Ben Howe - The Immoral Majority: Why Evangelicals Chose Political Power over Christian Values

For Mia, Abby, Colin, and Chloe. Everything is for you.

For Mom and Dad. Everything is from you.

On August 1, 2012, my friend Bruce picked me up and we headed to Chick-fil-A for lunch. We were in Fort Mill, South Carolina, and I had my camera in hand to ask Bruce about why this was important to him.

At the time Chick-fil-A was in the news everywhere after well over a year of a growing controversy regarding millions of dollars in donations the fast-food company had made via its charitable foundation to what the Huffington Post described as groups that have anti-gay agendas, such as the Marriage & Family Legacy Fund, Focus on the Family, and the Family Research Council.

While CEO Dan Cathy had spent about nineteen months pushing back on the implication that his company favored discrimination or was homophobic, the inquisition into the companys ideology as well as the calls by the LGBTQ community to boycott their restaurants was injected with newfound outrage following comments Cathy made in an interview with the Baptist Press on July 16, 2012.

We are very much supportive of the family, the biblical definition of the family unit, Cathy said. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that.

In the supercharged summer of a presidential election year, its easy to see how a story like this exploded beyond anyones genuine feelings on the matter, but I and my friend Bruce, himself a conservative blogger under the name Gay Patriot, had found the attacks on the company dishonest.

While there could be reasonable debates over the organizations that had received donations, or even just basic disagreement with the perspective Cathy offered on marriage, we felt Chick-fil-A was well known for being a welcoming restaurant with great food and excellent service.

It seemed to us that while the companys owners may hold positions that reflected their religious values, there was no evidence that those positions would trickle down in a negative way toward gay customers and, given that Bruce himself is gay, we sought to prove that point on video.

So, as I said, we traveled to the Chick-fil-A.

Im gonna prove a point that Chick-fil-A is open, and their food is good, and they accept all Americans, he said.

And you yourself are a gay American? I asked.

I am a gay American... that eats Chick-fil-A, he replied.

When we arrived, the restaurant was overwhelmed with cars in the drive-through. Vehicles had circled the building twice over in apparent support of what had been dubbed Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day, a buycott that seemed to start with a Facebook post by evangelical and former presidential candidate Governor Mike Huckabee.

We parked and walked toward the doors after marveling at the crowd size. Bruce was walking just a bit ahead of me, and I was still filming.

Thats when the unthinkable happened.

In the video we put up on YouTube, Bruce could not get near the doors as the result of what appeared to be an invisible barrier of some sort.

We were both very confused, especially after I walked right past where the apparent force field was and found nothing obstructing my entrance.

Before we could alert management or try to determine why this was happening, we heard several loud rumbling sounds, followed by the emergence of something from above the restaurant roof that neither of us could put into words. All we could offer was fear and confusion as I finally yelled to Bruce, Dude, get out of here!

Before we knew it, we were bombarded from above with machine-gun fire as well as full-fledged laser beams. I continued to film as we ran for our lives with plasma and bullets flying all around us.

Titled Not Without My Chicken, the video of our adventure showcased Bruces and my Oscar-worthy performances, with the help of some special effects at the direction of my friend Chris Loesch.

Through this video, we wanted to highlight the absurdity of the notion that Chick-fil-A discriminated against gay people like Bruce. It was lighthearted and good-natured, and in the years since its minor viral fame, the video has been praised even by those who wont step foot in the stores.

But despite this bit of fun, there were many moving pieces that week related to the story of Chick-fil-A. The same day we filmed our adventure, I found myself in another one of those stories, a darker one.

It seems that another politically minded individual had decided to go to a Chick-fil-A on the same day with his camera in hand to make the opposite point from the one Bruce and I were trying to make.

Thirty-seven-year-old Arizona resident Adam Smith waited patiently in the drive-through line for a free water so he could film his planned interaction with whoever was working the window at that time.

The target of the video ended up being employee Rachel Elizabeth, who quickly found herself being filmed and having her character questioned for choosing to work at Chick-fil-A.

You know why Im getting the free water, right? Smith asked her.

I do not, she replied with a smile.

Because Chick-fil-A is a hateful corporation, he declared, which quickly caused Elizabeth, who could see she was being filmed, to lose her smile.

I disagree, she said, adding, we dont treat any of our customers differently; we dont discriminate in hiring practices.

Smith interrupted her and cited the companys donations as hateful, prompting Elizabeth, whose polite smile had returned, to attempt to defuse the disagreement by telling Smith that she was staying neutral on the subject and that she didnt think her personal beliefs belonged in the workplace.

After some more politeness between the two of them, despite the volatile subject, Elizabeth said she was uncomfortable with the fact that he was filming her. I totally understand, Smith replied.

Altogether it wasnt shaping up to be a very interesting interactionSmith had said what he thought, and Elizabeth had politely disagreed. That could have been the whole story, and one that probably didnt have much viral potential.

Then things got uncomfortably and inappropriately personal.

After at last handing Smith the water, Elizabeth said, Its my pleasure to serve you, always, speaking over him as he calmly relished in the fact that he had taken some money from Chick-fil-A so that less could be given to hate groups.

Elizabeth maintained her customer service temperament, voicing additional assurances that she was happy to serve him, but she was interrupted again by Smith, who said, I dont know how you live with yourself and work here. I dont understand it. This is a horrible corporation with horrible values.

Despite this, she continued to thank him, smile, and tell him it was a pleasure, prompting Smith to add, as he was pulling away, Im a nice guy, by the way, and Im totally heterosexual. Just cant stand the hate. Its gotta stop, you guys, stand up.

Evidently believing that he had done a good deed, Smith uploaded the video upon returning home, seemingly unaware of how bad he looked in it and how undeserving of his treatment Elizabeth appeared to be.

The response would be eye-opening for him.

Given that this was several years ago, I cant recall exactly the moment I saw the video, which didnt stay online long, but I was already pretty active on the social media site Twitter, which at least tells some of the story.

My earliest tweet on the matter was a link to his YouTube video, where I artfully said, Douchebaggery, thy name is this guy.

That makes me shake with anger, we need to find out who she is and help her out, one tweeter replied.

Yep, said another. Seems like a real tolerant kind of guy. He has free speech and if someone disagrees they are hate groups.