The Dangers of “Hate Chicken”

I nearly experienced firsthand this precise danger this summer when I served as an intern at Family Research Council. Several days after my internship ended, as I was driving out of DC through the Shenandoah, I received a missed call and text from a friend: “I just saw where there was a shooting at FRC today. Glad you made it out okay.” At first, I thought he must have been mistaken. When I finally got service and called him back, my heart sunk. It was real. It was very real.

A gunman had come into FRC’s office with 50 rounds of ammunition — and 15 Chick-fil-A sandwiches. He was a volunteer at a local LGBT office, and, before opening fire, he stated that he did not agree with FRC’s mission. Had it not been for the grace of God and the courageous building manager Leo Johnson, who, after taking a bullet in the arm, ran toward him and wrestled the gun away, many more lives would have been lost.

As my former boss Tony Perkins said, the gunman alone was responsible for the shooting, but the reckless and irresponsible labeling of FRC as a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center helped foster the environment for which the gunman felt enabled to kill. The SPLC puts FRC in the same category as white supremacist groups — and a spokesperson for the SPLC said she sees no difference between those groups and FRC. Many media reports on the “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day,” which occurred just two weeks before the shooting, had stated that the company donates to “SPLC-certified hate groups like Family Research Council.”

Having attended countless conferences with prominent politicians, I have never seen security like this past weekend at FRC’s Values Voter Summit. Greeting us were the D.C. Metro Police, the Secret Service, private security guards — and the TSA. As Tony also said, the shooting will change the way FRC does business, but not the business they do. Though shaken, Family Research Council stands stronger and bolder than ever after this shooting. While it is tragic that such heavy security is needed, thank God for leaders like Tony Perkins, who do not cower in face of such domestic terrorism. Throughout the summer, he always told me to have no fear of man but fear of God. His leadership exemplifies this.

I told Tony on the last day of my internship the I wish the activists could see what I’ve seen the past two months — that is, all that the people at FRC do, they do in love and for the Kingdom. There was absolutely no hate to be found — which was also manifested by the shooting. After Johnson wrestled the gun away from the shooter, he had the opportunity to shoot and would have been perfectly justified to do so under the law and in the public’s eyes, not knowing what the shooter planned on doing next. But he didn’t. He said he felt God telling him to spare the shooter’s life. This is not hate. This is love.

I’m currently sitting at the foot of the Jefferson Memorial, where one of Jefferson’s famous quotes is inscribed on the wall: “God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?” How far has America drifted from its founding, where faith was not only accepted, but embraced? What have we come to when our First Amendment rights to freedom of religion and speech are no longer tolerated or respected? We will always have disagreements, but in our disagreements, let us disagree agreeably — without reckless labeling and demonization, hatred or violence.