As the mouthpiece for the religious right, it's no surprise that Fox News has weighed in over the Chick-fil-A controversy. Right wing Christians, in protesting evil secularists who aren't happy about this "family values" chain setting up shop in their neighborhoods, are taking up the cross of Jesus along with buckets of Chic-fil-A chicken in support of a company that has associations with radical homophobic hate groups. In support of their holy chicken loving fan base, Fox has featured several discussions which, while reasonably fair & balanced, don't feature the connection of Chick-fil-A's owner, Dan Cathy, to radical homophobic causes. Rather, the Fox talkers defend the restaurant's owner's homophobic comments as just his opinion, so no big deal. (Course when atheists say something that Fox talkers don't like, it's a different story!) So in keeping with the Christian connection to the controversy and the patented Fox persecuted Christian meme, this morning's Fox & Friends asked if anti-Chick-fil-A comments are "a threat to Christianity." Really?

The question about this, yet another example of Fox's mythical "war on Christians," was dealt with during the weekly sermonette of Fox's Father Jonathan Morris - a Fox News religious contributor who is Fox's main religious man - apart from Jesus and Roger Ailes who, at Fox, has godlike status.  The starting point for the discussion was based on comments by two Democratic mayors who have said that the values of Chick-fil-A don't comport with the values of Chicago and Boston. Dan Cathy's quote, about how same sex marriage will bring down the wrath of God, was not cited. To his credit, Morris said that this isn't an assault on Christianity. He defended the right of the president of Chick-fil-A, Dan Cathy, to express his opinion and the right of businesses to be able to set up wherever they choose regardless of the sentiments of the local politicians.

As the chyron framed the real message, "Game of 'Chicken,' Are Mayor's Stances a Threat To Christianity," Clayton Morris referenced how the president of the company "made these remarks." He didn't, however, provide the remarks. But rather, he defended the company by saying that it has hired gays and doesn't discriminate based on that. He didn't mention the "0" rating, that it received from the Human Rights Campaign. After noting that "the other side" claims that the company is bigoted, he brought out the great big bucket of whitewash: "But this is the representation of one individual." Yeah, one individual whose company has donated millions to homophobic hate groups who lobby against gay rights and who promote the pray away the gay "therapy."

Fr. Morris agreed and took the same line of thought as did Bill O'Reilly and Laura Ingraham in saying that if they discriminated in hiring that would be "absolutely wrong" but that's not what Cathy is saying which is, according to Morris, that he "believes in the biblical tradition." (He said*lots more than that!) Dave Briggs commended the political figures, including Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin, who are standing up for Chick-fil-A. Fr. Morris said that rather than an attack against Christianity, "it's an attack on the Constitution" and "civil liberties."

Wouldn't ya think that Fr. Morris, as a supposed "man of God," could have addressed Dan Cathy's comments that accuse gays of engaging in actions that bring down the wrath of God. Oh, right, Morris' Catholic Church thinks being gay is fine, but if you have gay sex or get gay married (and even just support gay marriage) you are engaging in intrinsic evil. So, never mind. And while Fr. Morris defends the right of Chick-fil-A to set up anywhere, does he feel the same about Planned Parenthood clinics which "pro-lifers" try to prevent from being established? But what was instructive here is the continued avoidance of Dan Cathy's aiding and abetting of a radical homophobic agenda. As far as providing a full analysis of the situation, once again, the "fair & balanced" news network has laid a great, big egg!!!!

* "It's very clear in Romans chapter 1, if we look at society today, we see all the twisted up kind of stuff that's going on. Washington trying to redefine the definition of marriage and all the other kinds of things that we go—if you go upstream from that, in Romans chapter 1, you will see that because we have not acknowledged God and because we have not thanked God, that we have been left victim to the foolishness of our own thoughts, and as result, we are suffering the consequences of a society and culture who has not acknowledged God or not thanked God—he's left us to a deprived mind. It's tragic and we live in a culture of that today... …I think we are inviting God's judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say 'we know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage' and I pray God's mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we have the audacity to define what marriage is about"