I find it very interesting that people are now speaking out against the boycott of Chic-Fil-A as unfair, because all its owner did was "share his opinion". But many of them were perfectly fine with, and even called for and supported a boycott of JC Penny because they hired Ellen DeGeneres as their spokesperson. Now I'm not calling anyone a hypocrite... but you gotta admit, it does seem suspiciously similar to inconsistency to me.
Having said that... as a Christian I am not a big fan of boycotting. While I support people's right to boycott, I believe that they are rarely ever effective in the way that they are intended to be. Lets face it, even if the boycott achieves its goal of reduced revenue for its intended target. Who does that hurt? The CEO who makes his millions/billions regardless or the employees who need these jobs to keep a roof over their heads and food in their stomachs. And the unintended consequences as well as the unintended victims of a boycott increase exponentially as the boycott finds more "success". This is why I did not support it when it was used against JC Penny for hiring Ellen as their spokesperson, nor do I support it now that it is being used against Chic-Fil-A for the views espoused by its CEO. For the record, I do not agree with Dan Cathy's position on the subject, but he has every right to express it as well as support the groups that share his views.
While a boycott is the freedom of every American, is that the loving thing to do? Can we as Christians justify the things we do and say in response to our "enemies". I do believe I once read somewhere that we are to love our enemies. Are we loving our enemies? Are we turning the other cheek? Are we genuinely attempting to enter into a loving discourse with our opposition? If we truly care about the things that we purport to care about, then are we really doing every thing we can to bring those things to fruition? Are we cutting off the nose to spite the face?
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