Archive | 2012

The following letter appeared in today’s Opelika-Auburn News:

To the Editor:

Rudy Tidwell’s defense (letter to the editor titled “Chick-fil-A COO’s comments twisted” on Aug. 4) of Chick-fil-A honcho Dan Cathy is bizarre. Cathy “did not directly condemn same-sex marriage,” Tidwell tells us; he simply “affirmed the biblical view of marriage as being between one man and one woman.”

Apart from the misrepresentation of the “biblical view” (which actually describes marriage as being between one man and multiple women), what on earth is the difference? It’s like trying to find a difference between saying “all dogs should be killed” and saying “only animals other than dogs should be allowed to live.” The two claims are logically equivalent.

Moreover, Cathy in fact went beyond this simple “affirmation,” inasmuch as he further opined that those who support marriage equality are “prideful, arrogant,” and “inviting God’s judgment” – which frankly sounds just a bit prideful and arrogant on Cathy’s part.

In any case, the outrage against Chick-fil-A is about more than just Cathy’s comments. Chick-fil-A has a history of donating to anti-gay hate groups, according to daikykos.com, including some that have advocated the criminalization of homosexuality. I’ll be eating elsewhere.

Sincerely yours,

Roderick T. Long

The phrase “according to dailykos.com” (or “daikykos,” as they inexplicably misprinted it) was added by and at the insistence of the O-A News, whose editor asked me for a citation for what I had thought was common knowledge, so I sent them to a Kos post that had useful links. Now it looks as though I’m taking Kos’s word for it. Oh well.