I didn’t eat at Chick-Fil-A today, mainly because there isn’t one nearby and I don’t typically join causes. I am a white evangelical male over forty who did not attend Promise Keepers. See what I mean?
I do admit to feeling a surge of pride as the national news showed lines of people packing the restaurants today, and I feel kind of bad about that in light of the Christian editorials warning us against just this sort of thing. I agree that we should not put our trust in any form of political activity, but I think it’s appropriate to announce by our feet that we believe in free speech. And from the interviews I saw, this is precisely why the customers said they were there. I didn’t see anything that sounded like hate speech, and indeed the homosexual issue was not even mentioned (though given the thousands of people who participated, I don’t doubt that some bad examples were set).
One editorial warned that this day might send homosexuals the wrong message. Really? They thought Dan Cathy was guilty of hate speech just for saying he supported traditional marriage, and they undoubtedly will think the same of us. That ship has long sailed. The only consideration left isn’t how gay marriage supporters will interpret our actions, but whether the actions themselves are loving or hateful. From what I saw on the news, the folks who ate at Chick-Fil-A passed this test. They all said what they were for (free speech), not what they were against. They didn’t use this as an attack on homosexuals, but as a reminder that they have rights too (as even the mayors of Boston, Chicago, and New York have now acknowledged).
On the lighter side, I came across this blooper while grading today:
The student wrote that Barth didn’t believe “in original sin, which was transmitted by Adam and Eve to their posterior.”
I think he meant “posterity,” though this does explain why Adam and Eve so desperately tried to cover their butts.
Mike Wittmer 
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