Stay Up Chick Fil A

It's a sad day when a person is ostracized for voicing his opinion in America. No, I take that back. It's a dangerous day. Whatever happened to freedom of speech? This past week Dan Cathy, president of Chick-fil-A came under fire from gay rights groups for expressing his opinion on same-sex marriage. To counter this, anti-gay groups turned out in large numbers - 500, 000, according to one post - on Wednesday to eat at Chick-fil-A restaurants.

I support Mr. Cathy's statement that marriage, as instituted by God, is between one man and one woman. But even if I didn't, I think the man has a right to express his opinion without fear of reprisals from those who share opposing views. According to Mike Huckabee who whipped up support for Chick-fil-A via his radio show, "every American -- has a right to an opinion. You don't have to agree with it. You don't have to like it. But you ought to respect that people have that wonderful right. You don't have that in North Korea. You don't have it in Iran."

This morning I read part of the story of the Exodus where the children of Israel were made to suffer great hardship just because they said they wanted to go and worship God in the desert. Pharaoh piled on the pressure, ordering his foremen to require the slaves to gather their own straw and produce the same amount of bricks as they had previously. The enemy's tactic has always been to frustrate God's people to the point that they either forget about worshiping Him or they bow to the enemy.

The Israelites, to their discredit, became angry at Moses and Aaron and accused them of bringing trouble upon them. Moses, in turn, confronted God. Listen to him: "Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble upon this people, and you have not rescued your people at all" (Exodus 5 : 23). Sounds familiar? Blame God when the enemy persecutes us.

The Chick-fil-A president's troubles began the minute he declared his position for God. So far, government officials from Chicago and Boston have pledged to keep the fast-food chain out of their cities and one of their outlets was vandalized. As if that wasn't enough, gay activists decided to stage a kiss-in outside of Chick-fil-A restaurants. But Mr. Cathy has reacted to all of this in a Christlike manner. He told the LA Times, "...I feel God's going to be with us through this and he'll be with the opposer as well. He doesn't hate anybody."

The Bible says, "Blessed are ye , when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely , for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad : for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you" (Matthew 5 : 11-12). Mr. Cathy, you are in good company. Thousands have already demonstrated their support for you, but more importantly, God supports you. Stay up!