COMMENTARY
“If organizers of the Vero Beach Prayer Breakfast did not know better than to invite Robertson as their featured speaker, they at least should have known better.”
MARK SCHUMANN
Whoever participated in making the decision to extend a speaking invitation to controversial television personality and well-known bigot, Phil Robertson, managed to ‘help” Vero Beach again make national news for reasons that do not necessarily make for good marketing.
Following Robertson’s address at the March 20 Vero Beach Prayer Breakfast, an event at which he received a standing ovation from a record crowd of some 2500, Roberson and Vero Beach have been in the news.
Long before Robertson was invited by event organizers to speak at the 11th Annual Vero Beach Prayer Breakfast, the television personality was making news for bigoted, hateful statements. For a time, he was even suspended from the A&E network’s popular ‘Duck Dynasty” program. Under pressure from conservative voices, including Republicans like Sarah Palin and Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, A&E management reinstated Robertson.
In the January 2014 issue of GQ Magazine Robertson was quoted as saying, “It seems like, to me, a vagina—as a man—would be more desirable than a man’s anus. 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.”
If organizers of the Vero Beach Prayer Breakfast did not know better than to invite Robertson as their featured speaker, they at least should have known better.
Washington Post: Phil Robertson slammed for imagining tale of an atheist family’s rape and murder
USA Today: ‘Duck Dynasty’s’ Robertson under fire again
Fox News: ‘Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson under fire for graphic anti-atheist speech
Huffington Post: Phil Robertson of ‘Duck Dynasty” reveals bizarre atheist rape and murder fantasy
Daily Beast: Phil Roberston imagines atheists raped
New York Times: Dec. 12, 2013: Phil Robertson suspended from ‘Duck Dynasty’
New York Times: Dec. 19, 2013: Fans criticize move to suspend ‘Duck Dynasty’ star
Indian River Guardian 
Ignorance is the order of the day when people without experience, even after ten years of doing it can’t get it right. When we built the Four Chaplains Monument in Sebastian, Ernie Heaton (a survivor of the USAT Dorchester) was told by a member of the Memorial Island Sanctuary committee to build it someplace else, and we did. The lack of “tolerance” from the “Duck Master” is certainly his way of life and he is entitled to his thoughts, so the fault does not lie with him! The problem with this square peg in the wrong hole is, and remains with those “neophites” that designed the last “Prayer Breakfast” around “Bigotry” and the very thing our nation and our Chaplains Monument is against. ” Interfaith in Action” describes our nation today, any who does not believe this is an embarrassment to all of us. I guess those behind this feel pretty good about those who showed up, could you imagine if this guy ran for Vero City Council????
I have never watched “Duck Dynasty” and after what I’ve read about Phil Robertson, I have no desire to. I’m deeply disappointed that so many people in Vero Beach would applaud such a show of intolerance and crudeness. What does it say of our society that he is “loved” by so many? The Bible teaches love and kindness toward everyone regardless of their actions. Phil Robertson is suppose to be a Bible believing Christian, so where is his love and kindness toward all people? It might be a good idea if we all include him in our daily prayers.