MD: Phil’s comments about African Americans (in his 2013 GQ magazine interview) were extremely controversial. Some people called him a racist, and labeled your entire family the same. Were you ever tempted to defend your father, and point out that you had a biracial son?
WR: The Bible is clear about our good works, and the things that we do. It says, even people who attack you will see your good works. I didn’t feel a need to brag [about us having a biracial son]. I knew what [my father] was trying to say, but he has a strange way of saying it. He grew up in a different generation. He grew up at a different time than us. I didn’t want to make that story any bigger than it needed to be.
MD: Do you consider your show and life to be a ministry?
WR: Oh, yeah, no doubt. I was in seminary when Korie and I were dating. She talked me into going to regular college. In my mind, I wanted to do ministry. I wanted to do things for the Lord, but I never wanted to get stuck financially – just for a job. If I didn’t like the way things were going, I wanted to be able to move around. And I didn’t know what the Lord had in store for us at the time, but we stayed in ministry (pretty much) the entire time we’ve been married – from Christian camps to actual church work. And now, I get to speak to hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people every year – not as a preacher, but in a different way. When you’re a celebrity, you’re placed in a position to really help people. We can now reach so many people who are struggling. Financially, there are people we can help now, because we have more money. We can now do ministry from a much bigger platform, and have a much broader impact.
MD: If people only get one message from everything that you do with your life, including your reality show, what would you want that message to be?
WR: I would want it to be, “Stick with the Lord, no matter your circumstance, and you’ll have success.” That doesn’t mean success like we have. I don’t want people to think, “Well God’s given you so much, but my life is terrible.” The Bible says that the Lord was with Joseph, and he had much success. But Joseph was accused of things that he didn’t do, and he was thrown in prison. Yet, the Lord stayed with him there, and Joseph went on to do great things. There’s something about being patient. Korie and I remained patient. [My father] was patient. Our business has been around for over 40 years. Look, it didn’t happen overnight. We weren’t selling all these duck calls back in 1992. We were very patient – sticking with the Lord, and doing His will. If we never found fame with it, we would have been fine. We were happy doing what we did before, we’re happy now, and we’ll be happy when it all goes away. In America, some people think that, when the Lord blesses them with success, they should have all these worldly possessions. But that’s just not the case.
KR: God didn’t call us to live an easy life. We’re not called to be comfortable. Throughout the Bible, God encourages us to have courage – to step up, be strong, and do something courageous. So I want to encourage people to be bold with their faith. We’re not trying to teach people our entire theology of what we believe. We’re just trying to show them the way to live. Hopefully people will think, “Hey, you know, what they’ve got is pretty good. And I want to know how they got that, and where they got it from.” And then we can say, “Hey, we got it from God and our relationship with Him.” We’re certainly not perfect, but we have the Holy Spirit living in us.
WR: Just like everybody else, there are times that we struggle with things. But because of who we live for, and who’s in us, we live our lives differently. We make different choices. People ask us, “What is this? What makes your life different?” We answer by pointing them to the Lord. It’s because of Christ that we’re able to do great things. 
