![\"Newspeak,](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2019\/03\/https-images.genius.com-b352aade9cc4cc93d18b463b688ab7a1.651x1000x1.jpg\")
<\/a>(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWith this decision, the City Council reaffirmed the work our city has done to become a champion of equality and inclusion. \u00a0San Antonio is a city full of compassion, and we do not have room in our public facilities for a business with a legacy of anti-LGBTQ behavior. . . . \u00a0Everyone has a place here, and everyone should feel welcome when they walk through our airport.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And, with that bit of Orwellian Newspeak,\u00a0Councilman Roberto Trevi\u00f1o declared that San Antonio is neither\u00a0a champion of equality and inclusion nor a city full of compassion, proclaiming that there is no room in the city\u2019s public facilities for businesses owned by people who publicly express their belief in traditional Christian morality. \u00a0Jews, Christians, Muslims, and others who hold to the strong millennia-old consensus of their faiths on sexual behavior have no place in San Antonio, said Mr.\u00a0Trevi\u00f1o, and they should feel unwelcome when walking through the San Antonio Airport.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cChick-fil-A banned from San Antonio airport over alleged \u2018legacy of anti-LGBTQ behavior'\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n What had Chick-fil-A done to call down upon its head the wrath of the bigots on the San Antonio city council<\/a>? \u00a0Has it done anything illegal? \u00a0No. \u00a0The company hires its employees without reference to their sexual orientation. \u00a0The company serves customers without inquiring into their sexual preferences.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Ah, but the owners of the company believe that marriage should be between individuals of opposite sexes. \u00a0The horror! \u00a0And, in 2017,\u00a0the Chick-fil-A Foundation<\/a>\u00a0and the related\u00a0WinShape Foundation<\/a>, although they had withdrawn from political and legal activism on the subject several years before, donated more than $1.8 million to organizations that have failed to bow with sufficient humility before currently fashionable dogma on homosexual behavior.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Somewhat more than $1.65 million of that $1.8M+ was given to a group called the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, whose online\u00a0\u201cStatement of Faith\u201d\u00a0notes their conviction that \u201cmarriage is exclusively the union of one man and one woman,\u201d and their belief that \u201csexual intimacy\u201d should only be expressed \u201cwithin [that] context.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n So the owners of Chick-fil-A are being punished by government officials for holding Incorrect Religious Beliefs and for exercising their legal rights as citizens.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Do you remember those quaint days when the battle for gay marriage was about tolerance?<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Do you remember the fierce intolerance<\/em> that was directed against many people \u2014 Latter-day Saints prominently represented among them \u2014 who, by supporting California\u2019s 2008 Proposition 8, had failed to demonstrate the required tolerance? \u00a0If you don\u2019t, you might want to skim through this:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cProtests against Proposition 8 supporters\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And now Chick-fil-A has become a popular target of the armies of tolerance. \u00a0Consider a few examples from the past few years:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSF Mayor Tells Chick-fil-A They\u2019re Not Welcome\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n San Francisco\u2019s Mayor Edwin Lee tweeted \u201cClosest #ChickFilA to San Francisco is 40 miles away & I strongly recommend that they\u00a0not try to come any closer.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cChick-fil-A Meets a First Amendment Buzzsaw in Chicago\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBoston Mayor Blocks Chick-fil-A Franchise from City over Homophobic Attitude\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMayor Bill de Blasio Hopes New Yorkers Avoid Chick-fil-A:\u00a0The mayor doesn\u2019t want New Yorkers to support the chain because of the COO\u2019s stance on LGBT rights\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cConservatives aren\u2019t welcome in New York, according to Governor Cuomo\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And consider this more recent news:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cRider University rejects Chick-fil-A as students\u2019 top pick for new eatery, citing \u2018corporate values'\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cRider University dean resigns position over school\u2019s Chick-fil-A controversy:\u00a0Business school dean Cynthia Newman said in letter she is \u2018not willing to compromise faith and Christian values'\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And, now, San Antonio has signalled its<\/em> deep commitment to inclusion by excluding Chick-fil-A for the opinions of its owners.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Imagine the indignation that would (justly) ensue were a government official in a conservative or strongly evangelical area to emit a comment along the lines of Mr. Trevi\u00f1o\u2019s:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWith this decision to bar supporters of gay rights, we have reaffirmed the work that we have done to become a champion of sound morality. \u00a0Ours is a city full of compassion, and we do not have room in our public facilities for immoral behavior or those who fail to condemn it. . . . \u00a0Everyone has a place here, and everyone should feel welcome when they walk through our airport.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States guarantees not merely the freedom to have private religious views that one keeps to oneself, but the \u201cfree exercise\u201d<\/em> of religion. \u00a0It seems, though, that the city council of San Antonio doesn\u2019t share that silly idea of the American Founders.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I can count on one hand the number of times that I\u2019ve eaten anything from a Chick-fil-A, with fingers left over. \u00a0But I\u2019m beginning to sense a craving for one of their products. \u00a0I think I\u2019ll go at least two or three times over the remainder of this academic term.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Oddly, though, I feel less and less desire to go to San Antonio. \u00a0Will the thought police there, I wonder, soon begin rounding people up for crimethink?<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n This action by the San Antonio city council is, to put it in terms that Councilman Roberto Trevi\u00f1o might understand, doubleplusungood.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n For a basic introduction to Newspeak, see<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n