Chick-Fil-A and Jesus
I have read some interesting posts about the Chick-Fil-A (CFA) appreciation day. One posts title was “5 reasons the church failed yesterday” the other one was from a great friend Zac his title was “Jesus didn’t eat at Chick-fil-A yesterday.” Both written a little different in point of view. However, both had one common theme, support for CFA some how equaled a lack of love for people. In this instance gay people. Honestly, I don’t care who ate or didn’t eat at CFA on Wednesday. I don’t care what restaurants or stores you choose to support or not support. That’s the great thing about the USA, you get to choose where you spend your money. The issue I want to talk about is the concept of loving people. Both blog posts referenced the Bible verse (paraphrase) “Love God, Love people” found in Matthew 22. So here is the 10 million dollar question: What does it mean to love people? I think the definition of love has been missed in the mentioned posts. I know I’m not the smartest guy to ever write a blog post, so I can only speak from personal experience. Here is how I see love working in a practical way. When you love, you bring correction and discipline to areas that don’t have it. Loving someone doesn’t mean you go along with what ever harebrained idea they come up with. Jesus was never ok to let the lost be lost. Why should we be ok with it? One of the things I like most about Jesus was his boldness to confront. Jesus to my understanding was never soft on sin. He made the hard statements and I think you would agree he did it in LOVE. In his kindness for people he never tolerated the sin that would keep them relationship with God the father. I think about the story of the woman caught in adultery found in John chapter 8. key in on verse 11
11 “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
Sexual sin is sexual sin, adultery or homosexuality, it’s sin. It’s not our place to condemn but it is our place to love like Jesus did and say “leave your life of sin.” If followers of Christ never say leave your life of sin how can we claim to love anyone. To not tell people to leave sin in the past and repent is the ultimate act of hate. Hate has nothing to do with who should marry who.
Here is the one thing I think both posts nail. Being political for the sake of the “cause” is a terrible way to interact with any group of people. I have a hard time with those that form anti-whatever groups and protest with the signs that have negative statements on them. I agree that leaves a bad taste in most Peoples mouths. It’s quite hard to ask someone to leave sinful actions behind when your holding the “your going to hell” sign.
I really think that most of the CFA stuff is blown out of proportion. Media has a great way of twisting stories to get what they want out of them. So whether this was a freedom of speech issue or a gay rights issue or whatever kind of issue you would like it to be, the bottom line is you have to figure out how you can love those around you. Be in relationship with people. If you truly love those around you when their life doesn’t look like what God’s word says our lives should look like, you do like Jesus did and tell them to leave the sin behind.
p.thad
Posted on August 3, 2012, in bible thoughts, bloging, Ministry and tagged bible verse, chick fil, Chick-fil-a, human-rights, John 8, loving people. love, Matthew 22, relationship with god, woman caught in adultery. Bookmark the permalink. 1 Comment.
The other day while waiting for the olympic coverage to start on MSNBC there was a new show on. The commentator was bringing on a panel from different other media outlets to discuss specifically if a company like Chik-Fil-A should be allowed to take a stand as they did and still be able to conduct business in our society. I was not really paying attention until the commentator started yelling and asked as a society if a company this discriminatory of a basic human right should be tolerated. Then as any good journalistic commentating outlet does, they presented their key facts for supporting their position. He was deeply concerned that Chik-Fil-A supported a number of pro-family conservative groups that held to radical discriminatory ideologies. I played this piece back a couple of times just so I could fully take in the foundation for this person’s visible unrest. They were as followed:
• A homosexual couple is not able to sustain a balanced and healthy family as well as a heterosexual couple is able to. – Family Research Counsel
• The gay lifestyle leads to a higher level of sustained pedophilia behavior vs a heterosexual lifestyle – Listed a group of psychiatrists with an anti-gay biase
• That “Gay can be Prayed Away” through religious biased counseling and prayer to the Christian God – Focus on the Family
The panel then began equating such mindsets to being seeds for violence and formation of splinter radical groups as seen in the middle east. After a few minutes of bantering the resolving conclusion that for the American society to evolve to a higher state, hatred for what is different must be stopped and companies need to be held accountable for non-inclusive ideologies.
As the channel transitioned to olympic coverage I started thinking about the list given in an open mind and the whole Chik-Fil-A event on the 1st. I did not disagree with any of the three points given. I also believe that business wise it is important to vote with your wallet. This is how Hollywood knows what types of movies to make next, as people will pay for story lines they want to see, and support studios they want more productions from. If I do not agree with a subject matter of a movie, I do not pay to see it. As a car, I like Volvo, but their aggressive stance at a corporate level to integrate pro-gay marketing and branding into their vehicle sales means I do not buy Volvo. On the flip side, I have colleagues who buy Volvo’s because of the stand the company takes for gay rights. In my mind, the Chik-Fil-A thing was no different, and was not an action to show hate but rather support for a value set held by a company. Chil-Fil-A has never said they hated gays. They just said they were not supportive of gay marriage as it did not line-up with biblical principles, and they choose to run their company on principles covered in the Bible.