What Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy Really Said… And What the Media Misses

The seismic shift of Americans in opinions over Gay marriage converted one Presidential candidate to go from being vague to being firm on his personal position, since now a “majority of Americans” agree with Barack Obama and the rest of ages out while tolerance supplants intolerance. Call it a revolution if you want, but it’s far less violent than the racial equality battles of the 1950s and 1960s.

But the media still love a clean-cut battle where conservatives can line up against liberals. And that’s why no one bothered to spend any amount of time actually quoting what Christian conservative president of Chick-fil-A actually said in its entirety. Just read this more complete quote on “family values” as defined by this traditionally religious man, as it appears in a graphic posted to the Facebook site, Boycott Chick-fil-A:

Pay attention to the phrase, “We are married to our first wives.”

If you read what Mr. Cathy truly means — in totality — he doesn’t just single out Gays and same-gender marriage. Mr. Cathy expresses his moral distaste for those who are divorced or on subsequent marriages.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee called for a support day last week in which many Chick-fil-A restaurants were overrun by homophobic conservatives. But I ask myself how many of those supporters were divorced or on a second or third wife? How many had come from a blended family? How many found love a little later in life, even if it had been within that “traditional” definition of a man and a woman.

While the Sarah Palin may call the media the “lamestream press,” I’m inclined to agree. Sometimes the appearance of “fairness” is more the effort to find conflict. The easiest approach to create conflict here happened to be Gays versus homophobes, right-wings versus liberals. No one bothered to plunge into the deeper issues of how Mr. Cathy alienated everyone but those married to their “first wives” and going to a Christian church. Never mind all those of other faiths or even, God-forbid, agnosticism or atheism.

Mr. Cathy’s claims of faith are indeed a right, but the business implications resonated more deeply than any media outlet dared plunge.

I write a blog. I could have even summarized Mr. Cathy’s exclusion in 140-character tweet or just sent out the image above. But media miss the point in the joyous pursuit of the most juicy fight it can generate.

In other words, conservatives who flocked in the doors at the behest of Gov. Huckabee — Mr. Cathy doesn’t like you either. But he sure loves your money.

Geez, that doesn’t sound very Christian-like, does it?