An evangelical former GOP governor just had a televised meltdown over his past support for a religious fried chicken chain that finally saw the light on equal employment. (video embedded below)
Chick-fil-A hired a vice president for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and, in so doing, destroyed Christianity.
Or, at least, that is Mike Huckabee’s interpretation.
In 2012 Huckabee backed the “wildly successful” (Mike’s words) Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day to thank the Chick-fil-A Cathy family for saving Christianity by… opposing gay marriage.
Do not take a drink of something you’re unwilling to snort out. Mike calls his support of Chick-fil-A one of the “greatest regrets of his life.”
Understandable.
Look at them! This is the thanks Mike gets? An ffffing “VP for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion”? Meaning making everyone feel “included” or welcome? Satanic!
Jesus said one should hate and exclude MOST people! Or something.
Huckabee made his raging rant while speaking to Tony Perkins during Perkins’s “Washington Hour,” and it was a rant. Thanks to the Washington Stand for the transcript:
“I don’t know any other way to say it. I can’t be polite about it, because there’s no way to say, ‘Oh, they’re just trying to stay out of harm’s way.’ No, they have injected themselves into the diversity, equity, and inclusion model.”
Huck took a moment mid-meltdown to shake his head, quite possibly trembling.
Did he just hear four horses and their pounding hoofs coming over the horizon?
“They’ve hired someone to be their vice president of DEI. And when a company does that, what they basically are saying is — ‘We want to be able to sit at the cool kids’ table. … We don’t want to be over there by ourselves anymore. We don’t want people to make fun of us or point their fingers at us.’”
Or that owners may have been quietly reading the Bible and stumbled on a verse:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
Mathew: 5:43-44
Behold!
It is possible that this company didn’t want a place at the cool kids’ table. It wanted to do exactly as Jesus instructed and may be reaching out to people who hated them.
Or Mike might be right.
Maybe they did just want a place at the cool kids’ table.
As we reported when Chick-fil-A announced it would hire a Vice President for DEI, faith without deeds is dead. We wanted to see changes, not just hear pronouncements.
As laughable as this can most certainly be, take a moment and consider the utter hatred occupying Huckabee and Perkins’s souls. If supporting Chick-fil-A is one of Mike Huckabee’s “biggest regrets” (And he’s too Christian to lie, so….) try to imagine how much he must hate people who just won’t conform to him.
That kind of hatred is both visceral and poisonous.
As a Christian, I also feel compelled to point out that even someone who doesn’t believe in God could consider Jesus one of history’s most radical progressives. (In the context of the times).
He spent most of his time with the poor.
Blessed the peacemakers.
He protected a woman about to be stoned.
Hung out with the outcasts and children.
Touched lepers.
The only time Jesus went shit-storm insane was when he literally wrecked the tables of the money-lenders at the temple. Eat the rich.
When asked which was the greatest commandment, he didn’t list a “Commandment.” He said, “Above all else, love one another.”
Set all religion aside, does it sound like Jesus would protest the hiring of a VP for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Chick-fil-A?
Mike will never get it. A lost cause.
But in hiring a VP for DEI, Chick-fil-A may have just performed its most, perhaps even its first Christian act, with much much more to do.
And you don’t even need to believe in God to see it.
Or, Chick-fil-A does just want a seat at the cool kids’ table, and it’s about money. If that’s the case, it’s too bad that the seat is taken.
Jesus is sitting with his friends, the cool kids with rainbows, pink and baby blue ribbons, brown skin, and foreign accents – the ones that “above all else, love one another.”
Behold the meltdown:
I can be reached at jasonmiciak@gmail.com, and @JasonMiciak
Editor’s note: This is an opinion column that solely reflects the opinions of the author
