Chick-Fil-A chicken strips (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
When Dan Cathy, CEO of Chick-Fil-A, waded hip-deep into the same-sex marriage debate on a recent radio show when he said “we’re inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at him and say we know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage. And I pray God’s mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude that thinks we have the audacity to redefine what marriage is all about.”
Cathy’s religious convictions are well known, since no Chick-Fil-A store is open on Sunday. And same-sex marriage is still considered ripe to criticize, unlike miscegenation (destroyed by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Loving v. Virginia in the late 1960s). Some day, Cathy’s comments will be seen for what they are: bigoted, biased, and archaic.
There have been swift denunciations of his stance. Boston’s Mayor Tom Manino wrote a scathing letter, agreeing he has the right to his opinion but suggesting that Chick-Fil-A had a snowflake’s chance in hell of opening in his town. The same goes for the councilman from Philadelphia. Their reactions are pretty much what you’d expect in a time when gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered folks are no longer unknown to the general public, when positive gay characters show up regularly on TV (an absolute imperative if we are to gain acceptance), and when some states do, indeed, allow same-sex marriage without the government or infrastructure falling apart.
Whenever something obscene or outrageous takes place in this country, one of our knee-jerk reactions is to ignore the rule of law and take matters into our own hands. But of course, that isn’t the way to deal with Mr. Cathy and his company. Boycott Chick-Fil-A if you are able to. That’s a positive way of showing your displeasure. Tell all your friends what a reactionary Cathy is. Think deeply about how organized religion fosters such bizarre thinking, and then think about ditching it for something more rational.
Protest outside Chick-Fil-A stores. Legally, of course. Make your point that way. But realize you will never change Cathy’s mind about what god has in mind for gays. (The answer is nothing, since there isn’t any god, but that’s for other posts to consider.) You can, however, change his revenue stream, by dissing the fast food operation every chance you get. Write letters to the editor, make it the subject of your blog posts (as I am doing right now) and alert everyone you know about the bigotry behind the chicken.
Someday in the not-too-distant future, this will be remembered as the minor event that it is. But for now, stand up and let Cathy know that you’re offended by his antediluvian statements. Tell him god told to you do it.
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Ironic, I was listening to Howard Stern today and he was talking about this and he is boycotting Chick-Fil-A!