Rant on.

I will not be eating another meal from Chick-Fil-A again.  The fast food chain has decided to support an organization whose purpose is to keep homosexuals from having rights.  They have said as much, and have actively fought against gay marriage.

I bring this up for two reasons.  The first, which should be obvious for anybody who has read my rants, is that I won’t support any organization that wants to deny any particular group their rights, and I won’t support those who support such groups.  The second reason I bring this up is the discussion I had last week on Facebook about this.

Chick-Fil-A’s founders were all strong religious folks.  The restaurant is not open on Sundays for this reason.  This doesn’t bother me.  I am not against any particular religion or religious group; everybody has the right to believe what they want.  That right extends right up to the point just before a group (or person) feels the need to push their beliefs on other people.  This is what the discussion on Facebook stemmed from.

Some saw my call for a boycott as an attack on Christianity, more or less, because the organization Chick-Fil-A is supporting in this case happens to be a Christian group.  It is not, however, the group’s Christianity which bugs me, it’s their attempts to push their anti-gay beliefs on everybody else.

I can’t make it any plainer than that.  There are Christian groups out there which interpret the Bible a little differently and do not see an anti-gay message there.  They promote homosexual rights.  Some might say this is the same thing as the reverse case, but it isn’t.  The reverse case–working against homosexual rights–is based on an interpretation of the Bible which calls homosexuality a sin.  Pushing this agenda is pushing one’s anti-gay interpretation of the Bible on other folks, and results (if successful) in a group of people losing rights.  Pushing the opposite agenda–promoting equal rights–is not asking for a group to get treatment different from others, which essentially is what the anti- folks are after.

Now, if the gay-rights promoters were forwarding their cause for some interpretation of the Bible (or other religious work) which actively promoted a homosexual lifestyle and said promoters went so far as to encourage others to be gay, that would be different.  I would be against a group like that, too.

The point, ultimately, is that people should be free to be who they want to be, so long as they are not repressing the right of others to do the same in the process.  I want to be very clear about this, because it’s important.  Just because one person wants to hurt somebody doesn’t give them the right to do so, because that interferes with the somebody’s desire to be unhurt.  It’s really not that complicated.

Anyway, that’s my two cents on the subject.  If you want to support a company who supports a group which wants to suppress or otherwise take away the rights of others, eat at Chick-Fil-A.  If, like me, you’d rather everybody have the same rights, avoid them.  I am realistic about this; I know my little rant and boycott will not do much to the restaurant’s bottom line.  It’s a principle, though, and an important one.  And that’s all that counts.

Rant off.