Memo to the mayors – hold your horses! I’m just as outraged as you are by Dan Cathy’s comments about same-sex marriage, and I certainly chose NOT to patronize one of his establishments on Wednesday (which wasn’t a hard choice, because I live in the San Francisco area, and there aren’t any Chick-Fil-A restaurants around here since everyone knows liberals only eat endive and tofu). But threatening to bar him from opening an outlet in your cities is an over-reaction, turning him into a free speech martyr and distracting us from the deeper issue here.
Mr. Cathy’s comments aren’t “just a citizen expressing an opinion” – his company has spent millions promoting the view that our country should be operated along conservative Christian beliefs, and claiming we’re going to hell in a handbasket because we disagree with the divine definition of marriage. First, there’s the hypocrisy of the biblical directives Cathy & his cohorts selectively ignore. I remember learning in Hebrew school about how the Torah included laws like getting stoned to death for mixing crops or disrespecting parents – who says G-d isn’t just as pissed off at us for doing any of those things as for redefining marriage?
But more importantly, wasn’t this a country founded on religious tolerance and freedom? When did we become a solely Christian nation, and why wasn’t I consulted? I thought it was just in December that I felt like an alien because I didn’t have inflated reindeer on my lawn, and people accused me of killing Christmas because I actually would prefer to hear ‘happy holidays’. Now guys like Dan Cathy are telling me I’m a pariah year-round – and it’s getting to me!
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Lauren Mayer: A Jewish Mother Weighs in on Chick-Fil-A
