You can access the complete article here.
Christians…take seriously biblical teachings regarding marriage. In June of 2012, Dan Cathy [president and COO of Chick-fil-A] publicly stated his beliefs about the direction America was headed with regard to the institution of marriage. Cathy said,
-
-
- “I think we are inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say, ‘We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage.’ I pray God’s mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we have the audacity to define what marriage is about.”
- “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 … We want to do anything we possibly can to strengthen families. We are very much committed to that,”
- “We need to be more faithful to depend on a God who does love us and wants to have a relationship with us, and wants to give us the desires of our hearts … We intend to stay the course.”
- “We know that it might not be popular with everyone, but thank the Lord, we live in a country where we can share our values and operate on biblical principles.”
-
CFA’s president made the first of these statements on June 16, 2012, on the radio on “The Ken Coleman Show.” He made the remaining three in a printed interview that was released in the Biblical Recorder the following month. In the interview, Cathy was askedabout pushback against “his company’s ‘support of the traditional family.’ He replied: ‘Well, guilty as charged.’”
Feeling the Heat
Ever since he made his stance on marriage public, Dan Cathy and his company have been vilified as haters of gays. But how, tell me, is a belief that marriage is between one man and one woman hateful? How have homosexuals through the centuries been harmed by this definition of marriage? The reality is that all of them were conceived and came into the world as a result of heterosexual encounters—and probably most of these, if not the overwhelming majority, were marital heterosexual encounters. Even more to the point, the beliefs of Mr. Cathy never should have surprised anyone. What he said about marriage is what Christians have believed for over 2,000 years—and what the Old Testament has taught for far longer. The question arises: Who is really being hateful and intolerant here?
At the same time, we can admit that some of Mr. Cathy’s statements were not framed in the most public-relations-friendly manner, and many took offense. The truth is, though, that even if Cathy had said what he said in the most polite way possible, gay activists still would have been offended. To members of the militant homosexual lobby, the most important thing isn’t how you say what you say, or even what you say. It’s what you believe. If you don’t genuinely celebrate with them regarding their lifestyle choices, you are a hater. Christian leader, author, and radio talk show host Michael Brown understands. He wrote, “Until it renounces such actions as evil, Chick-fil-A will wear the bigot brand, and that’s because the ones attacking them are the bigots.”
The complete article is copyrighted 2020 by B. Nathaniel Sullivan. All rights reserved.