by Big Daddy Weaver » Mon Jul 23, 2012 1:01 pm
I think Christians - Baptists in the South are a little late to this conversation - ought to be able to have a civil and healthy debate and discussion about these kind of topics.
For example, look at all the media attention that this Chick-fil-A story is getting over the fact that Truett & Dan Cathy have been generous to some very anti-gay organizations.
[I think this specific conversation about CFA has to be more nuanced. Some gay rights groups are painting with an unfair broad-brush. I'm quite comfortable calling Tony Perkins and FRC anti-gay. They actively work to take away existing rights for same-sex couples and do so with a rhetoric that is divisive, demeaning and sometimes downright dangerous.
But some of the organizations that CFA supports that has been labeled anti-gay are groups like Fellowship of Christian Athletes. I'm also not prepared to label as anti-gay a generic evangelical group that has as its sole purpose the goal of marriage enrichment. The media and progressives should distinguish between these groups and political outfits like Family Research Council.]
...but what about the ongoing debates (been happening for many years now) among mainline Protestant denominations about U.S. corporations that are doing profiting from and aiding Israel's "occupation" (or whatever you want to call it) in Gaza. Caterpillar is one such corporation (we have a plant here in Waco).
One thing is for sure, the Cathys have not done physical harm to anyone via their donations. If at least a couple of the accusations are true, the same can't be said for groups like Caterpillar in Gaza.
But that side of the "corporate responsibility" issue doesn't get much attention in the United States — except when Methodists and Presbyterians meet to discuss whether to divest or not.
I'm not a fan of corporations that support political organizations. That said, is CFA that different than Starbucks?
I don't have any plans to stop eating my chicken nuggets and strips. Cathy may profit from my business from his Atlanta headquarters. But—when I eat at Chick-fil-A whether on the Baylor campus or at the Waco restaurant, I'm doing so because the food is delicious and because the people that run Chick-fil-A locally are great people and because Chick-fil-A is a good community partner supporting many local education initiatives.
Perhaps more importantly as far as my belly is concerned, if I boycotted CFA, what would I do at every Baylor football game, men's basketball game, women's basketball game and baseball game that I attend? My option would be to eat either a "Bear Dawg" which is about the nastiest hotdog I've ever had!
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