The controversy over Chick-fil-A's desire to have a store in Boston not only caught me by surprise, it also revealed how little I knew about the company. Our daughter had to correct me when I got the name wrong and mispronounced it. But even starting late I have formed some opinions about the controversy.
1. Mayor Menino did not abuse his authority when he urged the company to reconsider its plans to locate in Boston. Although the letter was on official stationary, he was careful to limit his comments there to his personal opposition to a store in Boston.
2. If the Mayor has said elsewhere that he will block the granting of a license to Chick-fil-A, I think that would be an abuse of his office. It would not, on the other hand, be an abuse of his office if he encouraged people to express their opposition to Chick-fil-A's plans.
3. Ido not care how good the chicken is. I will not support with my business a man whose views are so contrary to mine and I hope Chick-fil-A decides to stay away from Boston.
2 comments:
As for the mayor, anything on official paper should be considered official. If he was just giving a personal opinion he should have used his own. Does he also get to tell conservative Jews, Muslims, and anyone else that believes in traditional marriage to get out? Have you told your conservative parishioners, if there are any, that you won't patronize their businesses and you want them to get out, lose their jobs/businesses because of their beliefs? Rich or poor shouldn't matter if something is morally right or wrong.
I really, really wish Christians on both sides could be more like the Chick-fil-a worker who was verbally attacked and recorded by the former CFO of Viante. She was calm, helpful,neutral, and very polite to the guy attacking her. She was amazing. That's welcoming and via media and trying to live at peace with all men.
My reason for not patronizing Chick-fil-A is not that Mr. Cathy disagrees with me about marriage equality, but that he supports organizations that spread lies about gay and lesbian people. One of those organizations has been labeled a hate group by the SPLC. I regret that the issue was framed as one of free speech, as if not eating at Chick-fil-A or wanting one in the neighborhood was an attack on Mr. Cathy's rights. It is simply a decision not to have my money used to pay for his megaphone.
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