Chick-fil-A Pays the Dane-Geld

"And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we've proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane."
Rudyard Kipling

Paying Dane-geld
Starting in the 8th century, Danish Vikings began to invade the island of Britain seasonally. Many Anglo-Saxon kings, unprepared for a battle and desperate to protect their kingdoms in any way they could, would pay the Danes large sums of money to go away. This became known as paying Dane-geld. In the short term this strategy was successful. The Danes left; the kingdom was preserved. In the long term, however, paying the Dane-geld didn't fix the problem. The Vikings came back the next year, and the next year, and the next year. Once the Vikings knew that there were kingdoms whose rulers would capitulate and pay without a fight, they would be sure to return for more easy money in the future.

LGBTQ Dane-geld

In our contemporary world, public Christians and Christian organizations committed to the teachings of the Bible often find themselves under assault by ideological Vikings. These are groups that don't actually do business with or worship with the people or organizations in question, but who nonetheless want to force those organizations to make concessions to their ideology. For example, a Christian florist might have his business singled out for his refusal to celebrate  a gay union with his services. A Christian baker is told to glorify a gay "wedding" by baking a cake. These events that become public spectacles are not the result of same-sex couples wandering wide-eyed and ignorant into a random bakery and finding themselves rebuffed by a bigoted owner. No, these occasions are carefully calculated public attacks by people who have specifically chosen this baker or that florist in order to start a fight. The Danes have been eyeing that richly furnished monastery for some time and have a plan of attack all laid out.

This is, incidentally, a reason why it seems like conservative Christians spend so much time talking about issues like gay marriage or drag queen story hour at the library. There are often people who point out, quite rightly too, that the Bible talks about many other sins besides these. Why are Christians focusing on these specific sins? However, just a few moments of thought makes the answer to the question clear. Could the Irish have invaded Wessex? What about the Welsh? What about the Franks from the South? Yes, it would have been possible for any of these groups to raise an army and attack. But King Alfred spent his time mostly preparing and defending against Danish invaders because they were the ones, after all, who were actually invading. In recent knowledge I can't think of any adultery pride parades in major cities or any ax-murderer story hours at the library. Adultery and murder are real sins, and every good church should be preaching against them in the ordinary course of expounding the Word of God and teaching the congregation. But those aren't the big, public battles that have been foisted upon Bible believers by the culture. The culture wants us to pay dane-geld, to compromise our beliefs and practices in some little way as a concession to the prevailing winds of public opinion. This brings us to the recent announcement about Chick-fil-A dropping support for certain groups.

It's important to understand what Chick-fil-A is doing by discontinuing financial support to The Salvation Army and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. They are paying dane-geld to the Vikings.
Look at how this news is being reported. Most of the headlines identify the groups that Chick-fil-A has stopped supporting as "controversial" or "anti-LGBTQ" organizations, as if members of the Salvation Army regularly go around attacking homosexuals or protesting homosexuality. This is simply not true. What does the Salvation Army do? Annually it provides more than 10 million nights of shelter for homeless people, serves more than 58 million meals to the homeless, and helps more than 30 million people in the largest free, in-house, drug and alcohol rehab program in America. They are not an "anti-LGBTQ oranization", they are an organization devoted to helping people in need, whoever they are. Ah, but they do believe in biblical sexual ethics, and that's unconscionable to the ideological Vikings.

What makes this concession so baffling is the context of it all. When the same-sex controversy first flared up for Chick-fil-A in 2012, protesters organized a boycott. The result of the public boycott was that Chick-fil-A supporters rallied and the restaurant chain saw a 12% increase in profits! Since that time, and despite continued protests, Chick-fil-A has risen to be the number 3 fast food chain in America and the nation's fastest growing restaurant chain. In other words, Chick-fil-A is winning! It's understandable that many Saxon kings, unable to fend off invaders, sought self-preservation by paying the dane-geld. But what sort of a king, in the middle of a highly successful rout of the enemy, would order his soldiers to throw down their weapons and surrender? Why pay dane-geld when you're the victors?

Yes, it is true that Chick-fil-A is donating money to more local causes now, and that's great. But don't lose sight of what has happened. They made a concession, a very small one. They're not denying their beliefs or convictions. They're simply pushing them a bit to the background so they can operate their businesses peacefully without protests. They're getting the Vikings to go away. But will it last? Will it be enough? Already we see the answer is, "No." If you pay the dane-geld, the Vikings come back for more, again and again, until you have nothing left. And Chick-fil-A will not be free from protesters and controversy until, little by little, they've given away every last biblical conviction and fully embraced the cultural rebellion against God's law.

Good Advice for Christians
So what is some good counsel for Chick-fil-A and for Christians in general in our cultural climate? Rudyard Kipling gave the following advice in his poem Dane-geld:

"We never pay any-one Dane-geld,
No matter how trifling the cost;
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
And the nation that pays it is lost!"

When dealing with those who will continue to demand concessions until you have completely accepted their worldview and ideology, not even the most trifling compromise should be allowed. In discontinuing funding to The Salvation Army and the FCA, Chick-fil-A has made a strategic and moral compromise. But not all is lost. King Alfred the Great was the only Saxon king to preserve his country from conquest by the Vikings, and he learned his lesson the hard way. Early in his reign he did pay dane-geld as a strategic move in order to give himself time to prepare for war. His gambit was unsuccessful, and he ended up temporarily losing his kingdom. However, he managed to rally his nobles and their troops and went on to win back his kingdom from the Danes. From then on, be built  watchtowers called burgs all along the coast and remained vigilant against attacks for the rest of his life. He never paid dane-geld again. In fact, the Danish leader who had taken his kingdom ended up becoming a Christian, and Alfred stood as godfather at his baptism.

It's not too late even now for Chick-fil-A to be like King Alfred. Having paid the dane-geld, they can still regroup and reaffirm their principles in a clear, unambiguous way. And the same is true, for now, of the Christian denominations and organizations who have wavered in their wholehearted commitment to the teachings of Scripture. A turn about is needed because, as Kipling says, the end of the road of appeasement and acquiescence is nothing but oppression, shame, and loss.