As I understand it, Dan Cathy, son of Chick-Fil-A's founder and the current CEO, expressed in response to an interviewer his support for "traditional family values". Specifically, it was brought up that there are those who oppose Chick-Fil-A's support of the traditional family. Cathy's response? "Well, Guilty as charged..."
We are very much supportive of the family--the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that."
As I further understand the situation, these comments ignited a firestorm of hatred, and the mayors of Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco declared Chick-Fil-A not welcome in their cities. Really? This is completely stunning to me. There are those people, stirred up into an angry mob, who are asking folks to boycott this restaurant and throwing around words like bigot, discrimination, and hate. I simply don't understand.
I have read no article where Chick-Fil-A discriminated against a customer or employee. I have never been in a CFA restaurant and witness acts of hatred, bigotry, or discrimination. In fact, their customer service has been, in my experience, some of the very best in the industry. I do not see Dan Cathy expressing any "anti" views towards any group. He simply expressed his support for traditional family values. Have we really come to the place in the United States of America that believing in such values makes one a bigot? Guilty of discrimination, hate, and to have your rights to grow your business infringed on? I have no idea if CFA has or had plans to expand into the cities whose mayors spoke for their populations to declare CFA unwelcome, not because they broke a law, but because they expressed a viewpoint. What happened to the Constitutional right to free speech?
OK, that's all the "big idea" talk. Here's the nitty gritty rubber meets the road for me personally. I am a Bible believing Christ follower. I know in some folk's minds that makes me a right wing nutcase. I believe in traditional family values in that they reflect Biblical values. I am not a perfect person, as such a thing does not exist. I am a sinner whom God chose to redeem. My sin is probably different than your sin. But believe me I am guilty of breaking God's divine laws.
I would not call myself a bigot. I do not hate any group. I do not hold one sin above another in severity. For example, I was an unwed mother at age 18. God calls my sin fornication, and I am guilty as charged. He does not forbid it to keep me from delight, but from suffering. There are many other specific things God calls sin: lying, adultery, homosexuality, pride, gluttony, etc. The Bible is clear that ALL sin. That means that each of us have violated at least one if not many of His commands, either in thought, word, or deed. Should I hate the whole world? Never.
My support of Biblical values is NOT synonymous for hatred of anyone, including those who are part of the gay/lesbian community. I am not so naive as to believe that all who call themselves Christians are like me. I have heard shameful speech from those who should know better. This is sin as well. While I believe God says homosexual behavior is prohibited I absolutely can love and have friends within that community. I believe fornication and adultery are wrong according to God. I love and have friends who have been involved in these things as well. If I were to refuse to associate with or hate every sinner, I would need to cut myself off from the world, including my own self.
I have had family members in homosexual relationships bring their friends to my home. There is a man I went to high school with who I greatly admire for his kindness, who I would absolutely trust to care for my children, who continues in a long term homosexual commitment. I do not agree with his choice. I do not believe it makes him a monster.
There is a young man who is often in my home who will be a teenage father soon. I do not agree with his choice (fornication). I do not believe it made him unfit to associate with our family. I hope that I can be of some encouragement to him, in fact, as this is a sin I am sadly personally acquainted with.
There are members of my family who have struggled with addictions and alcohol. I do not agree with their choices, and I do hold these things to be sinful choices and not simply "illnesses". Despite their sin, I don't hold myself above them in any way.
In each of these examples I would not allow the behavior to go on IN my home, let me be clear about that. My relationships with these people, however, are not focused on these issues but on friendship, love, and respect for another human being. I think it is important to share the truth (which to me is God's truth) in love with other, but in my day to day life that sharing needs to be relationship based. I am not called to go around bashing anyone over the head with my Bible.
In conclusion, I did attend the Chick-Fil-A appreciation day. I wanted to show my support for a company whose values I share, whom I believe has been the victim of a media attack. I KNOW that I could head down to my local restaurant on any given day with any of the folks I mentioned in this blog and we would all be treated with respect, courtesy, and have a great meal. I love that they are closed on Sundays. I love that in America I am free to patronize this business, or simply go somewhere else. I do not want to see that freedom disappear. I find it very odd that the very groups who accuse others of bigotry, hatred, and intolerance are those that are guilty of those things themselves.
That's my 2 cents. Standing for what I think is right, that is today's adventure...
Well said and ditto that
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