Emanuel’s ‘Chicago Values’ Includes Supporting Gay-Hating, Jew-Hating Louis Farrakhan

-By Warner Todd Huston

Yesterday we reported that Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said that the Christian values of Chick-Fil-A are not “Chicago values.” So, who does embody those “Chicago values” as far as Rahm is concerned? Why, extremist Louis Farrakhan, who else?

On July 25, Mayor Emanuel welcomed the “help” of hatemonger Louis Farrakhan, leader of the cult the “Nation of Islam,” in a non-violence crusade in a city awash with violence, murder, and gang crime. The Nation of Islam is a pseudo Islamic cult based in Chicago.

Emanuel has happily accepted Farrakhan’s “help” despite the fact that Farrakhan has a long, long history of anti-Semitism and violent rhetoric.

All of this is in contrast to Emanuel’s treatment of a legal, non-violent business leader in Chick-Fil-A. The leadership of the popular fast food chain are well-known as committed Christians. They’ve been involved in numerous Christian charities and they even close their restaurants on Sundays despite the millions in lost sales they incur.

Emanuel was upset that Chick-Fil-A’s leadership are firmly anti-gay marriage. This, Emanuel said, means that the company doesn’t have those “Chicago values.”

Yet, Emanuel worked for a president that was also against gay marriage for the entire time he worked for him.

As John Ruberry points out, Chicago has worse unemployment than even the rest of the state of Illinois and here is Emanuel chasing out a business that will bring jobs to the city.

Amusingly, nearby Lombard is hoping to steal away Chicago’s business. Lombard Trustee Peter Breen sponsored a “Chick-Fil-A appreciation day” resolution hoping to get the company’s attention.

“Opposite the intolerant ‘values’ espoused by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, our values in Lombard are pro-business, pro-jobs, and pro-freedom,” said Breen.

“We uphold the constitutional rights of free speech and freedom of religion of our residents and business people alike.

“Lombard is open for business.”

I love that.

Now, you may not appreciate the owner of Chick-Fil-A being against gay marriage. As an individual you may want to avoid patronizing one of his fast food restaurants. And as an individual you have every right to do that. You also have every right to go out and try to organize your friends to follow your lead.

But government has no right to discriminate against a business because it’s owners are religious. In fact, when government does it, like Mayor Emanuel and his lapdog alderman are, it is an actual violation of the U.S. Constitution.

As long as the company does not itself violate the law by trying to discriminate against customers or employees then what charities it supports or what ideas its owners advocate are immaterial to government. And there is no evidence that Chick-Fil-A has violated the law.

Oh, and that so-called religious leader Emanuel loves so much, Louis Farrakhan? Yeah, he’s against gay marriage, too.

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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson

Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.

For a full bio, please CLICK HERE.


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