Ok. So here are my two cents for what it’s worth.
There are a large number of people who have decided to support Chick-Fil-A and Dan Cathy, the CEO of the company, today with a blitz of consumption. I will tell you that I agree with and support Mr. Cathy’s in support of “traditional” marriage. I put the word tradition marriage in quotations because it is ridiculous that we have now qualify what we are talking about!
That being said, let us move on to the purpose of this post. I have been reading some of the comments on Twitter, Facebook and the news and I have come to one very simple and yet profound conclusion. Here it is:
Supporting Chick-Fil-A does NOT equal supporting Jesus.
Some may be saying, “Well that is just ludicrous. Who would ever come to that conclusion?” I’ll tell you who. Every person who looks at the church and at Christian’s and sees this “Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day” as another example of Christian’s banding together against something. I have already seen some of the insinuations in posts and tweets that I have read. I even jested in a tweet about “Christian Chicken.” What I have realized today is that supporting this company does not mean that we are advancing the cause of Christ. We, the church, has once again fallen for the oldest trick in the book. We are again fighting against everything we know is wrong, rather than standing for the one thing we know to be right–that Jesus is the only answer for a world lost in and to sin.
What this has become is the easy way for some (not for all) of these folks to say, “I did something because of what I believed. I stood up for truth, the bible, Jesus, the church.” Or whatever they think that this is going to accomplish. Let me tell you something, if God wanted Chick-Fil-A to crumble tomorrow, no number of customers would be great enough to save it.
Barnabas Piper called this move by supporters of the restaurant chain a “bold mistake.” He may be right, but for a different reason. Piper doesn’t see how this will help the church reach people who do not find the Gospel appealing or who may be searching. It probably will not. For me however, I think this may be a mistake because by supporting a company we have substituted the King of Kings with the King of chicken sandwiches.
Buy chicken sandwiches does not make (I don’t think) Jesus more beautiful, more rejoiced in, more adored than proclaiming the Gospel. We, as a church, have to get our priorities straight. If Jesus is the reason hearts, minds and souls are changed then let us get busy promoting him to our neighbors!
If people do not want to buy a chicken sandwich because of what the owner believes… that is on them. Just do me a favor, do not make it about Jesus. He’s never had a chicken sandwich and may not even like the Polynesian sauce.
Related articles
- Should I support Chick-Fil-A tomorrow or not? (daveknickerbocker.wordpress.com)
- Firestorm: Chick-fil-a Under Attack for Defending Traditional Marriage (flashtrafficblog.wordpress.com)
- My Take: Chick-fil-A controversy reveals religious liberty under threat (religion.blogs.cnn.com)
- In the Basement (jenhatmaker.com/blog)