The first black president of the Southern Baptist Convention supports Phil Robertson's biblical views on homosexuality but disputes the "Duck Dynasty" patriarch's memory of race relations before the Civil Rights movement.
This 2012 photo released by A&E shows, from left, Phil Robertson, Jase Robertson, Si Robertson and Willie Robertson from the A&E series, "Duck Dynasty." (AP Photo/A&E, Zach Dilgard)
In a GQ magazine interview, Robertson said that in his Louisiana youth he picked cotton with African-Americans and never saw "the mistreatment of any black person," adding that they were "singing and happy" and didn't complain about white people.
The Southern Baptists' first black president, the Rev. Fred Luter of New Orleans, has a different recollection. He says back then in Louisiana there was nothing happy about segregation or "being hung in a tree because of your race." He adds that blacks were definitely complaining, if not to Robertson.
But Luter defends Robertson's quotation of a Bible passage that calls homosexual acts sinful. Luter says he didn't consider those remarks hateful.
Fans of "Duck Dynasty" have rallied to support Robertson after the A&E network put him on indefinite "hiatus" from the reality show.
Source: The Associated Press
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