Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Chick-Fil-A

I can't get on Facebook much today without wanting to share my thoughts and opinions.  My heart aches today for so many reasons.  This being a big one.

I'll address the CFA debate, as it's being called.  First, my sister is gay.  She and her wife have the most amazing relationship.  Enviable.  The support, love and honesty I see between them inspires me to be a better wife to my husband.  I can't see anything wrong with that.  With two people, in love, sharing their love and commitment with the world.  You can throw Bible verses at me all day long, and I still can't imagine that being wrong.  In any way.  What breaks my heart is seeing people I know to be good saying hateful things.  And people close to me, too - people I would think would consider other's feelings before spouting some ridiculous theory about First Amendment Rights.  Because, let's face it, it is personal for me.  When you speak ill of any homosexual person, you are attacking my sister, whom I love.  And that hurts me.  Maybe you don't care.  Maybe you are so caught up in your righteous thinking that you believe it's okay to hurt me, to hurt my sister, to hurt anyone who believes differently than you do.

Posting your statuses and pictures on FB about how you love Chick-Fil-A, how Dan Cathy is right... some of you honestly do believe being gay is wrong.  You believe same sex marriage is an abomination.  That God is planning to smite anyone who is gay or believes it okay to be gay.  (Hmmmm... Does that sound a little Westboro Baptist-y to anyone else?)  Let's see - I'm certainly no theologist, but I'm pretty sure the Bible's underlying message is about God's love for his children.  I may not be able to whip out some scripture for you but my faith - my bone deep, heartfelt, deep down in my soul faith - says that Jesus would not appreciate all this hate we're slinging around down here.  Do you think He'd get involved in all this malarkey?  Really?

And then there are those of you who believe this is a First Amendments Rights issue.  Let me clarify that for you RIGHT NOW.  This whole issue would be void if it were just about one man's opinions.  Sure, there would be some people out there who'd voice their opposing viewpoints.  But the boycott?  That's about money.  That is about funds being donated to organizations who want to violate the rights of another human being.  Can you honestly say, in this day and age, that you find that to be acceptable behavior??  Whether you agree with someone else's lifestyle or not, can you say, as a human being, deep down in your heart, you find it perfectly acceptable to impede someone else's chance for happiness?

I can't.  And that's why I will give up my beloved Chick-Fil-A sandwiches and waffle fries.  Because I may not be the best person to speak out on this and I may lack some fundamental knowledge that will help you all to destroy me with your comments and your facts, but I know it hurts me to think of my sister and her wife being denied the same rights my husband and I take for granted.  And that's all it takes for me to jump on this bandwagon - a little personal insight.

**FYI - I am a "liberal hippie" no longer.  I have many "conservative" views.  I put them both in quotation marks because I am somewhere in the middle - where common sense and common courtesy meet a big heart.  Also, I am a Christian woman - learning, every single day, where, who and what God wants me to to be.