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| They just want to protect marriage. And waffle fries on the side. |
The first salvo has been fired in the great Chicken Sandwich
War of 2012. Generally I pay little attention to slacktivism. Every week it
seems there is a new cause to stand behind that is of the utmost importance and
can be solved with a few tweets, statuses, or article shares. Angry arguments
ensue with smarter people being quoted and misquoted constantly in a silly
attempt to sway the other side and make them realize they are godless heathens
for not agreeing with you. It’s a phenomenon of this generation and this highly
connected society that increases in visibility what it decreases in relevance. To
those of us that chose to think, read, and think again before replying to or
engaging in any of the causes of the month the debates that are created are
great, free entertainments.
Then there is this Chicken Sandwich War. A Christian
president of a company that is well-known and indeed famous for its adherence
to certain Christian principles (try getting a chicken sandwich on a Sunday)
makes a statement in a religious media outlet that he opposes same-sex marriage.
Such a predictable statement should have barely registered on the national news
radar. Boycotts from the gay community and friends had been called months ago.
I personally know many people who have not eaten there for a long time because
of the company’s stance on the issue. That is their right as is the company’s
to believe in any guiding principles they choose to for their enterprise. Well,
until it begins to infringe upon the rights of others, which in a legal sense
it has not yet done.
Unfortunately, shortly after the interview was widely
disseminated this country lost its sanity. Instead of thinking like rational
adults that hey a guy has a right to believe how he likes and I have a right to
choose not to buy his products we instead devolved into a rabble of
hate-spewing (often-entertaining) Neanderthals (no offense to any actual
Neanderthals reading this).
Sadly, this is nothing new either. Politics entered the
conversation and as it did the conversation changed tone. It became a battle of
ideologies and then even that transcended the political realm to touch on the
religious as well. Now to eat a chicken sandwich at this establishment was to
protect free speech and the traditional family. None of which were or are
actually in danger. Again, even at this point I was ready to watch and let the
situation and the heated diatribes from either side cool off as sanity slowly
returned. It always happened, that is the cycle of such things.
And then today. Chick-Fil-A appreciation day.
The response by those who ignorantly or willfully believe
that a restaurant has become a political and ideological standing ground have
turned it, in my mind, to the Fort Sumter of this insanity and in doing so have
made a madness-induced delusion into a reality. The line in the sand has been
drawn and slacktivism or not these people that supported Chick-Fil-A today have
lost the protection they had in my eyes of rational, thinking, feeling human
beings. To eat there because you had a craving is one thing. To eat there to
consciously support outdated and dangerous ideas about homosexuality is
completely another.
I was appalled as I saw many, many pictures of people posing
for pictures with huge smiles on their faces, holding up their Chick-Fil-A bag
and spewing some empty-headed nonsense about supporting “Christian values” or “protecting
freedom of speech.” These pictures are openly mocking and deeply hurtful. They
very nearly made me physically ill. Here it was no longer about a chicken
sandwich. It was no longer about protecting your own point of view. No, now it
was unmistakably about hate.
The first salvo has been fired. I suspect the other side
will be creative in its response. It is true that in the end no one wins, but
how can one remain silent? The “traditional family” is a nice sanitized myth,
but the persecution of homosexuals is a very true, very painful reality.
