If we Christians spent as much time working on our marriages as we do fussing about #Chicfila, people might actually listen to us.
— Rob Tucker (@FriarTuckerx6) August 2, 2012
Twitter has been flooded with hundreds, probably thousands of tweets, including the #chicfila hashtag. It is all the rage right now for people to throw their opinion out there about Dan Cathy, Chic-Fil-A or those who oppose Chic-Fil-A.
“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,” Cathy is quoted as saying.
It can be intriguing to read what people are writing on twitter, blogs and facebook. Often, it is humorous to see the arguments people use…literally attacking beliefs that Dan Cathy likely doesn’t espouse…or vice versa. Evangelicals everywhere are either promoting Chic-Fil-A and the August 1st Chic-Fil-A day or they are decrying the whole “support Chic-Fil-A” agenda as childish or at worst, useless. Some will say that supporting corporations for taking these stands is important; others would say “who cares.” Many make it a 1st amendment issue, some call it a religious right.
The fact remains that it is hard for me to believe that everyone who went to Chic- Fil-A on August 1st is a born again Christian supporting reliance on God’s Word for faith and practice. I tend to believe that the Chic-Fil-A day support was far more related to a mutual opposition to homosexual marriage AND political agreement about free speech than about the biblical Jesus for most of the attendees. I wonder if “Chic-Fil-A” day could have been a distraction, in a sense. Something which created a false sense of unity between people with opposing views of God, but who happen to agree about gay marriage and/or the first amendment.
Which leads me to wonder. Would you support Chic-Fil-A if:
- Dan Cathy publicly explained that he believes in traditional marriage and that salvation is only through Christ by grace through faith and that there is nothing you can do to earn God’s favor?
- Dan Cathy supports traditional marriage and clearly believes that heterosexuals who are unmarried and living together or sleeping together are as damned in God’s eyes as homosexuals?
- Cathy pointed out that idolatry and greed are sins as well as the fact that he supports traditional marriage?
- Cathy said he supported traditional marriage and said drunkards and liars have no place in the kingdom of God?
- Cathy said that you are no different from the most hateful, deviant homosexual, and that you are utterly deserving of God’s wrath for your sin and that no amount of good behavior, praying or sacraments would get you to heaven? That no matter how many chicken tenders you buy to show your opposition to homosexuals, and no matter how many babies you help prevent being aborted and no matter how many prayers you say, tithes you offer or good deeds you do – that you are a wicked sinner in your own right undeserving of anything better than eternal hell?
- Would you still be waiting in line over an hour for fried chicken?
I am not sure everyone would still support Chic-Fil-A if any of these scenarios were true. We could go deeper and within Christianity find out that Cathy believes in baby baptisms, tongues and signs or any number of secondary-but-oft-disputed doctrines. How much would you sacrifice to show support of his company that day?
Do you see my point? Sure, I agree with the quotes I’ve heard about Dan Cathy’s personal support of the traditional marriage. I agree that he is correct that God has specified one man and one woman as the design for marriage according to the bible. And I think it is great for Christians to rally around other Christians, especially during persecution to show support.
But in the end, I hope that we remember that being Christian doesn’t mean being republican, or pro-life or anti-gay. Being on the same side on any number of issues may impact culture in a positive way, but we need to be careful that we don’t just call everyone in the line at Chic-Fil-A brother or sister, just as we wouldn’t assume everyone in a church building on a Sunday is born-again.
Now here’s a tweet worth retweeting!
https://twitter.com/jrLaurinaitis/status/231388038075392000
You are right!