[I have to make a major correction to this post. Apparently I misinterpreted the citation from Matthew. I took it to be a condemnation of self-righteousness, whereas it is actually a reassurance that those who are righteous will be rewarded. All I can say in my own defense is that I don’t read Greek. I’ll be more careful in the future. — JS]

The recent Chick-fil-A kerfuffle about homosexuality reminds me again that more Christians should have red-letter versions of the New Testament. There is, after all, a reason for those parts in red. I think they’d be surprised at what isn’t there, and especially what is there. Here’s a very a propos bit from Matthew:

5:10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

I’m happy to see that Chick-fil-A’s Facebook page now has, if not exactly an apology or a retraction, some serious back-pedalling:

The Chick-fil-A culture and service tradition in our restaurants is to treat every person with honor, dignity and respect – regardless of their belief, race, creed, sexual orientation or gender. We will continue this tradition in the over 1,600 Restaurants run by independent Owner/Operators.  Going forward, our intent is to leave the policy debate over same-sex marriage to the government and political arena.