(This March, for instance, he told the Christian-oriented _Sports Spectrum _magazine that he didn't approve of A&E editing out 'in Jesus' from a family prayer scene, even though A&E says that the phrase has been uttered in at least seventeen episodes.) But there are more things Phil would like to say-'controversial' things, as he puts it to me-that don't make the cut.

If you watch Duck Dynasty, you can hear plenty of it in the nondenominational supper-table prayer the family recites at the end of every episode, and in the show's no-cussing, no-blaspheming tone. Phil calls himself a Bible-thumper, and holy shit, he thumps that Bible hard enough to ring the bell at a county-fair test of strength. So here's where things get a bit _un_comfortable.