yup. another post on the internet about Chik-Fil-A is a brewing. [WARNING: this may be LONG.]

i'm not saying i've posted about them before. i have, however, written quite a lot about what this post is really going to touch on: Christians failing Christianity. Chik-Fil-A is just my vessel this time and, obviously, super relevant at the moment. i'll take the easy chance when i can.

quick background for those that don't know: i grew up in the church... not just in it, but heavily involved. in the church band, performing special music, helping lead my youth group, AWANAS, etc., and continued this through college, and am now finally back with a church i can call home. my faith is an important part of my life and fellowship with those that share in the Christian faith is an important part of it for me.

however, something about my upbringing that may differ from how a lot of people that proclaim Christianity is they didn't have a mother like mine that pushed her children to question and critically think about things we were told to believe in or that were to be construed as fact. (fun fact: my father wasn't as much of a fan of this...)

that being said, i'll move on.

the 'battle of the chicken sandwich' has brought much ire upon our faith (that and all the other atrocities that have been proclaimed in the name of Christ, but i digress) and much of the backlash from both sides are wildly out of hand.

my first reaction to the statements made by Chik-Fil-A CEO Dan Cathy were not really of shock that he believes them - as he's very much so from the Bible belt - but that he would say them at all. i mean, even i know that's a subject to avoid when you're top brass - it's quite a tender spot everywhere in the world.

then there's another part of me that thinks, 'well, he's standing up for his own personal beliefs, which is what he was asked about. his company doesn't actually reflect any of these beliefs outside of their fine service to ANYONE and EVERYONE and (i assume) fine treatment of their employees without discrimination.' from there i decided 'no harm, no foul but people are going to blow this up like crazy.'

and that they did.

in the midst of that explosion there has been quite a many things said on both sides that were spot on, some just funny/ridiculous, and some that were definitely far off the mark. (i will refrain from these details, as i'm sure you can find them everywhere if you look on twitter, tumblr, reddit, facebook, etc...) but after the weekend - of which i wasn't glued to a computer nor even my phone as much as normal (thankfully) - i come back to a facebook post from a friend that was a link to upworthy.com. watch the videos if you have time. they're not long.

the one thing that i took from Ms. Pearce is that Chik-Fil-A actually gives money to organizations that lobby for anti-gay policy!

this was the first bit of important information that i'd gotten out of this battle. as far as i'm concerned, this now means that i've supported these same organizations every time i've purchased a delicious Chik-Fil-a sandwich!

now, as you may recall, i started this whole thing about me - of course. my choices (and non-choices) growing up regarding my faith and a lot of the people that i choose to associate myself with. i've long shied away from being considered one of the "Christian kids" because they were radically different in their beliefs from me. a lot of things that they believed (and still believe) were drastically different and, in my studies, even contradictory to what we should be believing in. a lot of that comes from the "do as your told" or "believe what i (the parent) believe" or "respect your elders/your elders are always right" ideas that have permeated just about any culture over the years. with religion (and i'll say especially Christianity because i know more about it), this has always been dangerous. remember learning about the Dark Ages/Middle Ages and the subsequent Protestant Reformation? heck, let's go back to the start of the whole thing: some dude (practically named our equivalent of "John" - super generic - claiming to be the Son of God and God at the same time though he was totally born to this "virgin" chick in a freaking manger coz they didn't get to the town in time to find a place to stay) telling the people of a more than ancient religion that he was there to be their salvation.

though i believe it, i will admit that it sounds crazy. don't get me started on everything else out there though... anyway, moving forward...

what i'm saying here is that someone had to stand up within the faith to change anything. and even with that there was still much dissent. Martin Luther realized that the biggest weapon (why did they have a weapon anyway?) that the Catholic church was using to hold power was keeping knowledge from the people. the commoners were unable to learn anything about the religion being forced on them other than what the laity told them was right. they couldn't read the Bible: there wasn't mass production of it nor was it in the common language - or even in the original language by that time. (it's similar to what our government and big businesses try to do now with their policies, but once again, i digress.)

all the people that vote Republican just because that's what their pastor told them to, their husband told them to, or because "that's just what Christians do" OR the people that vote Democrat just because that's what the environment wants, because "i'm in college and/or am young" all fit into this same category. who and what you support says a lot about who you are as a person.

i still firmly support everyone doing what i had to do for a project that did in college in which the professor made us write out things that we believed. obviously not things like "i believe Spain will win the Cup again" but things that are pertinent to how you live your life. (i probably have a post on this somewhere back in the archives... back in 2001... i wonder how different they might be now...) doing this involves understanding why you believe these things, which then also requires a bit of research and thinking about what you value.

this means doing some questioning over and over again!

i'm not implying that there aren't authorities on many of the things that we choose to hold dear, and i'm definitely not saying to ignore them. but if you find something of a contradiction you should believe in your own ability to reason that (hopefully) you've been honing in during your schooling and living live as a youngster.

it's astounding to me that people can earn a Bachelors Degree in the US and still not be able to think for themselves.

because i openly support my rights as a black man, the rights of my sister to be a manager at her job, and the rights of anyone else to live in the US, abide by the constitutional laws of the land, and build their life as they see fit. i must, in turn, support the right of Mr. Cathy to be anti-gay, and the rights of every gay, lesbian, and bi person out there wanting to have all the same rights that i enjoy according to the state. it doesn't matter what i personally believe. there is no difference. there can be no exception clause. separation of church and state, people!

"give to Caesar what is Caesars..."

here's most of an article i read today from another friends fb post that i thought made some great points... more than i want to just excerpt from:

1. This isn’t simply about marriage. Shocker, right? It’s extremely frustrating that same-sex marriage is the great continental divide. People are judged according to how they stand on this issue, as if no other issue matters. Did you know that a person can be for same-sex marriage and still be homophobic? Did you know that a person can be against same-sex marriage and be gay? We all get categorized very quickly based on the marriage issue and maybe that’s not fair. But here’s what you should know:

- In 29 states in America today, my partner of 18 years, Cody, or I could be fired for being gay. Period. No questions asked. One of those states is Louisiana, our home state. We live in self-imposed exile from beloved homeland, family, and friends, in part, because of this legal restriction on our ability to live our lives together.

- In 75 countries in the world, being gay is illegal. In many, the penalty is life in prison. These are countries we can’t openly visit. In 9 countries, being gay is punishable by death. In many others, violence against gays is tacitly accepted by the authorities. These are countries where we would be killed. Killed.

- Two organizations that work very hard to maintain this status quo and roll back any protections that we may have are the Family Research Council and the Marriage & Family Foundation. For example, the Family Research council leadership has officially stated that same-gender-loving behavior should be criminalized in this country. They draw their pay, in part, from the donations of companies like Chick-Fil-A. Both groups have also done “missionary” work abroad that served to strengthen and promote criminalization of same-sex relations.

- Chick-Fil-A has given roughly $5M to these organizations to support their work.

- Chick-Fil-A’s money comes from the profits they make when you purchase their products.

2. This isn’t about mutual tolerance because there’s nothing mutual about it. If we agree to disagree on this issue, you walk away a full member of this society and I don’t. There is no “live and let live” on this issue because Dan Cathy is spending millions to very specifically NOT let me live. I’m not trying to do that to him.

Asking for “mutual tolerance” on this like running up to a bully beating a kid to death on the playground and scolding them both for not getting along. I’m not trying to dissolve Mr. Cathy’s marriage or make his sex illegal. I’m not trying to make him a second-class citizen, or get him killed. He’s doing that to me, folks; I’m just fighting back.

All your life, you’re told to stand up to bullies, but when WE do it, we’re told WE are the ones being intolerant? Well, okay. Yes. I refuse to tolerate getting my ass kicked. “Guilty as charged.”

But what are you guilty of? When you see a bully beating up a smaller kid and you don’t take a side, then you ARE taking a side. You’re siding with the bully. And when you cheer him on, you’re revealing something about your own character that really is a shame.

3. This isn’t about Jesus. I have a lot of Christian friends. Most of them are of the liberal variety, it’s true, but even this concept seems lost on some of you. Most of them are pro-LGBT rights. Pro-gay and Pro-Christ are NOT mutually exclusive. They never have been, in the history of Christianity, though it’s been difficult at times. It’s not impossible to be both.

If someone is telling you it is, then maybe you should wonder why they’d do that. I see divorced Christians, remarried Christians, drug addict Christians. I see people with WWJD bracelets bumping and grinding on TV and raking in millions to do it. I see greedy, rapacious, vengeful people who are Christians. And these people are accepted in the Church, and the Church does very little to combat them. Sometimes it seems like being gay is the ONLY thing certain modern Christian movements won’t allow. Why’s that, I wonder?

Jesus had almost nothing to say about sexual behavior of any kind. He was too busy teaching more important things. Empathy is at the heart of his teachings. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Remember that? It’s in red. So let’s examine that:

4. If things were reversed, I’d stand up for you.

Please think about this: How would you feel if KFC came out tomorrow and said they were spending money against equality for Asian Americans, or African Americans, or religious people? Really. Think about it. What would you do? How would you feel? How would you feel if, after their announcement, there was a big increase in KFC sales and I was all over Facebook supporting KFC. Please stop reading right now and imagine this. I’m serious.

You can stop now because it’s ludicrous. It would never happen.

Oh, I don’t mean the part about KFC being against some group. That COULD happen. I mean the part about me supporting them. Let me tell you something, and you can damn well believe it: I’d sign on for the boycott IMMEDIATELY.

Why? Well, because I believe in equality for all people, that’s why. But also, personally, from the bottom of my heart: because you are my friend, and I don’t willingly support people who harm you for just being you. How could I? How could I, really? But, more importantly for our purposes, how could you?

Seriously, how could you? What has Chick-Fil-A ever done for you? Sold you some fatty chicken at a ridiculous mark-up? Made you chuckle at semi-literate cartoon cows? You mean more to me than KFC possibly could. If I, in turn, don’t mean more to you than a chicken sandwich from Chik-Fil-A–if my life, my quality of life, and my dignity are such afterthoughts to you that you’d not only refuse the boycott, but go out of your way to support someone who was hurting me? if I let this stand, if I don’t stand up to the bullies and if I let my friends egg the bullies on, what does that make me?

Well, it makes me a Chikin.

Yeah, so suddenly it is cause for anger, ridiculous or not.

But I’m not going to stop being Facebook friends with anyone over this issue.

Instead, I will remain. And, when you see my face with my partner’s in my profile, maybe you will examine not simply what your opinions are about gay people, or gay marriage, or the first amendment, even; maybe you’ll examine not merely your opinions but your values. What is friendship to you? What is loyalty? How important are human life and dignity to you? Are they more important than fitting in with your social group? Are they more important than loyalty to a corporate brand, or a political party, or some misguided church teaching?

That’s why we’re so angry. This is personal for us. There are times in your life when you have the opportunity to stand up for your friends. When you let that opportunity pass, your friends notice. It doesn’t mean we can’t be friends, but it diminishes you, and it diminishes the friendship. That’s how it is, no matter what the issue or what the venue.

So stand up. Stand up for us. Do the right thing. You don’t have to agree with us on everything, but repudiate Chick-Fil-A. Unlike them on Facebook. Withdraw your support for them. Join us in the boycott. If you can’t do that, then please ask yourself whether I’m your friend. In fact, ask yourself whether anyone is.

This is all I have to say. If you’d like to debate the issue further, I’ll do it, but I’m not going to go around and around on the same points. If you’re just going to repeat yourself, save us both some time. If you haven’t taken the time to actually read this carefully and actually consider carefully what I’ve said, then I see no reason to waste further words.

The ball is in your court. Again, I urge you to do the right thing.

- Wayne Self
Twitter: @owldolatrous
Facebook: facebook.com/owldolatrous
original post: owldolatrous.com

thank you, Mr. Self.

my point is, think for yourself. if you are actually against the legal rights of any subset of our humanity then you're probably not who i'm talking to here, and you may have wasted a good 10 minutes of your time. if you aren't, consider the fact that we live in a country that was founded on the principles of freedom of thought and beliefs meaning not one of them was greater than another.

because of my new intel, i won't be eating at Chik-Fil-A until i know my purchase there does not go towards the diminished rights of citizens.

until then---