By Deacon Keith Fournier
7/27/2012
Catholic Online
Link to original
CHESAPEAKE, VA (Catholic Online) – Next Wednesday, August 1, 2012, I intend to eat a Chick-fil-A sandwich and participate in the National Day of Appreciation for Chick-fil-A. I hope you join me and thousands of others in responding to the invitation of former Senator Rick Santorum, former Governor Mike Huckabee and Rev. Billy Graham and do the same.
I have long admired Chick-fil-A. It was founded over thirty years ago by an evangelical protestant Christian named Truett Cathy. His son Dan now runs the family owned and family values based company which now operates 1600 stores. It has become a $4 billion dollar a year enterprise. You can read about this good family and their genuine and living Christian faith here. You might also find their work in philanthropy of interest. Read about it here.
The restaurants do not open on Sunday in order to honor the Lord’s Day and allow their employees to do the same. They have resisted efforts to change not only this policy but other pressures to compromise on their core convictions. The founders offer us all an example of moral coherence as Christians. They apply the great principles of their faith to their business practices. They do not fall prey to the separation between faith and life which can so quickly creep into the life of Christians.
Now, Chick-fil-A is under a ferocious assault precisely because their President publicly affirmed their company support for true marriage and the family and society founded upon it. Dan Cathy expressed his deeply held religious convictions to the Baptist Press and literally – all hell broke loose among some new Cultural Revolutionaries.
Among the most vocal opponents was Carlos Maza of “Equality Matters”, a homosexual equivalency activist group. He told the Washington Post that Dan Cathy’s position in defense of marriage, along with the contributions made by his family’s foundation to pro-life and pro-family groups, “solidifies Chick-fil-A as being closely aligned with some of the most vicious anti-gay voices in the country.” That is nonsense. To defend marriage does not equate to being “anti-gay”.
This orchestrated effort against Chick fil-A is an example of viewpoint discrimination parading as a concern for equality. It has now been embraced by two elected officials in Chicago. Chicago alderman Joe Moreno threatens to block the building of a Chick-fil-A restaurant in his City. He has received support from Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The Mayor told the Press “Chick-fil-A values are not Chicago values.” This kind of government action is unconstitutional and should be challenged in Court.
I was saddened to see that the Mayor of my birthplace, Boston, Massachusetts, Mayor Thomas Menino, sent a letter to the CEO of Chick-fil-A in which he wrote “there is no place for discrimination on Boston’s Freedom Trail and no place for your company alongside it.” Just who is discriminating Mr. Mayor? So much for your claimed liberalism and regard for free speech; you are engaging in viewpoint censorship!
I am honored to stand with Governor Huckabee, Senator Santorum and others in eating a Chick-fil-A sandwich on Wednesday August 1, 2012. I ask the readers of Catholic Online to do join along. We are in good company and making an act of solidarity together for marriage and for free speech.
Rev Billy Graham released a statement on Thursday in which he said, “I applaud the courage of Cathy and Chick-fil-A to take a bold stand for the biblical definition of marriage between a man and woman in a culture that has grown openly hostile to the Christian faith and its followers.” I can only add a Catholic Hooray for Chick-fil-A to this good man’s observation.
Unlike former Governor Huckabee and my friend former Senator Rick Santorum, I will not use the term “traditional marriage”. I believe making a distinction between so called “traditional” Marriage and other feigned “marriages” is a mistake. Marriage is what it is, period. The very phrase “gay marriage” or “homosexual marriage” is an oxymoron.
True marriage is the preeminent and the most fundamental of all human social institutions. It is a relationship defined by nature itself and protected by the natural law that binds all men and women. It finds its foundation in the order of creation. Civil institutions do not create marriage nor can they create a “right” to marry for those who are incapable of marriage.
To limit marriage to heterosexual couples is not discriminatory now, nor has it ever been. Homosexual couples cannot bring into existence what marriage intends by its very definition. To now “confer” the benefits that have been conferred in the past only to stable married couples and families to homosexual paramours is bad public policy. The institutions of government should, when acting properly, defend marriage against those who would redefine it.
Christians (at least orthodox, faithful ones) are increasingly presented as unenlightened, forcing “our view” on others. When, in fact, our positions on marriage, family, authentic freedom, the dignity of every human person, and the nature of truth as objective are what frees people from the bondage of disordered appetites. These truths are objectively true for all men and women. We were made for relationship. We were structured for authentic love and human flourishing within marriage and family – and a society founded upon family.
We live in what Pope Benedict XVI called a “Dictatorship of Relativism.” The relativists of this age have managed to persuade even some Christians that there are no objective truths; there are only “my” truths and “your” truths. They have relegated the Christian position on the very existence of truths and rights to only being “religious” positions in order to then marginalize their importance in informing the social order.
Our Protestant Christian friends are correct. The Bible is clearly against homosexual practices and for true marriage as between one man and one woman for life. However, in a culture which has all but rejected the authority of the Bible, we also need to present our position in the language of the Natural Law as the Apostle Paul did in his letter to the Romans.
Catholic Christians insist that there is a Natural Law, “present in the heart of each man and established by reason.” This law “is universal in its precepts and its authority extends to all men. It expresses the dignity of the person and determines the basis for his fundamental rights and duties.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church# 1956)
It is here that we find the ground for the moral truths which should inform our life together in a truly just and free society. It is here where we also find those fundamental and foundational human rights which we insist must be recognized by the civil or positive law as rightfully belonging to all men and women.
The Catholic position that homosexual sexual practices are objectively disordered and our opposition to efforts to undermine true marriage through what I call the “Homosexual Equivalency Movement” – the movement which wants to call what can never be a marriage a marriage and then use the Police Power of the State to force all of us to do the same – is rooted in this Natural Law which binds all men and women.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of the Catholic Church wrote in 2003, “The Church’s teaching on marriage and on the complementarity of the sexes reiterates a truth that is evident to right reason and recognized as such by all the major cultures of the world. Marriage is not just any relationship between human beings. It was established by the Creator with its own nature, essential properties and purpose.”
“No ideology can erase from the human spirit the certainty that marriage exists solely between a man and a woman, who by mutual personal gift, proper and exclusive to themselves, tend toward the communion of their persons. In this way, they mutually perfect each other, in order to cooperate with God in the procreation and upbringing of new human lives.”
There is a Cultural Revolution underway in the West with two conflicting visions of the human person, human freedom, human flourishing and marriage and the family founded upon it as the first cell of a truly just society. We will never support the efforts to give promiscuous heterosexual or homosexual relationships the same status as monogamous marriage, period.
Now, a new form of censorship seeks to silence us from even expressing our truth claims by insisting that our positions are “religious” and therefore must be confined within our Church Walls. We must resist. Send a hearty Catholic Hooray for Chick-fil-A: Eat More Chicken, Stand in Solidarity with Others Defending True Marriage on August 1, 2012.
I’ve liked Chick-fil-A for some time now – long before all this began. It’s clean, the service is prexcellent and the food is far better than most fast food places. I’ll be taking the wife and Annabelle there Wednesday to vote with my wallet against the fascist poop-sex homos and their thought-crime mentality.
Here’s hoping they make their boycott permanent. Some of us see not having them around as a good thing.
Did you know that Miss Piggy and Kermit on Sesame St. came out and supported gay marriage in response to Dan Cathy also the other day driving pass our chic-fil-a there was a protestor with a sign saying “honk if you value your civil rights more than chicken, so even though I didn’t want a sandwich I went in for a drink. This Aug. 1 everyone who can should go and support this man.
First of all, RIP to Donald Perry who died today of a heart attack. He was VP of marketing at Chick-fil-A.
Second, I’ve been trying to organize a campaign on Facebook to bus people into Chick-fil-A on August 1, to get people to buy as many sandwiches as they can afford, in order to take back and distribute to homeless people, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, etc.
I would encourage everyone to do the same in their communities.
[Not to be "banned in Boston" but still not welcomed by Mayor "Mumbles" Mennino]
Boston’s Catholic mayor backs off vow to block Chick-Fil-A from city
by Kathleen Gilbert
www.lifesitenews.com/news/bostons-catholic-mayor-backs-off-vow-to-block-chick-fil-a-from-city
BOSTON, July 27, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Boston Mayor Thomas Menino has backpedaled on remarks that he would keep Chick-fil-A off city grounds because the head of the fast food chicken restaurant supports traditional marriage – but maintaining that he hopes the chain will stay out of Boston.
Menino told the Boston Herald Thursday that he can’t actually stop the restaurant from opening there, despite his staunch opposition to its pro-family position.
“I can’t do that. That would be interference to his rights to go there,” Menino said.
Menino had warned “it will be very difficult” for Chick-fil-A to obtain licenses for a restaurant in Boston, where the chain was reportedly looking to open a location, after Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy defended his company’s donation to “anti-gay” groups such as Focus on the Family.
“Chick-fil-A doesn’t belong in the city of Boston,” Menino had said.
The remarks drew criticism from unexpected corners, including a Boston Globe editorial that chastised the mayor for not recognizing the company head’s right to religious beliefs – even as Chicago mayor and former Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel anathematized Chick-fil-A in similar terms.
In remarks the Boston Herald captured on video Thursday, Menino cast his opposition to Cathy’s stance as a matter of personal opinion. “That’s my personal opinion, as mayor I can express myself as well as anybody else. I just don’t think he should come to Boston, and feed off the people of our city who are really a city that welcomes gay marriage, welcomes inclusion, and welcomes diversity,” he said.
Asked by another reporter in the Herald video whether Menino felt the same way towards the Boy Scouts and the Roman Catholic Church, who also do not promote gay rights, Menino responded, “They’re not funding organizations who are anti-gay. They’re not funding them, okay? It’s a different story.”
This is why I left the City of Boston in 1962 after graduating from college. I vowed never to return to the City owned by quasi-catholics, politicians all the way from James Michael Curley, a convicted felon re-elected while serving a prison term for embezzlement, to the current mayor, Thomas Menino. It includes a veritable rogues-gallery of politicians from the following families including the Kennedys, the Devers, the Furculos,the McCormacks, the Kerrys, and all the rest. Certainly there were some good people from those families but the overall track record is not good. The that many were Roman Catholics does not honor the Catholic religion.
Mayor ["Mumbles"] Menino’s Public Edict that Prohibits Catholics from Working in Boston
Carol McKinley
The Tenth Crusade
7/28/12
throwthebumsoutin2010.blogspot.com/2012/07/we-are-surrounded-by-thugs-of.html
Let’s get this straight:
Mayor Menino and our fellow countrymen are now going to prevent people who follow the edits of God from owning or operating a business?
Menino is a Catholic. I keep refreshing my browser on the Cardinal’s blog and the Pilot to see if he is going to publicly address the Mayor’s malicious edict of discrimination, but so far, it’s a goose egg.
Surprisingly, there are no announcements saying Mayor Menino is doing irreparable harm to the community of the faithful or a grave disservice to the Church, as he has repeatedly done to prolife advocates on his blog.
Maybe I’m reading into things too much, but you don’t suppose the Cardinal Archbishop is tipping his hand about his personal convictions, do you?
I don’t know what else to think.
But the Catholic Mayor of Boston delivers an edict in the public square that anyone who holds a personal conviction that is in compliance with the tenets of the Catholic religion is prohibited from operating a business in Boston and the Cardinal Archbishop is sitting silent on the sidelines.
Open the Cardinal’s newspaper. Read the Cardinal’s blog. When he says nothing, you’ll know its him.
The illegal and discriminatory nature of Menino’s threat is astoundingly frightening in the operation of a government.
What legal right does the Mayor of Boston have to get into the underpants of people who sell chicken and create public policies that our private, personal and religious convictions will prohibit us from operating a business? Our personal convictions about marriage have nothing whatsoever to do with selling chicken or doing any other business in Boston.
A public escalation of antiCatholicism and discrimination that we cannot let stand.
They’re not even waiting for the mandate to do the damage passive/aggressively. Menino and Rahm Emanuel are coming right out and saying Catholics who hold personal convictions of their Church – and those who agree with them, shall not earn a living. They are to be discriminated against and the discrimination is starting at City Hall.
The Mayor of Boston and his thugs of intolerance can whip up a frenzy to destroy or kill us and there is not a peep from the weenies in the Chancery.
What a disgusting turn of events in a country that was founded on freedom.
UPDATE: Press release from CJ Doyle at the Catholic Action League.
CJ Doyle – you rock.
I didn’t realize the Office of the Mayor was a bully pulpit for religious bigots to keep people out of business.
Now that he’s clarified that keeping Catholics from feeding, clothing and putting a roof over the heads of their families is an operation headed by Menino that takes place under the radar of the mayors office, we can all relax.
Cardinal George criticizes Chicago mayor’s comments on Chick-fil-A
CWN – July 31, 2012
Cardinal Francis George has criticized Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s recent comments on Chick-fil-A, a restaurant chain whose president said recently that he believes marriage is the union of a man and a woman.
“Chick-fil-A’s values are not Chicago values,” Emanuel said in response. “They’re not respectful of our residents, our neighbors and our family members. And if you’re gonna be part of the Chicago community, you should reflect Chicago values.”
Emanuel is also co-chair of President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign.
Cardinal George responded:
Recent comments by those who administer our city seem to assume that the city government can decide for everyone what are the “values” that must be held by citizens of Chicago. I was born and raised here, and my understanding of being a Chicagoan never included submitting my value system to the government for approval. Must those whose personal values do not conform to those of the government of the day move from the city? Is the City Council going to set up a “Council Committee on Un-Chicagoan Activities” and call those of us who are suspect to appear before it? I would have argued a few days ago that I believe such a move is, if I can borrow a phrase, “un-Chicagoan.”
“The value in question is espousal of ‘gender-free marriage,’” he continued. “Approval of state-sponsored homosexual unions has very quickly become a litmus test for bigotry; and espousing the understanding of marriage that has prevailed among all peoples throughout human history is now, supposedly, outside the American consensus.”
“Was Jesus a bigot?” Cardinal George added. “Could Jesus be accepted as a Chicagoan? Would Jesus be more ‘enlightened’ if he had the privilege of living in our society? One is welcome to believe that, of course; but it should not become the official state religion, at least not in a land that still fancies itself free. Surely there must be a way to properly respect people who are gay or lesbian without using civil law to undermine the nature of marriage.”
Additional sources for this story: See www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=15093
A rather weak reply for a Cardinal. In another age the Mayor would have been excommunicated or at least would have been denied the sacraments for publicly making such a scandallous statement. It seems that today the only persons who might be considered for excommunication are traditional Catholics.
LucasB. says: “A rather weak reply for a Cardinal. In another age the Mayor would have been excommunicated or at least would have been denied the sacraments for publicly making such a scandallous statement. It seems that today the only persons who might be considered for excommunication are traditional Catholics.”
The Cardinal could excommunicate Rahm Emmanuel, but he’d have to baptize him first.
And ask him to turn in his tutu, as well. Rahm was a ballet dancer before the irresistible charms of organized political crime swept him off his tippy toes, his degree from Sarah Lawrence College in hand. He also served with the Israeli Defense Forces in Gulf War I, fixing trucks, and keeping up a family tradition: His father was with the Irgun.
‘Course, to Brave New Churchniks, these are all grounds for declaring him to be “in good standing” under the “Invisible Christian” rubric. So, yeah, I guess the Cardinal could call him in for one of those famous photo op “discussions”…
Rahm’s tutu cousin, Poke, down in New Orleans