Trench on Chik-Fil-A and same sex marriage

Once again it’s time for yours truly, the grim spectre of truth, to lay some rational thought on the knee-jerk masses. This time it’s about the uproar over Chik-Fil-A and their supposed hate crimes against same-sex couples.

You know, I wasn’t planning on writing about this. It’s been beaten to the death on the media and especially the vapid wasteland of thought that is Facebook. That was until someone asked me an intelligent question on the aforementioned wasteland. Every once in awhile when I’m bored I post on my Facebook for anyone to ask me a question. Usually, it’s just me and my closest friends goofing around. That was until friend of the site ZappaCrappa asked me a thought-provoking question. That question went as follows…

Why is it that people think that buying or not buying a chicken sandwich is taking some great moral stand?

The short answer is, it isn’t. A better way to describe it as people doing something that they probably do anyway thinking that they’re making a difference.

First off unless you’ve been living under the proverbial rock for the past couple of weeks here’s a rundown. The CEO of Chik-Fil-A was interviewed by a religious media outlet and was asked about same-sex marriage. All that he said was that he supports traditional marriage. Agree with him or not I don’t see where in his statement he said that he ‘hates fags’ or ‘gays should burn in hell’. Admittedly there is more. Chik-Fil-A has a foundation that gives money to various political groups, one of which lobbies to keep same-sex marriage illegal. That group are also anti-vaxxers but that’s another rant for another day.

What surprised me was that anyone was surprised by this. Think about it. This is a restaurant chain that got its start in the Bible Belt and is always closed on Sundays. What did you think their stance on same-sex marriage was going to be? It reminds me of when Pope Benedict XVI was first named as Pope. A lot of people thought that the Catholic Church was all of a sudden going to renounce dogma that was the basis of the church for the last two millennia.

Another thing I don’t get is why is this the place that both sides of the argument decided to draw a line in the sand at Chik-Fil-A? to my knowledge Chik-Fil-A does not refuse service to gay people nor have they discriminated against any gay employees. This isn’t the Greensboro Lunch Counter Sit-In of the 60s. Those actually accomplished something.

I can understand you not wanting your money, albeit how small, to go to some lobbyists who would deprive someone of an act of love and devotion. But I would imagine that the most ardent supporters of same-sex marriage probably didn’t eat at Chik-Fil-A anyway. And if you eat at Chik-Fil-A so what? Just because someone eats a chicken sandwich it doesn’t automatically make someone a homophobe. Unfortunately, in this day of political correctness and knee-jerk reactionaries, some people find it incredibly difficult to separate the two.

The bottom line is, to mangle a quote from Freud, sometimes a chicken sandwich is just a chicken sandwich. In the grand scheme of things, your support or boycott of Chik-Fil-A doesn’t mean a damn thing.