So, a Gay Man and an Evangelical Walk into Chick-Fil-A…

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MereOrthodoxy blogger Matthew Lee Anderson joins me at TNR to argue that the chicken and coffee wars are distracting us from the real debate.

5 Comments for “So, a Gay Man and an Evangelical Walk into Chick-Fil-A…”

  1. posted by Doug on

    This is not nearly as factually benign as TNR would like to make it. Yes Chick-Fil-A unknowingly employs gay people. My gut tell me that they would not knowingly hire a gay person. My gut also tells me that their gay employee’s live in fear of being outed and fired.

    The same cannot be said of an evangelical who works at Starbucks. You cannot fire, or not hire, someone because of their religion.

    I also doubt that Starbucks spends a dime trying to make evangelicals second class citizens.

    • posted by Gus on

      If the Evangelical was actively recruiting at work as required he/she might have some problems.

  2. posted by Houndentenor on

    For a few months before the Chick-Fil-A brouhaha, my parents were being bombarded with demands that they not shop at this or that store (Starbucks, JC Penney and others) because they were “promoting homosexuality”. And then they have the audacity to cry foul when people want to stop eating at Chick-Fil-A because they are anti-gay. But stop if you see the two as equivalent. No one is harmed if a store decides to have a policy of non-discrimination. Most Americans think that employees should be hired, promoted and fired based on how they do their job. Not skin color, religion or anything else that has nothing to do with job performance. They are often shocked to learn that in most states people can be fired if their boss finds out they are gay. In addition, no one’s marriage is harmed in the least if two women can marry. Same sex couples ARE harmed when they can’t. Starbucks’ position is equal rights for all Americans. Chick Fil-A donates money to ensure that some Americans do not have the same rights as others. There’s no equivalency here. But most of all, the religious right is angry because liberals are using the same methods they are. And here in Texas, I remember the state legislature making noise about trying to block a major software firm from relocating to Austin because it offered benefits for same-sex partners. (For the record, I thought the threats of keeping Chick-Fil-A out of certain areas was ridiculous and most likely illegal. )

    All of this is typical crybaby conservative bs. Other people are trying to do to them what they do to others and they don’t like it one bit. Too fracking bad.

    • posted by Doug on

      When Apple wanted to open a facility in Austin, several years ago, the right wing went nuts demanding that they not be allowed to open a facility there. Apple said they would move elsewhere until the city council basically told the right wing to shut the fuck up.

      What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.

  3. posted by Jimmy on

    A point was made in the comments that should be reiterated. When corporations are considered persons, and money is speech, the practices of the corporation that go beyond its reason for being (selling fast food, in this case) in order to take a side in a culture war, should be called into question, even challenged. Why should this company be shielded from a confrontation that it asked for when it itself made the subject about more than just a chicken sandwich? If this company wanted to be left alone to sell its food, it should have left others alone, and it has found out that the days of having it both ways are over.

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