Ramblings on Chik-fil-a

This is how I feel about Chik-fil-a.

Excerpt taken from a website questioning the godliness of interracial marriage:

"according to J.D. Self, author of the site “Interracial Marriage is against God’s Law”, races were created when the human race became arrogant towards God by trying to build a tower so tall to reach heaven. And since God separated the human race based on arrogance, Self believes races intermarrying again is also “pure arrogance in the face and to the plan of God”.

(http://www.interracialdatingcentral.com/fyooz/is-interracial-marriage-shee-arrogance-to-what-god-intended/)

Did you think the language was familiar? I did too.

In a recent interview Dan Cathy, the president of Chik-fil-a spoke out:

" I think we're inviting God's judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at him and say, you know, we know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage. And I pray God's mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we would - the audacity to try to redefine what marriage is all about."

(http://www.npr.org/2012/07/31/157653766/chick-fil-a-comments-still-churning-some-stomachs)

I realize some don't see this as a human rights issue, they only see it as a religious issue. But don't they remember that 30-40 years ago (and still today if you count some crazy groups on the margin) people used the Bible to attack interracial marriages? They see this in a very one-dimensional way. Being gay is sinful. Being straight is not. This is Truth with a capital T to these people because in their mind God has deemed it so. They don't realize that others don't agree, and as the United States is not a theocracy, that sometimes what they believe to be God's law will not necessarily be the law of the land. What is more problematic is that they are really only considering their own perception and interpretation of God's law. Were they to do a little simple research they would find that there are Christians in this world (including myself) who do not believe homosexuality is a sin, and who also have pretty strong scriptural references to back up that claim. As somebody who has devoted their career to the study of literature in foreign languages perhaps I'm more sensitive to the fact that original texts are subject to gross misinterpretation when translated into a different language. Then you take into consideration what the Bible is - that it is a mish mash of many many different texts, by many different authors, with many different influences, in many different languages, written over thousands of years of human history (the Genesis flood story can be traced back to the Epic of Gilgamesh, the ancient Mesopotamian text that still stands as the first piece of writing in all of civilization). Biblical scholars have concluded that scripture that is regularly used to attack homosexuality often meant completely different things in their original translations, or are at least very open to different translations. Also, if you look just at the gospels and read all of Jesus' teachings, he offered tough love and strict words to sinners, but not once did he mention homosexuality. I really would think if it were as much of an "abomination to God" as people would have you think, then Jesus would have mentioned it at least once? What he mentions more than once is his hatred of hypocrisy and sinful humans' quickness to judge the sins of others. I recall that being a fairly regular message.

Sorry, tangent.

My point being that these people don't realize that even within Christianity there are opinions that differ from their own on homosexuality and gay marriage. They don't realize this so they think we're just being purposefully evil in boycotting a fast food chicken sandwich from a righteous man who is now a martyr to the cause against those horrible gays who are corrupting our society so. It is so incredibly frustrating that they don't understand that many of us see this as a human rights violation much like the bans on interracial marriage of the generations past. Calls for bans on interracial marriage were fueled by the same one-dimensional interpretations of the Bible used to push a political agenda set on taking basic rights away from people. In this case it was based on racial discrimination which has now been so (rightfully) demonized that most churches and conservatives won't broach the subject. I just get so frustrated that they can't see that it's the same thing. It is the same thing. Same thing.