"Freedom Trail; Maybe Not!"

I like to go out to eat. I enjoy good food and pleasant ambiance when dining. I sometimes get to go to fine dining restaurants where a dress code is enforced; there aren’t too many of those left around anymore. It is the owner’s option to install a dress code in his establishment. Some restaurants have signs that say “No Shoes; No Shirt; No Service”, I kind of like that sign.

I don’t really pay much attention to the political or religious beliefs of the owners of restaurants; I don’t believe it can change the quality of the food or service I will receive when I patronize the establishment. I believe the restaurant owner has a right to his beliefs just like anybody else does. If a company comes out and says it believes in Christian beliefs, I don’t see why that is a reason to castigate that company. I believe in Christian beliefs, and that doesn’t stop me from shopping in a store owned by Buddhists or Muslims; it is a question of “apples and oranges”; one has nothing to do with the other.

Last week, the restaurant chain know as “Chick-fil-A” was called on the carpet by the mayor of Boston because they said they are a Christian company and endorsed the beliefs expressed in the Christian Bible. Those beliefs include a belief that only men and women should be able to marry. The mayor, Thomas M. Menino, said “Chick-fil-A doesn’t belong in Boston. You can’t have a business in the city of Boston that discriminates against a population. We are an open city that’s at the forefront of inclusion.”

Now Chick-fil-A said it will serve anyone who comes into their establishments without prejudice and with respect and dignity, regardless of the beliefs of those customers. The insinuation of Chick-fil-A having problems with permits has already been cast by Boston government; there is that famous liberal tolerance we have all come to love and respect. The area that Chick-fil-A wants to open up in is called “Freedom Trail”; I find that quite interesting as the Boston mayor is trying to limit the free practice of doing business in his city.

Boston is famous in American history for being in the forefront of battling for individual freedom and our cherished “Bill of Rights”. That free speech seems to have hit quite a bump in the road on the “Freedom Trail” as Mayor Menino wants to exclude Christian speech in his city limits.

Doesn’t this sound a bit like government control of speech to you? Doesn’t this sound like government control of opinion to you? Does any government official have the right to say you can’t be verbal about your faith as long as you conduct yourself in a respectable way?

Mayor Menino said Boston is an “open city”, yet it certainly sounds quite closed to me. What will be the next order of business in Boston; no Christian owned businesses allowed, or maybe limiting what can be said from the pulpits of every church in Boston?

I wonder what Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, Washington or Paul Revere would say about Mayor Menino’s interpretation of the 1^st amendment? If you go to Boston on vacation, be careful of what you say; it could be FORBIDDEN SPEECH!