Chikin Lovers Out of the Closet

A couple of weeks ago, there was a tremendous hub-bub when Dan Cathy, president of Chick-Fil-A affirmed in an article with the Baptist Press what has been known by many since the founding of their first restaurant: the organization operates on Christian principles. Like all companies which hold to certain corporate values, this has impacted operating principles and its corporate giving. The company I work for gives a large amount of money to health organizations in the third world and has created a employment policy which made it a Top 100 company in Working Mothers Magazine and gave it the highest score in the Human Rights Campaign Foundation's LGBT Ranking. Those corporate values have also led to the sponsorship of special events for non-profits who are active in health and women's issues and certain pet philanthropic causes, through it's company foundation. Those corporate values also led the company I work for to give generous donations to fine art institutions in New York City.

For Chick-Fil-A, their organization principles manifest themselves in things such as its closure on Sunday (in respect of the Sabbath), treating every customer (regardless of race, gender, creed, belief or sexual orientation) with honor, dignity and respect, and through its foundation, college scholarships, foster care programs, an international ministry, and a conference and retreat center modeled after the Billy Graham Training Center at the Cove. Oh yeah, and they also support national marriage ministries, which support and educate people around biblical marriage: a Christ-centered marriage of fidelity and respect between a man and a woman.

Of course, that last part is what the media flashed in the sky in big lights and a number of liberal progressives went bonkers, along with their enablers.

Boycotts were called for, and a couple of mayors pledged to do what they could to eject Chick-Fil-A from their towns and revoke their licenses. The unsurprising (but still disturbing) chants of "ignorant bigots" and "hate-mongers" were thrown around like confetti. Careless comparisons with the Ku Klux Klan and Nazism were made. Why not? It was part of the radical LGBT public affairs and strategic communications playbook. Part of this playbook is also feeding to media outlets like CNN soundbites of the most heinous outliers (see the Westboro Baptist folk) who say things like "kill the homos" and "incinerate the fags". Why? It accomplishes two purposes: (1) People on the fence react rightfully in horror, and think, "I'm not one of those people. I'm going to support LGBT!" and (2) People who are principled to support biblical marriage wince and instead of articulating their convictions and principles, are too busy disassociating themselves with the Westboro Baptist people. This is their playbook and strategy, and it works really well.

What often happens is the company president apologizes and backtracks for his words that were "misconstrued" or "taken out of context". The company censures or fires the executive in question, and the tide shifts just a little more towards the end goal of "defense of heterosexual marriage = burning a cross and lynching black people" and "homosexual marriage = abolition of slavery".

But it didn't happen.

In a grassroots effort facilitated by a handful of people including former governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, there was a massive Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day which set sales records ... on a Wednesday. Lines wrapped around blocks and social media was flooded by people who supported Chick-Fil-A by liking its Facebook page.

And in what may be a reshaping of the conversation, people starting coming "out of closet" around their support not just for traditional marriage but for their own Christian faith and convictions. No longer willing to be marginalized and forced to cower under the pressure of the radical LGBT public affairs and strategic communications playbook, more and more people bought chicken sandwiches and said in spirit, "I neither hate nor fear homosexuals. My calling to love them does not mean that I agree with every aspect of their lifestyle. And I will not be pressured into thinking that I am either evil or alone in my convictions." At least for me, I saw a glimpse of something exciting: people of faith no longer being afraid to say that they love Jesus and the Bible and all that it stands for, even those things which others find unpalatable.

But this public affairs battle will continue. It didn't escape me that CNN.com's coverage of the groundbreaking sales day was muted and perhaps made the middle of their news page. Guess what CNN.com's headline that Friday morning was? "Homosexual Marriage Supporters Plan Kiss-In to Protest Chick-Fil-A". It was practically a casting call to get people to go. At the end of the day, hardly anyone showed up and the protest fizzled. Nice try, CNN.

At the end of the day, there needs to be a change in people's understanding on this issue and what disagreement really means and doesn't mean. Rick Warren said it perfectly on behalf of people of faith on this issue:

Our culture has accepted two huge lies: The first is that if you disagree with someone's lifestyle, you must fear them or hate them. The second is that to love someone means you agree with everything they believe or do. Both are nonsense. You don't have to be compromise convictions to be compassionate.

Wise words. If you think that Christians who believe in biblical marriage are ignorant and hateful bigots, please consider this. And if you, like me, are a Christian that believes in biblical marriage, let's make sure that we're taking seriously our responsibility to love those whom we disagree with.