Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Tony C loves chicken, ice cream, gay folks and Jesus...so where does that leave me?

Okay. The Summer of Tony C is taking a commercial break. I've been enjoying a bit of a respite from my blog to regroup, regenerate and refresh for a new season this Fall. Yes...I've missed you most dearly, but it's not quite time for the premier of the new TCT. Not just yet.

But alas, my dear friends know me well. Well enough to know that sitting on the sidelines during the whole Chik-Fil-A fiasco is just not going to happen. No way. Just ain't gonna happen.

(Note to self: Clean up grammar before Fall. Appalachian English is showing.)

Good Lord people...there's nothing in the Bible that even says Jesus ate chicken! Wait. That's not the issue is it? No the issue is once again the Political Correctness Police playing Rodney King (RIP) with our First Amendment rights.

So, the owner of Chik-Fil-A doesn't support gay marriage. That's his opinion, he owns it (the restaurant and his opinion) and gay people need to get their panti...their shorts out of a wad and deal! He didn't say gay people couldn't eat or even work there.

Hey. I sure as heck didn't stop eating Ben & Jerry's ice cream because they support gay marriage. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure Cherry Garcia is served in heaven. At least I'm hoping. Ben and Jerry have the right to believe what they want to believe, and that's a gift from God. Not just my favorite constitutional add-on.

Christians need to calm down too. Where's the love we're commanded to display in our actions and harness in our hearts when we're starting food fights with chicken sandwiches and waffle fries?

Man...those waffle fries are good...

Gays are boycotting and Christians are lining up in the drive thru, and  I'm okay with that. Just please soften the rhetoric a bit. Gay folks believe they have a right. That's cool with me. Doesn't mean you do though, but you can sure have that opinion. Christians believe homosexuality is immoral. While I personally agree with that position, I caution my brothers and sisters who are quick to throw out
 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 as the banner statement of our faith.

Not because the Word isn't truth and irrefutable, but because that passage has a number of sins that prevent a person from inheriting the Kingdom of God. Not just homosexuality.

Let's see...sexually immorality would include adulterers and porn gazers, then there's idolaters (ever miss church to watch your favorite TV show?), thieves, greedy people (sorry Wall Street), drunkards, and...wait for it...slanderers! Ouch. Why do we (read Christians) seems to focus just on the sins we don't struggle with daily?

Not to mention...do you really see Jesus in this picture?


Ouch again. I'm really sorry many gay people will see their only Savior in this light, and that's our fault Christians.

So, is Tony C going to Chik-Fil-A today to show my support for those who oppose gay marriage? Absolutely not. I'm going because I support the God-given right of everyone to have an opinion of their own whether I agree with it or not. God will decide who's lived His way in the end. I just need to focus on Tony C, my own struggles to stay in His will, and being a beacon of His love.

Beacon. That word looks like bacon. Okay! Okay! And I really love that Spicy Chicken Club too...

See you again in September! Tony C loves you!

3 comments:

David-FireAndGrace said...

Cherries Garcia, Crocs, and not non-gay cows. What are we supposed to think about you, Tony C?

That fact that Christians take a stand on gay marriage at all is a bit amusing. We don't seem to care when Muslims get married. We don't come down on folks that live together, or Christians that have sex before marriage - pretty much people are quiet on the issue until they married.

Preaching marriage to unbelievers is stupid. Besides most people know what their sins are - well, except the ones they want to overlook.

Do I think sin has consequences, YES!

A life without Christ is the tragedy.

Glass House said...

Thanks for the post. I think the best way to silence our detractors is to define what we are for, not what we are against. For example, we are for:
-the end of human trafficking
-the end to world hunger
-the end of domestic violence
-the end of sexual abuse
-the end of poverty

And while I talk about the end of things, it is because we stand for:
-equality before God
-the preciousness of life
-the right to live a happy and productive life
-and a life devoid of shame and misery.

In short, we support righteousness and the abolishment of sin. We are for God establishing His Peace on Earth. And to that end we pledge our lives, our existence.

AtlantaMama said...

Hi Tony, My good friend posted this and I wanted to share it here: Relationships are more important than issues.
God is not honored when we speak the truth in pride or judgment, only when we speak it in love. If we speak the truth in love we demonstrate spiritual maturity, even though the truth itself may still offend some and that is just part of being "not of this world". However, if we speak the truth because WE THINK WE ARE RIGHT then WE HAVE FORGOTTEN WE ARE ACTUALLY SO WRONG apart from the cross that we deserve hell. That said, if you can speak the truth in a spirit of love then, by all means, go ahead. But if you speak the truth with any motive other than love then you have deceived yourself into believing you are honoring God when in actuality you are just making an idol out of the law itself which is really no different than whatever sin of which you are accusing someone else. I expect anyone who is not a Christian to exercise their constitutional rights at will, but as citizens of heaven (Philippians 3:20) Christians need to remember not to use their freedom as an opportunity for themselves but to use their freedom to serve others in love instead (Galatians 5:13), and they need to define love by what Christ did on the cross, laying down His life in a brutal death for every single one of us while were were all still sinning against Him. If you are a Christian, please check your motives before you speak and choose your words wisely when you do. We, especially including myself, all have to remember that each of us has been at some point before in our lives and can be now just as guilty of speaking the truth with wrong motives as the next person. Jesus told us, "If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand" We all have to ask ourselves, "am I really wielding the sword of the Spirit or am I actually being used by the devil himself to launch fiery darts at his targets?" God forbid that true followers of Christ be used by the enemy to accomplish hell's agenda, all in the name of "free speech". God forbid that we who have been forgiven so much make so little of the cross that it took to purchase our freedom that we oversimplify Christ's matchless sacrifice into an excuse for legalism. And God forgive us for cheapening that sacrifice by suggesting in our own self-righteous depravity that a single soul he came to save was not worth every bit of the blood He so excruciatingly shed on their behalf by His own choice. We all need to take a moment to humbly stand in awe of the King of Glory, God's perfect Son, God in human form, suspended between heaven and earth, beaten unrecognizable and suffocating on a cross in the midday sun as a spectacle. We need to remember that His motive for getting on that cross was not to judge us but to take the judgment we all deserve on our behalf. His motive was love. He told us (John 12:32), "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself." And then Paul told us at the beginning of Romans 2, right after addressing various forms of sin, both homosexual and heterosexual in nature in Romans 1 (read the whole chapter, did you ever disobey your parents because if you did it says it is God's righteous decree that you are deserving of death), that we need to be careful about formulating our own judgments because it is actually God's KINDNESS that LEADS TO REPENTANCE. Are our words reflecting both the just judgment and the unsurpassed mercy of God displayed on the cross? If they are then they should be drawing people to Jesus because the cross is really the ultimate display of God's kindness toward humanity. Is it our heart that sinners be led to repentance? If it is then we should speak knowing the only way to accomplish our purpose is by speaking in kindness. If it is our heart to condemn with our words rather than draw others to Jesus and lead them to repentance through kindness then we should just shut up--and we should probably ask how well we really know Him ourselves. - Lindsey