Chick-Fil-Ugh

My personal experience with the fast-food chain, Chick-Fil-A is minimal.  I'll admit it.

I realize that it has an almost cult-like following (even before all of the media attention it's getting these days), but I'm not a part of that cult.

I've eaten there exactly one time in my life and I wasn't impressed.  To be fair, I was on my way home from a seven day cruise in the Caribbean.  And I don't care how great their spicy chicken sandwich is, it couldn't hold a candle to the kind of food I'd been eating the previous week.

There is no Chick-Fil-A in my tiny hamlet, but when my kiddos where tiny, some friends of ours (who have family in the Denver area) frequented it often.  They would bring us their extra Kid's Meal toys.  Now, as a home school mommy, any restaurant that gives a kid a "free" Usborn Book gets a big "thumbs up" from me.

But until recently, I never really thought about Chick-Fil-A.  Ever.

Now I'm thinking about Chick-Fil-A a lot.  Thank you, constant and instant media and social networking platforms.

Actually I'm thinking about some people's response to it.  And I'm bemused.

Here's what I understand (and I realize this is simplified):

The CEO of Chick-Fil-A, Dan Cathy, stated in an interview with a Christian publication that  although he doesn't consider Chick-fil-A a "Christian business," he does operate on "biblical principles." "We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit....


So Mr. Cathy voiced his opinion on a social issue.  Fine.  Last I checked, his Constitutional rights as an American citizen allow him to do that.

But frankly?

The response to Mr. Cathy's opinion by political figures like Mike Huckabee and many Americans who share this opinion confuses me.

There now seems to be an even more cult-like support of Chick-Fil-A.  People are patronizing it en masse.  

So here's MY question:

If the CEO of PhillipMorrisUSA  stated that he "operates on biblical principles" and "is supportive of the family and the biblical definition of the family unit," are Mr. Huckabee and everyone else going to run to their nearest convenience store or "Smoker Friendly" and purchase and smoke a carton of cigarettes?

Because here's the thing:

Chick-Fil-A food (and fast food in general) ISN'T.  GOOD.  FOR.  YOU.

Here's a list of chicken nugget ingredients, straight from the Chick-Fil-A website:

100% natural whole breast filet, seasoning (salt, monosodium glutamate, sugar, spices, paprika), seasoned coater (enriched bleached flour [bleached wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid], sugar, salt, monosodium glutamate, nonfat milk, leavening [baking soda, sodium aluminum phosphate, monocalcium phosphate], spice, soybean oil, color [paprika]), milk wash (water, egg, nonfat milk), peanut oil (fully refined peanut oil with TBHQ and citric acid added to preserve freshness and Dimethylpolysiloxane an anti-foaming agent added).

Yeah.  

We have documented factual heart disease concerns in this country.  We have documented childhood obesity concerns in this country.  Celiac's disease is on the rise, cancer is on the rise and so are a host of other health issues.  Fast food restaurants are not helping this problem.

Frankly, since Mr. Cathy is in the food industry, and food is how we feed "the temple",

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own...1 Corinthians 6:19

I am so much more interested in how Mr. Cathy is going to apply the biblical principles of healthy food choices to his business practices.  But strangely, no one is discussing that.  Hmm...

Instead, political figures and Americans at large are willing to stand with someone on a social opinion even if to do so means to disregard factual health research, AND another biblical principle (the health of our physical bodies).

I still don't get it.  

So as for me and my house...

We are eating at home.