AFV

We don't have a Chick-Fil-A here in Rural, USA, but if we did I would not have gone there yesterday. (I bet you thought this would be about America's Funniest home Videos????)  I don't like waiting in line for 1/2 an hour much less 2 hours!  No sandwich is worth that hassle.  Now before you send emails telling me about the mission, I have my own thoughts about it.

#1- what a great marketing ploy!  Make a controversial statement; get the American Family religious groups on your side and send out mass marketing telling ALL your Christian friends to go make a stand and buy a chicken sandwich!!!  Genius!  It's for Jesus or wait, I never heard anything about Jesus- just let's keep American family values.

When my children were young, we had weekly family nights.  We gathered together to eat, play, and to be a family.  Our rules were simple.

• listen to each other- which usually meant keep your mouth closed until the person talking was finished with their sentence, thought, or story!
• value what each one had to say--whether we agreed or not.  
• no name-calling--ever
• in anything and everything- LOVE first

Right now there is much fear in our country.  The world is changing and we want to keep the same pre-WWII ideas on what the Bible says (literally, of course!) and what a family should look like and be.  Who am I to tell you?  I remember a time when NO ONE talked openly about divorce, getting pregnant out of wedlock,  HAVING pre-marital sex, smoking marijuana/ growing weed, the list could go on.  Shhhhh, don't discuss it.  God bless that first in the family member who went home and told The Fam one of these things....or now, Mom/Dad, I'm gay.  God bless them because it is a hard cruel world.  But my how the world has changed.  Would you want to imagine a church who would not accept divorcees?  What about an unwed pregnant girl or woman being denied full membership?  What about an unmarried couple living together?  These things are spoken against in the Bible.  Not so long ago, they were taboo and hidden.  Champions of the cause spoke in love.  We began to listen and read the Bible with new eyes.  Jesus is Love; not condemnation.  We should be creatures of love too.  "Love your neighbor as you love yourself."  Can I do that while keeping my ears closed to another person trying to tell me Their Story?  Whether I agree with that person or not, I must look to a Higher Power.  Jesus spoke in parables-- stories; how can I follow Jesus if I'm not willing to hear others' stories?

If American Family Values include closing my ears to other people and their stories, shutting others out, excluding others, name-calling, and fear, then I guess I don't have any family values.