Comments on: Baptist Pastor Pens Open Letter to Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy

By: Samiullah

Samiullah — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 23:50:31 +0000

Dianne,Once again you’ve outdone yosurelf with the pictures. These are fantastic! We had such a wonderful time working with both of you and are so thankful you able to make every stage of our planning and wedding so smooth. I’ve enjoyed noticing the little details I missed on the wedding day through your pictures.Erin

By: An Attorney

An Attorney — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 18:15:49 +0000

BTW, if celibacy is required for gays for life, then it should also apply to the divorced for life, whether or not they remarry, there should be no sex, ever. So if the church preaches celibacy in one case, it should preach it in the other as well.

By: An Attorney

An Attorney — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 18:14:07 +0000

The Bible defines marriage as between one man and one woman FOR LIFE. When the church comes out against remarriage following a divorce, to make it illegal, and treats remarried people with the same opprobrium that it applies to gays who wish to marry, then perhaps the rest of society can take their stance seriously. Until then, the church is HYPOCRITICAL. BTW, it should also so treat the greedy, those who fail to support the poor, etc.

It is time to recognize that the church is full of sinners and it should not pick on one group of sinners and not apply the same standards to all.

By: cat's dad

cat's dad — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 16:53:25 +0000

No, I’m quite sure she is categorizing-correctly–homosexual relationships with fornication.

By: cat's dad

cat's dad — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 20:05:28 +0000

” . . . many of our members are LGBT families raising children.” Ahh now, that presents a problem which never should have happened. How did children get mixed in here? I guarantee you it didn’t come about naturally. No child has ever been BORN into a family with two same-gender adults as parents! All children have, and are best-blessed to be in a family with, a female mother and a male father. Homosexual couples have the same rights as any co-habitating unmarried couple. Fine. For the kids’ sake, I wish no child was subject to a home with a homosexual couple.

By: K Gray

K Gray — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 09:38:40 +0000

Sheva, when mayors and alderman threaten to exclude a privately-owned busines based on the owners’ stated “values,” freedom of speech and religion certainly are implicated.

As to the rest of your summary, no comment.

By: Jean

Jean — Sat, 04 Aug 2012 23:48:45 +0000

Yes, the Rev. Dr. Yaber has said it all – and very beautifully. I believe in ‘live and let live’ but am not one of the many lesbians – but can fully appreciate and have known many such relationships, and understand a lot of the reasons. Sometimes, people just don’t understand the torture that some LGBT peoples go through physically. Well said.

By: sheva

sheva — Sat, 04 Aug 2012 22:37:22 +0000

I’d like to address some of the comments I’ve seen here. Contrary to the way this story has been covered by most news outlets, this is not about freedom of speech or freedom of religion. No one is saying that Mr. Cathy isn’t entitled to his beliefs and isn’t entitled to express those beliefs. The problem is that his company donates millions of dollars to groups who are dedicated to fighting any sort of pro-gay legislation of any kind, and rolling back all instances of anti-discrimination laws, on the local, state and federal level. Some of these groups have been classified as hate groups. They liken gay men and lesbians to animals and say they should be jailed, exported or put to death. They are opposed to all school anti-bullying policies that don’t have exceptions for bullying gay children because they don’t think those children deserve any protection and are completely unconcerned when these children are bullied and harrassed to the point of suicide. Anyone buying from Mr. Cathy’s business is contributing to these groups. Also, his restaurant chain has beein involved in almost 20 lawsuits involving discriminatory practices against many groups, not just gay workers. Many of us have been quietly boycotting this restaurant for these reasons for years; the only difference is that it’s gotten attention. But it’s never been about Mr. Cathy’s views.

Reverend Yarber, thank you for writing this!

By: ABen

ABen — Sat, 04 Aug 2012 04:12:24 +0000

Ang -
Very happy and proud of all you do to make sure your light shines from the highest of hills. Just wanted to let you know that I will always admire and support your efforts, if only in spirit. This old friend still disagrees “theologically”, but only by definition (of marriage), of course I wish nothing but happiness, health, and equal rights to you and your E. You two will make the best of parents!

By: K Gray

K Gray — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 18:33:45 +0000

Christianse please read the Baptist Press article and pinpoint where “Mr. Cathy sought publicity for Chikfila by fostering ill will.”

What you are saying is this: when a business owner is interviewed by a newspaper of his own denomination (whether it is Jewish, Episcopalian, Catholic, Catholic, Pentecostal, or whatever) and states that he/she believes in the Biblical definition of marriage, he/she is “fostering ill will.”

And making hate erupt from his/her actions. (Do you have examples of hate erupting? I heard that a Chikfila had to close due to a bomb threat; I saw a hateful person chiding the drive-through order girl for Chikfila’s support of traditional marriage; do you have examples of hate from the “appreciation day” supporters? Is buying a sandwich hate?)

It seems to me that the only acceptable course that many of you believe Mr. Cathy could take, when interviewed, is to (a) remain silent on “the family,” (b) not support ministries of his choice with his privately-owened company, or (c) change his opinion. That’s pretty restrictive. Are you willing to live by that standard?
Plainly no one should talk of any definition of marriage if that alone fosters ill will and induces hate…

Come to think of it, much of the gospel fostered ill will, so maybe you are literally correct.