Chris Hedges: Day of Destruction

Chris Hedges annoys me. Why then have I embedded his speech about his book? While Hedges has a liberal template, the facts he presents are well worth considering. 

I had posted previously about WWI—Lusitania. I had trouble understanding why we went to war. Hedges provided the answer. American Banks had lent lots of money to France and England. The Germans had signed a treaty with Tsarist Russia, ending that part of the war. This would result in many divisions that had previously fought the Russians heading west. The banks worried they would not be paid back if Germany won the war. Intervention was needed to save the banks. Yes, WWI was a bank bailout. 

Watching things you disagree with is a necessary part of being informed. 

Intolerance in Defense of Tolerance Is No Vice

Based on my blog posts on Friday and Saturday some might think that I do not understand all the excitement about Chick-fil-A. I do. The following you tube videos show the animosity that the issue caused on the left. 

This stunt got the man fired. He was clueless that it was damaging to him. He uploaded the video himself. 

Apparently some think that Intolerance in defense of tolerance is no vice.

Woody Allen and William F. Buckley!

This is a great clip from 1967.

Would Jesus Eat at Chick-Fil-A?

Would Jesus have gone to eat at Chick-Fil-A to support the restaurant? 

Let’s look at their signature Chicken Sandwich. I must admit to my junk food jaded eyes it looks pretty good. 

440Calories 16gFat

2gFiber 6gSugars

30gProtein 3.5g Saturated Fat

0g Trans Fat 60mg Cholesterol

1400mg Sodium 42g Carbohydrates

15% Iron 15% Calcium

2% Vitamin A 2% Vitamin C

Now compare it to their healthy-looking sandwich, the chicken salad sandwich. 

510Calories 19gFat

5gFiber 12gSugars

29gProtein

3.5g Saturated Fat 0g Trans Fat

80mg Cholesterol 1120mg Sodium

55g Carbohydrates 20% Iron

15% Calcium 35% Vitamin A

6% Vitamin C

More fat, more sugar, more calories—but it looks so healthy! 

Would Jesus Eat At Chick-Fil-A?

Shall we talk about french fries and the obligatory 32 oz Coke? No, let’s not talk about that. It is too depressing.  

To be fair to Chick-Fil-A, they do seem to have more healthy choices than your average cash food, er, fast food restaurant, but are people ordering these healthier choices? 

Do a simple experiment. Go to any fast food franchise and look at the people. Look at the lady with the tattoos that needs to lose 100 lbs. And I bet the chair really groaned when that Big Guy sat in it! Then go to the bathroom and look in the mirror. Do you look much different? Even with the 20 lbs. I lost this last year, I don’t. 

For me it is Jack-in-the-Box. I remember going to the Jack-in-the-Box with my mom. This was before modern cash registers, so we would always add up the total ourselves, and for some reason our total was always less. Then we would drive to the ocean and watch the waves and the sea birds over Bird Rock as we ate. The little community we lived in was named after that rock. Ah, comfort food at its highest. Jesus might have enjoyed the view but ...

Would Jesus Eat At Chick-Fil-A?

I have not even talked about the mass production of chickens. They do not see the sky unless someone leaves a door open by mistake. They cut off their bills so they won’t peck each other in the unnatural crowding.They package the chicken manure into feed for the steer that became the hamburger you ate at McDonalds. We strip mine our soil to grow corn for the chickens. No, I will not talk about that

Would Jesus eat at Chick-Fil-A?

I guess that in a sense I am not talking about the same thing that is being discussed with regard to the Chick-Fil-A crisis. That is a part of my point. We dwell on the trivialities of who supports gay marriage and who doesn’t. I don’t. We then ignore the much more important issues, issues that we should be shouting from the house tops. This is how we are enslaved by what Revelation 17-18 calls Babylon the Great.  

We risk acting like the Pharisees of old that Jesus spoke of in Matthew 23:

²³ You Pharisees and teachers are show-offs, and you’re in for trouble! You give God a tenth of the spices from your garden, such as mint, dill, and cumin. Yet you neglect the more important matters of the Law, such as justice, mercy, and faithfulness. These are the important things you should have done, though you should not have left the others undone either. ²⁴ You blind leaders! You strain out a small fly but swallow a camel.

Yes, there is a real risk of religious freedom at stake, but how is that camel tasting? Probably better than that chicken sandwich you ate. 

Eat Food that will rot, and eat it before it does! I am not saying that Jesus would never eat at a fast food restaurant. I ate at Jack-in-the-Box yesterday. But after going home and looking up the calories in an ultimate cheeseburger—780, even without the fries—I think that I will be following my own advice even more than I thought when I first wrote this piece over a week ago. 

Would Jesus eat at Chick-Fil-A? I am not saying that every meal we eat needs to be a culinary, environmental, and nutritional masterpiece, but when society heads down the Babylon the Great path, all becomes corrupt. That includes our restaurants. Asking what would Jesus eat is an obvious question that does not get asked.

We all know the answer. We have always known the answer from our youngest days. The question is, what will we do about it? 

Chick-fil-A

With all the emotion of the last few weeks with the Chick-fil-A boycott and the subsequent best day in their history, I thought I would explain something I said on Facebook. I said there was no such thing as a Christian business. I had several things in mind when I said it.  One was that it should be obvious that Chick-fil-A was not a Christian business, because most of the outlets are franchised. That means they have local owners. There is no way that Chick-fil-A could limit its franchisees to Christians, or to heterosexuals for that matter. You may have noticed the picture of the McDonalds francisee that used their sign to support Chick-fil-A. McDonalds is as much a "Christian" business as Chick-fil-A. 

Right?

While Chick-fil-A could not legally prevent non-Christians from owning a franchise, there are many ways that this could be done in a subjective way though out the franchise process. Acceptance of a franchisee is fraught with subjective decisions. Chick-fil-A has a standing policy of being closed on Sunday. Can they in a franchise agreement force a Jewish franchisee to be open on Saturday and closed on Sunday? Can they force me, as a Sabbatarian Christian, to be open on Saturday and closed on Sunday? I do not see how they can, yet Chick-fil-A is closed on Sunday. 

Here is how they do it:

Chick-fil-A uses a model significantly different from other restaurant franchises, notably in retaining ownership of each restaurant. Chick-fil-A selects the restaurant location, builds it, and retains ownership. Whereas franchisees from competing chains pay almost $2 million up front to open a franchise, Chick-fil-A franchisees need only a $5,000 initial investment to become an operator. The company gets 10,000–25,000 applications from potential franchise operators for 60–70 slots they open each year. Chick-fil-A gets a larger share of revenue from its franchises than other chains, but the formula works well for operators – franchisees make an average of $190,000 per year. In 2010 Chick-fil-A took the industry lead in average sales per restaurant, making an average of $2.7 million per restaurant in 2010 (McDonald's was second with $2.4 million per restaurant). 

So for $5,000 you get a job that pays $190,000. Note that there are a huge number of applicants, so subjectivity must play a part. 

If you are a Moslem for example? Forbes tells us:

Chick-fil-A, the corporate parent, has been sued at least 12 times since 1988 on charges of employment discrimination, according to records in U.S. District Courts. Aziz Latif, a former Chick-fil-A restaurant manager in Houston, sued the company in 2002 after Latif, a Muslim, says he was fired a day after he didn't participate in a group prayer to Jesus Christ at a company training program in 2000. The suit was settled on undisclosed terms. 

I am surprised there have not been more lawsuits. Now, with the publicity, there will be. 

I am reminded of my days selling mobile homes. We had a competitor that had a big sign at his business. It said "Jesus Saves" Sale. What was this businessman saying? He was trying to attract Christians as customers by wrapping himself in Jesus. His wrapping himself in Jesus was offensive to me. I never did find out what a "Jesus Sale" was. 

Is this what Chick-fil-A is doing? Maybe not, but looking at the results of the controversy, surely you can see why I think this might have been planned all along. 

There is little chance that a Jew, a Sabbatarian like me, a Moslem, or a homosexual will become a franchisee. I am sure there are a few here and there to avoid lawsuits. Personally I think this should be legal, but is it right? I will leave that up to you.