Leftover chicken

Yesterday I wrote about the whole Chik-fil-A thing, explaining why I don't go there. I feel like Chik-fil-A and the Cathy family, its owners, have become the focal point for a whole slate of issues, maybe unfairly given that they seem like very nice people who run a wholesome business (as opposed to, say, a napalm factory). A lot of people are asking why some of us have a problem with Chik-fil-A, and I think they're right - if you're going to publicly boycott a company, you should be able to explain why.

This discussion brings up a sometimes-uncomfortable (for activists) reality that some boycotts are just easier than others. I used to work at a college where students successfully led a drive to switch from one soft drink distributor to another, on the grounds that Soft Drink Company A demonstrated bad corporate practices like clear-cutting Amazon rainforests. The thing is, with an hour of Googling I could probably find just as much evidence that Soft Drink Company B did the same thing. You don't get to be a giant multinational corporation without screwing over a few low-wage workers. It's naive to think otherwise. And further, did having one drink with your cafeteria lunch and not another magically improve the life of one Amazonian? Nope. But it made them feel better.

I don't go to Chik-fil-A at least in part because I have the luxury not to do so. If I lived in a town where there was only one restaurant and that was a Chik-fil-A, it would be a different story. That's why I don't judge people who still "eat mor chikin," even if they agree with me that the Cathy family supporting anti-gay groups is bad. I mean, I still shop at Target, and plenty of gay-rights activists gripe at me for that one. If a principled boycott becomes only about how many people know about your awesomely principled boycott, then it isn't really that principled.

I also think I need to better explain why this particular company's actions bug me. Yes, most of us know that Chik-fil-A is a business operated by Christians. But I don't buy the "what do you expect?" argument in this case, simply because I don't concede that "Christian" automatically equals "anti-gay." In fact, that's something I try to argue against whenever I can, because I don't think homophobia is remotely compatible with a faith whose highest commandment is to love one another.

And, before you ask - "love the sinner, hate the sin" is NOT a loving thing to say, unless you think that love is something you just recite and not act. For Jesus, Love means treating that person that you don't even know and maybe even at first found kind of creepy as if he's your own child, or mother, or brother. You know how you love the people in your family even when you don't particularly like them very much, because you're family? That's how Christians are supposed to love everyone. Of course it's hard. It's supposed to be.

Which brings me to my biggest issue with the Cathys in particular and the whole religiously based anti-gay faction in general...

If we Christians were to make a list of every single thing currently going on in the world that's separating humanity from God - war, genocide, random acts of violence, those small acts of selfishness and greed that happen every day - you're telling me that two men kissing is at the top of the list? Really?

Early this morning a gunman with a sat-alone-on-prom-night complex killed 12 people in Colorado who just wanted to see a Batman movie. That a-hole in Syria bombs as many of his own citizens in the blink of an eye. Not far from where I live, a bunch of kids tortured a fracking kitten to the point where it had to be euthanized just this week. But I'm supposed to believe that keeping one life partner from visiting another in the hospital will make it all better?

My problem isn't with the Cathys' interpretation of our faith. My problem is with their perspective. The weight they put on homosexuality over true evils like poverty, sexual abuse, racism and the things that fill the front page of the paper - it just boggles my mind. There's so much pain and evil in the world that I truly don't understand Christians who think that love is the No. 1 problem when that love happens between two people of the same gender.