The recent flap over Chick-Fil-A president Dan Cathy's very public stance about same-sex marriage brought out a lot of back-and-forth press releases, accusations, and insults by and between people and groups on both sides of the marriage equality issue. Here's what I got out of it:
1. There are no First Amendment issues at stake. The First Amendment only applies to the government suppressing the right to free expression. No one is attacking Dan Cathy's right to express his views, support any group, or practice his religion, and those who oppose him have every right to say that they do.
2. Those who complain about boycotts of Chick-Fil-A should remember that it's a very old tactic that has been used time and again over the years. Remember the Dixie Chicks?
3. Taken as a whole, "Biblical" marriage includes concubines, mistresses, and multiple wives (but not husbands). The Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) is full of examples of each. Also, there are various prohibitions on (among other things) eating pork (Leviticus 11:7-8) and shellfish (Leviticus 11:10), cutting your hair incorrectly (Leviticus 19:27), tattoos (Leviticus 19:28), and divorce for any reason (Mark 10:8-9). Hey, I should be out of a job!
The Chick-Fil-A story dominated the news cycle for a few days, but like every big splash it has faded and will soon be relegated to, at most, an historical footnote, though no doubt various groups will raise a lot of money from it. What will not fade is the advance of marriage equality and the resistance that it faces in the legislatures and courts.
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