NOTE: this was written a day prior Chick-Fil-A made the public statement that their tradition "is to treat every person with honor, dignity and respect - regardless of their belief, race, creed, sexual orientation or gender." What a wonderful statement! However, I still believe this letter is appropriate and the invitation given at the end remains open...
July 2012
Dear Mr. Cathy,
I love Chick-fil-A. I truly do. And I have great respect for your values and your decision to be closed on Sundays and Christian holidays.
I also love my gay friends. I really do. And I am convinced that loving Chick-fil-A and loving my gay friends do NOT have to be mutually exclusive.
I read recently that you have acknowledged your company's financial support of "traditional family" organizations which actively oppose the protection of rights of our gay neighbors. Understandably, the LGBT community is very upset.
However, I will not be forced to choose between my favorite fast-food and my beloved life-long friends who happen to be gay.
I was raised, and am still, a Baptist. You too, I understand, were raised Baptist. Several of my gay Christian friends (yes, Christian AND gay) were also raised as Baptists (two of whom attended a prominent Baptist college; and one of them served as student president of the Baptist Student Union). So, as a Baptist minister, I'm going to reach out to both sides in this squabble and appeal to yours and my friends' Baptist commonalities and, more importantly, to the honest desire you share to follow Jesus.
First, Mr. Cathy, let's get this out of the way: We all know that Chick-fil-A frequently serves and even employs (though perhaps unknowingly) LGBT individuals. So, even while with one hand the company publicly supports anti-gay organizations, at the same time it enjoys profits from the patronage of gay customers (and quietly from the labor of some gay employees). Hopefully, Chick-fil-A will never start asking, "Are you gay?" before serving a customer. Because once you refuse to serve gay patrons, will you then begin to ask questions about sexual habits of your straight customers? Of course you won't. Not only is that bad business, it's also not Christian. Therefore, if Chick-fil-A is willing to accept money from customers who may or may not be gay (because you don't ask), why not also allow these same folks to be your friends even if you disagree with their decisions?
Second, to my many friends calling for protests and boycotts of Chick-fil-A: We all know that the employees we encounter are good, local people who are working hard to make ends meet. Most of them couldn't care less if they are handing a chicken sandwich to a straight or gay customer. While wanting to get the attention of the folks up in corporate headquarters, let's not take our attention away from our neighbors preparing the food and taking our cash and providing for their families.
Many of my gay friends and allies have been burned severely by the Christian community and have no interest in the Christian faith. My plea from faith carries no weight for them. I understand that.
But to my Christian gay friends and allies, instead of boycotting and fighting Chick-fil-A, let's practice the Golden Rule: We will do unto others as we would have others do unto us if the tables were reversed. Let's overwhelm Chick-fil-A with increased business and support.
For my Chick-fil-A corporate neighbors who believe our LGBT neighbors are the enemies of Christianity, I'd like to remind you of the first part of Romans 12:20: "If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink." And I share the second part of the same verse with my LGBT neighbors that by increasing our business with Chick-fil-A, we'll be heaping "burning coals of shame on their heads." In seeking to out-love and out-serve each other, we'll all share in the shame and we can begin learning to trust each other.
Mr. Cathy, I'd love nothing more that to sit with you and a few of your colleagues at a Chick-fil-A table in Atlanta and introduce you to three or four of my Christian friends and ministers -- who just also happen to be gay. Together we can go around the table and profess our Christian faith and begin to break down the walls that separate us as societal enemies and strangers; together we can be challenged and blessed by each other in a way that surpasses our understanding -- as brothers and sisters in Christ. Together we can break bread (er.... chicken) together, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, be united as one in the bond of love.
And, by the grace of God, may our actions bear witness to the world of the reconciling work of Jesus our Lord.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm feeling the need for some waffle fries. I think I'll invite a gay friend to join me...
A brother in Christ,
Bert
Rev. Bert Montgomery
writer/teacher/minister
Follow Bert Montgomery on Twitter: www.twitter.com/BertMontgomery
Lorraine Devon Wilke: Chicken With a Side of Bigotry: Chick-fil-A's Ungodly Business Plan
Domenick Scudera: Did Jesus Eat Chick-fil-A at the Last Supper?
Melissa Browning: Chicken Nuggets and Family Values
This is merely a phase for most of you until the next time your stomachs are crying out for some perfectly seasoned waffle fries and homemade lemonade. To stop now would be a futile attempt to justify your years of contradicting actions. You're kidding no one but yourself.
Jesus died for all of us, including gays. Why be Christian? I would like to hear why a gay person needs to be saved by Jesus in the same way I hear others confess and give their lives to Christ.
Why are you giving your lives to Christ? One testimony of salvation will be great.
It seems to more about a false repentance and salvation for our lost condition and about self justification. That is not Christianity. It is false.
I would like to make one very clear distinction - those that throw the term Christian around need to take heed.
If a individual or institution is using religious doctrine to judge and oppress others that is not being Christian. That is equating oneself with God as judge and not recommended.
So may I offer an alternative for such a group?
They shall be known as "CINOs" - Christian In Name Only.
Discuss.
Scenario 1: Chick-Fil-A expresses anti-gay sentiments-->gets bad press and boycotts-->profits go down-->if profits go down enough, Chick-Fil-A reconsiders statements
Scenario 2: Chick-Fil-A expresses anti-gay sentiments-->gets increased business-->profits go up-->has no incentive to stop expressing anti-gay sentiments, and is even encouraged to be more outspokenly anti-gay
Furthermore, your proposal offers something good (more business) to Chick-Fil-A, but doesn't offer anything great to LGBT people (besides chicken sandwiches, which they can get elsewhere).
I do, however, hope Chick-Fil-A takes you up on your offer to sit down and meet with them. Dialogue--especially between groups with tension or little exposure to each other--tends to be a good thing.
Second, you seem to associate the LGBT community with every criticism against Christianity. For the record, the majority of LGBT Americans identify as "Christian" and many of those regularly attend church and tithe without disclosing their sexuality, because they love their God so much that they would deny who they are in their God's house of worship rather than not worship him at all. Whose faith and commitment is stronger, those LGBT Christians or the "Christians" who demonize them? Those LGBT Christians also undoubtedly tithe, which supports the church and clergy who condemn them.
From the tax code:
-Begin Quotation-
IRC 501(i) was amended by P.L. 96–601, enacted Dec. 24, 1980 (effective for all taxable years beginning after Oct. 20, 1976) which provides that social clubs are allowed to retain their exemption even though their membership is limited (in writing) to members of a particular religion if:
the social club is an auxiliary of a fraternal beneficiary society which is exempt under IRC 501(c)(8); or
the club is an alumni club whose membership limitation is a good faith attempt to further the teachings or principles of that religion, and is not intended to exclude individuals of a particular race or color.
-End Quotation-
Furthermore, Christians are mandated to follow Scripture first, law second. If the law causes an elder or a church member to sin by allowing non-Christians into the body we are not to obey it.
So in conclusion what happened was this: You hatefully judged other people, and when they responded, you couldn't take the heat but chose to stay in the kitchen. Good luck with that.
2. The only way to love homosexuals is to patiently instruct, earnestly pray for, and consistently befriend them. This is the way with all sinners. Many homosexuals want off the path. To them Scripture holds out bright hope as it does for all of us sinners if we lay down our arms of rebellion against God, submit to his standard, and begin to walk in the light with his help. I often want to say to homosexuals, "Would you please stand up and begin struggling against your nature as do the rest of us?"
3. For homosexuals who are so deep in the darkness that homosexuality seems to be light, I feel, far from hatred, abject sorrow. This sorrow leads me back to square one where I reaffirm what it means to love homosexuals rightly: to continue to hold out God's standard and to patiently beckon them towards it.
I am reminded of a line from The Lord of the Rings. Frodo says of Gollum, "I have to believe he can come back." Yes, the ring has taken hold of all of us to an extent. Let's resist it.
Just for reference that's the first known reference of homosexuality was rock art carved in 9000 BC. While your religion got started some where around 550 BC.
Furthermore if you never heard any thing about Christianity you would not be Christian where as if you'd never heard any thing about homosexuality (and where gay) you'd still probably discover you where attracted to the same sex. The same is true for heterosexuality.
So once again to recap. Homosexuality, predates the reason why you think its an aberrant behavior. If there where no books you'd discover your sexuality, but not your religion. So I'm just gonna go out on a limb here and say your religion is aberrant. Not human sexuality.
Now this part where you say you'd like to say to homosexuals "Would you please stand up and begin struggling against your nature as do the rest of us?" That's really sad. The rest of us, at least most of us, don't struggle against our nature. Otherwise you live a life that is unnatural. I have a feeling I know why you said that though and yeah its really sad. I suppose your a victim too.
'I often want to say to homosexuals, "Would you please stand up and begin struggling against your nature as do the rest of us?" '
to be horribly arrogant, assuming, and offensive. The meek shall inherit the Earth.
Sure, Chick-fil-a, as a privately owned corporation (or even a publicly-traded one, for that matter), has every right to release statements like the one Dan Cathy did. What continues to disturb me about this whole debate is that fundamentalist Christian groups commonly use the rhetoric you've mentioned here to justify pushing a creed-specific political agenda onto the American public at large. However, unless I subscribe to the same faith (or more specifically, the same interpretation of faith) as you all, everything you've typed about your views on homosexuality cannot relate to public policy. Pulling these beliefs into a policy discussion is and will forever be a straw-man argument.
There is still too much proactive good left to be done worldwide to focus on insular issues like the legal status of same-sex marriage. Christ spoke not just of currency when he commanded that all of Caesar's dominion be rendered unto Rome and its authority. All too often, it seems as though the pillars of religion in America have lost sight of their mission and have chosen to focus on the wrong issues. Civil marriage is the government's domain...render unto Caesar what is Caesar's.
One thing you said gives me pause. You placed marriage in the civil arena and said that I should render unto Caesar what is his. It would be difficult–no wrong–to legislate biblical Christianity to the public in general because the central idea of Christianity is not the primary motivation for most people. So, when they come to the parts of Christianity that they do not like, they feel imposed upon.
The problem with deeply held beliefs is that there often is no middle ground. So, either Christians will be imposed upon or homosexuals will be. Perhaps it would be best if Christians began to be silent on the topic and let the culture continue to degenerate. Your mentioning Caesar is apt seeing that the Roman Empire is no more.
It would be sad, though, if America were no more. And, it would be sad not to be there for those homosexuals who desperately want out and find that it is difficult.
Concerning the charge of arrogance, please notice that I said "with the rest of us" which includes me. We all have to struggle against our nature to some degree.