How is eating fast food chicken godly?

Having been a vegetarian for over forty years, and being familiar with how many (most?) Buddhists and Hindus consider killing animals for food to be sinfully bad karma, I'm struck by the bizarreness of Christian Mike Huckabee saying that the godly thing to do on August 1 is head to Chick-fil-A, a fast food chain, and eat a bunch of chicken.

Dana Milbank explains. 

“The goal is simple,” he announced this week, calling on Americans to help those who honor “the Godly values we espouse by simply showing up and eating at Chick-fil-A on Wednesday, August 1.”

As of lunchtime Tuesday, Huckabee’s Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day already had 100,000 RSVPs. If each of those people buys the Deluxe Chicken Sandwich meal (1,080 calories) and tops that off with a brownie sundae (590 calories), the weight gain associated with Huckabee’s effort could be about 50,000 pounds.

Well done, governor. An obese nation thanks you.

The president of Chick-fil-A has announced that he and his restaurant chain are opposed to homosexuals and gay marriage, so this has led to protests. Huckabee wants the Christian faithful to counter-protest and show their love for God by buying Chick-fil-A chicken. 

Just what Jesus would want, I'm sure.

Isn't it Christian to support the raising of chickens in factory farms under horrible conditions? And isn't it Christian to hate people with a sexual orientation different from yours, denying them rights everybody else has?.

This is why I'm proudly not Christian. I'm too moral to be religious.

Comments

[Robert Paul Howard]

Dear Brian,

I might say the same ..... but I'm eating a piece of chicken even as I am typing these words.

Robert Paul Howard

[tucson]

1600 calories is less than the daily requirement many require to maintain their weight and only about 100 calories more than a sedentary person requires. I don't want facist control freaks like Dana Milbank telling me what and how much to eat.

[tucson]

Blogger Brian wrote:

"The president of Chick-fil-A has announced that he and his restaurant chain are opposed to homosexuals and gay marriage, so this has led to protests."

--It is interesting that establishments run by muslims, who are extremely anti-homo in their beliefs, are not targeted for protests. Nobody has the cajones (balls) to take them on. That would be politically incorrect and potentially dangerous. It is interesting that it is politically correct to attack Christian traditional beliefs but not muslim traditional beliefs. Safe target?

[Brian Hines]

tucson, I'm not aware of any Muslim owner of a restaurant chain making a public statement about how he and his business believe homosexuality and gay marriage are sinful.

If that happened, likely similar protests would be directed against the Muslim, especially if the chain was as large and well-known as Chick-fil-A.

[tucson]

The muslim would claim that it is his right to express his religious opinions and everyone, especially the press, would back off immediately.

(I have never been to a Chick-fil-a restaurant and I don't care if gays get married.)

[Robert Paul Howard]

Dear Brian,

Your recent remark seems well worth while:

"But not knowing what we don't know (a large part of the human condition) leaves us unduly confident about our illusory knowingness." (Posted by: Blogger Brian | August 04, 2012 at 07:09 PM)

Robert Paul Howard

[tucson]

additionally, in reference to my comments above about muslims, I find the following at least somewhat relevant. It explains, in part, the reluctance to criticize muslims. People are scared of them..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxbYBIlT6VE&feature=related

In this light christians seem quite benign, IMO. (I am not a christian)

[ROASTERS Karachi]

well it's need explanation having been a vegetarian for over forty years, and being familiar with how many (most?) Buddhists and Hindus consider killing animals for food to be sinfully bad karma.

[Gaz]

Brian, are you a lacto vegetarian? I've just turned vegan and have also omitted soya and gluten from diet.

[david r]

Is there any evidence that vegetarians are longer lived than meat eaters? I don't think a case can be made that that is so.

[Brian Hines]

Gaz, I don't eat any meat or fish (obviously, since I'm a vegetarian). I don't like eggs, so I don't eat them by themselves. But I no longer worry if I eat something with egg in it. So I'm a quasi lacto-ovo vegetarian, with minimal ovo -- just in already-prepared food; I never cook eggs or add eggs to what I'm cooking.

[Jesse]

David R,
I read an article long ago about the longest living populations and I remember that most were vegetarian and the others consumed very little meat. Okinawan residents and 7day Adventists were both on the list of longest life expectancy but I don't recall any of the others. There is a strong link but you may be right that it's hard to prove since,with most things, correlations don't always match causes.
It's worth looking into though and you may be surprised at what you find.

Jesse