Texas Governor Signs “Save Chick-fil-A” Bill into Law

Ever since the San Antonio City Council declared war on Christianity by voting to ban Chick-fil-A (CFA) from the city’s airport due to its owner’s beliefs about marriage, a Texas-style showdown has been looming. The state’s attorney general launched an investigation, the Federal Aviation Authority declared it was looking into the matter, and Texas state legislators introduced bills to make such government-sponsored anti-religious hostility illegal.

The legislative response culminated this week with Texas Governor Greg Abbott signing S.B. 1978 into law as the official state response to San Antonio’s blatant attempt to impose its left-leaning agenda on the nation’s favorite fast food restaurant. The legislation, dubbed the “Save Chick-fil-A” bill, will protect more than just the famous chicken sandwich chain.

At the heart of the new law is this: “[A] governmental entity may not take any adverse action against any person based wholly or partly on the person’s membership in, affiliation with, or contribution, donation, or other support provided to a religious organization.”

At one time, the need for such a law would have been laughable. But times have changed, and the laughable has become the norm.

As you may recall, the San Antonio City Council’s histrionics resulted from a George Soros-funded left-wing “news report” that CFA’s Winshape Foundation (itself a charity established by CFA founder Truett Cathy) had donated money to several charities. Those included: The Salvation Army, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and a Georgia home for boys, all groups whose employees agree to live by a Christian standard of conduct when it comes to marriage and sexuality. In this day and age, that is enough to enrage the San Antonio governing elites.

Of course, San Antonio is just one of the most recent eruptions of the Left’s insanity over CFA. This story began back to 2011, initially having to do with a donation of food from CFA for a marriage conference put on by a conservative organization whose definition of marriage is the union of one man and one woman. In an interview given by CFA’s President Dan Cathy the following year, his objection to the redefinition of marriage only added fuel to the fire, and CFA has carried a target on its back ever since.

Of course, there are thousands of organizations and millions of people who have done and said similar things. So why is CFA a continuing target of attempts by left-leaning government entities to deny them a place to put their stores?

That’s not hard to figure out. CFA is successful, it’s popular, and it’s a high-profile, Christian-owned enterprise. Its very success irks those who think that Christians should be punished, not rewarded, for living out their faith—including talking about important subjects such as marriage—in the public square.

Like Jack Phillips and his bakery, Masterpiece Cakeshop, CFA has become, to the Left, the face of biblical morality. And they don’t like it. The offspring of the sexual revolution and the governments they now control wield immense power to increasingly—and arrogantly—force Christianity, and its offensive moral views, out of sight. And the louder such governments can advertise their hostility, the strategy goes, the more effective they believe their message will be in attempting to cow Christians into silence.

So far it hasn’t worked, but that won’t stop the Left from trying. The aroma of Christ (2 Corinthians 2:15) has been causing the same reaction for over 2000 years.