This is part 2 of a 3-part series on Chick-Fil-A. Part 1 dealt with the whole “free speech” thing. Part 3 will be dealing with why I’ve personally made the decision to no longer spend my money at that bigoted, homophobic fast-food restaurant.
Here’s a link to a pretty damn good summary on Wikipedia. After the fold, I will continue as if you have read that link and/or have a pretty decent understanding of what, exactly, is going on.
Since at least January of 2011, the owners of Chick-Fil-A have been pretty open about their views on same-sex marriage. Now the president of Chick-Fil-A has come out talking about the “sanctity of marriage” and so on. With at least a year or more of words and actions that show a very homophobic bent, many (myself included) have decided to boycott Chick-Fil-A. In response, Mike Huckabee declared August 1 “Chick-Fil-A” appreciation day.
During this time, hundreds of thousands of bigoted, homophobic Christians (and non-Christians) lined up outside Chick-Fil-A stores all over the county to buy bigotry meals and homophobe drinks. And while doing this, they complained about two things: “free speech” and “the sanctity of marriage”. I’m focusing on the latter for this post.
Can some please explain to me what, exactly, the “sanctity of marriage” is? I don’t get it.
I’m studying to be a cultural anthropologist. I’ve looked at marriage throughout cultures and throughout history, and the only real definition I can come up with is “a coupling of two or more people for various different reasons”.
The Bible doesn’t help, either, as it tends towards polygamy in the Old Testament and staying single and chaste for life in the New Testament.
Here… let’s look at some examples of “traditional marriage” starting in 1691:
So again… what is “traditional marriage” and why is it so sacred?
See, to me, there is no “traditional marriage”. Thus, there’s no “sanctity” that has to be “protected”. It’s homophobia, pure and simple.
Nathan Hevenstone
Atheism, Music, and More... 
The bible is actually pretty clear on what marriage is: one man and one woman become one flesh. Marriage is sacred because it’s supposed to reflect the love between God and his Church – hence the multiple marriage analogies in the bible. This is obviously a very simplistic explanation, but it gets the point across.
You wanna provide some evidence? I agree that it’s one of the definitions found in the Bible, but only one of many.
Genesis says: “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.” The bible tells of people who entered into perversions of marriage(polygamy, etc), but these were not approved by God. There is only the one definition of proper marriage, how God meant for it to be.
Exodus 21:10 “If he take him another wife; her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish.” Context is about the rules in taking slaves and selling your daughter into slavery.
1 Corinthians 7:1-2 “It is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.”
1 Corinthians 7:7-9 “For I would that all men were even as I myself…. I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I. But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.”
Where does it say that God considers Lamech’s two wives (Genesis 4:19) a “perversion”? What about King Solomon’s 700 wives and 300 concubines?
The Bible is actually quite contradictory when it comes to polygamy.
There are 20 passages that appear to favor polygamy: Genesis 4:19, 16:1-4, 25:6, 26:34, 28:9, 31:17, 32:22, Exodus 21:10, Deuteronomy 21:15, Judges 8:30, 1 Samuel 1:1-2, 2 Samuel 12:7-8, 1 Kings 11:2-3, 1 Corinthians 4:5, 2 Corinthians 11:21, 13:21, 24:3, Matthew 25:1, 1 Timothy 3:2, 1 Timothy 3:2, and Titus 1:6-7.
On the other hand, there are 7 passages that appear to be against polygamy: Genesis 2:24, Deuteronomy 17:17, Matthew 19:4-5, 9, Mark 10:11, 1 Corinthians 7:2, Ephesians 5:33.
And then consider all of God’s commands to the ancient Hebrews to save the virgins for themselves.
Again I say that the Bible is not clear on what, exactly, marriage is, and thus there is no Biblical basis for this “man/woman” definition that is called “traditional”, and must, for whatever stupid (and homophobic) reason must be “sanctified”.
It was getting too small… Here’s how I see it: when man and woman were first created, they were as God originally intended. So God intended that man and woman become one body. Obviously sin entered the world and people were blinded to God’s plan. God allowed polygamy for various reasons (this website has a good explanation: http://www.gotquestions.org/polygamy.html). Again just because people do something in the bible, doesn’t mean it’s morally right.
Christians believe that the new testament fulfills and helps explain the old testament, so it’s hard to look at the two separately. In Mark 10:5-9 Jesus explains why God allowed divorce in ancient times, but this could also be applied to polygamy: “It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied. “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” To me, that says it all.
Regardless of polygamy or monogamy, the bible is clear that marriage should be between men and women. It is clear on the sinfulness of homosexual activities.
Okay. I’ll give you all of that.
Why should we listen to the Bible? Why should the Bible be viewed as anything other than a large collection of myths and fairy tales?
Well the Bible only has authority if you believe in God, and believe that he divinely inspired the writers. If you believe that, then it is God’s love letter to humanity, a guide to having a relationship with him and an eyewitness account of Jesus’s life. If you don’t believe that, then it is at least a great work on how to live a good life.
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