Thousands of supporters of fast food restaurant Chick-fil-A made their way to restaurants all over Alabama and the United States Wednesday to stand in long lines in support of the restaurant chain. Customers packed dining rooms and found themselves wrapped in lines outside restaurants in Montgomery, Prattville, Auburn, Dothan and many other locations around the state and country. Cars snaked around the buildings all day and stretched great distances beyond parking lots. By early evening, some of the restaurants reported they’d exhausted their food supply and were preparing to close.
The day was billed by conservatives, and credited to talk show host and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, as an unofficial “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day” in support of the company. CFA said it had nothing to do with the event’s organization. CFA President, Dan Cathy, recently sparked a nationwide controversy following remarks that he does not support same-sex marriage. Cathy told a Baptist magazine that he believes in the Biblical definition of marriage, a union between a man and a woman. The family-owned company’s 1,600+ outlets remain closed on Sundays for religious reasons. Cathy’s remarks have made his company the target of multiple boycotts. The Jim Henson Company pulled its toys from the company’s kids’ meals. Mayors of several large cities, including Boston and Chicago, have also said the company isn’t welcomed, although its unlikely the company’s permits will be denied.
Protestors are planning a nationwide event, scheduled for Friday, at which point they’re planning to show their public displays of affection at area restaurants by kissing as same-sex couples. Opponents of Cathy’s stance have planned “Kiss Mor Chiks” for Friday, asking people of the same sex to show up at Chick-fil-A locations and kiss each other. Does anyone want to meet me at a Chick-fil-A for the kiss of a lifetime? Actually, I don’t think that the “Kiss Mor Chiks” event is the best way to deal with the situation. A complete and total boycott of Chick-fil-A is my plan. I’ve always liked Chick-fil-A’s food, but I will not be supporting their restaurants. There are plenty of restaurants with better chicken.
I had not planned on blogging about this, but two things changed my mind. First, I heard my sister, who does not know I am gay, say that she would go to Chick-fil-A on Wednesday to show her support. Before I could tell her that I would never go back to Chick-fil-A, she had already changed the subject, and I just let the comment slide (not something I am proud of). The second thing was the massive amount of coverage about “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day” on the local news.
As churches struggle with the issue of homosexuality, a long tradition of same sex marriage indicates that the Christian attitude toward same sex unions may not always have been as “straight” as is now suggested. A Kiev art museum contains a curious icon from St. Catherine’s monastery on Mt. Sinai.
It shows two robed Christian saints. Between them is a traditional Roman pronubus (best man) overseeing what in a standard Roman icon would be the wedding of a husband and wife. In the icon, Christ is the pronubus. Only one thing is unusual. The husband and wife are in fact two men.
The very idea seems initially shocking. The full answer comes from other sources about the two men featured, St. Serge and St. Bacchus, two Roman soldiers who became Christian martyrs.
While the pairing of saints, particularly in the early church, was not unusual, the association of these two men was regarded as particularly close. Severus of Antioch in the sixth century explained that “we should not separate in speech [Serge and Bacchus] who were joined in life.” More bluntly, in the definitive 10th century Greek account of their lives, St. Serge is openly described as the “sweet companion and lover” of St. Bacchus.
In other words, it confirms what the earlier icon implies, that they were a homosexual couple who enjoyed a celebrated gay marriage. Their orientation and relationship was openly accepted by early Christian writers. Furthermore, in an image that to some modern Christian eyes might border on blasphemy, the icon has Christ himself as their pronubus, their best man overseeing their gay marriage.
The very idea of a Christian gay marriage seems incredible. Yet after a twelve year search of Catholic and Orthodox church archives Yale history professor John Boswell, and author of Same Sex Unions In Pre-Modern Europe, has discovered that a type of Christian gay marriage did exist as late as the 18th century.
Contrary to myth, Christianity’s concept of marriage has not been set in stone since the days of Christ, but has evolved as a concept and as a ritual.
Professor Boswell discovered that in addition to heterosexual marriage ceremonies in ancient church liturgical documents (and clearly separate from other types of non-marital blessings of adopted children or land) were ceremonies called, among other titles, the “Office of Same Sex Union” (10th and 11th century Greek) or the “Order for Uniting Two Men” (11th and 12th century). That certainly sounds like gay marriage.
Boswell found records of same sex unions in such diverse archives as those in the Vatican, in St. Petersburg, in Paris, Istanbul, and in Sinai, covering a period from the 8th to 18th centuries. Nor is he the first to make such a discovery. The Dominican Jacques Goar (1601-1653) includes such ceremonies in a printed collection of Greek prayer books.
It sounds to me that the so-called “traditional” definition of marriage as between one man and one woman is not so traditional. It is based on verses in the Old Testament, which also states that King Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines.
Joe
