Pondering a moral dilemna
If asked to name a favorite "fast" food in terms of which I enjoy eating the most, it would be Chick-fil-A. The taste, freshness and quality of food, as well as the extremely high level of service put it head and shoulders above the rest.
I have friends who refuse to partake of the fine fare of Chick-fil-A because the company is perceived as being anti-LGBTQ. There was a big blow-up about this issue back in 2012 and it appeared that the private foundations funded by the firm stopped almost all such contributions. Their support of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) remains very strong. Here is the list of the donations from the Chick-fil-A foundation to the FCA on their most recent tax return.
$150,000 identified as "Youth Camps"
$1,407 identified as "Tickets"
$366,500 identified as "Youth Camps"
$480,000 identified as "Innercity Youth Camps & Support Programs"
That is a total of $997,907. That represents 12.24% of the foundation's total in grants for the year.
* * *
So is the FCA an anti-LGBTQ group? Their "Sexual Purity Statement" that all of their adult leaders must sign would make it seem so. Here are some excerpts:
"God has ordained marriage and defined it as a covenant between one man and one woman. (Genesis 2:18-25) (Matthew 19:4-5) FCA believes that marriage has only one meaning: the uniting of one man and one woman in a single, exclusive union, as stated in Scripture."
"Scripture is clear that Christians are to find their identity in Christ. We find complete and appropriate expression of who we are, including sexuality, when our desires align with God's design for sexual expression in the context of a biblical marriage relationship. God intends sexual intimacy to occur only between a man and a woman who are married to each other. (Romans 1:26-27) (1 Corinthians 7:1-16)"
The problem is that these people are entirely within their First Amendment rights to believe what they believe. It is incumbent upon us to respect the beliefs. Our laws that protect (or should protect) the rights of the entire population; including the LGBTQ community), are designed to prevent people from engaging in discriminatory actions based on those beliefs.
I will continue to respect the rights of these people, who I believe to be bigoted and hypocritical, to hold these beliefs. I will also continue to stridently defend the rights of everyone to be free from people acting on such beliefs to deny others their rights.
As to whether or not I'll continue to patronize my local Chick-fil-A I need to wrestle with it a bit longer.
I have friends who refuse to partake of the fine fare of Chick-fil-A because the company is perceived as being anti-LGBTQ. There was a big blow-up about this issue back in 2012 and it appeared that the private foundations funded by the firm stopped almost all such contributions. Their support of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) remains very strong. Here is the list of the donations from the Chick-fil-A foundation to the FCA on their most recent tax return.
$150,000 identified as "Youth Camps"
$1,407 identified as "Tickets"
$366,500 identified as "Youth Camps"
$480,000 identified as "Innercity Youth Camps & Support Programs"
That is a total of $997,907. That represents 12.24% of the foundation's total in grants for the year.
* * *
So is the FCA an anti-LGBTQ group? Their "Sexual Purity Statement" that all of their adult leaders must sign would make it seem so. Here are some excerpts:
"God has ordained marriage and defined it as a covenant between one man and one woman. (Genesis 2:18-25) (Matthew 19:4-5) FCA believes that marriage has only one meaning: the uniting of one man and one woman in a single, exclusive union, as stated in Scripture."
"Scripture is clear that Christians are to find their identity in Christ. We find complete and appropriate expression of who we are, including sexuality, when our desires align with God's design for sexual expression in the context of a biblical marriage relationship. God intends sexual intimacy to occur only between a man and a woman who are married to each other. (Romans 1:26-27) (1 Corinthians 7:1-16)"
The problem is that these people are entirely within their First Amendment rights to believe what they believe. It is incumbent upon us to respect the beliefs. Our laws that protect (or should protect) the rights of the entire population; including the LGBTQ community), are designed to prevent people from engaging in discriminatory actions based on those beliefs.
I will continue to respect the rights of these people, who I believe to be bigoted and hypocritical, to hold these beliefs. I will also continue to stridently defend the rights of everyone to be free from people acting on such beliefs to deny others their rights.
As to whether or not I'll continue to patronize my local Chick-fil-A I need to wrestle with it a bit longer.
posted by me at 10:32 AM
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