"Duck Dynasty" patriarch Phil Robertson has been a symbol of controversy the past few years for voicing his religious beliefs. In an interview with GQ in 2013, he called homosexuality a sin, causing an uproar in the media. As a result, A&E network temporarily suspended him from the show.
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The criticism, however, has not silenced him. In fact, he's taken one of his boldest steps yet by filming a new documentary called "Torchbearer," directed by Donald Trump campaign operative Stephen Bannon.
"We don't worry about insults and vitriol," Robertson said in a conversation with Townhall on Friday regarding his now infamous GQ interview. "We just love them and move on."
Part of moving on for Robertson was filming a documentary that uses history as a backdrop to prove our need for God.
"The script is the premise of what happens when empires remove God as the anchor of their nation," he explained.
The film focuses on Adolf Hitler's Nazi rule, those gruesome gladiator fights in the Roman coliseum and brings it to modern day tragedies like ISIS's reign of terror.
These tragedies have a common denominator, Robertson noted: A rejection of God.
He's seeing a similar pattern today, noting we've run God out of the entertainment business, education, government, and more.
"What we're seeing transpire in front of us is the result of our renouncing God," Robertson said.
"Torchbearer" can be seen as a necessary "shock treatment" that urges viewers to "go back to loving God and loving their neighbor," he explains.
Perhaps part of the reason God is being left out of culture is because religious leaders have stopped speaking out against policies that counter God's word.
"Fear is the main thing," Robertson surmised.
"Christians need to get God out of the confines of church buildings," he implored. "Go out in the culture and speak boldly. You have received immortality for crying out loud."
GOP nominee Donald Trump's plan to overturn the Johnson Amendment could help in this department, allowing pastors and priests the opportunity to share their political opinions from the pulpit.
"Political correctness will cost you your life," Robertson insisted. What we need, he said, is "biblical correctness."
Robertson, who has publicly endorsed Trump for president, thinks the Republican is the best chance to restore this Christ-centered vision. He had the chance to meet with Trump a couple weeks ago and did not waste the opportunity to share the gospel. The Duck Dynasty star shared that he sketched a diagram displaying God coming down from heaven and Jesus rising from the dead. In the 10 minutes he had with the GOP nominee, he made sure to pull the image out of his pocket to show Trump and told him not to forget it.
"Here's the deal, he may be the next president, "Robertson said. "What I owed him was the gospel. I gave him the gospel from my lips to his ears. What he does with that will be up to him. If he responds to it by faith, I'd say we have hit a home run. God will again be on our side."
There's no time like the present, he suggested, considering we're making the same mistakes as other nations before us.
"The collapse is already taking place."
Robertson was even more convinced that we desperately need to turn back to God after his international tour during the filming of "Torchbearer." One of the most memorable moments for him was his visit to Auschwitz. When he toured the death camp where the Nazis placed prisoners and dropped poison gas on them, he could see the victims' fingernail marks on the walls where they had tried to crawl their way out.
"It was the most disheartening moment I've spent in my 70 years on the Earth," he said. "That's the result of no God."
"The documentary is a brutal film," Robertson emphasized. "It shows you the carnage that ensues" when societies reject God.
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"Torchbearer" is out in select theaters October 7.
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