A Creepy Infiltration

Sam Burnham, Curator
@C_SamBurnham

I often find myself sitting at this keyboard offering my rebuttal to this or that article and this morning feels like no exception to that rule. When I do so, I never want to feel that I am just coming off as a knee-jerk reaction to what someone else is saying. This particular one is interesting because the article being rebutted hits really close to home and is also a mirror image of an argument I am trying to make. 

On Friday, The New Yorker posted an article by Dan Piepenbring that bemoans the opening of several Chick-fil-A restaurants in New York City  as "a creepy infiltration." Common ground, right out of the gate. I totally get what he is saying as I'm a metaphorical protester in the streets throwing rocks against the juggernaut determined to use my tax dollars to secure the creepy infiltration of Georgia by Amazon. I get it. But then lets dig a little deeper to see what he finds so creepy about this infiltration. 

There's a concern that the Atlanta-area office of the company having a statue of Jesus washing His disciples' feet. Outside of the crucifixion, the greatest instance of humility, service, leadership, and love in the history of the world permanently on display for these corporate leaders is one of the main problems he cites. There is the ever present and consistently vague "anti-L.G.B.T." label that gets slapped on anything that is not overt and vocal in its support of anything the Left christens...er...secularens as being "a part of this century" or "on the right side of history." There is the use of the word "community" supposedly being used as propaganda, unlike how The New Yorker and others speak of "the LGBT Community," the "immigrant community,"

​Mr. Piepenbring's "anti-L.G.B.T." accusation is in regard to the charitable wing of the company. It is an accusation that brings vague and harsh judgement on Chick-fil-A's efforts to support families and young people. Had Mr. Piepenbring dug a little deeper into the WinShape program he could have done a piece on an effort that houses foster children in a safe and stable environments, gives away annual $4000 scholarships to students participating in the program, offers counseling services to couples wishing to save their marriages, you know, really creepy, evil, dark, and, apparently, "fried"  "anti-L.G.B.T." stuff. They're really just terrible people who have no business selling fast food in Manhattan. ​ 

Mr. Piepenbring also shares some concern about the blatant marketing and advertising. Has he seen Times Square? Does he know what all goes on on Madison Avenue? It seems that perhaps he is troubled that Truett Cathy, a veteran of WWII and a man I met in a cafeteria-style line at his summer camp where he was having breakfast with the kids, "died a billionaire" after just doing the same thing the more successful half of New York City is doing. The biggest difference is, Truett stopped to help a lot of folks along the way. I guess the problem could be that he decided to help the ones Mr. Piepenbring isn't very tolerant of. 

I don't spend a lot of time defending big business here. They don't need my help. I'd much rather defend family owned businesses. But if you've been in a Chick-fil-A, you know why they're successful. Rather than pointing out why and emulating it, it is so much easier to try to assassinate the character of a business that does more with six days than most do in seven.

I don't know if Mr. Piepenbring will ever read these. I doubt he will. But if he does, I'll offer him the same invitation I've offered others I've rebutted. Come to Georgia. See for yourself. Get off the interstate, out of the big cities, come to see and understand. I'll be glad to show you myself.