Chick-fil-A….what do I say that hasn’t been said already on this topic? To be honest this is why I have totally checked out of politics in the last 4 years. I was disillusioned and frustrated after the last election – with BOTH sides of the party line.
I used to be on the hard-core right on this issue. I used to be the one that was talking LOUD about how we need to support companies like Chick-fil-A. My blood pressure would have risen if I was in a conversation about how the morals and values of America are being degraded by the Left. Heck, I even started a blog about being a Patriot!
Now…now I have no idea where I fall. While I believe all those on the Right have a right to voice their opinions and exercise their right to go wait in line for 1.5 hours for a Chick-fil-A meal…I also feel my heart sink as I see friends that I LOVE dearly and whose hearts I KNOW love Jesus…post their posts on Facebook of this exercise of their rights. My heart sinks for I wonder how this makes others like me – whether straight or gay, “Christian” or not – feel as they are caught in the middle of this crossfire.
I feel my heart sink because it feels like I’m on the playground and I just got bested by my classmate. You know the one…the one that talks all nice to my face, but behind my back I hear the hurtful stuff she is saying about me. She wraps her arm around me, her face in a beaming smile and her voice telling me how much I mean to her…yet everything about her body language and the tone in her voice tells me a different story. A story of how proud of herself she is for figuring out a way to best me…a story about how she is so glad she is on top! And my gut gets tied in a huge gigantic knot because I want to believe her words and her warm arm…
I feel like the war has been launched from both sides, with people screaming their carefully scripted words to rally the crowd on their side. Each side gets louder and louder…growing in sheer numbers. And me? Well, I am caught in the middle…in the crossfire…each side waiting for me to choose them, trying desperately to sway me to their side.
All the while, I’m just tired of the fight. I am tired of the name-calling and the double messages that both sides tout. I want a different path, a different way. I don’t want to check out of our political system..but I feel I cannot participate in it with the choices that are presented to me. I am not ignorant of what this looks like to the Right…like I am just giving up. As to the Left..actually since I really am just now learning to listen to the Left, I really don’t know what this looks like to that side.
I just think there has to be a different way. A way that doesn’t involve bullying and power plays to try to get others to back down or change their minds (cause really, has any one ever changed their mind because they were bullied?). Because that is all this really is…just like a husband and wife caught up in a huge-blown out fight… trying to make their point and get the other one to hear them by yelling and screaming the loudest with the best crafted words.
I’ve tried this way of conflict resolution for years…and let me give you a hint: it doesn’t work! All this does folks is leave both sides less connected, less understood and in more pain than before…resulting in more grown-up tantrums as the cycle continues again and again.
Yet, that is exactly what I see happening in our country right now. Republican & Democrat, Left and Right, Conservative and Liberal are going at it…screaming and yelling just like I used to do. And I wonder why the Church and our society at large allow so much domestic abuse to prevail…power ~ and abuse of that power ~ are built into the very core of us…aren’t they?
So, what do I say? What do I do? I think I’m going to draw in the sand for a while and wait for the side without any sin to throw the first stone. Yet seeing that both sides think they don’t have any sin…well, I guess I’m going to have to crawl out of here and go join the likes of others that I have thankfully found that are on my page.
Specific posts that say it better than me:
Some Words for Christians on Both sides of the Chick-Fil-A war
The Basement Manifesto
Other authors that I find myself “siding” with:
Peter Rollins
Rob Bell
And a beautiful YouTube video (only comment on this is that she labels herself as a “Lutheran” and I would say “Christian”)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kM9Y5S3UYi8&feature=player_embedded
I think you may have missed the overall point. No christian should be be supporting Chic Fil A as a judgment upon those who believe differently or they too are missing the point. The message here is actually to take a stand and SUPPORT ALL people, gay or not, to have the right to speak freely on what they believe — even if it differs from someone else’s view. I actually supported Chic Fil A as a way to support my gay friends _NOT because they’re gay but because they’re American, just like you and me. I do not support what they believe and disagree with the media’s blatant attempt to demonize us (conservative christians), but I support the right to speak what we believe. Our country has to protect the right for freedom of speech and this shows how mainstream media has bullied ‘conservatives christians’ into feeling guilty or apologetic for standing up for constitutional rights. While the media would like us to believe that this is about gay marriage vs. traditional marriage, it is NOT. This COO was NOT the first man to ever say such a thing nor will he be the last. He is not running for office nor is he spending Gov’t tax dollars – we didn’t vote him etc. etc. etc. – He is a citizen in who spoke his mind when asked. Liberals do it all the time. We have the freedom to speak – exercising the right is a different story and not the point at all. Also to be noted: Mormons, Muslims and Jews should stand with us since they too believe marriage is between one man and woman. I don’t see anyone from their clubs apologizing on this day. The point is we should never apologize for our constitutional rights.
Thank you Mr. Darcy (love that!) for your comment and the time it took for you to read my thoughts.
Nonetheless…I just am wondering if you spoke to your gay friends about all this and what they have to say about it? I personally have not spoken to any on this subject as I try to stay away from politics these days…but I am just curious that if I feel caught in the middle as a straight Christian…what gay Christians or gay non-Christians think the point of today was?
In any case, I think I will continue my drawing in the sand…as it seems you have missed my point completely.
Blessings to you,
the Joy gal
Man, something bigger hit me today as I read another post I can get behind. Here is the link and then my comments to another commenter :-0
http://thepublicqueue.com/2012/what-chickfila-appreciation-day-is-really-about
I find it interesting when i look at the Gospels and look at the life of Jesus to find that He was divisive more so within the “Church” of that age…Jesus spent more time challenging the current religious beliefs than I ever see him paying attention to the political restrictions of his day. I find him spending time LOVING all people – serving them and winning them over to himself without ever engaging in a political war. Are we so afraid of losing our freedoms more than we are of losing our God? By that I mean if we push people OUTSIDE the church away because we stand for hard core POLITICAL issues that serve to make it about us vs. them…how do we ever expect to show them the love of Christ? I guess for me, I would rather lose my freedom yet gain a friend over to the mission of Christ…I would rather suffer present day oppression than to know another is living a life based a lie, living in their own version of Hell because they don’t know Christ and the fact that Christ came to set them free from their inner world of oppression…one in which I myself close the door of their jail cell because i want to exercise my right to religious freedom. Just my thoughts…