This Chick-fil-A controversy is a disappointing display of religious zealotry and political and societal polarization. Are we so focused on widening this gap that we will collectively spend millions in one day on chicken, just to support the ideas of a few high-profile individuals we know little about?

Instead of wasting time standing in long lines to buy an anti-gay-marriage sandwich, consider the positive impact if we donated the filthy lucre spent last week to organizations providing immunizations to children perishing from preventable diseases in the Third World.

As the 19th century English churchman Henry Melvill wrote: "There is not one of you whose actions do not operate on the actions of others. … Ye cannot live for yourselves; a thousand fibres connect you with your fellow-men, and along those fibres, as along sympathetic threads, run your actions as causes, and return to you as effects."

Instead of spending time and money either boycotting or supporting a chicken sandwich, let's kibosh this ridiculous display of bigotry on both ends of the spectrum and work at strengthening and unifying our communities as we reach outward in support of humanity.

Amy Peterson

Millville