Dear Cathy Family and Green Family;
On this occasion of Mr. Cathy’s death, I offer my
condolences to his family, adding my voice to, I’m sure, millions of
others. My favorite “Truett Moment” was
his graduation address at a university where I used to teach. He stood up, regarded all solemnly, then
firmly stated, “Eat more chicken!” and sat back down. It was hilarious; everybody laughed, and all
were greatly relieved, considering that it was outside, the temperature was
climbing into the 90’s, everybody was wearing black robes over layers of other
clothing, and had his remarks been even one minute longer, there would have
been a real risk of heat stroke for some by the end of the ceremony. I suspect
he might have had something more substantive to say, had the circumstances
permitted, but as it was, his light-hearted “address” was a great kindness,
much appreciated, and fondly remembered.
But I write, also, to offer something more, to ponder
in your hearts as we go forward in a world without Mr. Cathy’s integrity,
kindness, and good humor in it.
I must admit up front that I almost never eat fast
food, so it isn’t out of worry that I’ll miss my quick chicken that I
write. I’m also not a big crafter
(although in wistful moments I often wish I were). Nevertheless, your two business establishments,
Chik-Fil-A and Hobby Lobby, are of vital importance to me. The reason is twofold.
First, whether we like it or not, our culture is
absolutely inundated with the affairs of public figures. We take them as role models, we take their
words as information, we take their actions as exemplars. While Christians ought to take Our Lord Jesus
Christ as the ultimate role model, and that should be enough, in fact we have
been conditioned to “look around” rather than “up” for our models, and
therefore, even while we strive to center our focus properly, it helps
immensely to have public figures who model that very behavior.
Second, in this culture of ease, the history of which
has been (until recently) entirely without repression or persecution of
Christians of any kind, we as Christians are timid. We’ve never had to defend the faith, and as a
result, most of us, even now when it is so obviously under vigorous attack, are
still “looking around” trying to figure out what’s going on. We certainly “don’t want to offend anybody,”
and now we’re being told that in fact, our faith is an offense, and, not
expecting that, we are unprepared to respond.
Here again, watching someone respond, with clarity, with charity, but
with firmness, is invaluable to us. We
must have such models, because it’s only going to get worse.
On that subject:
I certainly do not wish to be a “prophet of doom and gloom,” but it
seems clear to me that the dominoes are falling and the boulder is rolling in
such a direction that Christians will increasingly be under that juggernaut (to
thoroughly mix my metaphors).
We may not like to think about it (and many
contemporary Christians may not even really be aware of it, accustomed as we
are to being part of a culture that was founded on Christian principles), but the
first explosion of Christianity was accomplished through martyrdom. The spread of Christianity throughout the
Western world was facilitated, was in fact effected by, the spectacle of the
public deaths of the first generations of Christians; by, most importantly, the way they died. Witnessing these people
being martyred, countless others were struck by the fact that something important was happening in and through these people.
Okay, so we know basically about the early Christian
martyrs; we have a general idea of their “martyrdom.” That’s such a clean word, though, and even
noble-sounding, so let’s be explicit for a moment.
The first generations of Christians weren’t just
cleanly put to death for refusing to deny their faith; for insisting upon living their faith (this notion will become increasingly important as we are
increasingly pressured to keep our faith firmly “in the church [meaning, the
physical building] or in your private
home” but somehow, essentially, be somebody else when we are out in
public). The price, for the early Christians, for
living their faith, for practicing their religion (which always, in a true
religion anyway, includes far more than just attendance of worship services and
private practices at home), was to be relentlessly persecuted and heinously
murdered, in the wildest array of the most creatively horrifying deaths that
the corrupt and debauched Roman Emperors could devise. They were torn apart by starved wild animals,
hacked to pieces by trained gladiators, crucified and stoned, lashed to wooden
poles covered with pitch and burned as torches to illuminate the garden parties
of the elite. Men, women, and
children. Neighbors saw their neighbors
marched off and hung on crosses to suffocate to death as an amusement, with the
crowds betting on who would expire first.
Mothers watched their children mauled and eaten by lions. Men witnessed their wives butchered more
savagely than any animal.
I don’t anticipate these particular kinds of things
happening to us—if for no other reason than “it’s been done” (yawn)—but it’s a
definite possibility that we may be given the ultimatum, not “your faith or
your life,” precisely (at least, I think not very soon), but certainly, “your
faith or your LIVELIHOOD.” In our
culture, material wealth has been raised to such an idol that “jobs” outrank
everything—every other possible consideration, including the health, and indeed
the very survival, of our children. The
opponents of Christianity therefore seek to “hit us where it hurts.” It is therefore essential for us to have
strong models, as your two businesses have been, to show that there are more
important things than accumulating wealth.
That how you do business is more important than the degree of worldly
success you achieve in it.
Indeed, so far, I think both of your businesses have
been shining examples of the fact that Christian ethics need not preclude
worldly success. That’s lovely. However, it may not always be the case. Again, not to be a “prophet of doom and
gloom,” but here is the ultimate purpose of this letter: the strongest possible ENCOURAGEMENT, that,
if it should come to the point that you must choose, if it should come to the
point that they find a way to force you to choose, between “your faith or your
life” (your livelihood, the “life” of your company, you might say), you will be
willing to continue to provide the strong example you have done so far.
The Christians in the cells awaiting death in the
arena, the Christians being lashed to the torches, the Christians hanging on
the crosses before the jeering crowds for their amusement, went to their deaths
singing praises to God and to their
Savior Jesus Christ. Should you ever
be forced to close your doors, I exhort you to close them SINGING.
Today, I intend to go to Hobby Lobby and buy the fabric
we need to recover some furniture in our home.
Until this morning, I had been thinking “I need to go to the fabric
store. . .“ No more. I realized that I need to consider, every time I
need something for my home, whether it can be bought at Hobby Lobby. Even though they may not have as wide a
selection of upholstery fabric there as at the specialty store, I will buy this
fabric at Hobby Lobby. On my way home, I
will drive through Chik-Fil-A and buy a lemonade (I can’t eat your chicken, Mr. Cathy,
but I LOVE that you have REAL lemonade!).
As I wait in the drive-through, I will sing Psalm 67, in honor of you
and your congenially courageous stand for the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Thank you for your examples. May God give your companies the fortitude to
persist in providing such role models of integrity and faith. And may God give me the strength, when it is
my turn to face the lions in front of the crowd, to sing to my Lord, as you
have.
I understand your feelings. My wife and I were deemed "infertile" by various doctors after 3 years of trying to conceive. So my wife and I tried doing fertility treatments, both intrauterine insemination and IVF for 2 years. Of course, this was before I dug deeper into our Catholic faith.
At the time I didn't think it was immoral because I thought I was "being open to life", but during and after every treatment I could feel guilt buildup inside of me based on a sense of selfishness. Also knowing that a doctor was the one "inseminating" my wife or making an embryo in a test tube made me feel like an outsider who was not contributing to the end result. It just felt gross and almost adulterous. That is not true selfless love.
After the IVF process of creating the embryos, the better term should be children, we were asked do how many to place inside the uterus and if we wanted them to be boys or girls. This is totally taking God out of the picture. Then after taking 2 out of the 6 children that we had and placing them inside my wife we finally had a beautiful baby boy growing and delivered 9 months later, but we had to tell the doctors what to do with the rest of our children. They gave us four options: 1) discard them 2) donate them for adoption 3) freeze them in a cryogenic state, like a bad action movie and 4) donate them to science. We chose to freeze them, but none of them survived the process. So I killed 4 of my children, which I think about at least once a week at mass when my son is with me.
The funny thing is two years after my sons birth, my wife and I conceived naturally and now have a cute baby girl.
So the bottom line is no one knows what God will give us, but if we force the issue with out God's morals we will have to live with a life of regret and sorrow.
Please pray for the souls of my 4 children that I threw away like paper plates.
Matt