![\"chickfila\"](\"https:\/\/theamericanjesus.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/chickfila-1024x493.png\" "\\"chickfila\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nI\u2019m not eating at Chick-Fil-A today.<\/p>\n
Ok, to be fair the closest Chick-Fil-A to me is over 75 miles away in New Jersey, so I probably wouldn\u2019t be eating there anyway.<\/p>\n
But even if there was a Chick-Fil-A near me I wouldn\u2019t eat there today.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t get me wrong.<\/p>\n
I love<\/em> Chick-Fil-A.<\/p>\nI mean, I really<\/em> love it and not just because I love their chicken and waffle fries. You see, there\u2019s a bit of a family connection.<\/p>\nMy great-grandmother had a neighbor many years ago.<\/p>\n
His name was Truett Cathy.<\/p>\n
At the time, Mr. Cathy was working on a recipe for a chicken sandwich. My great-grandmother, like many great-grandmothers, was a pretty good cook. So, Mr. Cathy would bring over the various incarnations over to her house for her to taste.<\/p>\n
Now, I\u2019m sure that she never gave him much feedback on the sandwich beyond \u201cthis tastes good\u201d or \u201cyou may want to go back to the drawing board.\u201d She never claimed otherwise. But there was one thing she was pretty vehement about telling Mr. Cathy.<\/p>\n
My great-grandmother was a devote Christian woman. So, she took it upon herself to remind Mr. Cathy that being a man of God he better make sure his new restaurant was closed on Sundays. Once again, I\u2019m sure he probably had plans of doing that anyway, but now, every time I drive by a Chick-Fil-A on a Sunday morning and I get a craving for a chicken biscuit only to discover the place closed, I think of my great-grandmother Bonnie and wished she had just kept her mouth shut.<\/p>\n
Seriously, though, Chick-Fil-A has always held a special place in my heart.<\/p>\n
However, I can\u2019t get behind the so-called \u201cChick-Fil-A Appreciation Day.\u201d It\u2019s not because I\u2019m boycotting the restaurant. Honestly, I\u2019m still confused about the response to Dan Cathy\u2019s statements. Regardless of whether or not you agree with them, how are his conservative Christian views news?<\/p>\n
Regardless, for me, dedicating a day to shove a chicken sandwich in the face of your \u201cenemies\u201d just doesn\u2019t seem like a very Jesus-like thing to do.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not saying that people don\u2019t have a right to be upset at the outrage over Cathy\u2019s comments. They do, just like their opponents have the right to be outraged by Cathy\u2019s comments and respond accordingly.<\/p>\n
But if love for Jesus is at the heart of this \u201cappreciation day\u201d, which I think that is the case, then the church\u2019s response to their perceived persecution should be more like Jesus\u2019 responses when he was persecuted or when he saw others persecuted.<\/p>\n
He ate with them, talked peaceably with them, healed them, defended them, and when that didn\u2019t work, he died for them.<\/p>\n
For me, \u201cshoving it in their face\u201djust doesn\u2019t seem like the response of the Jesus who said \u201cturn the other cheek.\u201d Even if you disagree vehemently with homosexuality and gay marriage, the response Jesus expects from you towards them and those that would decry your position is clear: love them.<\/p>\n
Frankly, Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day just doesn\u2019t seem very loving to me. It seems a lot more like a battle to prove who\u2019s right and who\u2019s wrong.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re a Christian, then that battle over truth has already been fought and won in the death and resurrection of Jesus. He doesn\u2019t need you to refight that battle. He needs you to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.<\/p>\n
So, while I will eat at Chick-Fil-A again in the future, I won\u2019t eat there today because I don\u2019t want my gay friends to think I\u2019m battling them or shoving anything in their face. I want them to know that I love them, Jesus loves them, and I will be praying for them today as the church yet again forgets what it means to be the Body of Christ.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Grace and peace,<\/p>\n
Zack Hunt<\/p>\n
\/\/
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\u00a0 \u00a0 I\u2019m not eating at Chick-Fil-A today. Ok, to be fair the closest Chick-Fil-A to me is over 75 miles away in New Jersey, so I probably wouldn\u2019t be eating there anyway. But even if there was a Chick-Fil-A near me I wouldn\u2019t eat there today. Don\u2019t get me wrong. I love Chick-Fil-A. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3437,"featured_media":7555,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"chickfila\"](\"https:\/\/theamericanjesus.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/chickfila.png\" "\\"chickfila\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n