A Follow Up

I wanted to clear a few things up.  I did NOT want to write another word about boycotts or chicken restaurants or gay marriage or Mike Huckabee, but after a week of FB convos and reading one of the comments on my earlier post, I feel like I have to do the above, which sucks.  It sucks because it is, as I noted on Facebook on Thursday or Friday, probably indicative of how far our country has gone into the toilet that Christians are rallying around a chicken restaurant as a symbol of their faith and folks who support gay marriage are allying against a chicken restaurant as a symbol of their devotion to the cause, when time and money could be better spent A:  directly serving the poor, sick, and imprisoned as Christ enjoined his followers to do or B:  becoming more active members of the political process which continues to invent legislation to deny citizens equal protection under the law.  But, hey, that's just me.  Maybe it's awesome that a cup of delicious lemonade is both a symbol of a god and a devil.  Maybe that proves how fricking wonderful America is.

Sigh.

Anywho:

• The proposed boycott of Chick-fil-a has nothing to do with Chick-fil-a being run by Christians, unless "Christian" has come to mean "a person who believes one's faith hinges on giving money to organizations dedicated to prohibiting gay marriage and altering the sexual orientation of citizens."  If those of us who are choosing to boycott Chick-fil-a were doing so because it was owned by Christians, most of us would be up the creek without a paddle.  We live, most of us, in a society that is saturated with Christianity.  We shop at stores run by Christians, we are taught by Christians, our plumber has one of those little fish doohickies on his van.  Heck, some of us even vote Christians into political office.  So, by and large, even if we aren't Christians, we get along with them.  We work alongside them.  We share carpools with them.  Yay, Christians!  But, you see, we also operate under the idea that Christianity has nothing to do with corporate sponsorship of political agendas.  We are operating under the idea that Christianity is based on the concept that one's individual salvation comes by the acceptance of the blood sacrifice made by a god.  This is where the whole concept of "legislating morality"--and the fact that we don't think you should--comes from.  You can't FORCE the acceptance of the blood sacrifice.  That salvation must be accepted by the individual willingly.  The Constitution of this country was not designed to engender salvation--nor are any of the laws that are held against the litmus test of that document.  Laws in this country are not designed to protect people from sin, either; they are designed to create order.   Marriage--as a LEGAL entity--is not about ensuring that the participants are sharing a sacrament designed by a god.  It is about protecting each individual's legal rights and creating a legal partnership by which property and responsibility is protected and delineated.   Legally, it has no religious affiliation.  How do I know this?  Well, if my husband was injured, I could visit him in the ICU, despite the fact that I'm not a Christian.  However, if my friend's partner got injured, she couldn't visit her, because they are lesbians and--based on Christian rules--not legally family.  THIS is the reason that Dan Cathy's company is getting boycotted.  Not because he is a Christian, but because he seeks to financially support organizations that want to deny millions of people legal protection and we aren't down with that.  
• I am growing weary of the "it's okay for liberals to say what they want to say, but as soon as a conservative speaks his or her mind, he or she is attacked" thing that I keep hearing.  Is anybody really serious about this?  If so, I'd like to direct everybody's attention to The Dixie Chicks, who no longer have a career because the lead singer spoke her mind about the president.  Radio stations hosted record-burning parties, other singers wrote songs about them--some subtly threatening violence--and they pretty much disappeared from public view.  Same thing with Sinead O'Connor when she ripped up a picture of the pope at the time.  JC Penney, Target, Sears, Oreos, ABC, and dozens of other companies have been the target of the conservative One Million Moms boycotting campaign, which has been going strong(ish) for a few years now and which has the backing of the super-conservative American Family Association, which advocates the boycotting of Home Depot and the AARP.  So, honestly, I don't even want to hear any more about how Christians and Christian organizations or conservatives aren't allowed to speak their opinions or support boycotts or businesses or whatever.  That is bunk.  Bunk, I say.  
• To answer your question, Pattiha, Mike Huckabee has been talking about Christians being persecuted for years.  I invite you to apply any search engine to the words "Mike Huckabee and persecution."  In the particular quote I used, Huckabee did not use the term "persecution," but he is a classic example of the mindset that if you disagree with somebody, you are persecuting them.  I have seen several blogs, FB posts, and commentaries about how the proposed boycott of a chicken restaurant equals Christian persecution.  I further invite you to apply the search engine of your choice to the words "chick fil a and Christian and persecution."  I believe that Mike Huckabee is using this sense of persecution to rile up listeners and further divide our country and he's counting on fear to help him gain power.  
• I'm not trying to jump all over you, Pattiha, but comparing 9/11 and Aurora, Colorado is, in my humble opinion, stretching it a bit far.  First of all, the acts on 9/11 were acts of war.  They were called acts of war by the aggressors (who did, in fact, cite American military and diplomatic policy toward Islamic countries as the reasons for the attacks) and they were called acts of war by President George W. Bush, who used those attacks as the launching point for the War on Terror and the subsequent invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.  I'm not sure at what point in time some conservatives started blaming American liberals for coming up with the concept that our military and diplomatic strategies were the reasons for al-Qaeda attacking us.  Second of all, the only similarity the two attacks seem to have in common were that they were planned meticulously.  The first took out thousands of innocent men and women and were masterminded and funded by a group of men determined to destroy the United States.  The second took out a dozen people and was masterminded by one apparently insane man who was determined to...what?  Kill a bunch of random people?  Be The Joker?  I'm not trying to minimize ANY of the deaths that took place at either awful, terrible, shocking, heart-wrenching event, but--with the exception of the death--comparing the two is like comparing apples and oranges.  
• Folks who support the boycott:  please stop acting like asshats.  I don't believe you are acting like ass jackets, because I think you are following the herd (sigh) and posting and reposting pictures of cows wearing nasty protest signs because the coolest kids on the interwebs are doing it, but honestly, you are not helping the cause.  Frankly, (and I say this with love), you are sort of becoming the Westboro Baptist contingency of the group.  NOT that you are running around saying that Jesus hates Truett Cathy, bless your hearts.  But by saying nasty things about Christians in general and using foul language and seeking out to insult people, you are taking away from what should be our main focus, which is legal marriage for all citizens.  So, do me a favor and cut it out.  It isn't too late to start acting like adults about this.  For serious.
• Go get a book on Amazon.com, because Jeff Bezos, the dude in charge, just donated 2.5 million dollars to support gay marriage in Washington state because a former employee asked him to and he felt it was the right thing to do.  That?  Is Teh Awesome.

Okay.  I THINK I've said all I'm going to say about this.  Please, y'all, don't make me have to use the phrase "delicious lemonade" again in the same paragraph as Mike Huckabee or a god.  

It gives me the hoobies.