December 18, 2014
'Duck Dynasty' Star 'Trying to Figure Out' If Gays Are Really Born This Way
Jason St. Amand READ TIME: 3 MIN.
It's been about a year since "Duck Dynasty" patriarch Phil Robertson made headlines for linking homosexuality to bestiality and adultery in an interview with GQ magazine, and now the reality TV star's son, Willie Robertson, is commenting on his father's controversial remarks.
In an interview with Larry King on "Larry King Now," Willie Robertson said that his family didn't agree with the comments that sparked a media firestorm, E! Online points out.
"We stood by our father. We stood by him as a family again," Willie Robertson said. "Some of the things he said in that interview I didn't agree with and I've even said so, and he's even come out and said, 'Yeah, that was a mistake.' With things leading to bestiality, it was a mixed bag there of things. And then he quoted a Scripture, and that's what's in the Scripture. What I want people to know and what we've said over and over and over is that we love everybody."
When discussing if being LGBTQ is a choice or not, Willie Robertson told King:
"I'm trying to figure that out right now, I really am. Since the controversy and since I know all these people and if the thought is, 'I'm born this way,' I don't know. I'm trying to figure out myself though the passages. Because I always have to look through the Scriptures to see what's there and then I put it up against people, put my time in, so I've spent time with people."
He added: "I'm not the judge. God's gonna be the judge. So it's not my job to convince people to change their lives. It's really through Jesus-if I introduce them to Jesus, he'll do that. All I can do on the surface is love people, accept people, be kind and be respectful to people and I think as a family that's what we do."
In 2013, Phil Robertson came under media scrutiny for making anti-gay comments when speaking with GQ.
"It seems like, to me, a vagina -- as a man -- would be more desirable than a man's anus," Phil Robertson said at the time. "That's just me. I'm just thinking: There's more there! 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."
Willie Robertson had a different tune at the time and actually defended his father in an interview with CNN.
"I believe what the Bible says," he said at the time, according to the Huffington Post. "That's what he says to put those in. Now, you have to read the Bible and make up your own mind. You have to decide and God will ultimately decide that. We don't profess to be God and we certainly don't profess to be perfect at all because we have our own sins that we deal with."
The comments eventually impacted the A&E reality show and, after suffering low ratings, the network put the show on a hiatus. But when the show returned to TV earlier this year, Nielsen reported that brought in 8.5 million viewers for its fifth-season premiere, which was slightly higher than October's fourth-season finale. But last summer, 12 million viewers caught the fourth-season premiere.