Ignorance

I'm angry. More than anything, though, I'm hurt. I realize that we all have some pretty strong feelings about what has been going on with Chick-fil-a recently, although I shouldn't say recently because they have always shown a disdain for homosexuals, but quite frankly if you think this is all about freedom of speech you are being ignorant.

What if Dan Cathy had said, "We support the biblical view of slavery," or "We believe that if God intended races to mix we'd all been placed on the same continent."

Of course, if he had been around to say those things when they were actual issues the same kind of senseless arguing that is going on now would have taken place and in fact did take place. Dan Cathy would have been 100% Confederate and vehemently anti-interracial marriage if he had lived in those time periods.

So you see, this is more than about freedom of speech, this is about discrimination. This is about hateful attitudes that lead to senseless suicides, broken people, and needless dissension.

I stopped eating at Chick-fil-a more than a year ago. No one from the company had made any public comments about marriage equality; however, the company had already taken a stance on the issue. Chick-fil-a donates large sums of money to religious organizations that have been designated as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center. These groups sit right alongside the KKK on long lists of organizations in American dedicated to destroying tolerance, equality, and diversity. In the past year, Chick-fil-a donated at least $2 million to groups like the Family Research Council and Exodus International.

The Family Research Council regularly publishes bogus "scientific studies" that have no standing in the real scientific community. Every respected medical and psychological entity out there affirms that homosexuality is not a choice.

Exodus International was an organization dedicated to "reparative therapy" for homosexuals, better known in the media as "pray the gay away." The American Psychological Association condemns this practice as very damaging to the subject. Exodus International has recently disbanded and the pioneer of reparative therapy, Dr. Robert Spitzer, has renounced all of his work. He stated that his findings regarding a person changing his or her sexual orientation were "unproven" and he apologized to the LGBT community.

Going forward, I would suspect Chick-fil-a to continue funding groups that are damaging and damning our friends, our neighbors, our brothers and our sisters. This is about more than religious freedom or freedom of speech. Mr. Cathy has every right to say any hateful or inaccurate thing he wants. However,  and more importantly, your children deserve to be loved for who they are, your sister has the deserves the right to marry who she loves, and we all have the right to grow up in a world that doesn't tell us we are disgusting vile demons. Dan Cathy is wrong, and I will not allow my money to fund such atrocities.

Get the facts, do some research, don't just blindly post or "like" pictures celebrating Chick-fil-a's "religious freedom" or "freedom of speech." Every time you click share or like and every time you dip that nugget into some Polynesian sauce, you are sending a message to some kid somewhere that he is doomed, unloved, dirty, and demonic. His blood will be on your hands.

Calling out the Peters

I often get philosophical when I mow the yard. I think that is one reason why I like mowing so much. There is really nothing to do but think for about an hour and a half. Yesterday, while I was mowing, I had a lot on my mind. Most of it had to do with all the hate that has flooded my newsfeed lately. You see, I subscribe to a few news pages that update regularly to tell me what people are doing to take away my rights, to poison the food I eat, to ensure that I know I'm going to hell. Honestly, I need to unsubscribe from it all because it just makes my blood pressure rise. Of course, most, if not all, of the people saying these things label themselves "conservative Christians," albeit nothing they say is ever Christlike.

So, I was thinking about these people yesterday while on the mower and I was reminded of the time when Paul called out Peter for living a double standard.

11 But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong. 12 When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile Christians, who were not circumcised. But afterward, when some friends of James came, Peter wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore. He was afraid of criticism from these people who insisted on the necessity of circumcision. 13 As a result, other Jewish Christians followed Peter’s hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. -Galatians 2:11-13

I feel as though Christians today live in some sort of hypocrisy like this. It seems Christians today are afraid to extend a loving welcome to those they consider "uncircumcised" for fear of being condemned by the likes of the Tea Party or Fox News. Those Christians who have done so (such as the Presbyterians) have faced scrutiny from their "brothers and sisters in Christ." It's time for this Peter generation to be called out. Shame on them for propagating hate and dissension in the name of Christ.  

Things people say...

I'm often quite astonished by the kinds of things people share with me while I'm performing my duties at the local grocery store. The other night I was putting out milk and this lady in her mid 60s came up to me and started complaining about the price of milk. "Yes, it's gotten quite expensive," I concurred. Then she went into how she is lactose intolerant and she has to buy the lactose free milk because the soy milk tastes bad. "Oh, okay," I say. Then, she spurts this little gem (which I quote as verbatim as my memory allows):

"And what really gets me is MY government gives all the Spanish people 500 dollars a month in food stamps! It's just not right... but there's nothing we can do about it. Except pray."

And she walks away.

I was stunned. I should be used to this kind of thinking because I live in the South, but for some reason it just caught me so off guard. Let's think about how that prayer would go...

"Dear God, I'm white and therefore superior and you love me more so could you please stop giving the Hispanics food stamps? Amen."

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