by Paul Rondeau
The mayors of Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. are publically threatening Chick-fil-A, telling them they are not welcome to expand in “their” cities because CEO Dan Cathy does not support same-sex marriage. Edwin Lee, mayor of San Francisco, even tweeted a threat: “Closest #ChickFilA to San Francisco is 40 miles away & I strongly recommend that they not try to come any closer.”
It does not seem to matter that the First Amendment is crystal clear: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech.”
Unfortunately, these political thugs are only echoing the same tactics our own President is using to impose the funding of abortion on all Americans in his HHS Mandate. Obama’s Department of Justice is arguing in the courts that private owners of a family business must not be allowed “to impose” their personal religious beliefs on their own company.
Obama’s DOJ lawyers further assert that all businesses are inherently secular so neither the business nor the owners have religious freedom in operating their businesses. Tax penalties for failing to comply with Obamacare run as high as $100 per day per employee, crippling or even destroying any business that resists.
Keep in mind that the HHS mandate does not just require that virtually everyone help pay for free contraception, sterilization, and morning after pills. Hidden in Sec 1303 of Obamacare is also the requirement that millions of policies must take at least $1 per month directly out of employee paychecks to pay into a free elective abortions fund.
Alliance Defending Freedom estimates this will total nearly $1 billion per year—maybe a lot more. At an average cost of $450 for a surgical abortion, that is enough to add another two million pre-born child deaths to the national toll.
CEO Dan Cathy wholly and unapologetically built Chick-fil-A on Christian principals. Even the mission statement plainly says that the company is to “glorify God.” This is not just jingoism. Unlike any other national chain, Chick-fil-A forgoes millions in profits by refusing to open its doors on Sundays so that employees may take advantage of the Christian ‘day of rest’ for family and hopefully attend Church.
Both same-sex marriage and abortion are irrefutably matters of conscious and religion. So what is the difference between economic intimidation by Obamacare and economic threats by these mayors’ against Chick-fil-A? None—both put political power above constitutional rights.
So, the critical question is this: When elected officials start to believe they are justified in forcing their ideology upon the rest of us—Constitution be damned—what are we going to do about it?
Paul’s commentary was originally published on August 7, 2012 at Townhall.com
http://townhall.com/columnists/paulrondeau/2012/08/07/chickfila_firestorm_a_preview_of_hhs_mandate_dangers