Thursday, September 5, 2019

The Golden Chicken?

Dear Fellow Christians,

Can we talk?

I have to admit, I'm getting concerned about your obsession with Chick-fil-A.  I know, I know, it's a good fast food place.  Those are rare.  The chicken sandwich is good, waffle fries are great.  The locations are generally clean and the staff is generally very helpful.  Plus they have a play area, which as a parent, is lifesaver.

But you are talking about it a lot and in some ways that don't seem healthy.  You seem to be elevating it to a potentially dangerous degree.  Especially in light of this Popeye's Chicken Sandwich battle.

We've all seen them.  The confessional posts.  The "I have sinned" posts where a Christian admits to eating the Popeye's Chicken Sandwich or worse, just attempting to eat the chicken sandwich, but then repents and returns to Chick-fil-A swearing to never be unfaithful again.  Psychoanalysts could have a field day with this, in light of some potentially disturbing social implications.

I know these are meant to be jokes.  But when you see post after post after post after post of the same thing, there clearly seems to be an issue here.  When all the jokes seem to view Chick-fil-A as an extension of the church, as the Lord's Chicken Place, there's likely some truth to the joke.  An underlying sense that Chick-fil-A is special, set apart, holy in some way.

Chick-fil-A is praised for their cleanliness, for their efficiency, for their service, to the point where jokes are made that Chick-fil-A will be running the intake process in Heaven.  It's put up on a pedestal as the "Christian" business we all should be supporting it.

Is it becoming our new idol?  Have we created a "golden chicken?"

I'm only semi-kidding.

At the end of the day, Chick-fil-A is a business.  It is a soulless corporation.  It has no religious identity or association.  It has no belief system.  It exists for the purpose of making money.  Period.  It can do good things and it can make decent food, but it exists to make money.

This fervor of support seemed to pickup following the controversies Chick-fil-A found itself in regarding its stance on same-sex marriage.  Is this support simply brand loyalty or is it a form of Christian virtue signaling?  Have we entangled a love of and support of Chick-fil-A with the Evangelical identity, because they close on Sundays?  Be honest, how many of you would love for them to be open on Sundays so you could eat there after church?

Look, I don't want to shame anyone for liking what they like or for being big fans (which we know is short for fanatic).

Maybe we need to just dial it back from treating it as a holy extension of the church.

Meme better.

truly,

A concerned fellow brother

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