Does A&E Really Hate Christians?

There are certainly a lot of problems with today's hyper-fast media coverage, but maybe the biggest one is to attribute every decision to politics and/or some secret political agenda. While it's true that America's current split between left and right makes companies of all sizes nervous, that doesn't meant that their decisions are driven primarily by politics. If anything, most of their decisions are driven primarily by money and the fact that money decisions sometimes coincide with politics is more of a coincidence than a reflection of some hidden agenda.

When A&E made the decision to pull "Duck Dynasty" star Phil Robertson off of the show following an interview he did with GQ, it took about an hour for political partisans of both sides to weigh in with their spin on his comments. Viewers offended by his comments on homosexuals were glad to see him punished and berated him for sounding intolerant towards gays.

But it didn't take long for viewers on the other side to get angry. By Thursday morning, the hashtag #IStandWithPhilRobertson was trending on Twitter and a number of people commented that A&E was anti-Christian and intolerant. There were calls to boycott the network and Glenn Beck offered Robertson a spot on his network.

No matter what you think of the decision, I think it's unfair to accuse A&E of being anti-Christian. Granted, they've been nervous in the past about Robertson's expressions of his strong faith in the context of a reality show. But for that matter, son Willie Robertson has made the same point, telling me in an interview last year that "Duck Dynasty" is "a show about our family and our business. There's a place for talking about God, but I don't know that this TV show is the way to do it. This show is about entertaining people and that's what I think we should be focused on."

Describing A&E as anti-Christian because they're uncomfortable with Phil Robertson's comments about homosexuals implies that all Christians and all people of faith agree that homosexuality is a sin. While it's true that is a core belief in the majority of Evangelical Christians, it's not a belief shared by everyone, even in the Evangelical community. And with a recent Pew study found that only about 25% of adult Americans belong to an Evangelical church, it seems likely that as many Christians at least accept the idea of a homosexual lifestyle as believe it goes against Biblical teachings.

In some ways, the Phil Robertson vs A&E story is the perfect "War against Christmas" meme. If you believe that the media hates Christians, then you're going to see this as just another example of America going to hell. But there are just as many people who see this as an example of someone giving an interview that turned out to be a very bad PR move.

A&E might have made a bad decision, but they don't hate Christians. Making that argument might score a few political points for someone, but it distracts from the important questions of today. But then, that's often the real point, isn't it?