Draft: Chik-Fil-A President: Gay Marriage

I want to start by stating that I think same sex marriage as recognized by the state/government is a different argument compared to same sex marriage as recognized by any god. As far as the government is concerned, laws and taxes should be created with the idea that people are generally speaking equal. As far as religion, obviously that may be different. I personally do not eat at Chik-Fil-A due to their political stance on this issue. I am not gay but my best friend is and she feels the same way. I should also point out I do not go around asking everyone to boycott the company. Mr. Cathy (and his corporation) is fully entitled to his/their opinions as I am mine. If he uses his company to be heard and speak his values to the world, using his profits to support that - I simply will not support his profits.
With all that said we are in an Ethics class. I believe that Mr. Cathy was being fully ethical when he made his first statement "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,'" (Collier) and some of his many other comments on the issue.
The text book we were asked to read and hopefully learn from defines ethics with two main parts, while explaining ethics it states “If morals refer to the underlying values on which our decisions are based, ethics refers to the applications of those morals to the decisions themselves.” It then provides us an example “So, an individual could have a moral value of honesty, which, when applied to her or his decisions, results in a refusal to lie on an expense report.” (Hartman) Based on his speeches, articles and corporate policies there is little doubt that Mr. Cathy has, tried to be a person living by his, and his’ God’s values.
Our book goes on further to explain that “An individual may have carefully thought through a situation and decided what is right, and then may be motivated to act accordingly. But the corporate or social context surrounding the individual may create serious barriers to such behavior.” (Hartman) Most people would look at the statement and only think of that applying in the cases like Enron or other similar examples provided in the book. I look at that and think it applies to all value systems – the ones I agree with and the ones I don’t. I fully believe based on the publicly available information provided on Chik-Fil-A that Mr. Cathy thinks that he made the right move by sharing his values, values that have served his company well for many years.
 
So did Mr. Cathy speak out, and on a topic that I wish he would not have, absolutely; but, did Mr. Cathy act ethically based on his values, and using his morals to lead the way – yes.