Since when does serving up junk food give someone a license to preach?
Politics and all things fried, fatty and fast are becoming intertwined to the point of absurdity.
We’ve got the Papa John’s pizza guys weighing in on the health-care debate, while the burger slingers out west at In-N-Out can’t serve up a cheeseburger without a Bible verse.
The craziness of fast-food commentary on social issues became obvious to me when I stumbled into a totally earnest discussion at a party last week by a bunch of Washingtonians who personally support the right to same-sex marriage, but are also wickedly addicted to Chick-fil-A sandwiches.
This is the stuff of serious dilemma inside the Beltway.
“I don’t know what to do about it. I mean, I guess I can go through the drive-thru where no one will see me,” one woman said.
“It doesn’t matter if anyone sees you there. It’s about helping them fund hate groups by buying their hate-chicken,” another responded.
“Have you had that banana cream pie milkshake?” someone asked.
And the entire room dissolved into a quiet moment of personal ecstasy, the kind that ends with a head-shake of loss, grief and sorrow.
Why did they have to go there?
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy opposes same-sex marriage to anyone who has heard the hymns piped into the restaurant or tried to tame a chicken jones on a Sunday, only to find a closed restaurant because Sunday is for God, not chicken. But his remarks on the subject created a furor and divided the nation yet again along political lines.
Conservatives flocked to chicken appreciation day to voice their support for Cathy, creating huge lines at Chick-fil-As across the country. Gay rights activists answered with a Chick-fil-A kiss-in.
The indignation and protests have yet to die down. A Frederick Chick-fil-A suffered an overnight vandal attack this weekend. It was plastered with stickers, gay pride flags and homemade signs.
The Advocate published a mock Chick-fil-A home recipe: “How to Fill Those Chick-fil-A Cravings.”
The back-backlash now has Internet memes from gay folks who are asking their friends and supporters to stop the madness and do something positive for the same-sex cause instead. (Many of these are also admitted chicken addicts who also can’t see going cold turkey on that chicken.)
On the other end of the spectrum, the folks who brought us the bulk of that eat-a-pint-after-a-breakup weight, Ben & Jerry’s, churned out a Hubby-Hubby flavor in support of same-sex marriage.
Why does bad food have to come with politics? Where do the broccoli people stand on abortion? That, we’ll never know.
But over at Papa John’s Pizza, CEO and founder John Schnatter, a Mitt Romney fundraiser, declared last week that the company would raise the price of its pies if health-care reform stands.
Somehow, it is funny that a place where a single slice of “The Meats” pizza can run you 400 calories, 19 grams of fat and 1,100 milligrams of sodium decides to weigh in on the health-care debate.
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