Dissecting Intolerance

“We are much supportive of the family—the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family owned business, a family-led business. We are married to our first wives and we give thanks to God for that.” These words were printed in the Baptist Press on July 14th, reportedly said by Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy.

These are the most volatile, intolerant words probably ever spoken though there is not one word showing intolerance.

 Let’s take a look at a few more quotes that evolved since the BP report. Rosanne Barr had this to say, “Anyone who eats at S**t-fil-A deserves to get cancer.”

In a drive-thru video posted on YouTube, one anonymous man berated a Chick-fil-A employee by saying, “I don’t know how you work here. This is a horrible corporation with horrible values.” The cashier responded with a very intolerant, “It’s my pleasure to serve you.”

MSNBC correspondent Jonathan Capehart urged protesters to burglarize the food chain. Now, that’s tolerant and mature. The Daily Show’s John Stewart used words I can’t repeat in this column to show his tolerance toward the company. MSNBC’s reporter Thomas Roberts referred to gay rights supporters who eat at Chick-fil-A as “chicken-eating Judases”.  He was being tolerant of people who share his own views on gay rights. 

In a Torrance Chick-fil-A someone vandalized it posting a picture of a cow and a sign that said, “Tastes like hate.”

Vice President of Marketing, Steve Robinson issued a statement after all the brouhaha saying, Chick-fil-A appreciates all of its customers and “is glad to serve them at any time.” Yep, that sounds pretty hateful.

Then there were the complaints that Chick-fil-A uses a small portion of its profits to support Christian organizations. How intolerant can they be!? Using their own money to support causes they believe in.

Gay activist Luke Montgomery of Los Angeles, said that Jesus Christ never said anything about gay people, and Cathy should open the Bible before he opens his mouth.” He went on to say, “We have separation of church and state. It’s great if they want to have their religion, but it should not interfere with our civil rights.”  Huh? Chick-fil-A is neither a church nor a government entity, and Cathy never mentioned the name of Jesus Christ.

Just for the record, there are places where Jesus addresses the issue by directing us to the Law of Moses. And the Apostle Paul explains things quite clearly in Romans 1. 

But the point here is who has shown the most tolerance? One man shared how God has worked in his own personal life.  That’s all he did.  Never once did he show any distain for anyone else.  He was merely talking about how God had worked in his life. Because of that he has been labeled has a homophobe, among other things, by people who are threatened by his life style. These traditional-family haters remind me of something else I read in the Bible, “Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools.”

Rhonda Tommer is a resident of St. George and a member of the writers group.

Good commonsense protects our freedom

How many freedoms are Americans willing to sacrifice? How many decisions are we willing to let our government make for us? How many laws are on the books that wouldn’t be there if we all just used commonsense?
Let’s take texting while driving, for example. It’s a national epidemic.  According to The Center for Disease Control, one-third of today’s teens reported in a survey to texting while driving. There ought to be a law. Oh wait, there is. Roughly 44 states have enacted some form of texting-while-driving law. But it’s not just teens who participate in such activity.  I’m amazed at how many adults I see looking down at their laps with one hand on the wheel and their brain disengaged from road.
Other laws that take away our freedoms to use common sense include seat belt laws, public smoking laws, speeding laws, and driving without headlights laws. 
Thinking people will never get cited for violating them.  We really don’t think of them as a lessening of our freedoms.
Let’s take a look at laws that have had to be passed over the centuries that have taken away freedoms.
The second Amendment was ratified in 1791.  Governments have been trying to limit guns ever since, with great success. Gone are the days when Charles Ingalls would grab his shotgun and head out the door to protect his little house on the prairie.
For the most part gun laws have been put in place for our own protection. The National Firearms Act brought about the first major gun control in 1934.  It was established as a direct response to the rise in gangster violence. Since then there has been thousands of gun laws established at the Federal, State and Local levels. Each new law chinks away at our personal freedom to own guns.
During a recent news interview a proponent of open field target shooting was upset because his right to do so is being suppressed during this wicked fire season.  It was determined that some of these fires were caused by such activity.  His comment was something like, “Because of the carelessness of the few we all have to suffer.”
He drove home my point.  It is either because of carelessness, lack of common sense or sheer disrespect for human life that everyone’s rights are winnowed away.  Authorities have to protect us…from us.
The city of St. George made at least two mass telephone calls to residents to let us know that aerial fireworks were prohibited over July 4th due to the high fire danger.  There were still numbskulls shooting off aerial fireworks.  There was even a city-sponsored fireworks show.  Go figure.
As long as we continue to show our lack of commonsense and do stupid things, we will, little-by-little, give our freedoms to make good decisions over to government entities.  Eventually, we will become a people who is comfortable only when someone is thinking for us.  Soon we will become like the characters in Lois Lowry’s book, The Giver. 

Rhonda Tommer is a resident of St. George and a member of The Spectrum and Daily News writers group. She can be reached at r.tommer.writersgroup@gmail.com.