Left-Wing Zealotry Tastes
Like Chicken
Gary Gerard, dumbhoosier.com
I think the Chick-fil-A thing is a little nutty.
First of all, why is it spelled that way? That’s just crazy. But I
digress.
There has been a firestorm of controversy surrounding the national
restaurant chain because the CEO, a guy named Dan Cathy, had the
unmitigated audacity to say that he favors traditional marriage.
Of course this immediately generated the timeless ululations of the
left, and was quickly latched onto by the national media. The CEO
was labeled a hateful homophobe.
Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia and San Francisco liberal politicians
spoke out against C-f-A and threatened to block the restaurant
chain from opening any business or further businesses in their
cities.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel said that C-f-A’s values were not “Chicago
values.” (He said a mouthful there, didn’t he? Have you read the
news from Chicago lately?)
The mayor of Washington, D.C., accused C-f-A of selling “hate
chicken.”
There was an immediate call for a nationwide boycott of C-f-A . Lots
of people were hoping aloud that C-f-A would be run out of business.
Au contraire.
Wednesday was deemed “Support C-f-A Day” by Fox News talking head
Mike Huckabee. Huge lines formed at C-f-As all across this great
land. One guy said he waited 40-cars deep at a drive through. One
woman, struck by the level of support for C-f-A, ponied up $100 of
her own money, bought gift certificates and passed them out among
those waiting in line.
C-f-As ran out of food. Long story short, it was the biggest day of
sales in the restaurant chain’s history.
Of course this is the converse of what the C-f-A opponents wanted,
but I guess that’s the market at work.
And there was a counter protest Friday. as gay couples descended
upon C-f-As and kissed each other. That didn’t garner quite the same
level of support.
(By the way, I don’t care if you’re gay or straight, I just really
don’t want to see you making out at a restaurant. It’s just creepy.)
So what, exactly, did the CEO say that got people so riled up?
Assuming it was pretty inflammatory, I went to the Baptist Press to
check it out.
It came during a July 16 interview about running a business by
Christian principles.
Cathy said this:
“... as an organization we can operate on biblical principles. So
that is what we claim to be. [We are] 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.”
Later:
When asked if Chick-fil-A’s success is attributed to biblical
values, Cathy quickly said, “I think they’re inseparable. God wants
to give us wisdom to make good decisions and choices.” Quoting James
1:5, he spoke of how often he asks God for wisdom.
“Frequently Jesus challenged us to just ask ... we’re simply not
asking as often as we should. We need to be more faithful to depend
on a God who does love us and wants to have a relationship with us,
and wants to give us the desires of our hearts.”
But here comes the really racy stuff, I guess:
The company invests in Christian growth and ministry through its
WinShape Foundation (WinShape.com). The name comes from the idea of
shaping people to be winners.
It began as a college scholarship and expanded to a foster care
program, an international ministry, and a conference and retreat
center modeled after the Billy Graham Training Center at the Cove.
“That morphed into a marriage program in conjunction with national
marriage ministries,” Cathy added.
Some have opposed the company’s support of the traditional family.
“Well, guilty as charged,” said Cathy when asked about the company’s
position.
“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.
“We operate as a family business ... our restaurants are typically
led by families; some are single. We want to do anything we possibly
can to strengthen families. We are very much committed to that,”
Cathy emphasized.
“We intend to stay the course,” he said. “We know that it might not
be popular with everyone, but thank the Lord, we live in a country
where we can share our values and operate on biblical principles.”
That’s it.
Huh? Really? That’s it?
Man, I was expecting a little more fire and brimstone.
Cathy doesn’t allow his restaurants to be open on Sunday because of
the Biblical admonition to keep the Sabbath holy.
What would you expect a guy like that to say about traditional
marriage? Was anyone surprised?
Oh, I get it. He should just keep his mouth shut. He needs to be
exiled into one of those “No Free Speech Zones.” You know, just
another politically correct, compassionate liberal concept.
And you know what?
I would be willing to bet a paycheck that the vast majority of
people who are vilifying this “anti-gay” CEO voted for Barack Obama
in the last election.
At that time – yes, I know there has since been an “evolution” –
candidate Obama’s position on gay marriage was precisely the same as
Dan Cathy’s. Marriage is between a man and a woman.
“I have been to this point unwilling to sign on to same-sex marriage
primarily because of my understandings of the traditional
definitions of marriage."
President Barack Obama, Oct. 27, 2010.
"I believe that marriage is the union between a man and a woman.
Now, for me as a Christian ... it is also a sacred union. God's in
the mix."
Candidate Barack Obama, Aug. 27, 2008.
Nobody was calling the president anti-gay or homophobic. There were
no protests or “kiss-ins.”
So let me get this straight.
There are legions of people who were completely comfortable voting
to elevate a guy holding a traditional view of marriage into the
highest elected office in the U.S.
But they won’t eat a chicken sandwich made in a restaurant whose CEO
holds that same view. And not only that, they want to ruin the guy’s
business, shuttering 1,614 restaurants in 39 states and idling
thousands of workers.
Wouldn’t that be great in this economy? Apparently, some feel the
need to punish all those workers for the vile deeds of their
hate-mongering CEO.
And Friday, there were reports of vandalism to C-f-A restaurants.
So who are the real zealots in all this?
The irony is jarring.hington D.C. They need to hang around the White
House, the Capitol and the Supreme Court.
And they need to bring pitch forks.
Archives
|
