Chick-fil-A Is Cathy’s Clown, by Mike Gold Brainiac On Banjo #285 | @MDWorld
July 30, 2012 Mike Gold 26 Comments
The Religious Right has a nifty new tactic: they claim victimization by anybody who dares to take a stand against their bigotry.
The latest case-in-point: Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy keeps his franchises closed on Sundays no matter the religious persuasion of the franchisees or their employees because, ostensibly, that’s the day his god knocked off from work. Now he’s taken it up a notch when he told the Baptist Press that his fast food joints follow “the (so-called) biblical definition of a family.” Cathy later added “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.’”
Cathy offers his god as a hater. “Turn the other cheek! But… wait… not that cheek!”
There has been some push back. Saying it has “celebrated and embraced diversity for over 50 years,” the Jim Henson Company announced it was pulling its promotional toys from the Chick-fil-A stores and is giving the money it made from Cathy’s company to GLAAD, a leading gay rights organization.
So I guess Bert and Ernie are gay after all!
The mayors of Boston, San Francisco and Chicago (but not New York City) have taken public stand against such bigotry, although their threats to block the company from opening in their towns are tenuous at best. Nonetheless, these positions are noble stands against discrimination, persecution and hatred.
The response has been predictable, from the predicable sources. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Baptist minister and right-wing teevee huckster, declared next Wednesday “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day” because their “executives are willing to take a stand for the godly values.” Perhaps they’ll give you a discount if you drag a faggot to the store from your rear fender.
Shockingly, former Pennsylvania Senator and two-time loser Rick Santorum, who equates same-sex marriage with bestiality, offered his support to the cause, as did the infamous Jew-hater Billy Graham. “As the son of a dairy farmer who milked many a cow,” Graham said nostalgically, “I plan to ‘Eat Mor Chikin’ and show my support by visiting Chick-fil-A next Wednesday.”
Southern Baptist Convention spokesman Roger Oldham said many Christians want to support businesses owned by fellow believers, and the loyalty intensifies “when Christians see a fellow Christian being persecuted.”
Persecuted? They butt into other peoples’ loving relationships and force these folks into second-class (at best) status and they are the ones being persecuted? You know, the ones who knowingly and viciously promote a culture of hatred and intolerance? They’re being persecuted?
Some say you don’t mix politics with business. I say, you stand against hatred and persecution everywhere you can. There are differences between freedom of speech and freedom to do business: the former is open to all who are willing to accept responsibility for their actions. The latter does carry restrictions. Not everyone can open a liquor store or a gun shop. Zoning laws are considered onerous to those who are denied their favored location. Certain types of stores are banned from certain communities. Gambling and prostitution are severely regulated. So much for the myth of the free market.
We restrict business in the name of the greater good. Supporting hatred, intolerance and persecution is not in the greater good. Ending hatred, intolerance and persecution most certainly is in the greater good.
Everything is up for debate, but hatred is not an issue that a sane person can support and citing religious predilections is not a defense. Religious nonsense often was sprouted throughout the 1950s to justify anti-black laws and to defend anti-miscegenation statutes. Banning a Chick-fil-A does not discriminate or restrict Christians any more than Chick-fil-A’s banning Sunday openings discriminates against non-Christians. And as far as I can tell, one hell of a lot of Christians go to restaurants on Sundays. Many after church.
The fact is – and it’s an absolute fact; he’s condemned by his own words – Dan Cathy is a hater, a bigot, and a zealot who hides behind his own religious enunciations to impose his will on his franchisees, their employees, and the communities from which he makes the fortune he then channels into his hateful, bigoted causes. This lowlife bastard can believe what he wants and spit his venom as he wishes, but there is no inherent or constitutional right for him to impose those horrific, evil “values” on those who do not buy into his beliefs and his vile, contemptible actions.
Bigotry and hypocrisy go hand-in-hand. We do not let Mormon men have multiple wives, we do not let Rastafarians smoke sacramental marijuana, and we put religious-based conscientious objectors in jail for refusing to cooperate with military conscription laws, many of which remain on the books today.
I wonder how these Chick-fil-A freedom fighters would feel if somebody opened a Muslim institution near one of their precious churches?
Oh, wait. We do know.
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The one, true God of Hellfire, Mike Gold performs the weekly two-hour Weird Sounds Inside The Gold Mind ass-kicking rock, blues and blather radio show on The Point, www.getthepointradio.com , every Sunday at 7:00 PM Eastern, rebroadcast three times during the week (check the website above for times) and available On Demand at the same place. He also joins Martha Thomases and Michael Davis as a weekly columnist at www.comicmix.com where he pontificates on matters of four-color.
Pennie
July 30, 2012 - 9:32 am
So many great points Mike.
We both remember the grief that Dr. King received when he began actively speaking out against the Vietnam War. “Whey doesn’t he stick to Civil Rights and his own kind?”
They failed to grasp your basic point: one is either for basic human rights and the right of self-determination for all people, or one isn’t.
And the reverse often comes into play: if one announces his way is the only way in one area, that usually ripples into others.
Pennie
July 30, 2012 - 9:52 am
A more appropriate business name: “Bird Dog.”
Mike Gold
July 30, 2012 - 9:54 am
How true:
Hey, bird dog get away from my chick
Hey, bird dog you better get away quick
Bird dog you better find a chicken little of your own
Pennie
July 30, 2012 - 10:31 am
}’;>)
Rick Oliver
July 30, 2012 - 2:06 pm
I have no problem with Chick-fil-A not being open on Sundays. I’ve always found it curious that most other establishments reputedly run by folks of strong religious conviction wouldn’t dream of passing up all the money they can make on half the weekend trade.
I do, however, have a problem with municipalities stating that they will not allow Chic-fil-A to set up shop in their towns simply because the people that run the corporation oppose gay marriage. AFAIK, they do not discriminate against gays in who they hire or who they serve in their restaurants. How many other businesses could cities ban if they decided they didn’t like their position on marriage,gay or otherwise — or a variety of other issues?
IMO, we should stop conflating religious marriage and legal marriage, and we should stop issuing licenses to conduct legal marriages to religious officials. Want a religious marriage? Go to the religious establishment of your choice. Want a legal marriage? Go to city hall.
Rick Oliver
July 30, 2012 - 2:12 pm
And although there will finally be a Chick-fil-A within reasonable driving distance of where I live, I won’t be going there anytime soon.
Mike Gold
July 30, 2012 - 2:36 pm
Rick — Well, not in Illinois you can’t. Nor in, what, 40 of the 51 states and districts? But I agree that religious and civil marriages should be completely separate, and the former an option. The “legal” marriage is the civil one: you buy the license, sign the paper, it’s a marriage contract, here’s your health card, forth and fuck in peace. Many countries do this, including those that we perceive to be very religious but, of course, compared to the United States are not.
As for municipalities stating they will not allow any institution from doing business if they have a policy in investing in discrimination, well, that’s nothing new at all. Plenty of municipalities, states, and federal agencies refused to invest in South Africa — to name but the most obvious. As a matter of law for a half-century, it has been illegal to participate in the Cuban economy, for reasons that make even less sense ever since we’ve been doing big-time business with Red China. Helllllo, Ralph Lauren!
I totally exempt Chicago from this because the fact that a local alderman is his ward’s gatekeeper is and has always been part of the city’s charm.
Neil C.
July 30, 2012 - 4:25 pm
I think Liberals should come out against suicide. Then Conservatives might kill themselves out of spite, like every thing else.
Jonathan (the other one)
July 30, 2012 - 6:30 pm
“The Biblical definition of marriage”?
You mean the marriage of one man and between two and one thousand women? Or betraying one of your generals to the enemy so that you can take his one wife as part of your existing harem? (That last, incidentally, was King David, supposedly the “holiest of men”…)
Or are we discussing incest, such as what must have followed Noah’s Flood (since, according to the tale, the only surviving humans were Noah and his family)?
JosephW
July 31, 2012 - 12:47 am
Well, Jonathan, you left out the other two great Biblical incest points.
First, we’ll hit the one AFTER Noah–the story of Lot and his horny, little virgin/slut daughters. Yep, that’s right. After daddy offered up their virginity to ward off the horny men of Sodom (whose refusal then led to the “visitors” inability to find even 10 good men which would’ve kept the city from destruction), the girls wander off with daddy and go into a cave and get daddy drunk so they can each have sex with him.
Second–and this is really THE big Biblical moment of bizarro incest tales: The story of Cain. After Cain kills Abel, he freaks out and God takes pity on poor Cain and just “marks” him so that anyone who kills Cain will face an even worse punishment. This, of course, is odd in itself. Adam and Eve were supposed to be the ONLY people when they were expelled from Eden, after which time they got bizzay and ended up having two sons–one of whom ends up killing the other. So, exactly WHOM does Cain fear? According to Genesis at this point, there are exactly 3 people in the world. But what takes this into the point of probable incest is the fact that Cain encounters a woman that he “takes for his wife.” Where exactly did this woman originate? No daughters are named (or even mentioned) at this point in the Biblical narrative, and–as noted before–there are presumably no other people at all.
So, yeah. That “Biblical definition” has a lot of weird little loopholes. (Oh, and let’s not forget the story of Abraham and Sarah’s little jaunt to Egypt where Abraham tries to pass off Sarah as his sister because, for some screwy bit of logic, he thinks that will keep her from being taken as one of Pharaoh’s wives. I’m sorry, but if I’m someone who’s powerful enough to kill you because I want your wife for my own, why would her being your sister be enough to dissuade me from taking her? Maybe I missed the point of that story or I misread something there, but that never made any sense to me.)
Martha Thomases
July 31, 2012 - 7:31 am
Much as I loathe the Chick-fil-a boss and his intolerance, I think I have a First Amendment problem with governments deciding they can ban a business because of the personal views of the CEO. If he keeps his opinions to himself, and abides by the law of the land, he can do what he wants on his own time, with his own money.
None of which will come from me, of course. I won’t give him a penny.
Rick Oliver
July 31, 2012 - 10:47 am
This guy said it better than I can:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/30/opinion/randazza-first-amendment/index.html?hpt=hp_bn7
Mike Gold
July 31, 2012 - 10:58 am
Martha, aside from my fetish for the Windy City Goniffs (Chicago’s most successful sporting team) I have no lust of support for governmentarians who red-line anything. I reassert my note regarding the Cuban boycott, although I suspect Michael Bloomberg supports it because it keeps the price of sugar high.
My conservative friends should not this as support for elimination of zoning laws. I’ve been to Houston. That does not work.
But you won’t hear me expressing outrage at anybody making a dramatic stand against bigotry and religious-based persecution. The point of my column was not to support the red-lining action per se, but to bray against how these Christian zealots claim THEY are the ones being persecuted because of people taking stands against their hatred and intolerance.
By the way, I would like to take this opportunity to inform these cocksuckers that their brother-in-arms, Mel Gibson, COULD run for President. He was born in He was born in Peekskill, New York and not in Australia, as commonly believed.
Gibson certainly represents their beliefs better than world-weary Mitt.
Mike Gold
July 31, 2012 - 11:05 am
Rick and JW:
THIS guy said it better than I can:
“God said to Abraham ‘kill me a son’
Abe said ‘Man, you must be putting me on’
God said ‘No,” and Abe said ‘What?’
And god said ‘you can do what you want to but,
‘the next time you see me coming, you’d better run’
And Abe said ‘Where do you want this killing done?’
And god said ‘Out on Highway 61.'”
And THIS guy said it almost as swell:
“Now, when I talked to god I knew he’d understand
He said, ‘Stick by me and I’ll be your guiding hand
But don’t ask me what I think of you
I might not give the answer that you want me to.'”
Oh well. BOTH men are quite religious, too.
mike weber
July 31, 2012 - 11:56 am
Mike: I recognise the first quote, of course – but not the second.
Sounds like Johnny Cash, though.
==============
Rick Oliver: Good on yer mate.
I live in (well, near, these days) Atlanta, and haven’t been to Chick-Fil-A in somewhere around thirty years … because their sandwiches are nasty.
But even if i liked them, i wouldn’t go now.
OTOH, while it would be government’s job to be concerned if they had discriminatory hiring practises, just being a loud-mouth jerk was not, last i checked, a legitimate reason to deny a business a license.
Years ago, talking with my dad, i was talking about a mildly-successful musician with whom i was acquainted, and Dad said”He sounds like a real jerk.”
To which i replied “If just being a jerk or asshole was grounds for not being allowed to make music, there’d be a lot less music.”
It generalises.
Mike Gold
July 31, 2012 - 12:07 pm
Mike, the second quote was from Peter Green’s “Oh, Well,” first recorded when he was with the original (and worthy) Fleetwood Mac from their 1969 album Then Play On. It’s also on numerous subsequent Peter Green records, most of which I recommend (except for his first, which sucks seriously). But twas the Fleetwood Mac version that’s the best, IMO. Mr. Green is a deeply religious man. One of our finest guitar-slingers, it was Green who formed Fleetwood Mac when he quit John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, taking Mick Fleetwood and John McVie with him.
Neil C.
July 31, 2012 - 12:25 pm
I’m a bit younger, so I remember the remake of “Oh Well” by a one-hit wonder group called The Rockets.
Rick Oliver
July 31, 2012 - 2:08 pm
I’m waiting for Romney to announce that he thinks Chick-fil-A should be the capital of the United States. Also that it’s a shining example of our cultural superiority.
George Haberberger
August 1, 2012 - 7:24 am
“Much as I loathe the Chick-fil-a boss and his intolerance, I think I have a First Amendment problem with governments deciding they can ban a business because of the personal views of the CEO. If he keeps his opinions to himself, and abides by the law of the land, he can do what he wants on his own time, with his own money.”
Martha is exactly right.
And about the “God wanted Abraham to kill Isaac” story: I’ve been taught that as much as God was testing Abraham, Abraham was testing God in that he didn’t really think God would make him go through with it. And he didn’t so we don’t really know if Abraham would have done it. KInd of game of chicken with Isaac as the car.
Mike Gold
August 1, 2012 - 10:06 am
“Abraham was testing God in that he didn’t really think God would make him go through with it. And he didn’t so we don’t really know if Abraham would have done it. KInd of game of chicken with Isaac as the car.”
Yeah, well, ya see, that’s where the whole thing begins to fall apart for me. Whether he meant it or not, whether Abe would have done it or not… it’s really a shithead move, big-time. I don’t understand why anybody would want to worship such a megalomaniacal asshole.
“Oh, yeah, right. (Snicker snicker) Prove you love me. Kill your kid.” Try that out when you’re dating somebody with a child. See if you get to second base.
Rick Oliver
August 1, 2012 - 4:52 pm
The god of the old testament is quite petulant, frequently threatening to throw the whole world down the waste disposal because no one is paying attention to him.
Mike Gold
August 1, 2012 - 8:06 pm
And people embrace this concept… Why?
Rick Oliver
August 2, 2012 - 12:32 pm
It’s the concept of sin and redemption. You can stray pretty from the path and god MIGHT still forgive you.
Mike Gold
August 2, 2012 - 1:44 pm
I dreamed last night I got on the boat to heaven
And by some chance I had brought my dice along
And there I stood
And I hollered “Someone fade me”
But the passengers, they knew right from wrong.
For the people all said sit down, sit down, you’re rockin’ the boat
People all said sit down
Sit down you’re rockin’ the boat.
Rick Oliver
August 2, 2012 - 2:34 pm
Now I’ve heard it said
that our big boy’s dead,
But I think that he’s hiding.
Pennie
August 2, 2012 - 3:10 pm
Craps!