I’m sick of this Chick-Fil-A nonsense.
Christians, stop antagonizing gay people by banding together to support a company because the owners profess to be Christians and hold Christian values. This does not send a good message. You don’t need a Chick-Fil-A solidarity day because Chick-Fil-A is NOT the church. Gay people have every right in this country to boycott goods and services just as you have the right to boycott goods and services.
Taking pictures and posting them online of you defiantly eating a spicy chicken sandwich does nothing for the cause of the Gospel and inflames anger in people we are called to love (and don’t start with the “love is not the same as acceptance” I understand that, I’m trying to make a point). Hebrews 12:14 tells us, “Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” As Christians we are called to peace and the striving that we do should not be directed to defending a fast food chicken company but striving in pursuit of our own holiness.
Christians, you should not be trying to win social political wars. Secularism won a long time ago and Christendom fell long ago. You know what though? That is good news. Whenever the church gets in bed with politics and the authority structures of this age, bad things happen. When the church is persecuted and reviled, it tends to become purified because saying that one is a Christian is much less difficult than actually being one.
People, gay and straight, who sympathize with the concerns of gay marriage please stop antagonizing Christians by trying to force them to change their view on something the church has been in agreement on, despite many splits, since the first century until the (I think) mid 1900s. Your antagonism puts Christians like me in a bad spot. We see how support of companies like Chick-Fil-A can be hurtful and we agree that the church has done a terrible job, putting slogans and companies before our faith. But you have to realize that our faith actually requires us to discard what we see as sin and turn toward repentance.
What Christians have tried to do is legislate Christian morality through political means, and for that I apologize. That is wrong and not part of a Christian ethos, but Christians are scared because they see government as a monolithic juggernaut, which it can be, coming to take away their rights which are just as Constitutionally valid as your own.
So please, let’s stop yelling past each other, and let’s stop rousing our respective groups against one another. That only leads to increased hatred, fear, and contributes to our already paltry ability to dialogue in the middle of profound differences. As St. Paul reminds us from his letter to the Romans, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” (12:14-18)
Sojourneyman 