OK, Chick-Fil-A, It’s On
Right. OK, you may have just seen my last post, where a dickwaffle from the staunchly anti-gay, conservative Christian company Chick-Fil-A said the following:
“[In regards to people saying Chick-Fil-A is anti-gay] well, guilty as charged. 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. We give God thanks for that.”
Well, while I’m not a Biblical scholar, I do have quite a good deal of familiarity with the Bible and its contents, in multiple forms, in that I am a historian, as well as have training in Philosophy of Religion, which includes the fundamentals of multiple types of Christian theology and exegesis.
To my knowledge, there is no formal definition of a family in the Bible in any form I have ever read.
There are, however, a lot of things said about marriage, husbands, wives, and the codes that govern their lives. So let us see what “values” the Bible has to give us, and how closely the employees and owners of Chick-Fil-A would be willing to follow them.
Let us start with Genesis 2, 23-4, that says:
And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
Rule 1: A husband’s and wife’s first loyalty is to their partner. They shall be “one flesh” - that is, what affects one, will affect the other.
Then we have Genesis 3:16, which says:
Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
Rule 2: Wives are to be ruled over by their husbands. (How many women working for Chick-Fil-A would agree to be subservient to their husbands in all things?)
Rule 3: Women must suffer the pain of having children. (No anesthetics, epidurals, or even an asprin during child birth, gals).
Next, Exodus 22:16:
And if a man entice a maid that is not betrothed, and lie with her, he shall surely endow her to be his wife.
Rule 4: If any man sleeps with a woman who is not engaged to him, he has to marry her. No ifs, ands or buts. I don’t see this happening.
Now, we get into Leviticus, which is where things get fun, with Lev 20:10, after all the pronouncements about the fact you can’t see any woman naked but for your wife, which says:
And the man that committeth adultery with another man’s wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
Rule 5: If man and woman commit adultery, either with the man or woman or both being married, BOTH PARTIES are to be killed. There are some exceptions to this later.
Next, Leviticus 21:7, which states:
They shall not take a wife that is a whore, or profane; neither shall they take a woman put away from her husband: for he is holy unto his God.
Rule 6: You cannot marry any woman who is a “whore”, or profane. So no woman who has ever had sex with another man, or even with you, before marriage or during a previous marriage.
Rule 7: You cannot marry a woman who has been divorced or separated from her husband. Why? Because she has had sex with another man, see Rule 5.
Weirdly, Rule 6 is contradicted in Deut 24. It would be an interesting debate to see which of these is actually the case.
And Lev 21: 13, just to drive it home, says:
“And he shall take a wife in her virginity.”
See Rule 5 and 6.
Deuteronomy 20:7 says that:
And what man is there that hath betrothed a wife, and hath not taken her? Let him go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her.
Rule 8: If a man is engaged, but not yet married to his wife, he cannot go to war. So, any man who is about to be married cannot be sent on deployment to a war zone. I don’t see Chick-Fil-A, or any other Christian group for that matter, trying to talk to the US Armed Forces into making this law.
Not so much dealing with family, but a good one to always bring up, Deut 22:5 says:
The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto theLord thy God.
So, side Rule 1, no pants, girls, nor anything else that might be considered men’s clothing. Including that nice polo shirt and the trousers that Chick-Fil-A makes its employees wear.
Deuteronomy 22, by the way, is pretty horrific as things go. First, a lot of issues dealing with farm life, including a prohibition against wearing clothes of two different fabrics (No poly blend and cotton, Chick-Fil-A). Then comes the bits about marriage.
Basicly, if a man says his wife is not a virgin when he takes her as his, and she is actually a virgin and her family can show it, she has to stay his wife, and her husband pay a fine to her father. If the family can’t show she is a virgin, then the entire village gets to stone her to death.
Then, we have the following from the same chapter:
If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto an husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her; Then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die; the damsel, because she cried not, being in the city; and the man, because he hath humbled his neighbour’s wife: so thou shalt put away evil from among you. But if a man find a betrothed damsel in the field, and the man force her, and lie with her: then the man only that lay with her shall die. But unto the damsel thou shalt do nothing; there is in the damsel no sin worthy of death: for as when a man riseth against his neighbour, and slayeth him, even so is this matter: For he found her in the field, and the betrothed damsel cried, and there was none to save her. If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found; Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife; because he hath humbled her, he may not put her away all his days.
Basic translation?
- If a woman is raped in the city and doesn’t cry out loud enough, the men of the city must stone her to death.
- If a woman is raped in the country, then only the man shall die (since there was no one to hear her if she cried out.)
- If a man rapes an unbetrothed virgin, he must pay her father 50 shekels of silver and then marry her. One assumes this trumps 2, but not 1.
Yeah, read those again. Chick-Fil-A supports making a rape victim marry her rapist if she was a virgin when he raped her.
Deut 24:5 is an especially good one to bring up against corporations:
When a man hath taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war, neither shall he be charged with any business: but he shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer up his wife which he hath taken.
Rule 10: If a man is newly married, he cannot do anything for a year. He cannot work, he cannot go to war, he cannot do anything except be at home with his wife, for a year. I don’t see Chick-Fil-A giving this Bible mandated time off to their employees upon being newly married, do you? How about making this a Federal law, since y’all are so hell bent on making the rest of your religious views law?
Deut 25 gives us Rule 11, that says a man must marry his dead brother’s wife if they do not have children.
We also have a restatement of Rule 6, later, in Mark 10:12, where even if a woman’s husband is dead, and she has sex with her new husband, that is adultery. As well, in Luke 16:18, it is stated even more harshly, that also a man who divorces and remarries, as well as any woman that does, is committing adultery.
And Romans 7 gets the award for all sorts of confused messages dealing with divorce, by the way.
Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
MAKE UP YOUR MIND! Does she get to remarry after he dies or not? Does she get to divorce him or not?
And then there is First Corinthians 7, which I quoted in a previous post. Which, yeah.
And then there is Ephesians 5 (yes, Ephesians, the book everyone forgets), which gives us a really interesting metaphor for the relationships within marriage:
Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.
Here we have that a wife must submit herself to her husband as if he were god. While he must “love” her, she must revere and worship him. How anti-woman can you get? A woman is commanded, owned, and subjugated by her husband, with no will or freedom of her own. This is the family values of Chick-Fil-A, folks.
And if that weren’t enough, let’s look at Titus (Another book people forget exists), Chapter 2:
But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine: That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.
Women are to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, and obedient to their husbands. That means not working outside the home, not being “sexual” and not being “seen” too much, oh yes, and obeying your husband in all things. So why then does Chick-Fil-A employ married women? Or even unmarried ones? Hmm?
First Peter also has a TON to say about women obeying their husbands in all things (totally noticing a theme here), as does the rest of First Corinthians, and several other books, all pretty much following this pattern.
These are the “Family Values” of Chick-Fil-A folks.
Go back and read all of it.
