“Duck Dynasty” patriarch Phil Robertson responded yesterday to the allegations of sexual assault against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein by going off on a rambling rant about how AIDS is God’s punishment for “perversion.”
Robertson joined EWTN’s “The World Over” yesterday, where host Raymond Arroyo asked him to comment on the numerous reports of sexual misconduct by Weinstein.
Robertson asked sarcastically who would expect “rank sexual immorality and perversion” in Hollywood before moving on to discuss sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS, which he suggested are divine punishment for “perversion.”
“Worldwide, almost 40 million, 35 to 40 million individuals are now deceased because of AIDS,” Robertson said. “That’s caused by perversion, that behavior. I’m not making this up. You say, it’s dangerous to your health. Well, yeah. So to answer your question, just look at the sexually transmitted disease rate and say, know what? This is really—they receive in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. You say, it really is physiological debilitating.”
Robertson concluded that Weinstein “can be forgiven” if he embraces Christ.
Robertson, who is promoting a new program on the online CRTV network, is a regular fixture at Religious Right events, including speaking at this month’s Values Voter Summit alongside President Trump. He has previously said that AIDS is God’s “penalty” for “immoral conduct” and called STDs “the revenge of the hippies.”
