Free speech or hate speech? Chick-fil-A, John Galliano and Westboro Baptists

About a week ago, Charles Colson urged Christians to "go out and buy a Chick-fil-A sandwich--or two or three!" in response to criticism of Chick-fil-A's connections with and donations to organizations like the National Organization for Marriage, Exodus International, and the Pennsylvania Family Institute.  Gay advocacy groups have urged members to sign a petition asking the fast-food chain to stop contributing to these organizations, and encouraged boycotts: "if you're eating Chick-fil-A," they've said, "you're eating anti-gay." Mr. Colson objected to the gay community's outcry, piously asserting that boycott is a "blunt instrument" and hinted that "slandering" Chick-fil-A cast some kind of a blow to our constitutional right to free speech, as if the Georgia Equality group posed a threat to this right. As if in this case, it is the Christian-owned Chick-fil-A that is marginalized, oppressed, and in need of our love, support, and hard-earned money.

Never mind that the privately held Chick-fil-A—which garnered $2.3 billion in sales last year—is hardly hurting for cash, while gay men and women remain in many respects an oppressed minority frequently targeted with hateful speech, much too much of it coming from groups claiming to follow Jesus.

Then John Galliano, head designer of Christian Dior, was fired in the wake of an incident in which he verbally abused Italian-Jewish women in a French cafe, drunkenly slurring "I love Hitler... People like you would be dead. Your mothers, your forefathers would all be f---ing gassed." Academy Award® winning actress Natalie Portman and others have been quick to denounce Galliano's vicious words as the poison that they are. Who would criticize Portman (who is herself of Jewish heritage—as am I, though Christian by faith) for her denunciation or Dior for its decision to terminate Galliano? Anti-Semitism may yet be present in America, yet hateful outbursts against Jews occur at a rate that is but an infinitesimal fraction of that expressed against homosexuals. Yet Colson wants Christians to rally to Chick-fil-A's defense, to regard the gay community as crushing free speech?

There's a tendency in certain evangelical factions to regard themselves as the oppressed, silenced minority, to regard laws concerning hate crimes and freedom of speech as fundamentally antagonistic to Christian faith and practice. Evangelicals have wielded that "blunt instrument" of boycott many times. For a time, lots of Christians refused to buy Disney products because the family entertainment giant gave health benefits to the same-sex partners of employees. Some Christians shunned Proctor & Gamble because supposedly their moon-and-stars logo secretly supported devil worship (it didn't). In free-speech cases, evangelicals argue that they're the ones whose speech is in constant danger of being limited, reporting on every case in which Christians are asked to leave off protesting or praying, whether at gay-pride parades, outside abortion clinics, or whatever.

Thus all such evangelicals should take note, please, of the March 2 Supreme Court decision that supports the right of members of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, to protest around military funerals with signs saying things like "Thank God for Dead Soldiers," "America is Doomed" and "God Hates Fags." The group believes that God is judging America because of its alleged tolerance of homosexuality, and that the death of U. S. soldiers is indication of God's judgment. Justice Samuel Alito, the sole dissenter, argued that "allow[ing] the brutalization of innocent victims" isn't necessary "to have a society in which public issues can be openly and vigorously debated." Here, the rights of a group of extremists to say things that would make John Galliano blush was defended by the highest court in our land.

Having the right to say this or that clearly isn'tthe problem. The problem, as I see it, is that those who claim to follow Jesus are more concerned with what theywant to say than with what Jesussaid, and with what He would have them say. Let's not forget that Jesus' harshest words are reserved not for the sinners, but for those who set themselves against sinners with harsh legalism.

Let's remember, too, that though the Constitution may protect our "right" to free speech, if we're following Jesus, we're called to give up our rights for the sake of love. LGBT communities have heard enough of what passes for "truth." It's time to echo the words spoken by our loving, risen Lord: "Peacebe with you."

I'll pass on the Chick-fil-A, Chuck.