{"id":59993,"date":"2012-08-04T00:01:49","date_gmt":"2012-08-04T04:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=59993"},"modified":"2012-08-04T13:12:23","modified_gmt":"2012-08-04T17:12:23","slug":"playing-chicken-with-the-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/by-judith-gayle-2\/playing-chicken-with-the-truth\/","title":{"rendered":"Playing Chicken With The Truth"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The feathers hit the fan over chicken this week. Distracting from more worrisome problems with an enviable cast of characters, the Muppets rethought a Chick-fil-A agreement to produce toys for kids’ meals, Mayor Rahm Emanuel decided CFA was not a Chicago-kind-a-business (discounting his city’s impressive history of graft and goodfellas with a wink and a smile) and Roseanne Barr tweeted a dire prophesy of cancer-riddled doom for all those who eat \u201cantibiotic filled tortured chickens 4 Christ.\u201d Could this political season be any more inane, you ask? No — probably not — and yes, you guessed correctly: the president of Chick-fil-A, Dan Cathy, is a fundamentalist who believes the nation is defying Gawd Almighty by approving same-sex marriage and daring to rethink Biblical interpretation of family life.<\/p>\n

\"Political As you might suspect, Cathy is a radical who provides millions for a ‘pro-marriage’ — read that ‘anti-gay’ — charity he established and promotes ‘ex-gay’ therapy, along with promise rings for teen girls and other formal trappings of the Christocracy. Other of his corporate donations have gone into the coffers of hate groups, some of which want gays exported, while a good bit of it has gone to fight employment discrimination law suits. Hardly surprising behavior from this company, as their history precedes them. Cathy’s father and Chick-fil-A’s founder, Truett, once stated that he would fire “the sinful,” and in 2007, Forbes<\/em> magazine called Chick-fil-A a cult. Well, different strokes: PETA would call it a mass murderer.<\/p>\n

And yes, here in the USA, the Cathys have every right to say this kind of stuff. They also have the right to close on Sundays and even allow Mike Huckabee to promote a Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day in celebration of a company “willing to take a stand for the Godly values we espouse.” In these tight circles, Yahweh is a homophobe, and his faithful are created in his image (but why they call themselves Christians is a quandary; the Jesus portion of the Bible seems to get short shrift, but I guess they can’t call themselves Jews, with most religious Jews having long ago delved into the mysteries of their holy books and separated the wheat from the chaff.)<\/p>\n

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Those godly values the Christocrats promote come straight from the Old Testament definition of marriage which — if followed to the letter — would make married women everywhere take very good care of their hubby lest he die and leave them to be passed along, like a used car, to their brother-in-law. Too often I find myself defending the Bible as a historical work of wisdom we should not overlook, but that doesn’t mean we should forget it was written by nomads squatting in the sand, consumed with issues of survival, tribal leadership and paternity. Ancient text requires modern context if it’s to make sense, but — as with Scalia’s reading of the Constitution — these conservatives will brook no flex in their antiquated interpretation.<\/p>\n

The Christocrats, like the GOP, can’t keep a consistent thread. The Bible is full of sexual transgressions which married women are duty-bound to overlook, but if those rules are so iron-clad in modern culture, why was Hillary Clinton pilloried by the right? Shouldn’t she have earned their praise? And why do Evangelicals have the highest divorce rate in the country? Apparently the Almighty passed down some rules about property rights but not much about committed relationships, so taking marital advice — straight OR gay — from anyone tooting his horn on FOX News or the guy who runs the chicken stand seems cavalier at best.<\/p>\n

Determined to press his presumed advantage, Huckabee sent the faithful to Chick-fil-A this week in support of its founder’s free speech, but this isn’t about legally-protected moments of candor any more than the House of Representatives voting to continue the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy is about restoring the economy. We have the right to say what we want in this nation but only an idiot thinks there won’t be consequences.<\/p>\n

WHAT those consequences are depends on the public’s ability to ascertain the kernel of truth at the center of the controversy, which is why the Koch brothers and their brethren fund the multi-million dollar spin machine that’s working overtime to keep us all confused. One more time we’re looking at a corporate power that uses its clout to promote political policy dressed up in religious absolutes. Blow away the smoke and this is about resisting new paradigm social changes that threaten to wrestle power out of the hands of those accustomed to it (and willing to do anything to keep it: rich, old, white, male, privileged, fill in the blank: ___________).<\/p>\n

Breaking records for sales, the restaurant chain drew impressive crowds of the religious — along with presumed supporters of free speech — on Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day, which prompted one gay employee to call the experience “Hater Appreciation Day.” No matter, CFA’s standing in the fast food world is dropping like a hot rock, with some city leaders<\/a> threatening to hinder the companies expansion. That seems pretty heavy-handed; I don’t think intolerance is a useful stand. You can’t legislate morality, goes the old saying, and it’s true. You can’t force-feed ethical concerns to people who resist them, and demonizing them in turn robs you of any moral high ground.<\/p>\n

Still, I wish I had confidence that the people who resist matters of civil liberty on religious grounds actually had a clue about what they’re rejecting. I’d like to see more of them question their belief and begin to think for themselves, but that first step outside of the psychic safety net takes a lot of courage. I suspect it’s fear that keeps most in place and I always think of the radical churches when I watch the Vonage ad with the Stepford couple welcoming newcomers to the neighborhood — holding out a dangling puppy — with a vacant smile and the mantra, “We ALL bundle!”<\/p>\n

To me, the obvious should be doubly so in a Christian format: who would Jesus hate? Oh, please! The New Testament makes it clear that Jesus not only didn’t hang out with the rich and powerful, but preferred the company of the lower class. In story after story it was hypocrisy he despised, not transgression. It was the money-changers he railed against, not the “sinners.” The historical Jesus was, if anything, militantly liberal, urging his followers to give up everything for a life of service to others. Following in those footsteps is big work, and I suppose even getting a clear picture of that work requires us to free ourselves from “bundle” thinking.<\/p>\n

Given all that, it’s completely counterintuitive for the radical-right to convince itself that eye-popping prosperity and position are a sure sign of Gawd’s approval. Having breached that intellectual gap, however, conversely that means the poor and struggling do not earn the same Gawd-esteem, making it so much easier to dismiss their fate, convinced that they don’t have to give those lazy buggers one more thought! And how does the radical-right respond to left-leaning Evangelical leader Jim Wallis, for instance, who insists that a budget is a moral document, and as such the Republican disenfranchisement of the poor and needy is clearly immoral? They don’t. Too busy standing in line for chicken sandwiches, I guess.<\/p>\n

America’s signature insistence on simplistic religious rhetoric has contributed to our current political dysfunction since early in the last century, making us no longer able to agree on what constitutes an ethical position. (We once could, do you remember?? Before the Evangelicals discovered cable networking and muddied the philosophical waters?) And even though harsh condemnation by radical religion has begun to boomerang back at them in steadily decreasing membership, progress on that front remains achingly slow in a world threatened by multiple emergencies vastly more disturbing than culture war.<\/p>\n

We know that life is about choices. There is more than one<\/a> chicken sandwich in the world, just as there is more than one understanding of God (which is, for all intents and purposes, an understanding of authority.) Renewing that definition is part of what we’re doing in this new century, setting an early template for whatever comes next. If God is the organizing principal of the universe, then we’re looking for a new one. The old version is about as useful as a computer running DOS; it just doesn’t work anymore.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, mini-explosions of intolerance and hatred have become increasingly painful to those of us that know how these attitudes hinder progress, and strains our patience when two steps forward are invariably met with one back into ignorance and judgment. We must not lose heart — on the contrary, we must re-inhabit the heart-space that so many have now abandoned — and continue to push against the anachronistic authority of the church, the outgrown ‘moral values’ of a political view that has made confusion and obstruction an art form, and replaced ethics with greed and insider trading. These are both old paradigm structures that are quickly losing power and collapsing under their own vagaries and internal rot. Neither can last much longer if they refuse to cooperate with the new energies rushing in. We must trust the transformational power that’s flooding this plane with Light.<\/p>\n

We have a true north that is not religious, but spiritual; an understanding of our place in the cosmos that is not dependent on some filial God-relationship that requires us to jump through hoops in order to please our conceptualization of God as the stern parent or face perpetual punishment. Want to know where our loathing for accountability comes from, our projection of blame and punishment far from self so we don’t have to own it? There, in the darkness of our creation tale, where the Gawd who presumes to love and save us also hates and destroys those that fall from favor. On subliminal levels, we are still terrified to admit our wrongs lest we displease those whose approval we depend upon, lest we subject ourselves to disfavor or worse, punishment and death. Make no mistake, we are reaching back into the far recesses of memory to heal ourselves now.<\/p>\n

Imagine an emotional landscape no longer corrupted by issues of self-esteem, by dark nihilistic thoughts, by expectation of punishment and pain. If we can flood that dark corner of human consciousness with Light, then we will find a new day of unconditional love and a new notion of what God is. Imagine taking delight in the wellbeing of the entire community of souls, not just those who agree with us. Imagine the joy of watching a rising tide lift all boats, bestowing blessing for all, not just the yachts moored far from our experience. Imagine finding a purpose that rises above stuff and nonsense, no longer having to bear the burden of improvable absolutes, no longer required to choose between being “right” or being punished.<\/p>\n

If we can truly imagine that world, we can inhabit it — right now — so let’s work on that visualization, shall we? Let’s behave as if it’s already in place, waiting for us to enter in as we lift up our consciousness and lay down our judgment. I don’t want to feel another rift in the social fabric about who can love whom, about who should receive needed assistance, about what love looks like today: if it doesn’t look and feel unconditional, we’ve missed another opportunity to step into our power. When we finally decide to get on with more important things than chicken wars, let’s start with that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves The feathers hit the fan over chicken this week. Distracting from more worrisome problems with an enviable cast of characters, the Muppets rethought a Chick-fil-A agreement to produce toys for kids’ meals, Mayor Rahm Emanuel decided CFA was not a Chicago-kind-a-business (discounting his city’s impressive history of graft and … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1744],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59993"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59993\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}