Lauren Mayer: A Jewish Mother Weighs in on Chick-Fil-A

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!

Click here to listen to “The Jew in the Gentile World Blues“

It’s hard enough being Jewish in this country without comments like Mr. Cathy’s.  Can’t we just agree to disagree? His religion says gay marriage is wrong, mine says it’s fabulous. And for the record, I’m a straight married mom of two sons, and like any good Jewish mother, I’m secretly hoping one of them turns out gay so he’ll never replace me with another woman – and I’ll have help decorating.

So if Dan Cathy will stop bankrolling legal attempts at discrimination, I’ll ask all those pinko liberal mayors to back off, and who knows, maybe one of these days, they’ll open a Chick-Fil-A in San Francisco (and find a way to make tofu taste like fried chicken).