Chick-fil-A and the Gay War Against Freedom

PT Barnum, the famous 19th-century American showman, once said "There's no such thing as bad publicity."  It may have been so for him, but in our modern times it's most definitely not, as the fast-food chain Chick-fil-A is learning.

Despite being a large nationwide chain, Chick-fil-A is known for strongly promoting the Christian principles of its founders, the Cathy family.  Unlike virtually every other store out there, all Chick-fil-As have always closed on Sunday so employees can go to church.

The Cathys, and Chick-fil-A, have always supported the traditional family.  Alas, times have changed, and COO Dan Cathy put his foot in it when he made a statement in an interview that would have been totally non-controversial even ten years ago:

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. We operate as a family business ... our restaurants are typically led by families; some are single. We want to do anything we possibly can to strengthen families. We are very much committed to that. We intend to stay the course. We know that it might not be popular with everyone, but thank the Lord, we live in a country where we can share our values and operate on biblical principles.  [emphasis added]

Unfortunately he's wrong: apparently we do not in fact live in a country where sharing Biblical values is to be allowed.  Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel wasted no time in making this clear:

Chick-fil-A’s values are not Chicago values. They’re not respectful of our residents, our neighbors and our family members. And if you’re gonna be part of the Chicago community, you should reflect Chicago values.  What the CEO has said as it relates to gay marriage and gay couples is not what I believe, but more importantly, it’s not what the people of Chicago believe. We just passed legislation as it relates to civil union and my goal and my hope … is that we now move on recognizing gay marriage. I do not believe that the CEO’s comments … reflects who we are as a city.

Fair enough, you might think - Rahm Emanuel has the right to his views just as Mr. Cathy has to his.  Not so: the Mayor and his aldermen are taking steps to actually prevent Chick-fil-A from opening any restaurants in their city.

Ald. Joe Moreno (1st) is using the same argument to block Chick-fil-A from opening its first free-standing restaurant in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood.

“Same sex marriage, same-sex couples — that’s the civil rights fight of our time. To have those discriminatory policies from the top down is just not something that we’re open to. …We want responsible businesses,” Moreno said.

Let's review: Mr. Cathy has never refused to serve homosexuals in his restaurants.  He certainly hasn't endorsed any kind of violence against them.  He has used his funds, and the funds of his company, to promote his personal political views, just as has always been legal in America and just as every other individual and business can do.  His views in opposition to homosexuality may be out of style, but they're not only not illegal, they're the views that everyone in the world shared until maybe 20 years ago.

And for this, the power of the government is being used to oppose his business!  This violates every principle of the Constitution we can think of, from free speech rights to freedom of religion to equal protection under the law, but nobody in the media seems to mind.  The only acceptable view is apparently that America is being uncommonly generous to Mr. Cathy by not slamming him in jail.

The End of the Line

It's long been obvious that the Obama administration is fundamentally opposed to religious liberty; they've made it a key objective of Obamacare to force religious organizations to pay for abortion procedures they view as morally anathema as murder.  The attack on Chick-fil-A carries this one step further: religious people are now no longer allowed even to express or support their own moral views.

Yes, Mr. Cathy is garnering a surprising amount of popular support on Facebook.  How much will that count for when the government has declared him and his company an intolerable enemy of the state?

It's long been clear that homosexuals, far from demanding freedom to be themselves, are fighting for a special power of immunity from criticism that nobody can have in a free country.  The consequences of that are plain: the total death of religious freedom.

As evil and un-American as that is, though, it didn't occur to us that the homosexual agenda would also mean the death of economic freedom.  Yet, as Mayor Emanuel explained, that's exactly what it means.

Maybe now, at long last, it's time to oppose this tyranny, defend Mr. Cathy, and hound both Mr. Obama and Rahm Emanuel from the offices they pollute with their presence?  Otherwise, some future unfortunate will echo German Pastor Niemoller: "First they came for the Mormons who opposed Proposition 8, but Mormons are wacky so that's fine.  Then they came for Dan Cathy, but I didn't care, I don't like fast-food chicken anyway..."

And eventually they'll come for you too - unless we all join together to stop them while we still can.