Playing Chicken With Freedom of Expression

Thousands flooded Chick-fil-A restaurants last week with a blunt message: Americans are sick and tired of the insidious campaign to silence public expression of religious beliefs.  They've had their fill of the anti-religious media, hate-mongering gay extremists and the cultural dictators running the Democratic Party.

The latest firestorm was sparked by an interview in Baptist Press with Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy.  In the publication and in a subsequent media appearance, Cathy endorsed traditional marriage between a man and a women.

"I think we are inviting God's judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say, 'We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage,' and I pray God's mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we have the audacity to try to redefine what marriage is about," Cathy said.

Cathy did not use discriminatory language.  He did not bash gays and lesbians.  He did not condemn relations between members of the same sex.  He simply aired his own personal views on marriage in response to questions by interviewers.

His stance can hardly be called heterodox.  Voters in 31 states have approved ballot issues defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman.  Even President Obama claimed in 2008 that he shared the same viewpoint of marriage and used the "C" word in explaining his perspective.

"I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman," candidate Obama said.  "For me as a Christian, it is also a sacred union." (Note to Democrats: This quote was published in The New York Times.)   Strangely, gay activists were mute in their response.

Yet as soon as Cathy's comments were brought to the media's attention, news outlets unleashed a torrent of outrage.  Pandering politicians deliberately twisted Cathy's words and mischaracterized his intent.  Intolerant gay extremists piled on, using venomous language to convict Cathy of hate-speech.

Overnight, the president of one of the nation's most successful, privately-owned fast food chains was branded an ignorant homophobic bigot.

Democratic mayors in Chicago, Boston and the San Francisco made it clear that Chick-fil-A was no longer welcome in their cities. "Enlightened" Chicago City Alderman Proco "Joe" Moreno leaped into the fray declaring, "Because of this man's ignorance, I will deny Chick-fil-A a permit to open a restaurant in my ward."

The flap attracted the attention of the liberal American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).  The group's senior attorney Adam Schwartz acknowledged that government can regulate discrimination in employment or against customers, but it cannot "punish someone for their words."

"When an alderman refuses to allow a business to open because its owner has expressed a viewpoint the government disagrees with, the government is practicing viewpoint discrimination," Schwartz pointed out.

Schwartz is right.  But don't be fooled by the foot-stomping same-sex zealots.  This shabby episode is not about the rights of gays.      

In today's America, the media elite and its shrill voices in the Democratic Party are on a mission to censor any public expression of religious values.  They have made it clear that comments about faith have no place in the school, workplace, military, government, sports or in any public venue.

Forget the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of expression. It only applies to speech deemed correct by self-annointed cultural bullies.  They decide when and under what circumstances a citizen can voice personal religious beliefs.

Dan Cathy is just the latest victim in a long list of public figures ruthlessly threatened with boycotts and economic blackmail by those who disagree with a person's right to utter their convictions.  If the anti-religious enforcers win, all Americans, including gays, will lose the right to be heard.

Americans must demand that the religious oppressors quit playing chicken with their right to free speech.