Faith, family and ducks: Behind the scenes of ‘Duck Dynasty’

Faith, family and ducks: For these reality TV stars, ‘holding hands with Hollywood’ presents a challenge as they endeavor to share Jesus (reporting from West Monroe, La.). Currents.

WEST MONROE, La. — Hollywood, meet the real Robertsons.

A&E’s hit reality series “Duck Dynasty” has made celebrities out of Duck Commander Phil Robertson, his wife Kay and their bearded, camo-clad sons Willie, Jase and Jeptha, not to mention “Uncle Si,” Phil’s younger brother.

As the network portrays it, the series — whose Season 1 finale drew 2.6 million viewers — follows a Louisiana bayou family living the American dream as they operate a thriving duck call and decoy business while staying true to their family values.

For the Robertsons, those values relate to the grace and salvation found in Jesus.

But for the show’s producers, the family’s strong Christian faith seems to be an uncomfortable storyline — one frequently chopped in the editing room.

“They pretty much cut out most of the spiritual things,” Phil Robertson, a one-time honky-tonk operator who gave up his heathen lifestyle in the 1970s, told The Christian Chronicle. “We say them, but they just don’t run them on the show.

“Hollywood has run upon the kingdom of God, and there’s a rub there,” said the Duck Commander, a tenacious personal evangelist who has brought hundreds of souls to new life in the Ouachita River. “Well, we have to be as harmless as a dove and as shrewd as a snake in the way we deal with them.”

‘Duck Dynasty’ trip conjures precious boyhood memories (reporting from West Monroe, La.). Inside Story.

For rural Louisiana church, prayer workshop an annual source of spiritual growth, strength (reporting from Calhoun, La.). National.

Kansas church plans resource center for released prisoners (reporting from Kansas City, Kan.). Second Front.