Let me state a couple of things first:
Spicy Chix – pickles + (pepperjack x 2) = formula of perfection.
- There is no fast food I prefer more than a spicy chicken sandwich (no pickle with two slices of pepperjack cheese), waffle fries (with two packets of Chick-fil-a sauce to dip them in, and a Dr. Pepper. I even prefer it over Chipotle right now. Seriously.
- The Bible clearly teaches that homosexuality is a sin. Like all sins, it can be atoned for by the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Like all other sins, if Christ blood does not cover it, it will lead to eternal judgment.
- I did not eat at Chick-fil-a on August 1st. I don’t think that decision effected my walk with the Lord, my country’s perspective on marriage, nor the way I can speak about marriage in my church.
- If you ate at Chick-fil-a on August 1, I have no problem with that. (See first bullet point.)
Now that those statements are out of the way, allow me to make a few others. First, let’s look again at the quote from Dan Cathy. (You can follow a full report trail from the Washington Post, who links to a Christian Post article and the Baptist Press article.)
“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.”
Notice the following:
- According to the article, Cathy had received flack because they supported traditional marriage. Their support was not by blasting other definitions of marriage. No, if you look, their support was in the form of providing marriage counseling and retreats for couples.
- Cathy’s quote emphasizes “first wives,” which really targets another issue rampant in the church: divorce. It would be good for us as believers to take a look at the issue of divorce within the church, and do what we can to help prevent that and call people to reconciliation.
But as Trevin Wax pointed out, this controversy is more about Jesus than it is about homosexuality. I agree with him. This article also does a great job of pointing out how misplaced the overreaction of the tolerance crowd is. The reaction of the world is ridiculous. Chick-fil-a supports marriage conferences to help a man and his bride stay married. This is offensive to the world because somehow that’s a smack in the face to homosexuality? Therefore, they blast him for his traditional view on marriage. He agrees that he holds a traditional view of marriage and so mayors proclaim they will deny permits for his company to ever operate in their town???? There’s got to be a bigger issue than marriage at stake here.
It’s almost like the world hates Jesus. And almost like they’ll also hate his disciples. (John 15:18) Nah, it can’t be that.
We shouldn’t be surprised if the world overreacted. But we should look around and wonder if we didn’t overreact too. Just consider the following:
- In the Baptist Press article, Cathy quotes from something he heard from Fred Roach: “There is no such thing as a Christian business…Christ never died for a corporation. He died for you and me.” Cathy added, “In that spirit … [Christianity] is about a personal relationship. Companies are not lost or saved, but certainly individuals are.”
- No one got saved today because you ate a chicken sandwich, or didn’t eat a chicken sandwich. If you ate there, it was not an act of bravery, it did not require boldness and it did not defend the gospel. It showed you enjoy good food, and it potentially told the CEO you agree with his statement.
- While I love Chick-fil-a sandwiches (see first point of post), man does not live by chicken alone. It’s not physical food that matters but the Bread of Life that provides what matters.
- Your government cannot destroy what God has established. We confuse this because our government allows weddings to be performed by judges, pastors and sea captains (maybe I’m missing some others, but that alone is a weird trio!). However, if the government outlawed the institution of marriage, we would still practice it. Our legislature can define it however they want, it will not change the Christian definition.
- Yes, persecution may be coming for Christians who hold to Biblical positions. Yes, the silliness of the reaction of the world to Chick-fil-a may be a preview of the attitude to come. But guess what? We won’t be alone then. We’ll be in a long line of Christians who have run into conflict with the world because of Jesus.
But Jesus never calls us to fight back with the weapons of this world.
Apathy stinks. Apathy is deadly. Certainly, I want passionate believers in my church. But I believe Satan is just as pleased when our passions are misplaced. It seems like today there is a whole host of people searching for a cause and looking for a battle to join. We Christians should be the last ones who have to look!
- Eat Mor Chikin. Sure. But do it because you enjoy the taste, not because the battle is fought with corporations.
- Vote your convictions. Sure. But don’t fall victim for thinking that Uncle Sam will be your Savior or that the battle is fought on Capital Hill.
- Fight for sexual purity…in the church. Let’s fight to keep believers’ marriages together, help born-again men overcome staring at porn, encourage our saved teens to practice abstinence until they are married. Let’s not demand the world starts acting like saints before we point them to Christ.
And if you really want to fight. Pick up your Bible. Reach out to someone else and lovingly share with them the message of Jesus Christ as the sacrifice for the sins of anyone who repents and trusts in Him. We shouldn’t have to look for the battle. Jesus gave us our marching orders right before He ascended. We aren’t called to fight as the world fights. We’re called to proclaim the gospel.
No thanks will come from the world. We won’t get applause and they won’t cease to fight with accusations, intimidation and even persecution. But when the trials are most severe, may you and I simply look back to them and say what every good Chick-fil-a employee proclaims:
“It was my pleasure.”
danny wright 
well said!
Amen.
thank you
Thanks Danny!! Well spoken!
A fairly clear and interesting post, Danny. But (and this is a serious question, as I have not seen this properly illustrated) how does the Bible clearly teach that homosexuality is a sin? This question is actually only barely relevant to this particular post, but I am curious as to the origins of your belief.
Jessi,
I’ll do my best to be brief (not an easy job for me), but I would say the Bible teaches it both explicitly and implicitly.
Explicitly: Genesis 19 presents the homosexual activity of the Sodomites as sinful. Leviticus 18 presents homosexuality as a perversion of sex and as sin. In Romans 1, Paul states that men were exchanging the natural use of a man with a woman for the unnatural of a man with a man. 1 Corinthians 6 & 1 Timothy 1 both present homosexuality in a list of other sins that are in defiance to God.
Implicitly: The Bible simply never presents marriage relationships as anything other than a man and a woman. Genesis 1 presents that God created woman as the counterpart to man. Every text about marriage speaks of a man with his wife. Also, in Ephesians 5 (which probably provides the greatest explanation for the purpose of marriage) lays out that a husband and wife display Christ and the Church. This cannot simply be done by one person choosing the role of “Christ” and the other choosing “church.” But there is a beauty here too. The church is called the body of Christ and is very similar (like a man and a woman are both persons created in God’s image), yet they are also remarkably different in makeup (Jesus is Creator, we are creation). Therefore, a man and woman (because they are both different and similar) can display this dynamic, but a man and a man (who is similar and similar) could not.
That’s a nutshell take, but I hope that helps. Honestly, the Bible doesn’t say a ton specifically about homosexuality. And in some ways the church does one or two things… 1) Make homosexuality a greater sin than all others, virtually as unforgivable. or 2) Not see the moral ramifications of setting a heart in denial to the way the Creator designed us and thus simply treat the issue as behavior and not as sin.
Danny –
What would you say about the passages regarding girls forced to marry their rapist? or being stoned for not being a virgin? or marrying your dead brother’s wife – and you have to stay married to your first wife? We certainly do not follow those principles anymore, so why do some people still hold onto the old testament view of homosexuality when it is part of all of these other “Biblical traditions of marriage” that we no longer go by? Seems to me if people want traditional marriage and deny those rights to others, we should start stoning girls and forcing them to marry their rapists…
Hmmm. I am proud to say that I supported Chic-fil-A by eating there yesterday. I seized the opportunity to make a statement that there are a lot of us who support free speech and the Biblical view of marriage. I loved the lesson my children learned about acting on your convictions and the amazement in their eyes that so many others were willing to do the same. I got a good piece of chicken out of it, but it was a sacrifice. There will be less meat on our table this week to make up for the $24 I spent at Chick-fil-A, and it took a chunk out of my day and a little of my sanity to manage 6 kids in the crowd for 2 hours. It may not have been the most important thing I did all day. In my fight for the gospel yesterday, I shared the Word of God with my kids and took them to our church to sort 141 backpacks and inventory thousands of school suppies that we helped collect for Haitian schoolchildren. I spent the whole day training up my children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6:4). For me– for many of us–eating at Chick-fil-A was just one act of worship in a day already devoted to God, and I was so blessed to take a stand and be a part of something so much bigger than chicken. I’m sorry you missed out.
I’m bummed anytime I miss out on eating there…but my wife would prefer to not have to roll me in and out of the house!
Thanks for your testimony. I wish I would have been there. My heart is with yours.
Well said Danny!
Well written
Wait a minute, if I understood what you said correctly…you prefer Chick-fil-a over Chipolte? Whew. Now that is one controversial statement. Yikes.
Oh, and that over stuff you said (something about marriage or Jesus) sounded pretty good. 😉
Thanks, Danny!
Well the issue is not his views or Jesus. The issue is CFA’s millions of dollars they donate to groups that promote hate and discrimination. There are many other organizations that are Christian who promote God’s love for ALL- not just some, and encourage equal rights for all – not just the ones they choose. However, the organizations CFA donates to use their money and influence to deny rights to a group of people. They validate a culture of hate and discrimination that I hope you never have to be on the receiving end of. They may not be the ones holding the knife that just carved hate language into a teenager’s stomach or the bat that just smashed someone’s head in, but what they are doing points to gays and says “they are second class citizens. they don’t deserve everything we have. they are abominations. they are not worthy of love. they are not equals. they are not worthy of acceptance.” I pray you never have to deal with that kind of unprovoked hatred.
Chris,
I would actually say to this post and the reply above to my comments to Jessi, that you actually have missed that JESUS IS EXACTLY THE POINT.
Chick-fil-a supporting traditional marriage is in no way discrimination against others. It’s a large leap to say that a organization that supports men and women who are married is actually contributing to the hate mongering that others do. Why would their be such vitriol for the support of existing marriages….I think ultimately it is because the cross of Christ is the real stumbling block.
As for the hateful actions and violence you mention….Jesus is again of course the answer. Such actions are clearly condemned by Jesus. As I mentioned in the article, the answer is not to settle differences the way in which the world does, but to solve them the way the Bible says, by pointing to Jesus as the answer!
As for my words of reply to Jessi, again Jesus is the answer. First, I listed as many New Testament verses that say homosexuality is sin as I did from the Old Testament. Also, the picture of Christ and the church speaks largely into the issue of marriage. Furthermore, understanding the Bible not as a “moral code book” or “societal rules.” The Bible reveals the sinfulness of man and our inability to be holy and righteous before Him on my own. Take a look at Leviticus 18 and compare it to Matthew 5. In light of Jesus’ words, no man stands before God sexually pure. Therefore, he is in need of a substitute sacrifice which Jesus provided on the cross when He, though sinless, died to pay our penalty. That’s the intention of the Scriptures. When you read through that grid, you can begin to see the difference between sins being spelled out, and instructions the Lord gave so that Israel could survive as a nation and function.
I appreciate your desire to protect me from hate, but I don’t think the Scripture allows it. Paul told Timothy, “Anyone who desires to live a righteous life will be persecuted.” Now, the persecution that I have faced in my life has been pretty tame, but I must remember my brothers and sisters in Christ who are being murdered all over the world (Sudan, Indonesia, Cambodia, Middle East, etc) simply because they have trusted Christ. Why should I expect or demand different treatment?
Dan,
I’m not saying the company does those things directly. It’s the fact that they donate millions of dollars to groups who do encourage discrimination that is the issue. I don’t see Christians supporting Gods word I see DIVISION and HATE! Today I don’t see God smiling I hear Satan laughing. Today we cast stones when we ourselves are guilty- today don’t call me a Christian. I call myself saved by mercy grace love of Jesus the very Love he wants ALL his children to have! If you are going to live by the bible by all means please live by all of it.
John 1:12
Yet to all who did RECEIVE him, to THOSE WHO BELIEVED in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
According to the Bible, contrary to what the world would have us think, not ALL people are automatically “children of God”. I think that is essentially what Danny is pointing out about this really being about Jesus. Honestly and unfortunately, I think it is safe to say that the majority of people who practice the homosexual lifestyle would not consider themselves followers of Christ (I am sure there are some exceptions out there, that is why I say majority) and hence they are not his children according to his Word. Jesus still loves them the same and still died and rose for them, but until someone truly comes to believe this in their own personal life they are not his child. Just adding my two cents to hopefully peacefully further extrapolate on Danny…
Thank you Danny for your insight I think you really nailed this one. Satan is on the move trying to deceive us from the Truth, and this is just his latest attack on the spiritual warfare front…
What actions, specifically, do you call divisive and hateful, Chris? Is it merely disagreement? Is it politically backing people that believe as we do? Is it putting feet to our convictions that just happen to be in disagreement to your point of view? Unless I’m missing something here, it seems that the only “cure” for someone like me is to abandon all that I have come to believe and make people of your belief system to be my new shepherd. Baaaa baaaa? Is that what you want?
Play nice.
I apologize for being inflammatory. I really do want to know.
The cure is Jesus.
On Monday thousands of American Christians stood as one and told a persecuted minority that we don’t care our legalistic dogma is more important than showing the love of Christ. Chik-Fil-A has been sued multiple times (losing many, but not all) for firing people for being gay (or working mothers, for that matter). They have given monetary support to organizations that seek to outlaw homosexuality and organizations that support such an outlawing in countries where homosexuality is punishable by life in prison or death.
Instead of standing with the least of these we acted as pharisees, publicly thumping our chests to prove our religiosity.
If the American church showed half as much enthusiasm about what Jesus has commanded us to do as we do about defending “God’s law” we may not be hemorrhaging members as much as we are. God doesn’t need our defense, and Matthew 25:31-44 tells me he’s not interested in it.
The two greatest commandments: love God, live people.
Our lack of love is sowing the seeds of our own irrelevance.
Is there anything beyond anecdotal evidence to support these conclusions? I can’t find it.
There are as many reasons for supporting Chic-fil-a as there are people doing it. Not everyone was “publicly thumping our chests to prove our religiosity”. I read statements given to the press by people who supported CFA that day and are NOT religious people at all.
Part of loving God is revering His holiness and repenting of sin… and loving people includes making them aware of what sin is, according to Scripture. “Speak the Truth in love.” Yes, a lot of people get that HORRIBLY wrong and spew all kinds of mean words to get people to change their behavior and not their heart. But that doesn’t mean pointing out sin in a loving way is also wrong.
With all due respect, I think that while you have many valid points you’ve missed the big picture. Those of us who are busy disciple making have encountered the kind of hatred that the homosexual supporters have for us. It’s nothing new. We share Christ’s love take our lumps and move on. What is different about the case of Chick fil A is that now intolerance toward the dissenting opinion is becoming institutionalized. Government bodies are being allowed (indeed with some amount of perceived moral force) to use their authority to punish others for their beliefs. Scripture enjoins Christians to pray for those in positions of authority so that there may be peace so that the Gospel might have a better context in which to be spread. If this state of affairs isn’t addressed then how long can that context endure? Indeed God is sovereign over the events of history, but He uses His people to effect that course. Let us not make less of this than what it is.
I don’t doubt that I lack some perspective James, so it is possible that I’m missing some of the political perspective…that’s certainly not my forte.
However, I guess I wonder how much Chick-fil-a has suffered. Did they have permits in Boston and Chicago that are actively being declined? Or was this just political posturing by those other men saying they would shut down theoretical requests? If they have literally declined active requests, I could see an element of “suffering” there, but if it’s just theory, Chick-fil-a got a lot of free press…not exactly suffering.
While I cherish our freedoms and do want to take them captive to proclaim the gospel, I do think we need to remember though, God has expanded His gospel in places that those freedoms were not afforded. These liberties are comfortable for you and I to live under, but not essential for God to proclaim His gospel.
If I eat the spicy chicken at Wendy’s does that mean I support adoption? If I eat one at McDonalds does that mean I support clowns? Actually the only time we purposely choose a certain restaurant is when we want to support a local business or just like their food.