I'm not exactly a strict sabbatarian but...PART 2

I was posting a comment to respond to the astute comments left on my last post when I realized that I was rambling out a long and cumbersome reply comment that would probably be better served by rambling out a long and cumbersome post. Most of what I has to say probably boils down to a point of semantics, but…

For many years, I have personally wrestled with the proper way of honoring the Sabbath. I went through a period where I tried to make sure that no one had to work on my behalf on the Sabbath. Then we had children. A lot of previously held, Moses brought them down from the mountain by the hand of God on tablets of stone, convictions are set aside when children come into your life. I am still not convinced that my conviction concerning the Sabbath was wrong, merely inconvenient. Few churches are willing to even address the point. Other than homilies on the virtues of Truett Cathy, there is a lack of substantive discussion about this issue in Christendom. Discussions of Cathy fail to reveal a substantive rationale for admiring Cathy.

In my last post I pondered..."is it inconsistent for a Christian to admire Truett Cathy of Chik-Fil-A for sacrificing profits by closing shop on Sundays in order to honor the Sabbath by giving his employees a day of rest if the same Christian goes out to eat after church every Sunday, thereby forcing someone to work for him?"

4boydad rightly pointed out that my question was incomplete:

If your reason for admiring him is because you think people shouldn't work on Sunday, then yes, it is inconsistent.

If your reason for admiring him is because he's taking an uncommon and potentially unpopular stance to stick to his own beliefs, even if you may not agree 100% with those beliefs, then it is not inconsistent.

I see his point; Tennyson made the same observation about the Charge of the Light Brigade. One doesn’t have to agree with British intentions to defeat the Russians, nor even with the tactical intentions of the British at the battle, to recognize the bravery of the British charge. At the same time, Tennyson understood that the charge itself was a foolish waste "Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die".

In addition, I can respect the bravery of those willing to storm the beaches at Normandy and be in full agreement with their mission, but be personally unwilling to take that risk myself. But, if I am in the boat heading to the beach and run away (or swim away) then I am a coward.

My problem comes with the typical Christian admiration of Cathy's honoring of the Sabbath. If one admires him for honoring the Sabbath in this way (which is the way I most often heard him mentioned), then one must believe in honoring the Sabbath. Why else would his story resonate so strongly with Christians? If he is honoring the Sabbath by his actions, then what are my intentions when I am rude to my waiter and send back my steak at lunch after worship? Either his actions honor God by honoring the Sabbath or his actions are a foolish squandering of the resources that God has put in his stewardship. If his actions are a positive virtue, shouldn't mine emulate his? Shouldn't admiration inspire emulation?

Another question: Doesn't one have to, at least to a degree, agree with the stand that is being taken to admire that stand being taken? That is, can one truly separate the means of the stand from the ends of the stand? I don't much admire the "uncommon and potentially unpopular stance" of suicide bombers. Brave? Yes. Fools? Yes. Admirable? Certainly not. I respect suicide bombers, but I do not admire them. Many see Cathy as a fool, sort of a suicide businessman. They may respect his stand, but do not admire him because they see him as foolishly throwing away potential profits.

I admire those who stormed Omaha beach because I wish I were as good as they, and I agree with their mission. I do not admire the rebel soldiers who crashed into Cemetery Hill at Gettysburg in an act of gallantry almost unequaled in the annals of American history because I do not agree with their mission. I respect their bravery, but do not admire them. I warned you that this would get semantic.

In January Joel Stein of the LA Times created a short-lived stir with his honest and brave assertion that "I don't support our troops." In doing so he revealed the logical problem of claiming to support troops while doing everything possible to make sure that their mission fails. He doesn't believe that the means can be separated from the ends. If one disagrees with the mission, one can't very well support the missionaries. Personally, I thought was about time that someone pointed out the hypocrisy of the anti-war left and right. The anti-war crowd had a certain unity of thought in the Vietnam era when they were against the war and the entire military-industrial complex. Look at who is to blame in the lyrics of Donovan's Vietnam era "Universal Soldier":

And he's fighting for Democracy,
He's fighting for the Reds,
He says it's for the peace of all.
He's the one who must decide,
Who's to live and who's to die,
And he never sees the writing on the wall.

But without him,
How would Hitler have condemned him at Labau?
Without him Caesar would have stood alone,
He's the one who gives his body
As a weapon of the war,
And without him all this killing can't go on.

He's the Universal Soldier and he really is to blame,
His orders come from far away no more,
They come from here and there and you and me,
And brothers can't you see,
This is not the way we put an end to war.

(Emphasis mine)

It comes down to: Can I truly admire the bravery of a wrong-headed fool?

I am struggling through the answer to this. My gut tells me that it is convenient hypocrisy to admire a man but to be unwilling to follow his example. At the same time, separating the means and ends is a strongly compelling way to "admire" bravery. But why is it compelling?

I cannot agree more with 4boydad when he writes:

"Personally, I quietly cheer the Closed on Sunday stance Monday through Saturday, and then quietly curse it on Sundays when I want something to eat."

Ask my wife how many times I have said with sudden joy and anticipation, "Let's get Chik-fil-a today!" only to be met with the 'what are you talking about' look and to sadly realize that it is Sunday.

Does that make me a coward?

This post should lead to some interesting search results. And yes, I realize that I have engaged in a little of my own version of reductio ad Hitlerum. Suicide bombers and chicken sandwiches...a bit ridiculous to compare, don’t you think?

Peace