The Bigger Problem with Chick-Fil-A

On Wednesday, I wrote the post, Oh, Chick-fil-A: The Outrage. So far, it has reached over 101,000 people, and it keeps going. That’s crazy! My intention was to share my thoughts with my small social media world. I had no idea it was going to travel as far as it did. Reading the feedback from some people in the comments section, as well as on Facebook and Twitter, I have seen the light! I now see the bigger problem with the Chick-fil-A controversy.

Today, I’m going to jump on the outrage train. I’m going to assume,
Chick-fil-A caved after 7-years of attacks from the LGBTQ+ community and their liberal political allies. It’s a shame, isn’t it?

Chick-fil-A, the last American, Christian hope against liberal bullies, trying to force Christians to accept their homosexual worldview. I am disappointed, almost to the point of tears, angry tears, that they failed me and Christians all over America. And, really all over the world, like in England, where they are being shutdown, after only 6-months because of these bullies.

So, my fellow disappointed, angry, and outraged Christian brothers and sisters, what should we do from here? How should we respond to their caving betrayal of our Christian principles?

I am brand new to this. After all, you know it was just on Wednesday that I told the world that I was not jumping on the outrage train, and look at me, just like Chick-fil-A, I CAVED! So, will you help the new kid on the train out a little bit? It appears, we’re looking at Chick-Fil-A as a person, a fellow flesh and blood Christian.

So, what do we do? Help me out!

• Do we look to the Bible to pave the way for our response?
  • I guess, we can look to Jesus, since He’s in the Bible. Is that okay?
• Do we skip the Bible and just react with sheer emotion? After all, Chick-fil-A has wronged us personally!!!
• What does this look like in the real world? Do we go to every comment section, Facebook post, news site, and make our voices heard? I got that impression from one of my own commenters, they said they were speaking out to let the company leaders know they are disappointed and not happy. One of my Facebook connections posted an article and then personally relished that it was “all going bad for Chick-fil-A!”
  Hooray! My brothers and sisters. Let us rejoice that they are going to reap what they sowed (that’s from the Bible!) for betraying our Christian values and for caving. As others have said, “Now God will stop blessing them!”

Look at us Christians, standing so firm and yelling so loud at what we’re assuming is essentially a brother or sister in Christ falling and giving into the world’s ways. You know what I’m thinking? I’m thinking this will show “the world” — those liberals and LGBTQ+ advocates — that we don’t play. Our beloved Chick-fil-A caved, but WE WILL NOT! Well, I caved, but with your help, WE will not! If you want to be a part of Christianity, and you don’t act right and perform to our Christian standards, you have to go! There’s no room in Christianity for that kind of behavior. There’s no room in our faith for the weak spined, cavers.

THE BIGGER PROBLEM WITH CHICK-FIL-A
See, this is the bigger problem with the Chick-fil-A controversy. We’re so concerned with being right and for protecting a set of values, that we forget what we’re supposed to be about. We forget there’s a world looking in at what Christians and Christianity is all about. So far, what they have seen is (some) Christians who may profess the gospel, but their attitudes and their behavior is void of it. The biggest problem in the Chick-fil-a controversy is how Christians are acting toward a perceived wrong.

Here’s what the world sees: “If they will treat Chick-fil-A that way, how would they treat me?” “If Chick-fil-A did this one thing wrong, what if I get it wrong, is this what I can expect from the church?” And, they’ll just pass on God, Christianity, and the church.

You may dismiss me, but it’s true. Jesus told us this in John 13:34-35 “I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” If it’s by our love that everyone (including the world) will know that we are His disciples, it is by our lack of love toward one another that we disconnect ourselves from belonging to Christ.

WHAT DO WE DO WITH CHICK-FIL-A?
If we’re treating Chick-fil-A like a fellow brother and sister in Christ, would Jesus go and publicly blast them for their wrong doing? Would he utilize social media to express his disgust at their sin? Or, to rally the family of God to boycott them? Would he send them hateful and unkind messages?

“If your brother sins against you, go and rebuke him in private….”

Matthew 18:15

It’s not an accident that Jesus also told us in Matthew 5:14, “You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden.” Christians are not hidden from the world around us, both for the good & the bad. Whether in unity or in disunity. In agreement and in disagreement. When we choose to express our disputes in the public eye and when we choose to express our disagreements or when we act as if we are relishing in the potential downfall of another, the world sees that and will make a decision about Jesus, based on our behavior. Jesus told us to go to one another in private.

So, let’s assume, Chick-fil-A caved and made a grave mistake. If this was a man or woman in your church, how would you handle it? How would you approach their failure? Maybe they relapsed into an addiction. Maybe they took their eyes off of Jesus and entered into an inappropriate relationship. Maybe they have become ensnared with pornography. You find out on a Sunday morning at church. What will you do? Will you go home and blast them on the internet? Will you go and tell the world how disappointed you are in them? Is that the instructions that scripture gives us?

“Brothers and sisters, if someone is overtaken in any wrongdoing, you who are spiritual, restore such a person with a gentle spirit watching out for yourselves so that you also won’t be tempted.” 

Galatians 6:1

Christians, if you feel Chick-fil-A is wrong, where is your gentle spirit? Where is a genuine, PRIVATE attempt to make your disappointment and disagreement known, and then to seek restoration? What I see, sadly is the last part of verse 1 ignored: “watching out for yourselves so that you also won’t be tempted.” Paul doesn’t say you will be tempted with the same sin, as the fallen. It could be, but you may fall into other temptation. Maybe a temptation to be controlled by your emotions, or to become self righteous, or to cast judgement, or to act in a way that is void of love.

Carry one another’s burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. ³ For if anyone considers himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. ⁴ Let each person examine his own work, and then he can take pride in himself alone, and not compare himself with someone else.

Galatians 6:2-4

Instead of publicly opposing our brothers and sisters and instead of publicly expressing our disapproval and disagreements with them, what if we went to them privately? What if we asked how we can help them with their burden & the temptation to cave? Paul said YOU need to examine your own work. I need to examine my own work. We need to look in the mirror and be less concerned with Chick-fil-A, and more concerned with what we’re doing, or not doing. Does your life fully align with scripture to the place you can correct Chick-fil-A? Are you really in a place where you can say, “I can’t believe they caved!” Could Jesus say that about you? We should all be careful we don’t see ourselves as being better than Chick-fil-A, because we haven’t sinned as they have sinned (in our own mind).

LET’S BE HONEST
If we’re honest, here’s the problem. We often lack a true understanding of the gospel. If we don’t truly know the gospel, we can’t truly practice it. If the gospel isn’t inside of us, it won’t come out of us.

When we lack an understanding of the gospel and when we don’t live it out, we expect people to perform according to our standards. It comes from a works based theology. You have to perform a certain way to be accepted. You have to fulfill specific expectations to receive approval. This is NOT the gospel!

The gospel is that Jesus performed all that God required on our behalf so we can be accepted and saved. Jesus fulfilled God’s expectations so we could receive His approval. Jesus did everything for us, so we didn’t have to. We could never fulfill God’s requirements, no matter how hard we tried. A works based theology, disapproves of people when they don’t perform correctly. It rejects people because of their failures. The gospel teaches us that we are free to fail because Jesus succeeded on our behalf [tchividjian]. God doesn’t reject us when we get it wrong, he doesn’t relish in our demise because we made an unwise decision. God doesn’t toss us aside and declare He is finished with us when we sin against Him.

So, why would we, Christians do the same to Chick-fil-A? Some Christians are saying they “will NEVER eat there again, they are through with them!” After one decision. Really? Is that of Christ? Is that the gospel? Is sending local Chick-fil-A operators hateful and unkind messages, bringing stress and exhaustion to their family, of Christ? No, it’s not. It’s a works based theology, it’s not the gospel.

I am left to wonder if this is the experience people are having in our churches? Is Chick-fil-A just a public picture of the way fallen people are being handled within the walls of the church?

“…if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two.”

Matthew 5:41

How can you go the second mile for Chick-fil-A, right in the midst of your disagreement with them? How can you go the second mile to love and extend support to the local operators who are under attack from our own family? What if we allowed Christ and His gospel to drive us to do something different than the world? Different than the protesters and the advocates? Sure, privately e-mail and call the corporate offices, to express your disagreement and disappointment with them, if you feel they are wrong. But, what can you do to show the love of Christ in the midst of Chick-fil-A’s perceived wrong doing? How can you love those who are under attack, and are innocent of the decisions made by the corporate office? How can we be the light on a shining hill, showing the world that we, and the believers at Chick-fil-A, are truly Jesus’ disciples? That despite a difference, we will still live out the gospel and extend grace, forgiveness, and patience to them, even if we feel they don’t deserve it. After all, that’s what Jesus does for us. That’s how he first loved us.

May the true gospel guide our attitudes and our actions.