Mike Huckabee claims to be “incensed at the vitriolic assaults on the Chik Fil-A company because the CEO, Dan Cathy, made comments recently in which he affirmed his views that the Biblical view of marriage should be upheld.” One would think the former Republican Governor of Arkansas and Fox News host would relish the fact that American citizens are participating in capitalism by deciding not to eat at Chik Fil-A. Capitalism, in the form of a Chik Fil-A boycott makes sense. I would not bet my salt on seeing Mike Huckabee at a gay club. Because he does not agree with the owners and patrons of gay clubs, it is unlikely he will ever frequent an establishment like Numbers, Rich’s or the Brass Rail. Perhaps Mike Huckabee feels capitalism should not have a negative effect on a business which operates on “Biblical values.”
What would we say of an organization that supports a biblical definition of a biblical “value” like slavery? The Bible does not condemn slavery, but in fact talks about how to treat slaves and how slaves should act towards their masters. Let’s say an organization decides to purely operate under the Biblical parameters of slavery, would it be ok to have a day dedicated to supporting an organization such as this?
If that example reads like hyperbole, let’s take another example. Let’s say there is a restaurant called the “Prickrick” that operates in your neighborhood. The restaurant is famous for it’s fried chicken and Deep South cuisine and is owned by a man named Leon Bazile. It just so happens that Bazile is a supporter of anti-miscegenation laws, which are laws that make it illegal for interracial couples to marry. In this hypothetical situation, Bazile treats all people with respect that come to the Prickrick, but he simply does not agree that black people and white people should marry. He would even go as far to say, “God created the races white, black, yellow, Malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.”
Think about how appalling this view is, and ask yourself, “Is this a place I would like to give my business to?” Would it be such a bad thing to decide not to give the Prickrick your hard earned money because you believe in the equality of marriage? Would you be bullying Leon Bazile because you disagree with him? Mike Huckabee seems to think so.
In an interview on Washington’s Watch Weekly with Tony Perkins, Mike Huckabee said:
“The activist, militant homosexual community just went berserk and they then started lining up a national boycott of Chik Fil-A restaurants and engaging in the most vile hate speech Iíve heard toward a company because one of itís executives had a point of view, which last time I checked was still possible in the United States under the First Amendment.”
Mike Huckabee should also remember that organizing and participating in a boycott is also a protected right in the United States. Later in the interview, Huckabee likens the boycott against Chik-Fil-A to bullying, and the interviewer would liken the boycott to discrimination.
I am curious to see what Huckabee would have thought of boycotting the restaurants which agreed that blacks should ride in the back of buses or should drink from separate water fountains. Even if a business does not actively practice segregation, is it ok to support a business that agrees with it? In the same interview, Huckabee stated:
“If people don’t like Chik Fil-A sandwiches they certainly can decide to eat somewhere else and if they really don’t like the positions that some of the company founders take they can eat somewhere else but to try to put them out of business because they have a point of view that’s different and to ban them from engaging in lawful commerce is absurd and if Chik Fil-A discriminated against customers and put up a sign that said ‘gay people not welcomed’ ok, I’d be on the side of gay people because you canít have a public business and exclude people on that basis.”
Mike Huckabee is right. Chik Fil-A is not practicing discrimination or segregation, they simply believe in it, which is enough to make me not want to eat there.
Black and Wordy 