Never Be Chicken about Your Beliefs
Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day was a huge success. The parking lots were full of cars. The lines were long. The food was great. And not a discouraging word was said from those who participated. I’ve heard that where homosexuals came to demonstrate that they were given food and drinks. Contrast this with the hate-speech and business bullying that comes from the Left.
Homosexuals want to counter the Appreciation Day by having a “kiss-in” at Chick-fil-A restaurants. What will this demonstrate? First, they’re whiners when they don’t get their way, and they didn’t get their way on this issue. They lost a very big public relations battle even though they had the mayors of several major cities behind them and most of the media. Check out this 46-second video from WCVB, Boston:
Consider this backhanded slap at the Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day from Fox News’ Shepard Smith:
It’s National Badminton Day. Let’s forget National Day of Intolerance. Let’s just stay with badminton.
Earlier this year Smith “applauded President Obama’s announcement of support for gay marriage with this statement: ‘The president of the United States, now in the 21st century.’” Don’t be too surprised if Shep pulls an Anderson Cooper before year’s end.
Second, the so-called gay rights movement is not about being gay but about engaging in a certain type of sexual behavior, an irrational, destructive, and immoral type of sexual behavior. Passing laws to force other people to accept that behavior borders on fascism. What’s next for the “gay sex deniers,” re-education camps? Right, we already have them. They’re called public (government) schools.
I’ve said all along that the Chick-fil-A episode could become a cultural tipping point. Would Dan Cathy, the CEO of Chick-fil-A, retract his comments that he and his company support biblical marriage, a union of one man and one woman? I knew he never would. Any company that is willing to give up millions of dollars in sales every year by closing all its stores on Sundays was not going to be intimidated by anyone.
The Bible says that “the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil” (1 Tim. 6:10). It’s obvious that the Cathys don’t love money, and if they don’t love money, then they don’t care about having their reputations dragged through the mud by bullies. Their priorities are in the right place. They trust God to supply their needs. If they lost everything tomorrow, the Cathys wouldn’t regret the stand they took or bad mouth their enemies. They would acknowledge the sovereignty of God and move on.
The Cathys never said a disparaging word to anyone about their beliefs. They stood their ground with dignity and biblical rectitude modeled after these words:
“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 conceited. 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. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ To the contrary, ‘if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Rom. 12:14–21).
The most heartening thing I saw was support for a moral principle from people all across the United States. If we can do it in the defense of a company that laid it all on the line for what it believes, then we can do the same on other issues. Hopefully the silent majority won’t be silent anymore. There’s a lot to be done to turn our nation around. The Cathys showed us how to stand on a principle: Don’t remain silent and don’t chicken out. There’s work to be done.