The Chick-Fil-A fight is about not doing business with a company that spends millions of dollars supporting organizations that actively work to take away rights
THE BEEF WITH CHIKIN | Fake Chick-Fil-A ads popped up on the Internet including this one that equates the company to Westboro Baptist Church.
I guess it was inevitable. Eventually, I would have to cluck in on the Chick-Fil-A silliness, and that is just what it is, silliness.
First let me say, I have never eaten at a Chick-Fil-A. I have never liked the way they butcher the English language. Additionally, about the only time I ever was near one of the poultry purveyors stores was on a Sunday, and they are closed on Sunday, (which they claim is the Sabbath).
Now, I don’t have a problem with a company running itself however it wants so long as it doesn’t break the laws or discriminate against minorities. So the fact that Chick-Fil-A claims to run on biblical principals is fine. However, when the CEO of that chicken outfit starts taking his beef about LGBT people to the press, then it’s time to start clucking.
Chick-Fil-A CEO Dan Cathy said in an interview when questioned about same-sex marriage, “I think we’re inviting God’s judgment when we shake our fist at him, you know saying, ‘We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage.’ And I pray on God’s mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we would have the audacity to try and redefine what marriage is all about.”
When asked about his business he said, “…as an organization we can operate on biblical principles. So that is what we claim to be. Based on biblical principles, asking God and pleading with God to give us wisdom on decisions we make about people and the programs and partnerships we have. And He has blessed us.”
OK, he is entitled to his opinion, and that’s fine, but I don’t have to do business with him, and I won’t. End of story.
But I can’t let this go without pecking at it a bit more. That whole thing about running his business on biblical principals really sticks in my craw. You see prior to converting to Christianity, I was raised in a Jewish household, so the Old Testament, what Jews call the Tanakh or just “the Bible” for short, is near and dear to my heart.
I also know from study of the scriptures and the Talmud that it is not a guide to running a business, especially one that sells fried chicken. The mere fact that Chick-Fil-A is open on Saturday, the real Sabbath, is testament to their screwing up on biblical principals. Add to that the menu for breakfast which includes not just bacon and pork sausage, but cream gravy and I defy Mr. Cathy to show me those foods being OK with the same Bible that he is pulling his principals from.
Mr. Cathy is picking and choosing his biblical principals to suit his business model, not the other way around and that is a grand hypocrisy that he shares with most “fundamentalists” in their pious condemnations of LGBT people. They have defiled the Holy Scriptures of both the Old and
New Testament by trying to turn these books of collected wisdom and ancient spiritual teaching into a list of bumper stickers. He uses the old Baptist tradition of “sword verses” to slay his opponents with a quick biblical quote. The idea that just quickly pronouncing a few lines from the Bible will end an argument with a quick thrust is a completely bird-brained idea and just plain immature theology.
His statement is really a feathered pronouncement of bigotry and ignorance, and rather than calming the fuss, Cathy has brought down a whole flock of trouble. Companies like Jim Henson have severed business relationships and several cities have actually sent letters to Chick-Fil-A telling them in effect, “we don’t need your business in our town.”
It has even hatched a “kiss-in” protest to highlight the issue and I suspect it will not go away for several years.
Meanwhile, for LGBT people, boycotting Chick-Fil-A is a win-win situation. First, you don’t give these folks your hard earned hen scratch, and second you stand to improve your cholesterol and waistline! Finding that kind of outcome in today’s polarized world is as rare as hen’s teeth.
Hardy Haberman is a longtime local LGBT activist and board member for the Woodhull Freedom Alliance. His blog is at DungeonDiary.blogspot.com.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition August 3, 2012.
