Saturday, July 28, 2012

Boston Beans and Chicken Sandwiches

Dan Cathy, president and CEO of Chick-fil-A, finds himself embroiled in a war of words with Boston  mayor Thomas Menino over same sex marriages.  As I understand it, Cathy calls them unchristian and unacceptable to people of faith.  Mayor Menino says Boston doesn’t want Cathy’s franchise in his town, noting that same-sex marriages have been legal in Massachusetts since 2004.  It’s a high-volume argument—and both men deserve a good scolding.

The mayor should know that the chicken king cannot be muzzled or muscled out of Boston.  That’s not the way it works in America.

            Cathy, however, while protected by the First Amendment, needs his comeuppance too.  I call people like him “religious perverts” because they pervert the good impulse of religion and twist it into a militant intolerance, in this case against gays and same-sex marriages.  It hardly needs to be pointed out that not every Christian is of the same opinion as Cathy.  Apparently the same Bible admits of multiple attitudes and interpretations—toward this and other issues of our time.  Thank God.

It isn’t clear why the religious pervert chooses intolerance over tolerance, a merciless Christianity rather than an all-inclusive, accepting one, or why he crusades against people who are different from himself and judges them with the severity of the Spanish Inquisition.  Cathy's Christianity doesn't sound like the love-based religion most of us know and respect.

It's high time we called out  religious perverts like Dan Cathy and hold them accountable for the trouble they cause.  They have a right to their opinion and to open up chicken stores wherever they want, of course, but we all have the right to eat at KFC. 

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