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...

[2ndDivisionVet]

Fee-fi-fo-Frum, Palin was first and you're still dumb.

[RegulatorCountry]

Fried chicken for Jesus is more logically defensible in this instance than Jews for the destruction of Israel, Mr. Frum.

[Zhang Fei]

Frum is, frankly, a retarded neo-con. He thought Iraqis would welcome us with flowers and kisses, that’s they’re blank slates waiting for us to write on. Whereas American conservatives are troglodytes with a missing chromosome. I think we’d be better off if he returned to his liberal roots, if he hasn’t already. It’s no small relief that he’s no longer working for the GOP in any capacity.

[jeffc]

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.

That is persecution, and we are tired of being persecuted, Mr. Frum. We hold views that have been accepted since before this country was created. The homos and the Dems want to create a police state where everything is regulated by them. Do you really want that?

[Bernard Marx]

Frum is a false-color dolt. He pretends to be conservative but undermines conservative principles at every opportunity. He's the typical liberal Trojan Horse.

Any fool can see this is a free speech issue. Dan Cathy has the right to express his views without worries that his business will be attacked by liberal government lackeys like the three mayors and other liberal fools.

This issue really has my Irish up! I've never eaten at a Chick-fil-A but I'm going to make a special trip to a nearby city Monday for lunch there. I don't even share the same beliefs as Cathy but, like Voltaire, I'll fight to the death for his right to express them.

[Deagle]

While Frum continues to pursue his worldview (as most in the Media do), the singular effect of individual protests continue to make there presence known to us, the peons.

It’s nice of those media folks to continue to point out the bigger picture to us lesser folk but we have to make do with the individual fight for freedom and it is never part of their world! So Frum...please just get lost - we will deal with the issues as WE see fit!

[Liberty Valance]

[youngidiot]

Frumking idiot.

[dfwgator]

[Liberty Valance]

[3Fingas]

Frum needs to go back to Canada and stay there.

[Squawk 8888]

Canada ping. Whenever I think Frum couldn’t sink further I’m proven wrong.

To all- in Clive’s absence I’m taking care of the Canada pinglist- FReepmail me to be added or removed.

[Squawk 8888]

Canada ping. Whenever I think Frum couldn’t sink further I’m proven wrong.

To all- in Clive’s absence I’m taking care of the Canada pinglist- FReepmail me to be added or removed.

[RichInOC]

Given that Dave Frum is one of the biggest drama queens ever to occupy space in the conservative movement…isn’t it ironic? Don’t you think?

[MestaMachine]

Frum is an idiot, but I don’t understand why Christians think this is simply anti-Christian. It is anti-G-d and against nature. We fight for the same cause, yet we are ignored as if we did not exist.

[cynwoody]

This is about the improper exercise of government power. Nothing more, nothing less. It has nothing to do with families or gay marriage or God.

I bought my dinner this past evening at Chick-fil-A, Burlington, MA.

I thereby hungrily disrespected the Mayor of the Shitty of Boston, the Mayor of Chicago, the Mayor of San Francisco, and all the slimy Americans who voted for them. It was good chicken, and that was my intent.

Scum such as hold sway over municipal regulators must not throw their weight around, or they must be condemned!

Now the controversy went white-hot. Mayors warning companies to stay out of town because the CEO had expressed a personal opinion on a public issue? Why that sounds like … “fascism!”, thundered Bill O’Reilly on Fox News.

Frum, you are a tool! O'Reilly, dumb as he is, got it exactly right! This is not about queers. It's not about Jesus Christ. It's simply about whether mayors can enforce political correctness !!!

[backhoe]

I highly recommend the essays & comments here:

http://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/

Specifically:

http://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2012/08/02/the-chickens-hat/

The Chicken Disses the Hat
August 2, 2012 - 1:52 am - by Richard Fernandez

My own thoughts on this are below the picture of my Dead Miss Emily, here:

http://www.freedominion.com.pa/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=1730477#p1730477

[Ann Archy]

I don’t think it’s proper for a Jewish person like Frum to be so SNARKY about Christians and Christianity.

[SECURE AMERICA]

So many idiots, so little time.
This was all about the US Constitution and people saying ENOUGH to an out of control Government. Yes the sides may have lined up with homosexuals on one and Christians on the other but how could that be otherwise...

[Yardstick]

In response to that, Boston mayor Thomas Menino sent a letter to Cathy, urging him to abandon plans to locate restaurants in Boston.

Menino was seconded and thirded by Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel and San Francisco mayor Edwin Lee. Chick-Fil-A, said Mayor Emanuel, did not represent “Chicago values” — and he invited them to stay away. Lee took to Twitter to express gratitude that the nearest Chick-Fil-A was located 40 miles away.

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.

[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