Henson issues statement about Chick-Fila-A

[D'Snowth]

I posted this photo on my Facebook this morning and I'm gonna post it here too and then "unwatch" this thread simply because there's nothing else for me to say on this matter as I'm just ending back where I started.

I'm gonna quote and repost this as well, simply because, yeah, that's basically my feelings too.

 

[Drtooth]

Here's an excerpt of what Dan Cathy, President of Chick-Fil-A said once the controversy started heating up:

“I think we are inviting God's judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say 'we know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage' and I pray God's mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we have the audacity to define what marriage is about."

Basically, this is a statement of bullying. He's not just stating an opinion. He's manipulating listeners into believing that equal rights for gay people will lead to a direct harm toward America from God. It's a sleazy tactic of implying that giving gays rights will somehow take them away from others. It's lunacy. It's only fitting that this restaurant uses cows sporting "end of the world" sort of propaganda signs that read "eat more chicken" in their advertising. If you listen to this audio link to his complete statement, you'll find it even more condescending and inflammatory toward people who disagree with him. He feels the need to "parent" other people who grow up differently. Wow!

It seems to me there are 3 thoughts of the matter...

1. Batcrackers crazy cult mentality
2. Hate is justified because someone found a biblical quote that supports it.
3. We're just following orders (which ranges from militant to apologetic and everywhere in between)

Chick's CEO is a mixture of the first 2, especially borrowing heavily from item one. His statement is the epitome of hate, sure... but it's also the epitome of cookoo bananas crazy time. "Only GOD can define stuff! May the heathen Noah Webster burn in the eternal fire pits for his arrogance!" It's one thing if he's sputtering nonsense out of hate and self righteousness, but it's quite another if he actually believes it.

Or, to put it as Monty Python would, "We at the Church of the Divine Looney believe in the power of prayer to turn your head PURPLE!"

If anything, Chick's CEO is the negative stereotype of Christianity that Christians hate. Even Seth MacFarline couldn't come up with a more negative, offensive portrayal.


Can't we all celebrate our differences rather than preach that our ways are the superior?

Now, this is what the only statement the Jim Henson Company made after CFA's stand against gay marriage:

"The Jim Henson Company has celebrated and embraced diversity and inclusiveness for over fifty years and we have notified Chick-Fil-A that we do not wish to partner with them on any future endeavors. Lisa Henson, our CEO is personally a strong supporter of gay marriage and has directed us to donate the payment we received from Chick-Fil-A to GLAAD."

There's not any direct condemnation of CFA or Christians from Henson, but they're receiving so much hate. There are a lot of gay rights supporters [like me] who have made statements and I can understand some attacking them, but not Henson. Not at all.

The support Henson has got is fun, positive and Muppety. Definitely in the spirit of Jim. The support Chick has got is catty, passive aggressive, hypocritical, and even fraudulent. Far right ex-candidate Rick Sanctimonious spoke up for them, and he's one of the scariest people they've got. I'm also sure Not Quite One Million Moms that aren't even Moms will pledge to eat there forever and burn Big Bird and Elmo toys out of spite (and complete and utter lack of knowledge of what Henson actually owns).

 

[D'Snowth]

Well now all of those hoohah has made it to the local news, and I'm sure most of you probably won't be happy to know that most people they've talked to actually support Chick-fil-A, not necessarily so much of the C.E.O.'s statement/opinion, but rather for his right to free speech. At least one person was quoted as saying, "Homosexuals don't affect your life, so get over it", but most others have basically said the same things I've been saying all this time, that they're still going to go there to eat food, and one even said, "If I stopped going out to eat at all the places because they don't support gay marriage, I wouldn't have very many places to eat."

 

[jvcarroll]

Well now all of those hoohah has made it to the local news, and I'm sure most of you probably won't be happy to know that most people they've talked to actually support Chick-fil-A, not necessarily so much of the C.E.O.'s statement/opinion, but rather for his right to free speech. At least one person was quoted as saying, "Homosexuals don't affect your life, so get over it", but most others have basically said the same things I've been saying all this time, that they're still going to go there to eat food, and one even said, "If I stopped going out to eat at all the places because they don't support gay marriage, I wouldn't have very many places to eat."

Ha! Yeah, I don't really know how much good boycotts really do, but my recent research discovered that a majority of companies support marriage equality. I was shocked. How did I not know that?

 

[Slackbot]

I know, refusing to eat at CFA won't make a dent in their wallet. It certainly won't make enough different to them to cause them to even reconsider rethinking their policy. The reason I won't eat there (even though I love their chicken sandwich & waffle fries combo!) is purely personal: I would not be happy giving my money to a place with policies like that. Not a boycott, just a personal choice.

 

[Drtooth]

I know, refusing to eat at CFA won't make a dent in their wallet. It certainly won't make enough different to them to cause them to even reconsider rethinking their policy. The reason I won't eat there (even though I love their chicken sandwich & waffle fries combo!) is purely personal: I would not be happy giving my money to a place with policies like that. Not a boycott, just a personal choice.

Heh... reread my "subside off your own tomatoes" spiel. You do NOT want to know what companies do with their money. And their money is our money that we gave them. I like that though... stop eating there due to personal choice. Refusing to do business with them on that level is all Henson did.

Something tells me any money lost through a boycott will just come out of employees, and they'll just keep giving money to those places, and keeping the rest in the CEO's pocket. But I respect a Boycott or even personal choice not to eat there MORE than I do the people who passive aggressively support the company for their "values." They come off pretty petty in this case.

I wonder if PBS is going to sever ties with them over funding because of this. It still funds Martha Speaks (and if they put all their political grandeur cash into PBS, this wouldn't be a problem), so I wonder if PBS is just going to shut up and take the money they need or ask for another company to help them out. Only time a funding agent became a problem was when McD's was sponsoring Sesame Street, and only because of Ralph Nader's Don Quixote-esque crusade against it. McD's no longer supports them, though.

 

[Hubert]

I wonder if PBS is going to sever ties with them over funding because of this. It still funds Martha Speaks (and if they put all their political grandeur cash into PBS, this wouldn't be a problem), so I wonder if PBS is just going to shut up and take the money they need or ask for another company to help them out. Only time a funding agent became a problem was when McD's was sponsoring Sesame Street, and only because of Ralph Nader's Don Quixote-esque crusade against it. McD's no longer supports them, though.

I'm really doubting it...PBS's funding isn't that extravagant now, I doubt they're going to purposely cut out more of it.

 

[CensoredAlso]

but my recent research discovered that a majority of companies support marriage equality. I was shocked. How did I not know that?

From a business standpoint it doesn't pay to potentially exclude customers. Chick-Fil-A was very much going against the business grain. The same way they choose to be closed on Sundays (that I actually don't mind, that takes guts, hehe).

 

[D'Snowth]

I wonder if PBS is going to sever ties with them over funding because of this.

As I've explained to you before, PBS actually stopped having pledge drives (at least for children's programming), because all these radical right-wing conservative groups rallied to stop support and funding THEM for "teaching tolerence towards homosexual". I know, since I was homeschooled during my high school years, and homeschooling is VERY Christian-oriented/faith-based, so I knew what a bunch of these special interest groups were up to, and they were basically spreading the word, "Just say no to Clifford" among other shows like SST, Arthur, etc, because they were saying, "These shows teach our kids it's okay to be tolerent toward homosexuals, and that it's okay to be gay", and let me tell you, after that happened, our pledges PLUMMETED! We were losing more money than we were making money by having these pledge drives, even raise the minimum pledge from $20 to $25 didn't help, so we just stopped having pledge drives altogether.

It's really irksome... I remember during my sophomore year, for some strange reason, my mother enrolled me in some political club when she knows I HATE politics: first of all the problem is I did NOT agree with the party this group seemed to favor (they claimed they were non-partisan, but it was clear they were die-hard Republican), but for a couple of weeks, we were doing this really weird play-like-thing, the daughter of the group moderator wrote this play that was basically A Christmas Carol, but about Christianity disappearing from society to the point that it's basically illegal to be Christian, and Christians are having to meet in secrecy for worship... the main character, instead of being Ebenezer Scrooge, was a pastor who seemed more like Jimmy Stewart's character from It's a Wonderful Life... I remember at one point during the play, when one of the ghosts was showing the pastor what the world had come to, at one point during his "What happened to..." rambling, there was an actual line that was written into his rambling that included, "What happened to it being illegal to witness a homosexual?" Yeah, the girl who wrote the play also hinted that in addition to the irreligious taking over the world, the gays were too.

Yeah.

 

[CensoredAlso]

"What happened to it being illegal to witness a homosexual?"

To witness?