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.
