David Frum: Fried chicken for Jesus

The National Post ^ | August 4, 2012 | David Frum

[2ndDivisionVet]

Welcome to 21st century America, where everybody is a victim. Once upon a time, victim status was the reserved property of a few minority groups. No longer! Americans have opened the doors of self-pity to all. White or black, rich or poor, straight or gay, male or female: all believe themselves uniquely persecuted and oppressed.

This July, a humble fried chicken sandwich became the symbol of two competing persecution narratives: gays vs. Christians.

The sandwich is made by Chick-Fil-A, a 1,600-store restaurant franchise owned by the billionaire Cathy family of Atlanta, Georgia. The Cathy family have generously supported Christian causes: colleges, churches, foster homes, Campus Crusade for Christ, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and many others. They have also supported conservative family groups that espouse a traditional Christian view of marriage.

The Cathy family’s support for groups on the other side of the same-sex marriage fight has enraged many. Over the past couple of years, the Chick-Fil-A chain has been the target of intensifying pressure and protest. Earlier this year, Boston’s Northeastern University rejected a proposed campus Chick-Fil-A franchise expressly because of the social views of the Cathy family.

Under pressure, the usually close-lipped Cathy family began to express their views more publicly. On July 16, Chick-Fil-A CEO Dan Cathy gave an interview to Baptist News. Asked about this support for traditional family groups, Cathy said:

“Well, guilty as charged. 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...

[ontap]

It’s not clear exactly how many people showed up at Chick-Fil-A locations, but it does seem to have been a lot

To any moron it was perfectly clear that the turn out was huge. Frum was simply disappointed that it was a colossal success for conservatives....of which he is not!!

[driftless2]

Frum misses the larger point entirely: it’s not a question of someone feeling sorry for themselves, it’s a question of politicians trying to suppress free speech. Frum seems not to notice that point....or maybe he chooses to ignore it deliberately. I’m betting Frum is pro homo marriage. He knows the pols are all wrong in trying to suppress CFA, but since he supports homo marriage, he has to make it like both parties are wrong.

[miss marmelstein]

Also, elitists just hate fast food. It’s icky and working-class. He wants to distance himself from all us knuckle-draggers.

Does anyone know if Charles “Sour” Kraut has chimed in on this story?

[GOPJ]

When Mayors reject Christians BECAUSE they're Christian, it's prejudice - based on creed. And yes, that makes us victims.

If the only Christians acceptable to the left are those who think like they do, it bigotry.

Liberals want us to be a step-and-fetch-it type Uncle Tom - or be banned from Chicago, Boston and LA.

Liberals are haters.

[GOPJ]

Frum acts like the mayors' letters and tweets were just harmless rhetorical fluff. He studiously avoids seeing what conservatives and everyone else saw, including the ACLU, which is that just below the surface was a threat to use the power of government against a business simply because the owner expressed values they disagreed with. Conservatives are generally against whiny victimology but that's obviously not what this was. This was a case of bullying by the government, or at least the threat of it. Frum's attempt to conflate the two is pretty weasely.

Well said, Yardstick. We aren't whiny victims - but when economic threats are made against us if we express our religious beliefs - we are victims. Not willing victims, not whiny victims, but victims none the less...

The other thing is most of aren't as powerful as the owner of Chick-fil-A... how many of our businesses have been been treated with coordinated prejudice by liberals in government? Or even liberals in the private sector? How many small business in Chicago have been turned down for permits because the owner was Christian? Or Orthodox Jew? My guess is most...

[stevem]

If you needed one more example of why the American political system so tragically fails to solve real-world problems, here it is, wrapped up with pickles and served with waffle fries.

As usual, no one, including Frum, has any idea what Frum is talking about.

[shhrubbery!]

Great photo.

Frum, as he affects to peer superciliously downward toward Christian conservatives, thinks he is making a sophisticated point.

To wit...
You self-pitying Christians are just as hysterical as the self-pitying groups on the Left who claim to be persecuted.

What Frum fails to recognize is that the thousands of normal Americans who staged the Chick-Fil-A uprising, and came out in peaceful and orderly throngs, did so because they recognized a true instance of attempted persecution of Christians in our own country.

This is in contrast to fake claims of persecution by so-called "gays." No mayors (or any other government entity in America) would even think about discriminating against "gays."

But as we all know, Christians are fair game.

Frum has a problem with Christians, and no doubt with conservative Jews. He is so pro-abortion, he can't see beyond his own guilt-ridden conscience.

[bmwcyle]

Frum, you better get to know Jesus soon. Your judgement is soon.

[Billthedrill]

Fun to watch the totally clueless make elitist asses of themselves. No, Mr. Frum, this one does not fit your tidy narrative of the Free Thinkers Versus The Jesus Freaks. And someone who is being discriminated against on religious grounds by city governments is a victim, and those city governments attempting to disallow businesses opening on that same basis are fascist.

Frum is attempting to avoid taking a side on the issue through a fashionable cynicism, which is an act of cowardice, not sophistication. His Canada has suffered quite enough under the dictatorial rule of politically correct multiculturalism in government, as Mark Steyn so eloquently points out. Its proponents in this country need to be slapped down, hard, and they were.

[backhoe]

Frum is an overeducated fool...
( as we say down south, “He’s educated ‘way beyond his level of intelligence... “ )

Goto the last page of out Canadian Sister Site here and scroll back for all I have gathered about “The Chicken disses the Hat”—

http://www.freedominion.com.pa/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=107157
America Held Hostage- the Obama Files...

Postby backhoe » 08 Nov 2008 05:49