Thoughts on a day of appreciation

It would be incredibly easy but not very sensible for me to ignore the top issue of the week for many.

It is a difficult subject at best, a divisive subject at worst. Certainly media of all types covered it like it was a religious tsunami.

Long story short, Wednesday was Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day across the nation. I’m more of a Canes kinda guy normally, but this whole thing has blown up into something that intrigues me. The question is, how did we get this polarized?

You probably have heard that last week, gay-rights protesters began a nationwide movement targeting franchises in response to company President Dan Cathy's comments to a Christian magazine.

"We are very much supportive of the family – the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives," Cathy said in the story.

All heck broke loose. Then former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee pronounced on his Facebook page that Wednesday would be Chick-Fil-A appreciation day. And all heck broke loose from the “other side” of the issue.

First, it is Cathy’s right to say what he said in a free society just as it is the right of all who have thrown a conniption fit on either side of the issue to do so. So what we need to do is calm down, first of all. And I would sincerely hope that everyone who went to buy chicken on Wednesday also remembered the poor and the disenfranchised and the emotional and spiritual hurting on Thursday.

I could give you an opinion, formed as a United Methodist minister but above all as a Christian, about gay marriage as a rule. I’ve done that before on my blog. But not here. Not today.

Instead, what I think I will do instead is tell a story, from the Gospel of John’s eighth chapter:

Jesus decided to teach some religious teachers of the day he lived. He noticed they had dragged a young woman caught in adultery in front of them although instructively they apparently neglected to bring the man. “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery,” they asked. “In the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

Jesus calmly bent and started to write something on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” He didn’t say anything else to them, but stooped and began to write again. The teachers left, dismayed at what he had said. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”  “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Seems there is instruction that should reach beyond painful loud arguing and cursing from one side and chicken eating on the other. Something about being without sin before you fuss up. I might be much more comfortable if all of us who were without sin of any kind might leave those who are with sin to be dealt with by God. Doesn’t mean you compromise. Means you Jesus-ize.

That doesn’t mean I’ve chosen a “side.” It doesn’t mean I haven’t. It just means I know how messed up I am, and how great a Savior He is. That’s enough for me. Or maybe it’s just that I’m chicken.