The other day
Pat and I were running some errands and decided we’d grab something quick to
eat in the car so we could keep moving.
We were near a Chick-fil-A and planned to drive-thru there. At the last minute, we changed our
minds. So, in the end, I didn’t eat
chicken, I ate a hot dog. (Yes, it may
have had chicken in it and other ingredients I’d rather not know about, thank
you.) If we hadn’t changed our minds we
might have inadvertently participated in a display of support for the fast-food
chain. But I never knew the
demonstration was planned and I’d guess thousands who happened to eat at Chick-fil-A
on August 1 hadn’t heard either.
In case you haven’t
heard, the issue concerning Chick-fil-A involves the company’s opposition to
same-sex marriage or, perhaps, its support of what the company considers
traditional marriage.
The company’s
position has stirred controversy.
Supporters of same-sex marriage are calling on people to boycott the
restaurant and supporters of traditional marriage (like Mike Huckabee and Glenn
Beck) called on people to support the restaurant by eating there on August 1.
I find the whole
matter disturbing. On the one hand, those who support a boycott seem to be
saying that they’d rather coerce support than have genuine heart-felt,
thought-out support from a company. In other
words, they say, “We don’t mind if you’re a hypocrite as long as your hypocrisy
supports our cause.” At the same time,
those who support a “buycott” may be inadvertently persuading any local store
managers who happen to disagree with corporate to keep quiet about their
opinions.
In the face of
this, it seems appropriate to ask, where it all ends. Obviously, if I am a vegan, I am going to
avoid Wendy’s, McDonald’s, and Taco Bell (maybe). But should I enter every restaurant with a
list of questions on issues I consider important? Should I, for example, ask the manager at
Applebee’s about corporate’s stance on immigration, global-warming, or health
care?
Ultimately, when
are we going to stop doing ethics by the numbers? I know this runs contrary to most modern
thinking and maybe I should say most post-modern thinking but the rightness or
wrongness of a matter shouldn’t be determined by its popularity. If an issue is right, does it matter how many
CEOs support it? If it’s wrong, does the
support of hundreds of CEOs make it right?
Several years
ago, when evangelicals and Roman Catholics decided to boycott Paramount over The Last Temptation of Christ, they were
thought to be fools. I didn’t support
the boycott because I doubted many would take the film seriously. I never saw the film but I may only see three
films a year.
I don’t know how
the controversy affected attendance but film critic Stephen Greydanus says it remains
impossible to write a review of the film without the controversy
intruding. If the review is positive,
the critic is accused of being anti-Christian; if the review is negative, the
critic is accused of being a fundamentalist. So much for open discourse.
On a related
note, shortly after coming to Ohio a church member proudly told me she had
travelled to Cincinnati to see the controversial exhibit of Robert Mapplethorpe’s
photos. I suspect she wasn’t really
interested in his art but it was her way of telling me, “Look, I’m a Baptist
but I’m no narrow-minded fundamentalist.”
So much for the integrity of protesting protest.
Just the other
day I got a card from a local politician telling me how much she appreciated my
talking to Barry (not that Barry) who was campaigning on her behalf in
our neighborhood. I recalled Barry’s
visit but we really didn’t talk. The
moment I opened the door our Corgi-mix Copper was there loudly protesting Barry’s
presence. She protested his being on her
porch. She protested his knocking on her
door. She protested his disturbing her
mid-afternoon nap that she takes prior to her late-afternoon nap. Copper’s protesting kept much dialogue from
happening.
I suspect it’s
that way with most protests.
When I actually
heard about the Chick-fil-A controversy, I immediately thought I’d like a nice
twelve-pack of nuggets. And, at the same
time, I felt I’d enjoy following it with a couple scoops of Cherry Garcia from
Ben and Jerry’s.
