Former Baptist minister, former Arkansas governor, and now millionaire Fox News commentator Mike Huckabee used the power of his overpaid megaphone to run the successful impromptu public relations campaign. He sure knows how to whip people into a frenzy.
“People are outraged that someone who expresses a view that is shared by most of the country is being bullied by hate speech and intolerance from the militant gay groups that are trying to disenfranchise his right to a personal opinion,” Huckabee told Religion News Service in an email.Yeeeehaw! Militant homosexuals. Bullying. Hate speech. Intolerance. Way to go, Mike. You completely flipped the script on those gays. Fox News does not pay you the big bucks for nothing.
Seminaries, culture war celebrities like Sarah Palin, and more than a few big name evangelists got into the act. And the circus was a huge success.
"While we don't release exact sales numbers, we can confirm reports that it was a record-setting day," Steve Robinson, Chick-fil-A's executive vice president of marketing, said in a statement.
At least one location had to close early after nearly selling out of chicken. At others, lines snaked around buildings and patrons waited upwards of two hours to snag their chicken sandwiches and show their support for Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy's comments supporting traditional marriage.While y'all were eating junk food for culture war and billionaires, you blissfully ignored the fact that food pantries across the country cannot keep up with demand. With nearly 16% of Americans living in poverty, food pantries have been struggling to help people in need. Here is a smattering of stories that appeared on the same day as the Huckabee outrage-a-thon.
Arizona:
The shelves at United Food Bank are not stocked like they used to be.
With kids out of school, higher utility bills and donors away on vacation, the Mesa food bank has trouble filling the high demand for food in the summer.Pennsylvania:
Pastor James Roth said there is not enough food to go around at the Manheim Food Bank at Zion Evangelical Church. About half the shelves are empty.
"It's a sad day," Roth said. "You can see the holes that are here. All we can give is basically an emergency supply. It gets awful tough."Florida:
The Food Bank of Manatee County is asking for the public's help.
Donations are down and due to large cuts in federal funding, many of the foodbank shelves are bare.South Carolina:
Facing five more weeks of high demand before the end of summer, Harvest Hope is experiencing drastic food shortages and is looking for means to increase food inventory.
In June the food bank saw an average of 325 families a day at the Emergency Food Pantries on Shop Road and on 12th Street in Cayce and provided food for over 6,820 families during the month. This is an increase of more than 800 families over June of 2011.And the good news stories related to the growing ranks of the hungry in America come from grocery stores, restaurants, farmers, and other links in the food chain stepping up their donations. Volunteers at our local food bank spends many hours each week picking up donations from local stores for distribution. Even with all those food donations, we cannot keep with the need in the community.
I do have a few less charitable thoughts. First, I cannot help but wonder what we could do if all the energy, emotion, and **money** that went into Huckabee's ridiculous hullabaloo went into helping those in real need. Second, there are Christians that are persecuted in other parts of the world, but what passes for persecution in America is a joke. Lord, forgive me for what I am thinking about the people caught up in the culture war feeding frenzy.
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