A few years ago I went on a road trip to the States with my sole sibling (soul sibling?) brother Eric. On the way to Georgia we stopped at a fast food place called Chick-Fil-A. The food was quite good, but what was up with the name? How were we to pronounce it? It turns out that it is almost Canadian. The last letter is a hard A, so why didn't they substitute an eh" at the end when they opened their first Canadian outlet in Calgary earlier this year?
We were told that none of these restaurants is open on a Sunday because the owners are devout Christians. And not only do they observe the Sabbath, they have a daily devotional time at their national headquarters and a statue of Jesus washing the feet of a disciple in the lobby as a reminder to staff of a call to service. I admire the convictions of the Cathy family in terms of honouring a day of rest and keeping a Christian focus. I do wish they had come to other conclusions about whose feet Jesus might or might not wash. They have stirred up controversy by taking an openly anti-gay stance since President Obama struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, which opened the way for states to sanction gay marriage. Some groups picketed outlets of the chain, while others went out and bought more chicken sandwiches.
The founder, Truett Cathy, went to that Great Chicken Coop in the Sky just yesterday, but the company will probably continue to follow certain values expressed in books such as Eat Mor Chikin: Inspire More People -- I kid you not.
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/09/chick-fil-a-selling-chicken-with-a-side-of-god/379776/
Here's the condundrum. Can we admire individuals who live by certain values, sometimes inspired by religious convictions, when they fit our own but not others who live by other lights? It's a free country, as the saying goes, but it is all rather curious. Why do people mix selling stuff with line-in-the-sand faith statements in the first place?
Any words of wisdom folks? Nothing about chickens and eggs please.
4 comments:
Well, we all know that gay marriage is a huge threat to heterosexuals, especially those on their third and fourth marriages... excuse me while I pull my tongue out of my cheek... I can't eat chicken this way!
David, a woman owning a farm once tried to sell me Christian chickens right after telling me that gay people can still be saved if we pray hard enough to change them. I kid you not. I don't know what startled me most - the religious affiliation of her chickens or her frightening homophobia.
That's so bizarre it makes my day Lori! Now, we have friends, who are Christians, who raise chickens. They are very tasty, but they have never claimed that the chickens are Christian.
We can join Judy with tongue firmly in cheek and say "cluck if you love Jesus!"
Kevin actually drew a cartoon of a minister loosely modeled after you preaching to these chickens for a story I wrote a few years ago. I would attach the cartoon here for you if I knew how. (he just had you in his mind's eye that's all)
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