Huckabee said he sees nothing wrong with “National Same Sex Kiss Day at Chick Fil A,” although he is skeptical of the strategy.
“Probably I won’t be there for that,” Huckabee said. “But so what? That’s America. As long as they’re orderly, as long as they don’t disrupt the flow of customers and traffic — if they believe that will help their cause, to put people of the same sex kissing each other in a public place in front of families, if they believe that will encourage people to be more sympathetic, then, you know, more power to them.
“In America, I believe people have a right to do things that I might not agree with,” he continued. “What I don’t want to do is shut down the voices of Christians because they don’t like those voices.”
In America, we used to take that for granted. Unfortunately, the cities of Boston, Chicago, New York, and San Francisco elected politicians who forgot that America doesn’t require an oath to support The Party as a condition of engaging in commerce. In my new column for The Fiscal Times, I point out that this is an essential ingredient in America’s success from the start by guaranteeing equal treatment and regulation regardless of religious belief or political temperament, and that we risk a lot more than a missed chicken filet sandwich if we forget that:
Until now, we have welcomed people of all faiths and creeds into the marketplace as long as they observed rational and reasonable regulation intended to prevent fraud, theft, and abuse, but without trampling on their ability to abide by their beliefs. In return, a large number of people bring their capital and talent to our markets and generate wealth, jobs, stability, infrastructure, and an increased tax base to our communities. If we force these people to take their capital and exit these markets, it will result in seriously degraded economies, restriction on choice, fewer jobs, less demand, and a lower standard of living – not to mention keep some of the most talented people from addressing the difficult issues that we face.
Our founders understood that explicitly. They saw the disruptions and damage done by religious tests not just for office but also for commerce, and acted to ensure that our governments would not impose such systems on Americans. For more than two hundred years, that freedom transformed us into the most powerful nation in the world, economically, militarily, and politically. Imposing a test for political correctness that excludes tens of millions of faithful Americans cannot help but undermine all that progress as well as our natural rights as citizens.
If government has grown so powerful as to be able to impose and prosecute such tests, then that may be the clearest indication yet that government has grown too large and intrusive to the detriment of all.
Instapundit wrote today that he’s less worried about the impact on our economic health than on the First Amendment — and I agree. But it’s worth considering the kind of damage that the demand for political and religious orthodoxy as a condition of doing business will have on us in the long run.
Meanwhile, at Patheos, Fr. Dwight Longenecker marvels at the success of yesterday’s protest — and then decides it wasn’t really a protest as much as a rally as an expression of “ordinary” Americanism:
The Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day yesterday was historic. It was historic because it marks a new method of mass protest. I even hesitate to use the word ‘protest’ because it wasn’t a protest. There wasn’t any anger. There wasn’t any hate. There wasn’t any bullying. There were no unwashed crowds of unhappy people holding a sit in and causing other people stress, inconvenience and expense. There were no protest signs, no marches, no noise makers and attention grabbers. There were no revolutionary slogans, no clenched fists, no class warfare, no sullen adolescents in a stroppy mood.
The classic signs of a protest movement were absent. If they were not actually violent revolutions, the great protest movements in history have often had violent undertones. Subtle threats were made. Bullying tactics, financial and political pressure was exerted. Guns were wielded. Behind the scenes in smoke filled rooms men did deals and crossed swords to determine the future of millions. In the great revolutions hoards of unhappy people filled the streets, rioting and on the rampage they took what they wanted, killed who they wanted and in misplaced zeal for justice overturned an established order. …
Yesterday’s Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day was the sort of ‘revolt’ this country needs, but it was even better than the non violent revolutions and peaceful protests which have changed the world because it was so ordinary. It was just plain, ordinary Americans getting in their cars and doing a plain, ordinary American thing: going out for lunch to a fast food joint. It was just plain, ordinary Americans doing something plain and ordinary, but positive and joyful and good. In buying an ordinary tasty chicken sandwich at their corner fast food emporium ordinary Americans were expressing the wish to be left alone to be ordinary Americans.
After two weeks of highly anti-American behavior by elected officials who should know better, it’s good to see Americans acting like Americans — especially in large numbers. That’s true even of the kiss-in, to whatever extent it succeeds. Let’s debate politics and religious values, while allowing everyone to come to market and make their own choices about who and what to engage there. That is what liberty is all about.
Don’t give these idiots any attention. I doubt there’s gonna be some big kiss-in campaign.
Actually, I’m all-in for the “Kiss-In”.
Gonna go back to Chick-fil-A tomorrow, buy a nice lunch for me and my bride, then kiss her every two or three bites.
Wouldn't that be "thousands" in Massachusetts and "hundreds of thousand," or even millions, nationwide?
I sure would like to see some gross sales figures comparing income from before the homos went batsh*t on Chick-Fil-A to afterward.
Why do people who shriek about ‘staying out of our bedrooms’ constantly insist on flaunting bedroom behavior in public?
The rally to support religious principles is offensive only to those who would suppress American freedom. Overt mock sexuality, in public, is offensive to everyone of taste, regardless of their opinions on any issue, real or--as here--contrived. (For those who have forgotten that the very terms "sex" & "sexualty" refer to the division of all sentient life, indeed I believe all vertabrate life, into two sexes; my intention is not to make any other point by identifying the intentionally offensive behavior, as I have.}
William Flax
/The left is always so mature.
True, I suspect that the "Haters" do not realize the meaning of the statement in the Bible "Hate the sin, but love the sinner". The whole problem with the situation was misperception of hate. Christians don't hate Gays, they hate the lifestyle that is killing Gays. You don't hate a person with Cancer, you hate the Cancer itself.
The sad thing is the way the "Haters" protest, is to embrace the moral Cancer. Homosexuality is a lust problem, but then, so is hate.