Chick-Fil-a, the first ammendment, and the pointlessness of boycotts

Let me start off by saying (and my conservative Christian friends may not like this) that I believe a person has the right to love whomever they want, and if they want to display that love in the form of a binding legal contract (marriage), I feel they should be allowed to.  Secondly let me say (and my liberal friends may not like this) I feel that any person has the right to disagree with this viewpoint, and to express their disagreement.  It is their constitutional guaranteed right to speak freely of how they feel.  If the courts say that a man who has never served in the military can say he is a war hero if he wants too; then surely a man, businessman or not, can say he believes in traditional marriage.

Now, let me lightly tread into the whole Chick-Fil-A absurdity.  First of all I think the owner was basically just exercising his right to express his views.  He in no way was saying we should hurt, harm or bully homosexuals; he simply said he was a supporter of "traditional families".  And suddenly his stores were the target of a boycott from the homosexual community.  Also we need to note, he is not an elected lawmaker or a judge on any court, so really his personal views are harmless, and have no effect on national or local policies.

What I find funny about this is that just a few weeks before this incident, several of my gay friends (yes, I have friends who are gay, and very wonderful people) were posting things on their facebook basically making fun of Christians who were boycotting some company or another about their pro-gay-marriage stance.  And I had to agree that it is silly, even pointless to try and boycott a company because of the views of management on an issue.  And suddenly these same friends who had mocked the Christian boycotts were calling for a boycott of a company based on the view of their owner.  This confused my and reeked of the hypocrisy that Christians were being accused of.

Now let me put in here my view of boycotts in general.  They are a stupid waste of time.  I do not mean this as disrespect to any of my friends boycotting on either side of any issue; but they are a waste of time and breathe.  The company, whether a smaller chain, or a huge conglomerate are not really going to care much whether or not you shop/eat there.  There will always be people who will not care about the issue, or be on the other side, and support the business.  The only people who are hurt by a boycott are those boycotting, if they were a regular customer of that business.  And if they were not a regular customer, what's the point of the boycott. "I never ate there before, and now I'm never going to." ..Guess what, they lost no business and you have made no sacrifice.  If you were a customer, then you lose out on something you enjoyed, and they find another person to fill your spot. 

A few years ago the Southern Baptists decided to boycott Disney.  Disney, not too worried, continued to make money off everyone else.  Only people hurting were the Southern Baptist parents whose kids wanted to see Cars (or whatever Disney cartoon was out at the moment) and couldn't.  Sorry, boycotts don't work, plain and simple.

Hopefully I have not ticked off too many of my friends yet; but at the risk of stepping on a few more toes I have a final message for my friends who are homosexuals, and a message for my more conservative friends. 

First of all to my conservative Christian friends; I just want to tell you that I have many friends who are homosexuals, and despite what I have often heard from the Church, none of these friends have ever tried to recruit me over to their side.  None have come to try to lure my son off to "the dark side".  There has been no "gay agenda" shoved down my throat, and several of them have been involved in loving monogamous relationships since the time we were in college (several lasting longer than the marriages of some of my straight friends.  In short, these friends are great people who just happen to love members of the same sex.

Now a message for my homosexual friends; I have a lot of conservative Christian friends, and as far as I know, none of them have ever bullied or harassed someone because of their orientation.  None of them have ever invited me to West Hollywood to go gay-bashing.  None of them teach their children to hate people with an interest in theatre and fashion.  They are just people who are trying to live in the way they feel God has called them to live.

In short, I feel we all need to take a moment to stop seeing "The Gays" and "The Christian Right" as groups that are just a mass of stereo-types.  I challenge you my friends to get to know a few people from "the other side".  Get to know them as people at as members of "THE" group, but as individuals.  I think you will find that though you may have some differences, you will have much more in common than you think.   I know there some bad apple extremists on both sides that tend to mess things up and make their group look bad to anyone outside of it.  But most of the individuals on either side are just people trying their best to get through this voyage of life.  Try to get to know some of these wonderful people, who may hold differing views than you; maybe you could get together and work on a way to help the poor in the neighborhood.  Move beyond your differences to make a difference....just a thought.  Love ya!