Over the weekend, Reverend Franklin Graham asked his followers to pray for Phil Robertson. In a post to his Facebook, he wrote “Would you join me in praying for Phil Robertson, his wife Miss Kay, and their family? Phil is having serious health issues, and his son Jase said he’s in quite a bit of pain and ‘unable to sit down and have a conversation.”
In an announcement on their podcast, Jase Robertson announced that “Phil’s not doing well. I think I spoke on the 1,000th podcast, we were trying to figure out the diagnosis, but according to the doctors, he has some sort of blood disease causing all kinds of problems.“ He continued to explain “It’s like accelerated, and it’s causing problems with his entire body. And he has early stages of Alzheimer’s. So, if you put those things together, he’s really not doing well. He’s struggling.”
Jase continued explaining his father’s condition in the podcast. He noted that the team of doctors told him and his family that “there’s no curing” Phil’s condition. “We’re trying to do a lot of things to try to figure out how to make him more comfortable, and maybe help with his memory. There’s a lot of different things that we’re doing” Jase explained.
Graham’s followers responded immediately with an outpouring of support. One person commented “God will call him home and say ‘Well done good and faithful servant, you may enter the kingdom!’ He is a true example of how God can redeem anyone.” Another poster replied, “Lord be with Phil. Give relief and comfort to him and the family. Thank you Father. Amen.”
The Robertson Family rose to national prominence after starring in ‘Duck Dynasty,‘ a reality TV show on A&E. Duck Dynasty was on the air from 2011-2017 and had 11 seasons. However, in 2013, Phil Robertson was suspended over comments about homosexuality. While he was eventually reinstated, many advertisers pulled out over the controversy.
Robertson addressed the controversy directly; “The ones who attacked me, I didn’t hold it against them. They asked me a question about a particular sin, homosexual behavior. And they asked if I believed it was a sin… I quoted what God had to say about that sin and nine other sins, but it was on the list of sins… A&E decided to drop the axe on me.”
Phil Robertson’s life story was made into a movie, ‘The Blind,‘ in 2023. According to his daughter, thousands have been baptized as a direct result of the film. She reminisced that “Phil said, from day one, ‘If it impacts one person, if one person changes their life and gives their life to Jesus, because of my story, because of the darkest parts of my story, I’ll do it. It’ll be worth it.’”
Speaking about the impact of this film, she said Korie stated: “People would head straight to the church or head straight to the body of water right after seeing the movie,” and “one group had like 27 baptisms, and right after the film, everyone just kind of continued and went somewhere [and] worshiped.” Phil Robertson has said that the reaction to this film has been the greatest reward of his career.