Just in
case you live under a rock here is a brief summary of America’s latest drama. Last
week the Baptist Press interviewed Dan Cathy, President and CEO of Chik-Fil-A.
During this interview he was asked if the company supported “Traditional
Marriage”. His response was, “Guilty as Charged”. It was then revealed that the company makes
sizeable donations to groups that are “pro-family” , in other words, are
pushing to keep same sex couples from being able to marry. Now this should have
come as no big surprise seeing as the company was founded on traditional
Christian values and beliefs. These beliefs are so strongly held that they even
close their doors on Sundays to allow for their employees to attend church and
spend time with their families.
I am
sure Dan Cathy expected there to be some backlash for this. No company has yet
to take a side and come out unscathed. However, I don’t know if he realized just how
controversial this would become. Of
course the LGBT community and supporters have chosen to boycott the restaurant,
although to be fair, many of them already were, seeing as this really isn’t new
information; it just wasn’t highly publicized until last week.
This
boycott has nothing to do with Dan Cathy, what he said, or his religion. The
reason that people are boycotting Chik-Fil-A is because sizeable donations are
made using company money, to groups that are actively trying to prevent the
legalization of same sex marriage. These people do not want to give money to
groups whose sole mission violates their personal beliefs and values. If Dan
Cathy was making personal donations instead of corporate donations this would hardly
be an issue.
But
somehow this has become a referendum on religious liberties and freedom of speech. This has somehow become about the liberals
pushing gay marriage on people and trying to take their God from them. This has
somehow become about the left trying to silence the religious right. Do you
hear how ridiculous that sounds? It is a chicken sandwich for crying out loud!
No one
is saying boycott Chik-Fil-a because they are Christians. No one is saying that
Dan Cathy and Chik-Fil-A can’t take a stand against same sex marriage. There were
a few politicians that decided to use this as a political opportunity to gain
money and support for their campaign, but there was no actual intent to keep
Chik-Fil-A from coming into their town. There was no legal way to do that and
they were well aware of it. Please don’t be so blind as to think that was
anything other than a political stunt.
But
even if the problem was solely that Dan Cathy said he did not support same sex marriage,
there would be nothing wrong with LGBT supporters boycotting the chain. If
there was, well I guess the boycotts on all the companies in support of same
sex marriage will need to come to a halt as well. Dan Cathy has the right to
his beliefs, he even has the right to express them in public, but so does
everyone else. No one is trying to subvert anyone’s constitutional rights here.
I know for many this will be difficult for you to accept, but this isn’t about
you, and it isn’t about your rights. It’s about not buying a chicken sandwich
because even one dollar is too much to give to a cause that you don’t believe in!
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