Monday, July 30, 2012

The New Tolerance - Thoughts on Chick-Fil-A

Written by:  Scott Cooper



In 1998 Josh McDowell came out with a book, which after reading, had I had enough money to purchase a copy of the book for every Christian friend of mine, and every Pastor in America, I would have purchased and given that many books away.  Since I was not independently wealthy, I did the next best thing – I encouraged every person I knew to purchase it, read it, and then pass it on to a friend.  The name of the book was entitled The New Tolerance: How a Cultural Movement Threatens to Destroy You, Your Faith and Your Children.  I encourage you to click that link, and order the book today and study it because, in a nutshell, it explained, 14 years ago what is happening this week with Chick-Fil-A.

This week, after the owner of well-known fast food chain, Chick-Fil-A, was asked his view on traditional marriage, a firestorm ensued from a minority of our population, which has been embraced with the full support of the mainstream media.

A couple thoughts should be noted:
  • Chick-Fil-A, since its inception in 1946, has always provided Sunday as a day of rest to all team members nationwide by being closed on Sunday’s. 
  • The Cathy family has always been closed on Sunday because it was part of their Christian Worldview.  Their business has flourished producing higher yields that other fast food chains, despite being open 52 days less per year!
  • In addition to following a Christian Worldview, the Cathy family understood that the most productive employees came from stable families, and having a consistent day off each week to devote to family, faith and rest would produce more productive and happy team members.
  • Chick-Fil-A has been one of the most charitable corporate stewards in history.  Part of their stewardship can be viewed here.  Their charitable contributions have never been motivated by “public perception,” rather by their Christian Worldview.
  • Chick-Fil-A typically plays contemporary Christian music in their restaurants.
  • Therefore, there should be no surprise that the Cathy family would have the views on Traditional Marriage that they have.


This effort to smear Chick-Fil-A is part of The New Tolerance Mr. McDowell outlined in his book in 1998.

In a nutshell, his book states “The new tolerance, because it is based on the view that all truth clams are equal because they are culturally created and conditioned must not only oppose but squelch any proclamation of absolute truth.” (p 54).  This is a scary world we now live in.  

Here are the key points of The Implications of The New Tolerance:

·         The Death of Truth
·         The Disappearance of Virtue
·         The Demise of Justice
·         The Loss of Conviction
·         The Privatization of Faith
·         The Tyranny of the Individual – “A society that isolates itself from competing truth claims will inevitably descend into oppression and tyranny.”  (p.61).
·         The Disintegration of Human Rights – “When the new tolerance is applied to different cultural values, it is usually identified by the term multiculturalism.  The basic belief of multiculturalism (as it is widely taught in the public educational system) is that all cultural values, beliefs, lifestyles, and truth claims are equal; there is no standard by which one can judge one cultural value as ‘better’ or ‘worse’ than that which exists in another culture.” (p. 63).
·         The Dominance of Feeling – “We are witnessing today the decline of strong philosophy, inhumanely objective and hierarchical and the triumph of essentially weak rhetoric: the criteria of social coexistence adaptable and malleable have begun to play a more important role than the suprahuman criteria of truth.” (p. 64
·         The Exaltation of Nature
·         The Descent Into Extremes

The Tactics of The New Tolerance:

·         No agreement Is Phobia
·         Nonconformity Is Hate
·         Conviction is Fanaticism – “One of the necessary results of the new tolerance is the loss of convictions (see Chapter 4).  If no ‘truth’ is any more true than any other ‘truth,’ then there is no truth worth defending.  If there is no truth worth defending, there is no room for conviction – particularly religious conviction (and, even more particularly Christian Conviction.

The fact that the Mayors of Boston, San Francisco and Chicago (President Obama’s former Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel) are now attempting to block permits for new Chick-Fil-A restaurants in their cities should be of far greater concern to the citizenry of our republic, and the main stream media than one families personal views on morality.  It should be noted:

·        There is no discrimination taking place.  It is a national law that employment cannot be denied due to race, religion, creed or orientation.  Such questions are not permitted on job applications or interviews.
·         Chick-Fil-A is an equal opportunity entrepreneur.  They sell chicken to anyone who comes into their store, regardless of race, religion, creed or orientation.

Therefore the activity this week is not really about the acceptance of homosexuals.  It is about an attack on those who hold the traditional view of marriage, an attack on Christianity and a threat to The First Amendment.

The Mayors of Boston, San Francisco and Chicago – and those who think like them are trying to make government god.  That is god with a small g.  Not only do they want to tell us how to think, they want to limit the lively-hood of individuals and corporations who think differently, who do believe in moral absolutes.  This is a scary place.

John Adams said “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."  To have elected leaders today attempting to harm or limit the businesses of such citizens should be very concerning.

That is why as Executive Director of Government is Not God PAC, I believe now more than ever we need to pay attention to the virtue of the men and women we place in elected office.  We need your help putting virtuous men and women in office. 


Time is of the essence. 




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