What the Duck?

Phil Robertson has been suspended from the television show Duck Dynasty, for stuff he said about his opinions regarding homosexuality in GQ magazine.
A couple questions spring to mind:
1. Why on God's green earth was Phil Robertson being interviewed by GQ magazine?  Isn't GQ a men's fashion magazine?  I think every piece of clothing Phil owns is camo, and while that is in some senses a fashion choice, it's not generally the image that GQ is all about.
2. Why is GQ magazine asking Phil about sin?  Isn't GQ a men's fashion magazine?  Wait, I already asked that question.
3. Why is it surprising to anyone that a guy who looks like Phil, and lives in very rural Louisiana, and makes duck calls for a living, and prays simple earthy prayers before every meal he shares with his enormous family, doesn't exactly have the most cosmopolitan opinions about homosexuality?
4. Why is it that A&E seems hell bent of making a martyr of Phil Robertson?  A while back it was the "threat" that if they didn't stop praying before meals, the show would be discontinued.  Folks were full of righteous indignation over that one, even though it turned out that the real issue was the Robertson clan wanted more of that filthy Hollywood cash than A&E was really wanting to shell out.  It went away as soon as the network realized they were about to shoot the cash cow, and the Robertsons are still allowed to pray to Jesus at the end of every episode.
Now there are already outpourings of support for Phil Robertson, and a predictable backpedaling (but not all the way) apology and an affirmation that he would never treat anybody disrespectfully, no matter how wrong and sinful they may be.
I have to admit, I have very mixed feelings about all this.  On the one hand, I owe a debt of gratitude to Duck Dynasty, because when I spent three days in the hospital, there was apparently a marathon of DD on A&E, and not much else on the TV.  Granted, I was on morphine most of the time and so coherent thought was not really a necessity for amusement, but then, I got to like those bearded goofballs.  Sy and Phil especially, I would really like to hang out with those two, and maybe shoot some things.
Maybe it's just the moderate, rationalist Presbyterian side of me, but Phil's statement in GQ, did not strike me as particularly hateful, or unusual for a man of his ilk.  I think he was expressing some fairly honest (if somewhat incoherent) thoughts on an issue that is complex and controversial.  Reading it, my opinion of him remains entirely unchanged.  And I think, TV show or not, he should have a right to say it, and stand by it.  You can hear vastly more offensive and bigoted opinions on almost any talk radio program that broaches the subject.  I would much rather see A&E, which stands, I believe, for Arts and Entertainment, defend free speech than become the sort of censorious "liberal" instrument of devil that some red state types are always sure is out to get them.
The progress of civil rights for LGBTQ people in this country of ours is moving at a pretty good pace for such a deeply controversial subject as S-E-X.  It would be a mistake to start making victims out of people like Phil Robertson.  He's not a victim, he's a man who has done quite well marketing the ideals of Americana, and the way things used to be.  But if you stand him up next to a faceless TV network who boots him off of his own TV show for stuff he said about homosexuals in a magazine article, I can tell you who most of the people who are avid, camo-wearing, gun-toting, Duck Dynasty fans are going to side with.
I like Phil, if I were his pastor I might talk with him about developing a more coherent and consistent theological perspective on sin, and perhaps counsel him that homosexuality is not the best case study to use in a GQ interview.  I might talk to him about how sin can twist our words and make us sound like bigots, even if we're not.  I might talk to him about how the world is always going to misunderstand and misrepresent the followers of Jesus Christ, and so we should always be circumspect in our words and deeds so that we do not become a stumbling block, even to pagans and other non-believers.  I would talk to him about how the saving grace of Christ, which apparently he has experienced first hand, is for all those who are lost, no matter who they love.
I would certainly encourage him to use the voice that he has to truly represent Christ to the world, if he does it half as well as he makes duck calls, the Kingdom of Heaven will draw nearer to us all.