also true if there is an African American person beat to hell by a Caucasian group of "rednecks" as opposed to a Caucasian person being beat to hell by a group of African American people.  Honestly, our country actively discriminates in a lot of ways but it usually accuses of discrimination with one hand while hiding their discriminatory other hand before their back.

Let the man have his own damn opinion and watch his show or don't watch it (I don't personally, by the way).  But for Heaven's sake, stop infringing on people's rights because you don't agree with them.