Strength in Numbers

            The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday concerns the need for religious people and groups to stick together because there is strength in numbers. I wrote last week about airports denying contracts to Chick-fil-A because of some perceived prejudice or bias. The Blaze reports that a “surprising ally” is standing by Chick-fil-A in this battle. 

The New York affiliate of the ACLU, the American Civil Liberties Union, is supporting Chick-fil-A against religious discrimination by the city of Buffalo.

NYCLU Assistant Director for Legislative Affairs Erika Lorshbough said the city was acting inappropriately in a statement to The Hill.

“Government actors cannot officially silence speech or take punitive actions based on a person’s or private entity’s political viewpoints,” Lorschbough said.

“The First Amendment does not permit the NFTA to base its contracting decisions on the political views of a vendor,” she added.

            The ACLU never ceases to surprise me! I am shocked to hear of the organization supporting Chick-fil-A, but I am happy to have them supporting a company that just wants to sell food. The company spokesperson recently made the following statement.

Recent coverage about Chick-fil-A continues to drive an inaccurate narrative about our brand. We want to make it clear that our sole focus is on providing delicious food and welcoming everyone – not being a part of a national political conversation. We do not have a political or social agenda.

            It must be quite a shock to many people to learn that there are people and companies without agendas other than to sell their product and to serve people. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has long called for religious freedom for all people and all religions. This has been true from the earliest days of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Early Latter-day Saints codified this sentiment in a Nauvoo City ordinance guaranteeing tolerance for all faiths: “Be it ordained by the City Council of the City of Nauvoo, that the Catholics, Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, Latter-day Saints, Quakers, Episcopals, Universalists, Unitarians, Mohammedans [Muslims], and all other religious sects and denominations whatever, shall have free toleration, and equal privileges in this city” (Ordinance in Relation to Religious Societies, City of Nauvoo, Illinois, headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, March 1, 1841).

            The Latter-day Saints were willing to allow all people the same religious freedom that they claimed for themselves. Yet, they were driven from Nauvoo by people who were not tolerant of them. There are people and organizations in the United States today that are not tolerant of people with religious persuasions. The situation with Chick-fil-A is just the latest example of this terrible intolerance.