Dr. James Dobson: Well, hello everyone. I'm James Dobson and you're listening to Family Talk, a listener supported ministry. In fact, thank you so much for being part of that support for James Dobson Family Institute.
Roger Marsh: Welcome to Family Talk. I'm Roger Marsh. I want to share a Bible verse with you that you might be familiar with. It's found in Mark Chapter One, Verse 17. "Then Jesus said to them, 'Follow me and I will make you become fishers of men.'" Think about that last part. Jesus called us to be fishers of men. Well, today on Family Talk, we have two exciting guests on the program who have done exactly that, Phil and Kay Robertson.
Now you might know the Robertsons from the popular reality TV show called Duck Dynasty that aired on the A&E Network from 2012 until 2017. The Robertsons also have a movie coming out September 28th called The Blind, that tells the story of how the Robertson family began. You are going to want to see this one for sure.
But if you're not familiar with the Robertsons and their story, let me share with you a little bit about them. Phil Robertson is a professional hunter and the founder of Duck Commander, a duck hunting and outdoor equipment company. He currently hosts an award-winning podcast called "Unashamed with Phil and Jace Robertson." In addition, Phil is also a New York Times best-selling author. Some of his titles include Uncanceled, The Theft of America's Soul and Happy, Happy, Happy. Phil Robertson is also an elder at White's Ferry Road Church where he teaches a class on Sundays.
Phil Robertson's wife, Miss Kay Robertson is also a New York Times best-selling author. Some titles you may recognize of hers are Sister Roar, co-written with Lisa Robertson. Also Duck Commander Kitchen Presents Celebrating Family and Friends: Recipes for Every Month of the Year by Kay Robertson. And D is for Duck Calls, which as you can imagine is a children's book. Kay also appears frequently on the "Duck Call Room" and the "Unashamed" podcast as well.
Kay Robertson has been married to her pioneer man Phil for over 55 years and they make their home in the state of Louisiana. Together they have five grown children and are blessed with more than 25 grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The co-host for today's program is Gary Bauer, who is also Senior Vice President of Public Policy here at the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute. Gary is also the host of the podcast called "Defending Faith, Family, and Freedom." That's here at the JDFI. And there is so much material to get to in today's conversation. So let's join our co-host Gary Bauer and his guests, Phil and Kay Robertson, right here, right now, on Family Talk.
Gary Bauer: Phil and Kay, you took a little bit of a risk I think here in doing this movie. I mean you really bared your souls. And could you just talk from your hearts about what you hope people that go to this movie are going to get out of it and what the lessons of it are for families and for our country at the time we're living in?
Kay Robertson: I really want people to see number one, that it doesn't hurt to uncover your secrets. And you'll find that if that helps, like we say, to save one marriage, to save anybody that doesn't know Jesus to come to Him, or for the families that are broken to help them, it's all worth it. And that's what we did it for was not money. It was to help Americans love God, have families that have Him in the center of them, and that have children that believe and want to follow Him. And that's just what we want to do. We want to help everybody in America that we can to have the leader of their house to be Jesus.
Gary Bauer: Beautifully said. Phil, what would you add to that?
Phil Robertson: What I would say is my sons and my daughter, they got together and they said, "Why don't we talk Dad into having his life filmed from start to finish?" You saw it. So they asked me to do it and they said, "What do you think?" I said, "What I think is if we could convert one, I would do it." I said, "So I'll give them my story." I'm embarrassed for the way I behaved back in my sinful past. The word is stronger than embarrassed. I just thought, "Man, what in the world have I gotten myself into?" I just never stepped back and looked for the Son of God, Jesus Christ. So when they said, "Let's show them how much power He has just in your life." So when that preacher came to that bar that I owned, we rented it, a bar, everybody getting drunk, we were settling.
Kay Robertson: I wasn't getting drunk.
Phil Robertson: Yeah, Miss Kay wasn't, but she was serving them. But so it was just a sad state of affairs. I never realized and I had never heard that God became flesh. He died on a cross for the sins of the world. Three days later, He was resurrected from the dead. He spent about 40 days there and back to Heaven He went. He said, "I will return." So my take on it is to the world and especially to the United States of America where I live, "Do you have a better story?" All your sins removed, guaranteed you'd be raised from the dead. I don't see the downside of it.
Gary Bauer: Phil, I heard you in another interview say that you had not heard, during those years when you and Kay were courting and when you first got married, that you had really not heard much about Jesus. And the first thing that came to my mind was that this is a country that's supposed to be built on Judeo-Christian values, and I think a lot of people still think of us as a Christian nation, although I think it's harder and harder to make that claim, but that's really amazing that you managed to be born and grow to early adulthood, go to college, and you were a sports star, and yet no one in your growing up or in that college where you were a pretty big deal, nobody had ever talked about Jesus.
Kay Robertson: Well, I want to say something. I think there were a lot of people that Phil chose to run with or be with that were not believers. And I knew there were people who were believers, but I think he, at that time, by not being a Christian, he seemed to lean toward the ones who were not believers. And therefore he was not exposed because he was with what I called a bad crowd.
Phil Robertson: Look, I spent about eight years of attending Louisiana Tech University. Great school, far as I know, but just think about it. For eight years. I earned two degrees, got my Master's in education. During that timeframe, I never heard one teacher, not one, or anybody else ever mention the word Father, Son or Holy Spirit. I never heard those terms. Nobody ever said a word about Jesus. None of my teachers, not a word. His name never came up. So I basically were just operating in a void and no one was there to show me a better way to live.
So finally my little sister kept on and on and on about getting somebody to try to talk to me and no one else said much, but Miss Kay. So finally I said, "All right. I'll hear the story about this Jesus." At first, I was just bad mouthing the guy. He was some kind of preacher and he had his Bible with him, so he wanted to try to convert me, but I said, "You ever been drunk?" And he said, "Yes, I have." I said, "Well, why could you talk to me? Because I'm getting drunk right now. So what's the difference between us?"
So I was that mean, but I listened carefully what he had to say, and this is the true story. When I heard the gospel of Jesus, His death, burial, and resurrection, and God just wants us to love him and each other, I was shocked. I said, "It's too good to be true. That I have to look at this. This sounds too good to be true for me." So I went through all the verses, the preacher went through it with me. And I said, "Man, what have I been doing?" So the repentance started right there, and that was when I was 28. So now I'm 77, and since that time I've taken a many of one of them down here and just shooed the alligators back, but I've baptized a many of one of them.
Gary Bauer: Isn't that amazing, Phil, that you went those years and you were hunting ducks, but Christ was hunting you.
Phil Robertson: That's right.
Gary Bauer: And once you brought Him into your heart, just think of all the lives that you've been able to touch.
Phil Robertson: It's been the greatest thing that's ever happened to me. No doubt about it. I mean, I'm just stunned to look back at it. And all I can say is, "Thank you Lord," and tell others, love them enough to tell them, I'm not ashamed of the gospel because it's the power of God for the salvation to everyone who believes. First for the Jew, then for the Gentile, for in the gospel, a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith. As it is written, the righteous will live by faith.
Gary Bauer: Yes. Kay, for all of this to happen, you had to stand strong in what were really difficult circumstances. And there are so many hurting women in America today. They've been exploited by abortion and by men that don't keep their promises and a society that sexualizes them and treats them like they're a hunk of meat instead of a human being. Was it your faith, Kay, that kept you in the marriage and wanting to do everything you can by bringing that pastor to reach out to your husband?
Kay Robertson: Yes, it was. A little bit of my history was I stayed and grew up mostly with my grandmother and she was a very strong Christian and talked to me all the time about it. And so when I realized in my marriage that I thought I could change him, like most women think that. I really do believe they feel like they can change them. And it's not true. But I spent about 10 years trying to change him. And then I finally came to Jesus like I needed to and rely totally on Him and said to Him, "I want my family to be whole and I want to have my husband, my children, and me in a godly marriage. But if Phil will not come to Jesus, then I want me and my boys to still stay with Jesus and go to heaven." And help me to just live like that, because I did not want us to be apart.
But this certain man that I got to go see Phil, he had seen him before. And Phil was so shocked that he came in the bar to actually meet him that I think he was the only one Phil wanted to talk to because he thought, "Well, he's a brave man. Come in there and take me on when I was drinking and actually talked to me." So they met twice, and then of course you could just see Phil, it just kept affecting him and affecting him, to where he finally said, "Yes, I want Jesus to be the Lord of my life." But I remember he told me, he said, "But I'm not going to know how to act like a Christian." I said, "Well, don't worry, we'll help you. You'll be okay." So he did become a Christian, but he was pretty rough, his talk, and I think he surprised a lot of people at the church. But they just knew, he's new, you love him and you teach him, and now he's a great man.
Phil Robertson: Miss Kay, thanks for staying.
Kay Robertson: I know. It was a hard 10 years. But you know what? My grandmother told me, "Fight for your marriage." And I guess after 10 years I thought, "Well, how long am I going to have to fight for this marriage?" And then the results came. But praise God, I did because I had somebody, an older woman, as the Bible tells you that teach a younger woman, and what she said, it came true.
Phil Robertson: When you would ask me these questions, occurred to me, Jesus' talking. He said, the people that were wanting to kill him, "You belong to your Father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning." This is John chapter eight, about Verse 10 or 12. "He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth. There's no truth in him." He's talking about Satan, Jesus, and why I look back at it and I said, "I know now why the power he has." "When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar," he's talking about Satan, "and the father of lies. Yet because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me. Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I'm telling the truth, why don't you believe me?"
He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you don't hear is that you don't belong to God. Jesus said, "Satan is the father of lies and the father of murder." Well, just look out at the world beginning in these United States of America. Men and women confused about being man or a woman. You don't even know what sex you are. And it's just believing these lies Satan putting in their head. But He has a lot of power. And I look back at it and I feel most fortunate that He had mercy on me and listened to my pleas, and I'm glad that He sent someone to rescue me, His Son Jesus. I mean, I just can't thank Him enough.
Gary Bauer: Phil, it's interesting that you would read that verse about Satan being the father of lies because you're absolutely right. America is in a blizzard of lies. And I don't think the country will survive unless it lets into its heart what both of you did in your marriage when you let Christ into your life and into your marriage.
Phil Robertson: I hope that they will look and they will observe and they will rethink where they are. And just I would jump up and down if millions came to Jesus over this. I would be jumping up and down for them. It's the only hope we have, and there is no other way out of here, and no one I know of has a better story. All your sins removed and you're guaranteed to be raised from the dead? Chunk it all the way just for whatever. So I'm thinking, "Let's make a last ditch effort." When my kids asked me to do this, I said, "I'll do it."
Gary Bauer: Kay, you have a specific ministry or an emphasis on helping women struggling with these kinds of issues, whether it's a broken marriage or a family that's spinning out of control. Could you tell us a little bit about that?
Kay Robertson: I've done that for 20 something years. And they said, "Why did you do it?" And I said, "Well, Phil was converting people so fast and I would immediately realize that the marriage was in trouble. They didn't know how to have a good marriage, and the women weren't with the right friends. They didn't understand how to live a Christian life." And I guess all of a sudden I found myself for 20 something years meeting with women every week to help them in their journey, to bring some to Christ, to teach them how to be parents, to teach them how to love their husbands. They did not know how to do any of that. So I think the Bible does say older women need to train the younger women, and I very well saw that in what me and my friends have done trying to help women.
Gary Bauer: So this is really timely because the movie The Blind is going to be out this Thursday the 28th in movie theaters all over America. I was checking a little earlier here. As I mentioned, I'm in Washington, D.C., but it's in many theaters in the Washington DC area. I really am hopeful and praying that like several other Christian themed movies in the last couple of years that unexpectedly got traction and became much bigger than the critics thought they would be in a country hurting like ours with so many broken families, I think this movie-
Phil Robertson: They need it so much.
Gary Bauer: Absolutely.
Phil Robertson: Yeah. They really need Jesus so much.
Gary Bauer: Phil, I mean, you're both courageous, but Phil, you certainly have never been afraid to speak biblical truths, which in many cases these days are unpopular or they're falling on the ears of people that have never read one word in the Bible, so they think you're saying something or we are saying something that is totally unacceptable or not politically correct. But I think you're an example about how Christians in America have got to put fear aside and just speak the truth to a hurting nation.
Phil Robertson: You bet you. "Brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you." This is one Corinthians 15, the Apostle Paul is talking. By the way, the Apostle Paul was a murderer. I mean, he had people stoned to death. He persecuted the church. I mean, he was really something. And God chose him to write most of the New Testament. So if you're thinking, "Well, I'm too sorry and low down to be saved," the Apostle Paul said he was the worst sinner there is. So people need to realize, and it's him talking here, the Apostle Paul. "Brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preach to you, which you received, and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel, you are saved if you hold firmly to the word I preach to you. Otherwise, you've believed in vain. For what I received, I passed on to you as a first importance."
This is the most important thing there is, according to the Apostle Paul. "That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried and that He was raised from the dead on the third day, according to the Scriptures." So that is on my lips all the time when I meet people. Have a little clash, three days ago, Sunday morning, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, let's say 8, 9, about nine of them, eight or nine of them, they all put their faith in Jesus. I baptized all of them. One of the guys was from Iran, and I asked him, I said, "What year is it over there in the Middle East?" And he said, "What year is it?" I said, "What year is it?" He said, "Well, it's 2023." I said, "Well, what do you know? It's that same date here in America." I said, "We're both counting time by the same individual." And he looked at me a little bit. I said, "Anyone you count time by, you might ought to check Him out."
Gary Bauer: You're absolutely right. I mean, the birth of our Lord and Savior split history in two. The whole world measures the world before that and measures the world since then.
Phil Robertson: As a culture, we've forgotten that.
Gary Bauer: We certainly have. Yeah. Phil, you remind me a lot of Dr. Dobson. Your stories are a little different. He was raised in a very Christian home, and his father, he felt that Dr. Dobson would touch many lives. You have a different trail that you went on, but both of you know the importance of the family, which is God's institution, that He created as the way men and women can be happy and bring children into the world and raise them the right way. And both of you have brought countless people, you'll never know, I don't think either of you will ever know until you're standing before the throne, how many souls you have saved both in your unique way.
Kay Robertson: And I've always loved Dr. Dobson and tell him I've read everything he ever wrote. He was so much help and just giving me how to raise my children, pointers for that, and I loved all his words. And his wife, I love her too.
Gary Bauer: That will bring joy to the hearts of both of them, that your family was aided by the good work he's done. Phil and Miss Kay, what a wonderful chance it is today, spending some time with you. As I've said a couple of times, I'm excited about this movie. And of course, it's based on your lives and it's about the love you two have for each other. But even bigger than that, it's about the love of Jesus Christ and how it saved your marriage, saved your family, and all of the things it has contributed to millions of other people who've been exposed to you. So, folks, you need to see this movie. It's The Blind. It's coming out this week. Tell your friends and neighbors about it. Your churches can purchase group ticketing, which I encourage you to do. I know Dr. Dobson and Shirley will be checking out the movie. America needs this movie at a time like this. So, Phil, can I impose on you to close our show with a moment of prayer that you could lead?
Phil Robertson: I'd be happy to. "Father, you are a great God. You created the cosmos. Your Son and your Spirit is there for the taking. Father, you have been extremely nice to the human race by providing a solution to our sins, and above that our guaranteed resurrection from the dead, because we all die and you even fix that. Thank you for your Spirit that you give us to help us from day to day. Father, help us do what the Apostle Paul said, help us, Father, be full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Thank you, Father for giving us your Spirit that helps us in that area. We are indebted to you. Father, help us go forward to love our neighbor and love each other. Help us reach out to their families around us, no matter what color, where they're from. Help us Father be loving toward them. We love you, Father. Thank you for saving us in the name of Jesus who made all these things possible. Amen."
Gary Bauer: Amen.
Roger Marsh: Well, that was the conclusion of an inspiring and uplifting conversation featuring our co-host Gary Bauer and special guests Phil and Kay Robertson here on Family Talk. And by the way, be sure to check out the new movie called The Blind, which will be out in theaters beginning Thursday, September 28th. You will not want to miss it.
I'm Roger Marsh, and on behalf of all of us here at the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute, thank you for making us a part of your day. You've been listening to Family Talk, the voice you trust, for the family you love.
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