Phil Robertson, the patriarch of the “reality” TV series “Duck Dynasty,” has become a feature of the conservative, evangelical Christian lecture circuit in the US.
Much of what he says is stupid and bigoted, but mostly harmless. This, however, I found slightly sinister. Speaking at a prayer breakfast in Vero Beach, Florida, Roberston said:
I’ll make a bet with you. Two guys break into an atheist’s home. He has a little atheist wife and two little atheist daughters. Two guys break into his home and tie him up in a chair and gag him. And then they take his two daughters in front of him and rape both of them and then shoot them and they take his wife and then decapitate her head off in front of him. And then they can look at him and say, ‘Isn’t it great that I don’t have to worry about being judged? Isn’t it great that there’s nothing wrong with this? There’s no right or wrong, now is it dude?’
Then you take a sharp knife and take his manhood and hold it in front of him and say, ‘Wouldn’t it be something if this [sic] was something wrong with this? But you’re the one who says there is no God, there’s no right, there’s no wrong, so we’re just having fun. We’re sick in the head, have a nice day.’
Robertson concluded: “If it happened to them, they probably would say ‘something about this just ain’t right.’”
First, there’s the lie that atheists by definition have no concept of right and wrong.
More troubling is that Robertson almost seems to take pleasure in imagining such an awful event– as if the atheists, by their failure to believe in God, are asking for such brutal treatment.
I hope that even other rightwing Christian fundamentalists would be repelled by what he said.
Update: Apparently not.