I have a really hard time with the names of some US companies. “Toys R Us,” was okay. E-Z anything was weird because I’m a Zed person myself but Chick-fil-A is just plain messed up.
Back across the pond there is a brand called polyfilla that produces a cement type product that is used to fill small holes in your walls and such like. So I can’t get away from pronouncing Chick-fil-A, chickfiller.
Then a really messed up picture pops into my head. sort of like chicken-plucker if you know what I mean.
But the question that I’d like to ask Cathy, who owns the place, when you say,
‘We are very much supportive of the family - the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that.’
Do you really mean the biblical version? And if so which one.
- Polygynous Marriage: Probably the most common form of marriage in the bible, it is where a man has more than one wife.
- Levirate Marriage: When a woman was widowed without a son, it became the responsibility of the brother-in-law or a close male relative to take her in and impregnate her. If the resulting child was a son, he would be considered the heir of her late husband. See Ruth, and the story of Onan (Gen. 38:6-10).
- A man, a woman and her property — a female slave: The famous “handmaiden” sketch, as preformed by Abraham (Gen. 16:1-6) and Jacob (Gen. 30:4-5).
- A man, one or more wives, and some concubines: The definition of a concubine varies from culture to culture, but they tended to be live-in mistresses. Concubines were tied to their “husband,” but had a lower status than a wife. Their children were not usually heirs, so they were safe outlets for sex without risking the line of succession. To see how badly a concubine could be treated, see the famous story of the Levite and his concubine (Judges 19:1-30).
- A male soldier and a female prisoner of war: Women could be taken as booty from a successful campaign and forced to become wives or concubines. Deuteronomy 21:11-14 describes the process.
- A male rapist and his victim: Deuteronomy 22:28-29 describes how an unmarried woman who had been raped must marry her attacker.
- A male and female slave: A female slave could be married to a male slave without consent, presumably to produce more slaves.
and of course …
- Monogamous, heterosexual marriage: What you might think of as the standard form of marriage, provided you think of arranged marriages as the standard. Also remember that inter-faith or cross-ethnic marriage were forbidden for large chunks of biblical history.
Answers on a postcard etc.
