A Phil Robertson sermon from Easter Sunday has gone viral online as it features the "Duck Dynasty" patriarch doubling down on prior anti-gay remarks while quoting passages from the bible to support his stance.
In the 40 minute-plus video that was uploaded to YouTube in April, the 68-year-old Robertson is seen delivering a sermon to parishioners at his West Monroe, Louisiana, church defending his prior detrimental statements regarding homosexuality while taking on the media and claiming that those who cast him in a bad light in the press didn't know his initial rant was based on scripture.
"The news media didn’t even know it was a verse! They thought I was just mouthing off," Robertson said,
the New York Daily News reported.
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"They were mad at me," Robertson continued. "You say, 'Why’d they get mad at you?' 'Cause instead of acknowledging their sin, like you had better do, they railed against me for giving them the truth about their sins. Don’t deceive yourselves."
Paraphrasing a verse from the Corinthians, Robertson said in his sermon, "Neither the sexually immoral, nor the idolators, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexual offenders, nor thieves, nor greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God."
In December,
Robertson was suspended by A&E following an
interview he gave to GQ magazine in which he
compared homosexuality to bestiality and to what he sees as the deterioration of a culture through sexual promiscuity.
In the interview, Robertson tells the magazine, "Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there — bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men."
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"It seems like, to me," a woman "would be more desirable. ... That's just me," Robertson added. "She's got more to offer. I mean, come on, dudes! You know what I'm saying? But hey, sin: It's not logical, my man. It's just not logical."
A&E subsequently
lifted the suspension after fans as well as Robertson's sons, his cast members on the reality TV show, rallied behind the 68-year-old and
appeared to signal the show could not go on without their patriarch.
The cable network has yet to weigh into Robertson's latest remarks. The sixth season of "Duck Dynasty" is scheduled to begin on June 11.