Do you boycott certain businesses?

Updated at 5 p.m. ET: Chick-fil-A's vice president of public relations, Don Perry, died suddenly early Friday, the company said, leaving the embattled restaurant chain without its chief spokesman amid a marketing crisis.
"Don was a member of our Chick-fil-A family for nearly 29 years," the company said in a statement. "For many of you in the media, he was the spokesperson for Chick-fil-A. He was a well-respected and well-liked media executive in the Atlanta and University of Georgia communities, and we will all miss him."
WRBL, a CBS television affiliate in Columbus, Ga., reported that Perry died of a heart attack, citing franchise owner Ross Cathy, son of Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy. A company spokesman said he could not confirm the cause of death.

There has been a lot of clucking surrounding the comments Chick-fil-A COO Dan Cathy made on my radio show on June 16.

While discussing fatherhood with me, Dan Cathy expressed the following thoughts that have contributed to the media firestorm:

"I think we are inviting God's judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at him and say, 'We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage,'" Cathy said. "And I pray God's mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we have the audacity to define what marriage is about."

Listen to the entire interview with Dan Cathy.

In recent days activist bloggers, opportunistic politicians and the media have brought the culture war over re-defining marriage to a boil, inciting boycotts, protests and rallies of support.

I have no desire to join the debate over the definition of marriage. However, I ask questions for a living and I am quite comfortable asking the necessary questions to provoke a public conversation about civility in our public discourse.

I have observed and been engaged in the reaction on both sides of this story. I have come to the troubling conclusion that the uproar is not fueled by the debate on same sex marriage, rather the primary issue has become the tension between conviction and tolerance

Increasingly, we see a well-oiled publicity machine that is redefining tolerance as, "either you agree with me or you need to button your lips." Those who throw the labels of intolerance and bigotry at those who share an opposing opinion are ironically modeling a glaring lack of tolerance

Times have certainly changed yet America's melting pot DNA has not. Our future as a great society depends largely on our ability to live alongside those who believe and act differently than us. The world will continue to change but Americans right to express their beliefs will not.

I am highly skeptical that either side in the marriage debate, or any other social or political debate for that matter, will change the others position. However, I am quite certain that it is difficult to be angry with or accuse one of bigotry while conversing over coffee.

To those who would join me in the messy middle, I take my coffee with cream and sugar

That we have largely lost the ability to socialize with people with whom we dont agree is one of the great failures of the American experiment. The massive loss of tolerance that we have suffered from weakens us greatly.

I dont see this....the opposite of moral conviction is moral relativity, not believing in anything,

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I dont see this....the opposite of moral conviction is moral relativity, not believing in anything,

Bullshit. I have morals. They just don't happen to agree with yours.

My morality says keep your religious views out of our laws.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Friday that despite his own support of same-sex marriage, he disagrees with some of his fellow mayors who have said that the fast-food chain Chick-fil-A is not welcome in their cities because of its opposition to gay marriage.

Bloomberg said on his weekly radio show on WOR that it is inappropriate for a government entity “to look at somebody’s political views and decide whether or not they can live in the city, or operate a business in the city, or work for somebody in the city.”

Bloomberg said Menino, Emanuel and Lee are “really are good mayors” but “trampling on the freedom to marry whoever you want is exactly the same as trampling on your freedom to open a store.”

Richard Socarides, a New York lawyer and former Clinton White House adviser on gay rights who is urging a boycott of Chick-fil-A, said Bloomberg is right.

“Consumers can disagree with a company’s corporate political position and decide not to spend money there,” Socarides said. “But the city cannot regulate speech by denying someone a permit to operate their business just because

You have things ass-backwards.
Fighting for equal rights is the American way.

We still struggle with equal rights,
because people like you don't have the understanding of what this country is all about.

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New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Friday that despite his own support of same-sex marriage, he disagrees with some of his fellow mayors who have said that the fast-food chain Chick-fil-A is not welcome in their cities because of its opposition to gay marriage.

Bloomberg said on his weekly radio show on WOR that it is inappropriate for a government entity “to look at somebody’s political views and decide whether or not they can live in the city, or operate a business in the city, or work for somebody in the city.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/nyc-mayor-disagrees-with-mayors-of-boston-chicago-san-francisco-in-chick-fil-a-debate/2012/07/27/gJQAtPMuDX_story.html

Bloomberg is an ass, but he is right here.

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Bloomberg said Menino, Emanuel and Lee are “really are good mayors” but “trampling on the freedom to marry whoever you want is exactly the same as trampling on your freedom to open a store.”

Richard Socarides, a New York lawyer and former Clinton White House adviser on gay rights who is urging a boycott of Chick-fil-A, said Bloomberg is right.

“Consumers can disagree with a company’s corporate political position and decide not to spend money there,” Socarides said. “But the city cannot regulate speech by denying someone a permit to operate their business just because

You CI seem to be very challenged here on figuring right from wrong.

How have I been challenged?
That ChickfilA is a company run by a homophobic owner/management?
That Billy Grapham is a homophobic bigot?

Under our Constitution, it declares "all men are created equal."

How am I challenged?

That is not what it says; u r confusing
the Constitution with Lincoln's Gettysberg address.

David says

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That is not what it says; u r confusing
the Constitution with Lincoln's Gettysberg address.

I believe you are confusing the Declaration of Independence with the Gettysburg Address. Sheesh.

" Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty,
and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. . . .".