"I think we are inviting God's judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at him and say, 'We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage...We are very much supportive of the family—the biblical definition of the family unit" -Dan Cathy
Dan Cathy is either dumb, lying or he doesn't read his Bible as much as he claims to.
If I could ask Mr. Cathy or any of the people, who will spend August 1st scarfing down nuggets and sandwiches to prove a point, one thing it would be this. Which biblical defininition of marriage do you support?
I'll give you some choices below:
Polygynous Marriage
Probably the most common form of marriage in the bible, it is where a man has more than one wife.
Levirate Marriage
When a woman was widowed without a son, it became the responsibility of the brother-in-law or a close male relative to take her in and impregnate her. If the resulting child was a son, he would be considered the heir of her late husband. See Ruth, and the story of Onan (Gen. 38:6-10).
A man, a woman and her property — a female slave
The famous “handmaiden” sketch, as preformed by Abraham (Gen. 16:1-6) and Jacob (Gen. 30:4-5).
A man, one or more wives, and some concubines
The definition of a concubine varies from culture to culture, but they tended to be live-in mistresses. Concubines were tied to their “husband,” but had a lower status than a wife. Their children were not usually heirs, so they were safe outlets for sex without risking the line of succession. To see how badly a concubine could be treated, see the famous story of the Levite and his concubine (Judges 19:1-30).
A male soldier and a female prisoner of war
Women could be taken as booty from a successful campaign and forced to become wives or concubines. Deuteronomy 21:11-14 describes the process.
A male rapist and his victim
Deuteronomy 22:28-29 describes how an unmarried woman who had been raped must marry her attacker.
A male and female slave
A female slave could be married to a male slave without consent, presumably to produce more slaves.
Monogamous, heterosexual marriage
What you might think of as the standard form of marriage, provided you think of arranged marriages as the standard. Also remember that inter-faith or cross-ethnic marriage were forbidden for large chunks of biblical history.
Now, I won't eat Chick-fil-a ever again. That's my prerogative just as much as it is yours to continue to go. I just cannot see spending money to support a place where there might be any small inkling of a chance that my dollars might go to spread hate and fear of something that should be neither hated or feared.
Truth is, the God and Jesus I have come to know, probably would feel the same way.
The only people who Jesus railed against were the self-righteous and the hypocritical. Dan Cathy probably falls into that category somewhere. He obviously doesn't know much about the bible, or its definition of marriage.
But poll after poll shows that with each passing day the number of Americans who support marriage equality grows. And just a few months ago a poll confirmed that more Americans now support marriage equality than oppose it.
In a few scant years -- if it even takes that long -- history will judge those who sought to deny basic civil rights to people who are gay just as harshly as it does those who sought to deny basic civil rights to members of other minority groups in the past.
Hate like that leaves a nasty aftertaste that can last for decades.
When it comes to businesses sticking their neck out across the proverbial chopping block to join the fray of political discussion all the while ignoring the actual words of the book they love to thump....well, Dan Cathy and Chick-fil-a rule the roost.
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