The Gay Chicken Debate

Today, thousands of amateur activists for traditional marriage will buy lunch from Chick-Fil-A. Maybe millions. Thousands of activists for gay marriage will also visit CFA locations to picket, argue or order water. This could go very badly. I cringe at the thought of media reports tomorrow about shouting, violence or arrests at Chick-Fil-A locations across the country. I pray that doesn't happen.

The question I keep asking is, "Why are we doing this?" What do we Christians think we're going to accomplish with National-Straight-People-Eat-Chicken-Day? Here are a few of the most common lines of thought.

Be not ashamed
There's a legitimate sense among evangelicals that the good old days are gone and our country is moving away from a Christian worldview toward a humanist one. I think it's hard to argue otherwise. For more than two centuries, Christians (especially Protestants) enjoyed a cushy life in America. With laws and cultural norms deeply influenced by our religion, we didn't have to deal with opposing viewpoints very often. That is clearly changing and Christians are right to worry that immorality is both accepted and legalized, that ultimate truth is undermined, and that peer pressure is turning to persecution.

The unconsidered response to those developments goes something like this: "That's not right. That shouldn't be! Someone has to do something. I'm going to stand up for truth! Let's eat chicken!"

But I think a more measured response might be more Christlike. Is huddling at CFA with other christians really the best way to stem America's moral decline? Remember, the early church refused to be silent about Jesus, not politics, and they did so at the risk of losing their lives, not their chicken biscuits. Refusing to renounce one's faith in a Roman coliseum is a far cry from denouncing gay marriage in a fast food joint.

Serving as the conscience of others
To be sure, many in our culture have calloused or perverted hearts that could use pricking. As do many in our pews. But the New Testament never admonishes us to rebuke immoral behavior in unbelievers, only in our brothers and sisters. Unbelievers are supposed to behave like unbelievers. We should stop expecting people who believe there is no ultimate truth to adjust their lifestyles to ultimate good. Instead, the pattern the Bible promotes is for us to rebuke one another inside the church — sharpen, love and encourage one another to the point that we're so Christlike that unbelievers want to be like us.

Let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
— Matt. 5:16

Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us.
— 1 Pet. 2:12

Here's a tip: if you're picketing, boycotting, condemning or otherwise demonstrating against the behaviors or beliefs of others, no one wants to be like you. Activism is not the way to win friends and influence people.

Standing up for free speech
This is probably the most logical reason for the demonstration but also the most insincere. Yes, Dan Cathy has every right to speak his political and religious views, and run his company any way he likes. And yes, customers have every right to visit or avoid his stores because of those views. But for Christians to suddenly take up the mantle of free speech seems a bit disingenuous. The same constitution that protects Dan Cathy's speech also protects war protestors, gay pride parades, and porn publishers. Christians quickly lose their First Amendment fervor when the topics change.

Whatever the reasons for the CFA demonstration, no one is pretending that it will actually lead to a better place. No one thinks thousands of Christians are going to show up at CFA and win the argument — as if every gay American will wake up tomorrow and think, "Hmm. Those people all ate chicken on the same day. They must be right. I'm straight."

Instead, the lesson gays are more likely to take away is simply that Christians are spoiling for a fight.

So if the CFA demonstration isn't going to accomplish anything healthy, what will it do? I think what we're actually accomplishing is marginalizing our own message. We seem to have forgotten in the public sphere a truth that we all embrace in our churches — that heart change happens in the context of relationships.

Which brings me to the most troublesome facet of this issue: we are increasingly removing ourselves from the culture. More and more, evangelicals are neither in the world nor of it. A friend of mine recently quoted one author (I'm sorry I haven't been able to track down which author) who wrote that the problem with social justice in the American church is not that Christians don't love the poor; it's just that they don't know them. The same is true for gays. I would venture to guess that less than half of American evangelicals have a gay friend. We seem more than happy to go out of our way to protest gay issues, but not to meet gay people.

Recently, I went to lunch with two gay friends to talk about the gay marriage issue. We didn't solve any great public policy debates, but we did express care for one another. We treated one another like real people, not like political opponents.

That may be the best thing to come out of today's CFA debate. Maybe instead of escalating to shouts and violence, people from both sides of this debate might meet one another at the fast food counter, learn one another's names, and get out of their comfort zones. If you're planning to show up at CFA today, I encourage you to love your political opponents the way Jesus loved you when he called you out of darkness into light. If you see someone ordering water, consider buying a meal for them. Learn their name. Express your concern that this whole thing has come across as judgmental. Maybe even pray for them. Better yet, skip the chicken and visit them on their turf, not yours. Show up on Friday for the "kiss-in" and make some new friends. Forget about protecting your righteous image long enough to reach out to your fellow man.

Chick-Fil-A didn't invent the chicken sandwich, but if we do this right, they might be inventing a new, more civil forum for political and religious discourse. That's what I'm praying for.