Love Thy Neighbor... with a Chicken Sandwich

Oh Chick-fil-A! I don't know the real motivations why Chick-fil-A did a 180 and pulled their funding from anti-gay organizations but it's a move in the right direction. I want to say they did the right thing for the right reasons but in my gut I feel it was financially motivated.  I gave them my thumbs up via Facebook and perused through some of the comments being posted there.

I highly doubt that the masses that came out in support of Chick-fil-A this summer will come out and boycott them now because let's face it, last time they got to eat a sandwich and support their cause. It's no fun boycotting a delicious restaurant. I just hope The Daily Show and The Colbert Report cover this bit of news (won't see tonight's broadcast till tomorrow morning on Hulu). Cross your fingers that Huckabee will rally the troops against Chick-fil-A, sadly there's still no word from him yet on Facebook or Twitter.

(Warning: The kid in the following video talks so fast it'll make your head explode. You've been warned.)



MONEY BEATS JESUS AGAIN!!!

 Update: Oh Chick-fil-A, you sly thing you. Although they've been quite silent about the recent events they have released a statement found here. But Chick-fil-A apparently has found a loop hole to have their cake and eat it too. Read more on the funding loop hole here.

Tcha, You know what... Uhh-Uhh

This clip is insane. INSANE! I can't even begin to describe what just happened. I believe I actually got dumber after listening to this clip. On the Dana Show, hosted by Dana Loesch a conservative radio talk show host, Kay called in to voice her concerns about Chik-Fil-A-gate. Kay barely got a sentence in the entire time as Dana bombarded her with a series of accusations, literally shouting her down.Literally.



(HUGE h/t to On Knees for Jesus)

Let's run down a list of the statements/points made by Dana:

• You don't sound like any Christian that I know
• Doesn't understand how Kay can practice Christianity while claiming another Christian's viewpoint as hate
• What is hateful about Cathy's statement (true, nothing innately hateful but is missing the real topic behind the controversy. The issue is about the group he funds which wants to criminalize gay marriage.)
• You only subscribe to certain aspects of Christianity
• That's not how the gospels are presented.
• You sound like anything but a Christian
• Doesn't understand how certain aspects of the Christian faith is hateful
• You think God is hateful then?
• You're essentially calling Christ hateful.
• Is astonished over the statement that Christ doesn't directly address the gay community.
• (My favorite line) Give me the verse. Give me the verse. Give me the verse. No, no, no, no. Kay, give me the verse.
• The burden of proof is on you, you called my show.
• I want you to show me in the Bible where Christ preached hate?
• Stated that false Christians like Kay ran Dana from church. 
• and another favorite, Kay is the type of person that embarrasses the faith.

There is so much here that I can not begin to compute what I just heard. I literally jumped up, darted across the room to share this clip. It just boggles me how people can be so relentlessly unyielding to simply sit down and listen. Just listen. All Kay wanted was to be heard, even for a brief 5 minutes. Yes it is Dana's show and I'm sure she loves her job, (I once worked at a college radio station and absolutely loved it) but it is a talk show. If you invite listeners to call in at least give them the chance to make their statement. This spiraled out of control quickly, which is why people can't talk properly about gay marriage and the Chik-fil-A incident. Listening doesn't equate to losing ground in a debate, it means you care enough about the subject to pay attention to both sides of the issue. That and you don't come across like a total a$$hole.

I don't know much about Dana but she reminds me of someone else who likes to plug their ears.



Give me the verse. Give me the verse. Give me the verse. No, no, no, no. Kay, give me the verse.

La la la la la,
 la la la la la. 
Thank you for playing.

Here Comes the Wambulance

I'm not familiar with the discriminatory laws pertaining to private businesses but both of these videos, via On Knees for Jesus, remind me of a bunch of kids throwing tantrums.





Now businesses may have the right to refuse service but in the end they're only shooting themselves in the foot by reducing their target markets. Now if a Christian business wants to only market to Christians then have at it, but eventually they'll realize that if they'd broadened to include non-Christians and provided a service people will throw money at them for they would be much more profitable. When my wife and I don't enjoy a particular restaurant or business we choose not to go there. I'm not going to complain why I didn't get a senior citizen discount, I'm not a senior citizen. (Well now that I think about it, if I'm not planning to come back anyway why not throw a hissy fit until the manager either escorts me out or accommodates me. I either get physically carried out of the business, which saves me from walking out, or I get free dessert. Win win!) Entitlement whining makes everyone look foolish but especially makes the business look uncaring towards the clients and customers they're trying to cater.  But I'm not a businessman so what do I know.  

What Love Looks Like

I'm a follower of the Believe Out Loud Facebook page, a pro LGBT Christian movement, and they shared this cute little picture today that I thought I would share with you guys. Nobody can deny that more people today are for equal rights for LGBT than we were 10 years ago. People try to explain away why this group of Americans can't share in equal rights for several reasons but the loudest of these is that God said so. God also said a lot of other things which either get ignored or explained away as irrelevant to today. But nothing can be more relevant today than equal rights. How can America continue to be a beacon of freedom and equality we want it to be if we withhold certain rights from our own citizens, our neighbors, family and friends? I don't believe in the "gay agenda" any more than I believe in ancient aliens visiting our planet. What I do believe in is Love. Love isn't something which can be explained it must be experienced. I can't understand how some find it so easy to prevent others to take part in this human experience.

Now some are comfortable with LGBT folk in being who they are as long as they're not visible. This and the "love the sinner and not the sin" doesn't cut it in my book. Nobody should have to hide their love, nobody should have to jump through extra hurdles to experience it and enjoy equal benefits of being in a long lasting and loving relationship. As I've said before divorce, abuse, extramarital affairs ARE the real threats to marriage not two loving people wanting to spend the rest of their lives dedicated to one another. It's that simple.

The Outcast

I've been watching Star Trek: The Next Generation for the last couple months on Netflix when I came across an incredible scene in the episode entitled "The Outcast" and its commentary on LGBT rights. In this episode Commander Riker falls for a member of an androgynous species called the J'naii who later reveals she is actually female.



Of course when this episode originally aired back in 1992 I had no idea there was anything outside of heterosexuality (I was in the 2nd grade). But I just find it troubling that even nearly 20 years later that we are still debating whether or not these "deviants" should even be understood let alone allow them to equal rights.

Seventh-Day Adventists: It Gets Better!

As a former SDA myself I found myself excited after viewing this It Gets Better video filmed by Seventh-day Adventist filmmakers and activists as a part of the It Gets Better campaign. You can read the full article here.


It Gets Better (for Adventists too) from Stephen Eyer on Vimeo.


I was surprised at my own ignorance of LGBT people within the SDA church but also of my views of the SDA church. Growing up in a SDA church I always found the church stuffy, filled with an aging congregation pushing their conservative, Bible based views on the younger folk (or at least what this particular group calls Bible-based). It wasn't until after graduating from my SDA boarding school that I first realized that even within our conservative community some people were "different" from the established norm (almost 1/8 of my graduating class came out shortly after graduation, one of them being a very dear friend of mine I had absolutely no clue was gay). No one talked about it on campus because we all knew anyone who openly contradicted the values of the SDA church was grounds for expulsion. I wouldn't call it an ingrained fear or indoctrination against any non Bible-based relationships but it was a view that stuck with me and took years to unravel.

Ryan Bell, author of the article, is right, this It Gets Better video is a step in the right direction for the SDA church. I once viewed the SDA church with their heels dug in so deep into their conservative evangelical roots that I thought they were beyond any form of reformation. I've forgotten there are individuals and groups within the Christian church that are pushing the envelope of what it means to be Christian. What gets me even more excited is not that there are those who are challenging the boundaries of religious group they identify with but that we (mankind) are continuing to push the envelope of what it means to be human and how we interact and love our neighbor.