Chick-fil-A and free speech

Last week, Chick-fil-A's CEO Dan Cathy spoke to Baptist Press of his company's steadfast support for marriage and family:

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 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.

But Cathy was about to find out what kind of country he really does live in.

Pro-homosexual forces quickly mobilized. The very people and organizations that advocate tolerance were showing no tolerance for someone with a different viewpoint. The sodomite bullies and their politically correct machine were in full swing by the week’s end, including the mayors of Boston and San Francisco who were threatening blockades of any Chick-fil-A franchise that wanted to open in their cities. In tactics reminiscent of the Gestapo and KGB, they were going to squash any dissent from a pro-homosexual viewpoint and the Chick-fil-A empire, daring to have a different viewpoint, became their target. Their message was clear--First Amendment advocates are not welcome in their cities.

Mike Huckabee got fed up and launched a Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day for Wednesday, August 1. The idea is simply to support them in some tangible way be giving them a bit of your business. I got fed up too and joined him on his facebook page. But in a little bit, Facebook removed, uh, er, ummm, Facebook experienced a technical glitch that inadvertently disabled Huckabee’s post for the next 12 hours…until the conservative outcry became feverish and the good IT folks at Facebook were able to get Huckabee’s page restored. Evidently, Mike Huckabee’s page was the only one affected by this “accidental” fluke at Facebook.

Chick-fil-A is a Christian company with 1,608 restaurants that had sales in excess of $4 billion last year. They follow their values. They are closed on Sunday to honor the Lord’s Day. They bailed out the struggling Peach Bowl 15 years ago. Yes, they renamed it the “Chick-fil-A” bowl but they have 15 successive sellouts. It is the only college bowl game with an invocation.

Anti-Christian forces have targeted Chick-fil-A because of Mr. Cathy’s comments of this past week and the overall Christian philosophy of the company. If you care about that, you should strongly consider giving the company some of your business in the future, especially this coming Wednesday, August 1. And be advised. If as many Christians care about this homosexual persecution that I think will, you might have a long wait, so plan ahead.

P.S. You can read Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino's letter here.