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Let me talk about this business with Chick-Fil-A and Chicago and Boston. I personally am in stunned disbelief over the reaction to this on conservative blogs. What do we have? We have two mayors who are essentially Stalinist, who have had no problem whatsoever -- not one problem at all -- with going before the microphones and telling an American business, "You are not welcome here. And if you come here, you will be penalized or whatever the hell will happen."
All because the guy who owns the outfit happens to be a publicly professed Christian who believes that "marriage" has a specific definition. Now, this is a classic example of a government destroying an institution that has promoted the kind of society we have had in the past and the kind of society we've always wanted. This is a direct assault. That's a direct assault on Christianity. That is a direct assault on Christians. With economic punishment thrown in including threats from government officials that are in clear violation of the Constitution.
Listen to the full audio of his comments here:
Chick-fil-A’s president spoke out against gay marriage last week, sparking a huge uproar in the gay community, and now the issue is spilling over to a Colorado bakery.
The owner of Masterpiece Cake Shop in Lakewood refused to bake a wedding cake for a local gay couple and now people are pushing a boycott against the owner.
... It wasn’t the first time the shop turned down gay couples who wanted a cake. Phillips has received more than 1,000 angry messages about his stance.
“If gays come in and want to order birthday cakes or any cakes for any occasion, graduations, or whatever, I have no prejudice against that whatsoever,” Phillips said. “It’s just the wedding cake, not the people, not their lifestyle.”
... Some customers said they are now ordering cakes at the shop specifically because of the stance against gay marriage.
“We would close down that bakery before we closed our beliefs, so that may be what it comes to … we’ll see,” Phillips said.
“I want to thank someone who put so much work into this event, Terry Bean," President Obama said as the crowd began to cheer. "Give Terry a big round of applause.”
Terry Bean is, according to the New York Post, a "gay-porn kingpin."
"ONE of the 'bundlers' who has raised $50,000 to $100,000 for the Barack Obama presidential campaign is Terrence Bean, who once controlled the biggest producer of gay porn in America," thePost reported in 2008, during the president's first run the office. "Bean, the first gay on Sen. Obama's National Finance Committee, is the sole trustee of the Charles M. Holmes Foundation, which owned Falcon Studios, Jock Studios and Mustang Studios, the producers of about $10 million worth of all-male pornography a year."
Calls for the boycott of Chick-fil-A following its CEO’s comments in support of traditional marriage is little more than a witch hunt, former presidential hopeful Rick Santorum told CNBC on Thursday.
“You just keep seeing this more and more, which is the absolute intolerance of the left in America. There can be no dissent from what their position is,” he said on “The Kudlow Report.”
The idea that the company would face pressure for its leader’s beliefs was antithetical to the idea of the United States.
“This is why the Hugenots came to America,” Santorum said, adding the Dutch Reform Church and Catholics to that list.
“They didn’t want the government telling them what to believe and that they couldn’t say things in public, that they had to keep it to themselves,” he said, or be “barred from doing business.”
Watch the discussion unfold [via CNBC]:
Shortly after his appointment to lead the Archdiocese of San Francisco was announced, Archbishop-designate Salvatore J. Cordileone committed to defend marriage and serve the needy, particularly immigrants, in his new position.
... While he said that he will need time to get to know the area, the archbishop-elect anticipates that many of the challenges he faces will deal with “issues of family life,” which are ultimately rooted in “foundational philosophical issues” about the nature of the human person and the purpose of sexuality.
“Marriage is a foundational good,” he emphasized, explaining that the Church’s stance against “gay marriage” is not discriminatory but is simply rooted in the nature and definition of marriage as an institution.
Children “can only come about through the embrace of a man and a woman coming together,” he said, adding that this necessarily limits marriage to the type of union that can bring new life into the world.
“Children deserve to have a mother and a father,” the archbishop-elect said, and so “we need to do everything we can to strengthen marriage.”
In addressing “moral challenges” involving the weakening of family life, it is important to realize that strong marriages benefit all of society, he said.
He added that there is a need to lovingly welcome those who “feel alienated from the Church” due to their sexual orientation, showing them that “our stand for marriage is not against anyone, but it’s because we believe this is foundational for the good of our society.”
One step further -- New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (who is in a same-sex marriage) calls on New York University to shut down their existing Chick-fil-A location:
(Alex Wong/Getty Images)
This morning, however, Ms. Quinn’s office sent out a press release announcing a petition calling on the president of Chick-fil-A, Dan Cathy, to apologize for his “repugnant and un-American” comments and discriminatory views.
But what’s more, Ms. Quinn is requesting the removal of the one Chick-fil-A restaurant in all of New York City.
“I urge you to sever your relationship with the Chick‐fil‐A establishment that exists on your campus,” she wrote in a letter to the president of New York University. “This establishment should be replaced with an establishment where the ownership does not denigrate a portion of our population.”
View the letter [here]. -- PolitickerNY
At first he asked for more time to examine the issue and here's the conclusion he came to:
D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray said Friday he would not support an expansion of Chick-fil-A in the District, referring to it as “hate chicken.”Gray issued his statement on Twitter after mayors in Boston, Chicago and San Francisco also stated that the company was not welcome due to president Dan Cathy’s outspoken opposition to same-sex marriage.
“Given my long standing strong support for LGBT rights and marriage equality, I would not support #hatechicken,” Gray wrote. -- Washington Post's D.C. Wire blog
Welcome to the DumpStarbucks.com News!
Last week One News Now picked up on our stories of Starbuck’s faltering stock price and the growing divide in how liberals and conservatives view the coffee chain. This past week, Starbucks faltered again as they released disappointing financial results. What is bad enough to drop their stock by nearly 10% in a single day?
Lower than expected profits forecast for the fourth quarter of 2012; lower than expected net income; lower than expected sales growth across the globe...
Is this all the result of our efforts at DumpStarbucks.com? Hardly. Has Starbucks damaged their brand by playing politics, and does that damage play a role in the company failing to meet their financial goals? Yes. Should a publically owned company be playing politics with marriage while in the midst of an economic slowdown, failing to meet analyst estimates, and trying to expand in global markets where people feel very strongly about marriage? No.
A few weeks ago on the Dump Starbucks Facebook page, we asked people to share how much they used to spend at Starbucks. Seven individuals shared estimates of how much they had spent. Those seven people reported spending over $8,200 a year at Starbucks – and that is a conservative estimate. Why is Starbucks throwing this revenue away? Because same-sex marriage is core to who they are as a coffee company?
Here is something fun and tasty for you to do this week!
Dan Cathy, CEO of Chick-fil-A, recently set off a firestorm when he spoke of his support for traditional marriage. Show your support of Dan Cathy and his family by going to your local Chick-fil-A on Wednesday, August 1, 2012 for Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day and sharing a chicken sandwich with your friends and neighbors.
If there is no Chick-fil-A near you where you can grab some hot waffle fries and let the Cathy family know you support them, do not worry. Simply go to www.thankchickfila.com and send them a message thanking them for showing courage, standing by their religious convictions, inspiring others, and doing so with love and grace. Not as tasty, but still a concrete way to support marriage and a brave family.
Have a great week!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 30, 2012
Contact: Elizabeth Ray or Jen Campbell (703-683-5004)
"We will rally supporters of traditional marriage to make sure they realize that the outcome of the presidential election may determine the future of marriage in our country"—Brian Brown, NOM president—
Washington, D.C.—Today, the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) stated that the reported decision of the Democratic National Committee platform committee to include a redefinition of marriage in their national platform will make marriage a defining issue in the 2012 elections, especially in the presidential election. NOM pledged to rally supporters of marriage to make sure they know that reelecting President Obama could result in the end of marriage in America.
"The Democratic party has been captured by extremists from both coasts like Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi who are determined to redefine marriage in our nation," said Brian Brown, NOM's president. "It's ironic that they hope to kill off the institution of marriage at their convention in Charlotte, because North Carolina like 31 other states, just voted overwhelmingly in favor of preserving marriage as the union of one man and one woman. The marriage amendment passed with 61% of the vote in North Carolina and enjoyed a plurality of support among Democrats and an overwhelming support of African Americans. We will rally supporters of traditional marriage to make sure they realize that the outcome of the presidential election may determine the future of marriage in our country."
The definition of marriage has been on the ballot in 32 states and every state has voted to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman. This includes deep blue states like California, Maine, Oregon and Wisconsin. A survey last year by the Alliance Defending Freedom found that 61% of Americans believe that marriage should be only the union of one man and one woman.
"The DNC is leading Democrats off the cliff. Voters in virtually every one of the presidential swing states have voted for marriage as the union of one man and one woman," said Brown. "If the DNC gets its way the marriage amendments adopted in Ohio, Virginia, Florida, Colorado, Nevada and elsewhere will be overturned. That makes the definition of marriage a key issue in these swing states, and we fully intend to make sure that people realize that the outcome of the election is a proxy for the survival of traditional marriage in our nation."
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To schedule an interview with Brian Brown, President of the National Organization for Marriage, please contact Elizabeth Ray (x130), [email protected], or Jen Campbell (x145), [email protected], at 703-683-5004.
Paid for by The National Organization for Marriage, Brian Brown, president. 2029 K Street NW, Suite 300 Washington, DC 20006, not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. New § 68A.405(1)(f) & (h).
The Human Rights Campaign's new president, Chad Griffin, started [the American Foundation for Equal Rights]. In a statement about today's announcement, he said the appointment sends "a chilling message" to the country.
"Bishop Cordileone has proven himself to be an anti-gay activist who encourages and promotes discrimination against LGBT people," he said.
"Catholic teaching calls on us to love our neighbors and to treat others with the same respect we wish for ourselves. Unfortunately, Bishop Cordileone’s crusade against LGBT people indicates he doesn’t take these particular teachings to heart," Griffin said. "While LGBT Catholics and their allies have worked relentlessly to create welcoming environments, the appointment of Bishop Cordileone sends a chilling message that, in the eyes of the hierarchy, same-sex relationships are not worthy of equal dignity and respect."
"The American Civil Liberties Union, which stressed it disagreed with Mr. Cathy's views, said it supports his right to say them: 'If a government can silence an anti-gay business, the government can silence a pro-gay business,' said Adam Schwartz, a lawyer with the ACLU's Illinois chapter."
Mark Steyn comments on the incongruities of the mayors of Boston and Chicago attacking Chick-fil-A but also being cozy with other groups that have said they want to put gay and lesbian people to death:
"...if you’re a feminist or a gay or any of the other house pets in the Democrat menagerie, you might want to look at Rahm Emanuel’s pirouette, and Menino’s coziness with Islamic homophobia. These guys are about power, and right now your cause happens to coincide with their political advantage. But political winds shift. Once upon a time, Massachusetts burned witches. Now it grills chicken-sandwich homophobes. One day it’ll be something else. Already in Europe, in previously gay-friendly cities like Amsterdam, demographically surging Muslim populations have muted leftie politicians’ commitment to gay rights, feminism, and much else. It’s easy to cheer on the thugs when they’re thuggish in your name. What happens when Emanuel’s political needs change?
Americans talk more about liberty than citizens of other Western nations, but, underneath the rhetorical swagger, liberty bleeds. When Mayor Menino and Alderman Moreno openly threaten to deny business licenses because of ideological apostasy, they’re declaring their unfitness for public office. It’s not about marriage, it’s not about gays, it’s about a basic understanding that a free society requires a decent respect for a wide range of opinion without penalty by the state. In Menino’s Boston, the Freedom Trail is heavy on the Trail, way too light on the Freedom."
Former Arkansas governor and 2008 presidential candidate turned talk show host Mike Huckabee appealed to Americans who favor traditional marriage to dine en masse at their local Chick-fil-A on August 1.
Billy Graham, the 93-year-old dean of Evangelist preachers, meanwhile praised the Cathy family's "public support for God's definition of marriage."
"As the son of a dairy farmer who milked many a cow, I plan to 'Eat Mor Chikin' and show my support by visiting Chick-fil-A next Wednesday," he said in a statement Thursday.
The National Organization for Marriage also endorsed August 1 as a chance to rally support for retaining the Defense of Marriage Act, which blocks the recognition of same-sex marriages at the federal level.
She writes for the Chicago Sun-Times:
"...Ald. Proco “Joe” Moreno’s threat to stop Chick-fil-A from opening a fast-food restaurant in his ward is not only ridiculous; it’s dangerous.
In a body as corrupt as the Chicago City Council has proven to be, we don’t need to give aldermen another excuse to open a bag of tricks.
Moreno is vowing to use his aldermanic prerogative to stop Chick-fil-A from getting a zoning permit it needs to build in the Logan Square neighborhood. He made the threat because the restaurant’s president, Dan Cathy, supports the biblical definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman.
...
The problem with this sanctimonious dissing of Chick-fil-A is that there is no proof the business has discriminated against gay couples, let alone any of its customers or employees.
In fact, company executives assured Moreno they would leave the debate about gay rights to the politicians and government.
But those assurances apparently aren’t good enough.
Moreno is attempting to deny Chick-fil-A the right to do business in the 1st Ward because he doesn’t like Cathy’s religious beliefs, and that’s just wrong.
